10 Tips To Grow Businesses In Competitive Markets

Wherever you are in your business, you need to have the one key skill all business owners need to develop today. That skill is how to sell and grow your company. And I am not talking about just selling products or services – I am talking about selling yourself and your company to others. Selling yourself means using self-promotion tools like networking events, social media, and your website to get your name and your company's name out there. 

Selling your company means being able to articulate what makes your company different and why customers should do business with you. It also means having a clear marketing strategy and being able to execute it effectively for company growth along with consistent profits. 

In a highly competitive market, it is more important than ever to be able to sell yourself and your company. Here are 10 top tips for growing your business value to grow profits, get more investments, or get acquired for more money: 

10 Ways To Grow A Business In A Competitive Market

1. Know Your Target Market 

If you want to sell your company, you need to know who your ideal customer is. Who is most likely to buy what you are selling? What are their needs? How does your company benefit them? Why should they choose you over your competitors? Once you know the answers to these questions, you will be able to communicate with your customers more effectively. You can speak their language by explaining what makes your company different in terms that matter to them. 

2. Have A Clear Marketing Strategy 

It is not enough to know your target market – you also need to have a clear marketing strategy. What are your goals? What tactics will you use to achieve them? How much money are you willing to spend? Who will do the marketing for you? Decide on your goals, and then map out what you will need to do to achieve them. This way, your strategy will be clear not only to you but also to everyone else in your company. 

3. Use Tools For Self-Promotion 

The most successful business owners are the ones who know how to sell themselves and their company. That means using the tools of self-promotion to get their name and their company's name out there. Networking, social media, and your website are all great ways to do this. Make sure you are actively using all of these tools to promote yourself and your company. 

4. Stay Up To Date On Your Company's And Industry's latest news

Many business owners rely purely on the marketing team to disseminate their company's news and industry updates. This is a mistake because if you don't promote yourself, no one will. You should be responsible for sharing your company's most important developments with the world – both by updating your existing customers and by generating new leads. 

5. Keep A Close Eye On Your Competitors 

It is not enough to know who your target market is – you also need to keep an eye on your competition. Where are they advertising? What do they seem to be focusing their energy on? How can you use this information to your advantage? Just being aware of your competition gives you a significant advantage over them. In fact, you can often get better results than they do by positioning yourself and your company differently. 

6. Deliver Exceptional Customer Service 

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool there is, and it all starts with excellent customer service. If you want your customers to talk about your company, make sure you are delivering exceptional service. This means going above and beyond what is expected and treating your customers with respect. When they have a great experience with your company, they will be more likely to tell others about it. 

7. Get Involved In The Community

Getting involved in your community is a great way to market yourself and your company. You can do this by sponsoring local charities, attending community events, or simply interacting with the people around you. Even if you are not directly selling your products or services at these events, you will get exposure for both yourself and your business. 

8. Have A Great Business Website

Having an amazing website is essential for any new business venture these days, particularly if you are trying to sell your company. Your website needs to be easy to navigate and informative enough that your visitors want to know more about what your company offers. Make sure there are plenty of images and videos, and that your website is updated regularly with the latest news and developments. 

9. Be Active On Social Media 

Social media is a great way to connect with your target market and stay top of mind. Make sure you are active on all the major social networks, and post regularly about topics that interest your customers. In addition, respond to any comments or questions in a timely fashion so you can build relationships with your audience. 

10. Make Yourself Available To Consumers 

Another tip for marketing yourself well is being accessible to your customers and clients when they need you. They appreciate knowing that you are responsive, so make sure you always pick up the phone when someone calls or answer your emails as quickly as possible. If you can't always be available, make sure you have someone on your team who can help out. Marketing yourself and your company for growth is essential for success – but it is not always easy. 

The Bottom Line On Getting Business Growth

Following these tips will help you put your best foot forward and get the results you deserve. If you are having trouble marketing yourself and your company, don't worry – you are not alone. There are a lot of things to consider for growing a business, and it can be difficult to know where to start. That is why we have put together this list of tips to help you get started. Keep them in mind for optimal success!

How To Track Startup Marketing Campaign Success

Building a new lean startup from scratch is no easy task. If you are among those founders that have done this, you understand that every process from developing your product to marketing to consumer satisfaction can be tricky. And don't even get us started on the financial aspect of launching, maintaining, and growing a startup business in today's economy. We know how it is running the lean startup lifestyle.

Running a startup is a warzone with landmines to avoid everywhere and fires to put out constantly, even when it comes to the marketing department. Even marketing best practices can be potential PR crisis in the current climate. And now with rising prices and cut ad spend during a recession, marketing budgets are getting reduced really fast.

So how can startups track important details when they are working on the big picture issues and fixing frequent problems?

Startup Measurements And Mistakes

Startups function a lot differently from an already established company when it comes to marketing, advertising, and branding. The types of marketing strategies utilized, the way they are conducted, and how the results are measured all differ. This can be difficult to record and analyze properly for lean startups, where founders and employees where multiple hats and everyone is stretched on time while avoiding burnout. Sometimes freelancers are hired from around the world, in person or remotely, for short periods of time. 

There is always a lot going on in a startup company so it's easy for founders or employees to drop the ball on some of the basics. So tracking the right analytics and marketing measurements often gets lost in the shuffle for many lean startups.

Tracking Time

If you can't track your lean startup marketing results, how do you know what's working and what needs adjusting?

When setting up your lean startup business, you need to ask yourself some serious questions: 

- Do I know and understand what my small business’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are? 

- How much understanding do I possess about the startup processes? 

- How do I measure a small business's marketing success? 

There are different startup metrics to consider, but let's focus on the important ones for measuring success.

Startup Marketing Campaign Metrics And KPIs 

To ensure a startup business runs at an optimal level, there are many metrics and KPIs that need to be taken into account. Simply put, your business metrics are, by definition, the various means of measurement used to acquire accurate information about different business processes. 

The key metrics for SMB marketing campaigns can be used to: 

- Give you performance data like the number of people reached and conversions recorded by such campaigns. 

- Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the SME campaign. 

- Know what marketing campaign yields the most results. 

With the information obtained, you can easily track the success or failure of all the strategies that the startup uses. The right software will help your startup business measure success accurately.

Having said that, let us examine some of the key metrics startups can use to track the success of their marketing campaigns. 

1. Marketing Return On Investment (ROI) 

In measuring the success of your startup's marketing efforts, you have to consider marketing ROI. Marketing ROI refers to the return on investment that is made from any marketing campaign. 

When you know the marketing return on investment, it becomes easy for you to determine whether the marketing strategy is a success or not. It is also a good way of comparing marketing campaigns to determine which was the most effective. One way to test multiple campaigns for success is through A/B testing. 

Marketing Return on Investment for startups can take different forms and they include: 

ROI On Social Media Ads 

In the digital world that we live and do business in today, social media plays a vital role. It is not just a tool that is used for social interaction, but can also be used to market products and services that are being offered by a startup. 

If social media ads are one of the marketing strategies that you employ for your startup, then one key metric of measuring success is ROI on social media ads. To achieve this, you have to carefully analyze how much is spent to run these ads and compare it to the return on sales it brings to the startup. 

For example, let's say you spend $200 on social media ads on Facebook. If that ad gets 500 clicks with 10% conversion rate, that means 50 people are buying your product. If that product is sold at $10, total sales recorded will be $500. You ROI on $200 spent for that ad is $500. You are making $2.50 on each $1 you invest into social media ads, which is a 250% profit. A better way to measure ROI is to also look at the payback period. This is particularly useful in subscription based services or products that drive repeat purchases like a social media marketing tool or CRM.

ROI On SEO And Content Marketing 

A common marketing strategy among many businesses, both small and large, is SEO and Content Marketing. 

SEO is Search Engine Optimization and refers to all the efforts put in place to rank high (the goal is always to be on the first page) on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and YouTube. These efforts can include web optimization, content optimization, and keyword placement in articles, among others. 

Content marketing, on the other hand, refers to the act of using content to attract leads and sales. This type of content is usually written to inform prospects and existing customers about a particular product or service offered by a startup. The end goal is so that after reading information on the startups website or elsewhere on the web, users can engage with the startup through a call to action provided in the content. 

If you use SEO or content marketing for your startup, then you can also measure the return on investment this marketing effort is bringing to the startup. 

ROI On Paid SEM 

Search Engine Marketing is a combination of search engine optimization and paid search ads. The aim of this marketing campaign is to draw more customers to your startup while still retaining existing ones. 

Paid SEM with Google Ads (formerly AdWords) or cheaper Bing Ads makes it possible for people who are searching specific keywords relating to your startup to find you. To drive sales using paid SEM, the focus is on choosing the right keywords to connect your startup to its customers.Utilizing a paid service to find the right keywords can save you time and marketing efforts. While you can do this yourself, it can be quite labor intensive; this job can be outsourced with a dramatic ROI in sales when done properly. You have to be strategic and experienced when bidding on keywords and analyzing ad conversion rate to optimize your PPC ad results while reducing costs.

In measuring the ROI on paid SEM, you have to look at its impact on the ranking of your startup in organic search results. You also have to pay attention to how many new customers are finding and engaging with your startup online. The higher the number of new customers your startup records from organic searches, the more effective paying someone to conduct keyword research and SEM is. 

Paid ads help rank you higher quickly and temporarily, but are not organic search results in nature. Once you stop paying for the ads, your ranking will dissolve, although the extra website traffic and potential subscribers you gained from the ads could help your website's long-term organic results indirectly. Organic search results through SEO tend to have long lasting rankings once you get to the first page of Google or other top search engines. 

ROI On Traditional Media Ads 

Traditional media ads include television, print, radio, billboards, flyers, direct mailers, kiosks, banners, etc, and they can still be used by startups to market their products and services to prospects. However, it is important to mention that tracking the ROI on traditional media ads and its effectiveness can be very difficult. 

To determine the success of traditional means of advertising, you can conduct a brand survey asking people how they heard about your business. You can also pay attention to social media mentions immediately when the campaign is launched or promoted on traditional media to know what people are saying about it. Make sure your applications are working to get accurate data.

2. Increase Or Decrease In Sales 

Sales metrics are data points for measuring the performance of a startup. These metrics help to track a business' performance based on its goals and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of such performance. 

This metric of measuring marketing efforts is vital and must be treated as such. Sales metrics are typically measured over days, weeks, months, and yearly can tell you whether or not customers are interested in your products or services. 

Some examples of essential sales metrics include: 

Opportunity-To-Win Ratio: 

Sometimes referred to as win rate, this ratio is used to measure the success of sales recorded when there is an opportunity. This is particularly useful for B2B startups and businesses. 

Average Deal Size: 

Average deal size, as it relates to business sales, gives you an idea of how much you are making on an average per deal. It is difficult to increase sales without knowing your average Deal size. 

Churn Rate: 

Churn rate refers to how good you are at keeping existing clients. Churn rate is a good sales metric because how well you can retain customers determines how much sale you can make over a specific period. This is particularly useful in cases where repeat purchases are expected such as subscription based businesses. Always remember that it's a lot cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new ones!

3. Conversion Rate 

Conversion rate, as a key metric for measuring the success of your startup's success, refers to the total number of visitors who have carried out certain tasks on your business website and blog. When there is a high conversion rate compared to what was previously recorded, that's an indication of a successful marketing campaign. 

In determining conversion rate, several factors must be considered such as the number of visits, interactions per visit, and the value per visit. The best way to boost conversion rates are to add clear calls-to-action and design smart landing pages.

Startup Success Metrics Conclusion 

Running a lean startup is no easy feat in this day and age. We deal with it everyday and sometimes during the Lean Startup Life it is hard to see the forest through the trees. Luckily there are numerous metrics used to monitor the success of your startups with new analytics tools. The few startups success measurement metrics outlined above will serve you well to ensure your startup retains or acquires the new potential to reach greater heights.