All too often, small businesses get caught up on measuring website traffic volumes and page views vs. the metric that really drives revenue—conversions.

Maximizing your conversion rate should be the most important objective of your marketing strategy if you’re looking to increase sales and grow your business.  Conversions, also known as “desired outcomes”, can range from a website visitor sharing their contact information in exchange for receiving a free content download to someone responding to a specific offer from your email marketing, search engine advertising or a banner on your website.

One widely accepted definition of conversion rate is the number of desired outcomes divided by the total number of unique visitors. For instance, if you’re desired outcome is to get website visitors to complete a contact form on a landing page and 100 visitors completed the form out of a total of 1000 that visited the landing page, your conversion rate is 10%.

To maximize your conversion rates, we suggest focusing on the elements that can make the biggest difference:

Be sure what you’re using as the “conversion magnet” is attractive to your target audience and appeals to their needs or challenges, not yours. Free downloads that feature content that contains case studies or helpful tips are very effective.

Have a clear call-to-action using a strong action verb and a graphic button that’s easy to see and use.

Ask for only the most basic contact information, i.e., name, email address and phone number.  This will increase your form completion rates.

Reassure the lead that your business keeps all contact information confidential and does not share their information with third parties.

What’s the single greatest asset your small business has?

You’d be surprised at the answers you get from many small business owners when you ask them to share the single greatest asset of their business.

Some think it’s their products, others credit their employees and there are those who point to customer service and their brand. The fact is your current customers and your ability to communicate with them is where your business will derive long-term success.

Unfortunately, relatively few small businesses know how to fully take advantage of this invaluable asset and even fewer do so. The number of business owners who tell us they don’t have a customer database and/or do little or nothing with the customer information they’ve collected continually surprises us. It’s beyond a missed opportunity…it’s potentially fatal to the future of your business.

With all the competitive choices customers have today, it’s more difficult and expensive than ever to acquire and retain a customer. And customers are becoming more selective about who they do business with based on considerations like price, convenience, customer service and ease of doing business.

If your business is not already treating customers as your single greatest asset, it’s not too late to get started. First, develop a process for capturing your customers’ names, email addresses, birthdates, and other information that will help in furthering your relationship with each and every customer. Then make a commitment to communicating with your customers regularly, treating them special and do whatever is reasonably necessary to keep them as a happy customer and goodwill ambassador for your brand.

For years, small businesses have generally found that 80% of their revenue comes from 20% of their customers. So it makes sense to treat your top 20% of customers like gold. They already know and trust you, and it’s likely you’ll find it easier to get more business from them than to convince somebody who never bought from you to become a customer.

One of the best ways to work the 80/20 rule to the advantage of your business is to think about what would make your key customers feel special. Perhaps it’s a special deal just for your top customers or a sneak preview of a new product and offer that only those customers can take advantage of before release to the general market.
Promoting referrals should also be an active part of working the 80/20 rule. Focus on converting your customers into goodwill ambassadors for your business. Create an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. Endorsements from happy customers are more effective than any type of advertising – and they’re free!

Ready to get your business growing again?

For the first time, the latest findings of the American Express OPEN® Small Business Monitor survey includes a Success Index to identify commonalities across successful businesses that can provide lessons for any small business. The index profiles four groups of entrepreneurs: High achievers, strivers, sustainers and strugglers.

High achievers represent six percent of the total survey sample, and on average, have spent twenty-six years in business, employ eighteen people in their firms and have attained business growth of thirty-four percent over the last three years (versus 10% growth for the total survey population). A comparison between the high achievers and the total survey group uncovers a host of key differentiators:

- They take more risks: More than two-thirds have increased their appetite for risk compared to one year ago (67%, versus 35% of the total population)

- They don’t just plan for growth, they make it a priority: A majority of high achievers say they are planning to grow their businesses over the next six months (93%, versus 69% of the total survey group) and more than half (51%) have growth as their top priority (versus 31% of the total survey group)

- They invest in their business: More than three-quarters (78%) are planning to make capital investments (versus 49% of the total survey group)

- They provide incentives to customers to get repeat business:
~Eighty-four percent are placing heightened focus on better servicing customers to set their business apart from competitors (versus 78% overall)
~Forty percent offer loyalty rewards (versus 22% overall)
~Forty-one percent offer differentiated products or services (versus 23% overall)

- They leverage social media: Seven-in-ten use social media (70% versus 49% overall)
~More than three quarters (79%) use social media to attract new customers (versus 57% overall)

- They differentiate their brand, their products, and every facet of their operation to set themselves apart from their competition and top of mind with their customers.

Now that you’ve learned the “Six Secrets of the Successful 6%”, why not make your New Year’s Resolution to get going and growing in 2013!

It’s become an extension of our everyday life. It’s on our person wherever we go. It’s within arm’s reach as we sleep and it’s often the first thing we check when we wake up.

The latest estimates show that over 180 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in just the last three months—nearly double the volume of a year ago. And nearly a quarter of all online activity is now coming from mobile devices. It’s the mobile revolution—is your business ready for it?

Here are the three essential areas of opportunity to assure your business is inviting the fast growing audience of digital consumers:

• Mobile Friendly – Put yourself in the place of a customer on the go. Most don’t have the time or patience to read a lot of text or long posts. To be effective with your mobile marketing, focus on photos, videos, and other types of rich media. View your site on your iPhone and Droid. If you have to pinch your fingers to see text and navigation, up to 80% of your mobile viewers aren’t seeing your content and you’re likely to be losing business.

• Location-based Search – Can you website be found on mobile devices using your geographic location and the keywords you want to associate with your business most? Most mobile searches are location-based which means potential customers are living in or visiting your area, searching for a specific product or service and may be prime candidates for doing business. To enhance your local presence on mobile devices, be sure search results align with what you sell and where you’re located. And step up your efforts to include your business on consumer review sites and services.

• Social Media/Mobile Marketing – 8 out of 10 smartphone owners use their mobile devices to connect to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Whether at home, work or on the go, mobile users are likely to be the most engaged segment of your social community. Be sure your social presence is encouraging conversation and inviting their loyalty using special offers and VIP treatment as incentives.

Despite the fact that more than half of all Americans have a smartphone and use it more frequently than any other communications device, less than 1% of marketing budgets are being allocated to mobile. That’s a large disconnect between business owners and the growing mobile customer base. Yet, it’s an opportunity for your business to take advantage of what your competition is disregarding.

As you can probably imagine, with a name like Growth Marketing we’re continually asked about what it really takes to grow a business.

Fact is there’s no one answer or formula. But there are a series of steps that can set your business on a growth path we feel provides the best long-term success.

Step 1: Put a Stake in the Ground

While it’s important to have a product that meets a need and great service that keeps customers satisfied, today both are considered table stakes. It’s just as important to identify your niche and clearly articulate your brand, what your business does and why it’s different and/or better than your competitors.

Step 2: Find Your Target and Expand on it

Success businesses first identify a specific demographic, geography and or business segment to target and continually aim their marketing sights at these targets. And in order to grow your business, it’s important to identify new targets or build out the existing targets to expand your reach and opportunities.

Step 3: Ask for Referrals

As simple as this step seems, it always surprises us as to how few businesses actually ask their existing customers to provide a referral. The customers you’ve cultivated and kept happy are your best ambassadors. Don’t be afraid to ask them to put in a good word for your business with others they may know who would be interested in your products or services.

Step 4: Cross-sell and Upsell

Your existing customers are also your best prospects for increased sales and revenue. They’ve already bought from you, trust you and most often would be willing to do business with you again. You just need to give them a reason and opportunity to buy again, i.e., cross-sell them a product that complements what they already bought and/or upsell them a product that provides an upgrade or enhancement to the product(s) they’ve previously bought.

Step 5: Find the Right Growth Drivers

The better golfers are continually looking to find the best fitting clubs and proper swing mechanics to improve their game. Similarly, your business should find the right “growth drivers” that will provide the most effective and cost efficient means to reach the desired audience and produce the best outcome.

One of the most common questions on the minds of most small business owners when planning their marketing is “How much should I spend?”

Typically, a portion of marketing budgets is based on a percentage of projected sales and revenues. However, the percentage can vary greatly depending on three key factors:

Your Existing Products – Of the three key factors, this may be the easier and more straightforward to determine for budgeting your marketing dollars. Assuming your business has kept a history of volume and revenue from the sale of existing products, you should be able to accurately project what you can expect from marketing these same products in the coming year. Most small businesses assign somewhere between 2% and 10% of existing product sales revenue to their overall marketing budget.

Your New Products – Launching a new product typically costs significantly more than marketing an existing product. That’s because it costs more to create awareness of a new product, develop new marketing collateral and to reach the desire target audience. We’ve found that most small businesses have to budget at least double what they spend on existing products to successfully market a new product launch. Therefore, if you assign 10% of your projected sales revenue to marketing existing products then you should budget 20% of your sales revenue to supporting your new product rollouts.

Brand Awareness – This is often the most difficult factor to calculate when planning your marketing budget. While it’s not tied directly to new or existing product sales as such, it is a function of the strength of your brand and the extent of your competition. If your target market is not familiar with either your business itself or the brand of products or services you offer, the percentage of sales revenue budgeted towards marketing will need to be higher. How much higher? Often, businesses with little brand recognition and formidable competition need to allocate as much as 50% of their overall marketing budget to building brand awareness.

You’d be surprised at the answers you get from many small business owners when you ask them to share the single greatest asset of their business.

Some think it’s their products, others credit their employees and there are those who point to customer service and their brand. The fact is your current customers and your ability to communicate with them is where your business will derive long-term success.

Unfortunately, relatively few small businesses know how to fully take advantage of this invaluable asset and even fewer do so. The number of business owners who tell us they don’t have a customer database and/or do little or nothing with the customer information they’ve collected continually surprises us. It’s beyond a missed opportunity…it’s potentially fatal to the future of your business.

With all the competitive choices customers have today, it’s more difficult and expensive than ever to acquire and retain a customer. And customers are becoming more selective about who they do business with based on considerations like price, convenience, customer service and ease of doing business.

If your business is not already treating customers as your single greatest asset, it’s not too late to get started. First, develop a process for capturing your customers’ names, email addresses, birthdates, and other information that will help in furthering your relationship with each and every customer. Then make a commitment to communicating with your customers regularly, treating them special and do whatever is reasonably necessary to keep them as a happy customer and goodwill ambassador for your brand.

All too often, small businesses get caught up on measuring website traffic volumes and page views vs. the metric that really drives revenue—conversions.

Maximizing your lead conversion rate should be the most important objective of your marketing strategy if you’re looking to increase sales and grow your business. Lead conversions can range from a website visitor sharing their contact information in exchange for receiving a free content download to someone responding to a specific offer from your email marketing, search engine advertising or a banner on your website.

It’s important to keep these leads moving through the marketing process through a series of “touches” with the customer. Each touch should have a specific purpose and objective. For example, the first touch may be to better assess the needs of the customer and acquaint them with the solutions you provide that can address their needs. Subsequent touches may serve to position your business as a resource that provides guidance and helpful information or tips that the prospective customer will value.

As you turn your attention to maximizing conversion rates, we suggest focusing on the elements that can make the biggest difference:

Be sure what you’re using as the “conversion magnet” is attractive to your target audience and appeals to their needs or challenges, not yours. Free downloads that feature content that contains case studies or helpful tips are very effective.

Have a clear call-to-action using a strong action verb and a graphic button that’s easy to see and use.

Ask for only the most basic contact information, i.e., name, email address and phone number. This will increase your form completion rates.

Reassure the lead that your business keeps all contact information confidential and does not share their information with third parties.

You’ve identified a need, created a solution and now you’re ready to take your product or service to market, as soon as you can arrive at a price.

If you’re like most small businesses the question you wrestle with is “what’s the right price?” There’s really no one-size-fits-all answer to this question just like there’s no single approach to pricing. Instead, your business should consider one or more of the following pricing approaches:

Competitive Pricing

This approach is probably best if your business sells products or services that are more a commodity or hard to differentiate from your competitors. In this scenario, your business needs to price competitively to be in the game. With the help of the Internet and readily available industry resources, it’s not all that difficult to research what your competitors are charging for similar products or services and set your price accordingly.

Calculated Pricing

Time to sharpen your pencil and crunch the numbers. You’ll want to look at your hard and soft costs and the profit you’d like to realize. Raw costs, labor, overhead, shipping—be sure to include everything that will affect your bottom line. Once you add up these costs and add your desired profit, then your price has been set.

Good, Better, Best Pricing

This approach may be best if your business doesn’t want to “leave money on the table” and can offer variations of a particular product or service.

While many customers may be willing to accept your standard product and pricing, there are those who tend to be more price-conscious or prefer higher quality and more features. To avoid losing these potential customers, your business may want to consider a more basic version for the price-conscious and an enhanced or premium version for the higher end customers.

If your business has the product spread potential, we recommend the good, better, best approach. This method affords you the opportunity to boost sales, customers and revenue just by expanding the value and benefits of your existing product or service offering.