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Running a small business is quite a big challenge and being a small business owner you can definitely understand it.
One of the biggest questions that most small businesses generally ask is, how to increase sales for small business?
If you struggle to solve the same question then you will be glad to know that we have the right answer.
So let’s dive into a roadmap to increase sales for small businesses but first, check out these Facts and Figures:
Numbers Engulfing Small Business Growth
Impact On Sales
- Email marketing helps 47% of small businesses to increase their sales.
- More than 80% of small businesses use social media to engage with their customers.
- 63% of small-scale businesses increased their digital marketing budget in recent years.
- On average, small businesses allocate $534 of their monthly budget to digital advertising campaigns.
Return on Investment (ROI)
- Email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing channel if executed correctly. It offers an average $36 ROI for every $1 spent.
- For every dollar invested, email marketing provides an outstanding return on investment (ROI), averaging $36.
- Social media marketing stands out as a valuable tool, yielding a potential 22% ROI, which opens doors to reaching new customers effectively.
Overall Benefits Of Digital Marketing
- Digital marketing allows small businesses to compete with larger companies at a lower cost.
- It provides valuable data and insights about customer behavior, allowing businesses to personalize their marketing efforts for better results.
- Digital marketing encourages loyalty and repeat business as it offers continuous engagement with existing customers.
Now let’s look at the phases involved in small business growth!
Exploring the Stages of Small Business Growth: A Comprehensive Overview
Phase 1: Foundation (1-2 Months)
Before thinking about sales you need to first work on a strong foundation. It is necessary to get continuous ROI.
When laying the foundation for an effective digital marketing sales strategy, the first key step every small business should focus on is understanding their basic needs.
Here the primary goal is obviously sales but you can’t achieve it without considering key things like branding.
Let’s explore the core elements to put in place during the first phase.
1. Define SMART Goals
If you don’t know your primary goals then all your efforts will go to waste. It is your chance to set your foundation very strong especially if you haven’t yet started anything. Pick your goals very carefully as they will decide your further roadmap.
To define your goals crystal clearly, we recommend following the SMART goals approach:
- S – Specific
Set clear, detailed goals focused on metrics like boosting website traffic by 30% or acquiring 40 new customers. - M – Measurable
Choose measurable goals you can track over time as key performance indicators, like monthly website visitors, sales revenue, leads generated, etc. - A – Achievable
Be ambitious but realistic based on current benchmarks. Stretch goals that inspire you to put in more effort. On the other hand, unattainable goals simply lead to frustration. - R – Relevant
Align goals directly to business growth outcomes. Don’t run behind vanity metrics like social media followers or shares. Focus on goals that help you in increasing sales and revenue. - T – Time-Bound
Attach a specific timeframe to achieve each goal, such as 30% traffic growth in 6 months. This creates accountability to maintain focus.
Here is an example of how you can set your SMART goal:
“In 3 months, increase your organic traffic on your website by 20% and gain 50 new customers.”
Clear and transparent SMART goals guide you to the right. Moreover, measurable benchmarks help you to track your success.
They keep you focused on the outcomes that matter most to small business growth – generating more revenue through sales.
2. Know Your Audience
How much do you know about your audience? Maybe a little to nothing. Well, if this is your situation then you may lose many important leads. To avoid such a situation it is recommended to develop detailed buyer personas. These fictional representations of existing and potential customers will guide your content and messaging.
We recommend outlining key details like:
- Demographics:
Gender, age range, location, income level, education level, marital/family status - Needs & Pain Points:
What challenges do they face? What solutions are they seeking? - Behaviors & Motivations:
Where do they spend time online? What information do they search for and consume? What motivates purchase decisions? - Create Personas:
After analyzing existing customer data, surveys, reviews, and research to identify patterns, synthesize the common threads into a single persona. Give them a name and picture to make them tangible. - Creating 3-5 personas covering your diverse target audience groups will help humanize your outreach. When promoting on social media or sending email newsletters, speak directly to a single persona’s interests and goals.
The personalized and consultative approach creates connections that inspire action.
Here are some examples of effective buyer personas and targeted messaging you can create for a small business client:
- Buyer Persona 1
- Mary, the Busy Professional Woman
- 34 years old, married with a toddler
- Works 50+ hours a week at a demanding marketing job
- Feels overwhelmed trying to balance career, family, health, and social life
- Spends time browsing Facebook and Instagram in spare moments
Targeted Messaging
“As a busy career woman and mom myself, I know how valuable small pockets of ‘me time’ are. Even 10 minutes of quiet meditation with the Calm & Center app renews my spirit so I can pour back into my family with joy. I’d love to hear about the self-care goals important to you!”
- Buyer Persona 2
- Michael, the Health Conscious Dad
- 42 years old, married with two school-aged kids
- Passionate about nutrition, fitness, and wellness for his family
- Regularly reads health blogs and listens to wellness podcasts during his commute
- Follows Instagram accounts related to healthy recipes, outdoor activities, meditation
Targeted Messaging:
“As a dad always on the hunt for ways to boost my family’s health, I appreciate brands that make wholesome living simple to maintain. Let me know what wellness goals you’re tackling this Spring and perhaps BioLife supplements can help support your natural growth!”
3. Build Your Website
Your website acts as a store that opens 24/7. Having an effective website ensures you will get sales even while you are sleeping. Your website should be clean, professional, and inviting.
The user experience plays an important role in sales especially if you have lots of competition in the market. Make sure your website is easy to navigate, product descriptions are crisp and clear, and have click-to-action buttons at the right place.
And the most important thing, your website must have a mobile responsive layout.
Over 60% of visitors will access your site from tablets and smartphones.
Tough to make sales if your website is unresponsive or slow on mobile!
Every page should include strategic calls-to-action (CTAs) turning engagement into sales.
Link your CTAs to lead generation offers, product pages, or email opt-in forms.
Using bold buttons and text, speak directly to visitors. For example:
- “Start a free 7-day trial!”
- “See payment plans”
- “Schedule a demo now”
The path we have described definitely helps you to turn your regular visitors into paying customers.
You will get sure success if you make sure your visitors don’t question your credibility before making any decision.
4. Optimize Website for Search Engines
Your website and business technically do not exist for your potential customers if it is not ranking in search engines.
That’s the reason why optimizing your website for search engine discoverability and visibility makes a huge impact on your business.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization enables people to find your business organically when they search industry terms related to your offerings.
Higher search rankings equal exponentially more website visitors.More visitors mean more potential sales at little to no added marketing spend from you!
Where Should You Start?
Use free keywords tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to do keyword research.
This reveals monthly search volumes indicating consumer demand for relevant phrases.
For a boutique selling handmade crafts, tactical keyword phrases may include:
- handmade boutique gifts
- custom jewelry small business
- unique home decor shop
Then optimize pages and content specifically around your most valuable keyword themes. This includes page titles, section headings, opening paragraphs, image names alt text, etc.
Next, examine your website’s technical SEO health. Improve site speed and mobile optimization.
Enhance URL structures, internal links between pages, meta descriptions, and XML sitemaps.
The goal is to help search engines better understand your business offerings so they rank your listings higher in results for your ideal buyer keywords.
SEO is a nonlinear, ongoing process, but pays long-term dividends for permanent, qualified traffic growth.
Phase 2: Lead Generation & Nurturing (2-4 Months)
Once your digital marketing foundations are established, the next critical phase is driving qualified traffic to your website and capturing buyer contact information through lead generation.
Think of leads as warm prospects raising their hands with an initial interest in your products or services. Your goal is then nurturing those leads by offering valuable information that educates and builds trust over time. This increases conversion rates when leads convert to customers and loyal brand advocates.
Common lead generation approaches include:
1. Content Marketing
No matter how good and appealing your website is, in the end, visitors will judge you after reading the available content.
Content is king and creating consistent, high-value content is the right key.
Content marketing serves and nurtures potential customers over time to become sales-ready.
Rather than always pushing products, think like a publisher. Develop a content calendar for regularly publishing new blogs, articles, guides, videos and more based on buyer interests and pain points.
Useful types of content include:
- How-to articles and tutorials
- Industry trend reports and expert interviews
- Product spotlights and customer success stories
- Behind-the-scenes company updates
- Curated news related to your field
Here are some tips to make your content strategy outstanding:
- Quality over quantity is key. Each piece of content should communicate your expertise and compassion for helping customers.
- Use storytelling elements customers relate to on a human level.
- Promote each new content asset across your website, email newsletter, and social media channels.
- This multiplier effect increases engagement and lead generation.
- Sometimes it takes 7-13 touchpoints before a prospect converts to a buyer.
- Content serves as those valuable touchpoints until visitors are sales-ready.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media gives huge opportunities for small businesses to directly engage with current and potential customers.
By consistently sharing valuable, engaging content instead of overly promotional messages, you organically expand reach.
Start by determining the 1-3 social platforms where your audiences are most active online.
For B2C eCommerce brands, this may be Instagram and Facebook. For B2B SaaS companies, Twitter and LinkedIn may be better fits.
Create an editorial content calendar for social media posts that add value. For example:
- Share user-generated content like customer photos and reviews
- Give behind-the-scenes looks at product development updates
- Curate industry news and trends relevant to your followers
- Poll fans and reward reactions with discounts or sneak peeks
- Spotlight charities your business sponsors for good PR
The key is encouraging genuine conversations and connections with social followers through helpful, entertaining content.
This establishes your brand as a trusted leader fans organically share with networks expanding your word-of-mouth referrals.
3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Organic tactics like SEO take some time to show their power. But what should you need to do in between?
If you have ready-to-sell offers then leverage pay-per-click advertisements on popular platforms like Google Ads and Facebook.
PPC ads allow you to target prospects actively searching for related products and services across search engines and social media.
You create specific ads and bid on strategic keyword phrases. Then you only pay when users click your ad vs. showing it to everyone.
Start by researching high-traffic, low-competition search terms prospects use related to your offerings.
If you sell essential oils, tactical keywords may include “lavender oil for sleep” or “skin care oils”.
Here are some more tips:
- Craft tightly focused Google search ads with attention-grabbing headlines and descriptive copy conveying why you’re the best fit.
- Link to relevant pages on your site.
- Develop Facebook/Instagram ads showcasing your products visually.
- Set your target audience by demographics, interests, behaviors, and locations.
- Set daily budgets and max bid amounts then monitor performance.
- Improve over time by pausing poor performers and scaling winners.
Phase 3: Conversion Optimization & Measurement (Ongoing)
1. Sales Funnels
Once you’ve built a solid digital marketing foundation driving qualified traffic and leads, the next phase focuses on guiding visitors toward becoming paying customers.
Conversion optimization is about understanding your website visitors’ experience and removing any friction points leading to purchases.
This means continually testing and refining elements like:
- Page layouts and checkout processes
- Calls-to-action placement/design
- Email nurture sequences and shopping cart flows
- Landing page headlines, copy, visuals
- Product pricing and bundling
Essentially you need to understand your customer journey to proactively identify and fix areas where visitors may struggle or abandon sign-ups.
Now, let’s discuss the prime ones.
A sales funnel visually maps the journey your business takes customers on from initial interest through purchase and beyond.
It can include both online and offline touchpoints as leads engage with your brand across multiple channels over time.
The funnel represents each stage of the decision process and how leads flow through this path toward conversion.
Sales funnel steps:
- Exposure – social media, PPC, reviews, etc.
- Discovery & Interest – website, content offers
- Consideration – customer education resources
- Purchase – product demos, ROI calculations
- Loyalty – customer rewards, VIP perks
Analyze historical sales data to identify trends at what stage prospects drop off or convert most.
Focus on creating targeted lead magnets, content, and messaging for high-volume touchpoints.
For example, if 50% of shoppers don’t proceed past cart checkout, improving this UX would unlock significant revenue.
A well-crafted funnel guides prospects on an intentional journey tailored to how audiences actually engage with your brand when sales are ready.
Refine over time by monitoring KPIs at each stage and running A/B testing for incremental gains.
1. Track & Analyze
If you can’t measure something then obviously you can’t manage it further.
To know what’s going on in your current sales marketing campaign you need to leverage free or paid tools to track all activities.
- Use Analytics
Getting analytics tracking established should be a top priority when launching digital marketing activities.
Platforms like Google Analytics offer free and user-friendly website tracking to yield volumes of valuable data.
To set up – simply create an account and add your website domain. Google provides step-by-step instructions for completely custom tracking including:
- Pageviews and sessions
- Traffic channels driving visits
- Top landing/exit pages
- On-site search keywords
- File downloads and outbound link clicks
- Campaign and conversion tracking
2. Keep an Eye on KPIs
Next, determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) matter most to benchmark through recurring measurement. Common examples include:
- Website visitors and pageviews
- Lead conversion rate from traffic
- Bounce rates and session duration
- Search engine rankings
- Social media followers and engagement
- Email clickthrough and conversion rates
- Cost per lead/sale/conversion
Build historical baselines from initial figures as you actively market.
Then schedule time every 1-2 weeks to pull updated reports.
Look at website pages, campaigns, channels, and KPIs side-by-side to spot trends.
For example:
Compare last month vs. the prior two. Did new blog content drive a traffic bump?
Did introducing exit popups improve conversions? Does the holiday email perform best each December?
Use insights to double down on what delivers results. Try to figure out every single KPI metric to boost your sales growth potential.
What Should be the Right Approach?
We know you found our roadmap to increase sales for small businesses legitimate but it is kind of a lot of work.
It would be a really smart move if you hire a professional digital marketing company and white label service provider like Softtrix that can handle all of the burdens effortlessly.
It would be much like hiring a professional team that ensures your sales numbers keep increasing.
Wrapping Up
Don’t be the business that struggles to get sales especially when you are now aware of how to increase sales for small businesses.
It is up to you whether you want to execute all the mentioned plans yourself or simply hire a Softtrix-like company to get instant sales.
The choice is yours just make sure you step into the digital world to overcome your sales and growth problems.
Still have questions? Put them in the comment section below, and let’s answer them to help boost your small business revenue!
15 replies on “How To Increase Sales For Small Business | Proven Strategies To Amplify Small Business Revenue”
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