With goal-setting activities underway, you need to start coming up with ways to show results and that you are trying to achieve your goals. When it comes to growing your business and ensuring the right blend of the market, there 4 Things you need to be doing Weekly (if possible, Daily) to continue to grow your business.
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Now you might be asking – Why Weekly? Why not monthly? Or Quarterly? To be honest, if you want to see a patterned growth that can become predictable to future targets, you need to be in the habit of doing these at the very least weekly. Otherwise, it leaves a lot of gaps in the procedure as time passes, plus you end up missing opportunities more often if you don’t regularly and frequently check-in.
Prospecting/Connecting with New Clients
Now, this might seem like a no-brainer, but is it? It takes a great deal of work, as you have experienced, trying to get your product or service out, so your niche client sees you. The key is not to stop doing this once your doors are open. It doesn’t have to take long; it could be 15 minutes a day – it could mean engaging on social media, cold pitching a new vendor/client, or even going to a breakfast networking event once in a while. These are all great opportunities to expand and meet others.
There are a lot of amazing “systems” out there to help you in the process if you need help implementing it.
Keeping your relationships warm with your Existing Clients
By taking this time and implementing it, it, in the end, becomes priceless. Some of the ways to keep your relationships warm could be email marketing, special promotions, thank you events for certain groups of clients – the sky is the limit. This also doesn’t have to cost an arm-and-a-leg to do either – it can be as simple as a personal email to a client to ensure they know they are appreciated to “customer gratitude” events. These show to your clients that you are not only appreciative of their money and time, but also that they have in some way added value to your business as well – for without their comments or feedback, you might not be in the place you are right now!
Engaging relationships with Media
Now, I’m not just saying “take out an ad in the paper,” I am meaning having engaging conversations with their marketing teams to see if there are missed opportunities (sometimes they will strike a deal if there are costs applicable). There are also opportunities for publications that distribute to readers for free that you could reach out to. If you are in a cottage country area – do they have a magazine that they spread to the seasonal residents that could update them on what is new in your business and showcase you? I’m thinking of resources like the Cottage Country Connection etc.
They also have many connections that could maybe help you in your branding updates etc. if you are not satisfied with your current suppliers etc. They also can share your business with their network if they see a need and make this something of a reciprocal relationship.
Referral List Building
This is touched on in your conversations with media and keeping your conversations warm with your current clientele a little, but what harm is there to ask for referrals from your existing client base. What about Affiliate credits? Does it make sense to monetize your referrals through Affiliate Status?
It is an effective strategy to utilize their already built network of connections to expand your outreach further – and you could return the favor to them as well as time passes as to create a symbiotic relationship of growth and exchange.
It never hurts to better support local businesses (particularly in a time of crisis) to keep them open and to keep asking and to share in return as you find clients as well.
Is that it?
No that isn’t it, but that is it for now – let’s face it – by doing these steps every week, not only are you helping to keep your business top of mind, but you are also opening up opportunities to monitor and track the different niches in case there was one that was missed, as well, it helps you identify where you need to put more effort/time into related to your marketing as to ensure that you can keep these conversations flowing, often and with favors returned.
Did we miss anything? Are there some other Must-Dos each week? What about programs to help you set up and implement but down the road, brings value to your business as well for future goals. We look forward to hearing what you think!
