3 Tips to Grow Your Local Business Quickly

Quickly growing your local business is a challenge. Entering a new market means you start from the bottom and have to prove yourself to your customers. What are you offering? Why are you the best choice?

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help you expand as quickly as possible.

Make the Most Out of Your Online Presence

Many customers will get their first impression of your business from your website. You need to make sure that visitors instantly have a clear idea of the services you’re providing. The best way to do this is to focus on two aspects:

Information

  • Your basic information, for example, your products, address and contact information, should be front and center
  • Social media is an excellent way of communicating with the public, so your website should have clear links to your profiles
  • Have a page for testimonials—they’re a great way to build confidence in your brand

Accessibility

  • Make your website as user-friendly as possible. Visitors shouldn’t have to click through countless pages to find the information they want.
  • All text should be clear and concise. Use appropriate colors and fonts, and don’t overload visitors with information.

You also need to bear in mind search engine optimization, or SEO, when adding content to your website. SEO is the art of using certain tactics to raise your website in Google’s rankings. The higher you rank, the easier your website is to find.

There are various ways to do this. Using online tools, you can find the related phrases people use when searching for your kind of business. Include these in the meta tags and content you upload, making sure the content is high quality and relevant to the term, both of which Google uses to decide where you appear in search results.

Build a Strong Team

Once your business starts to grow, you won’t be able to do everything yourself. Having a strong team around you is the key to success. But this won’t happen on its own.

Average employees clock in and out, putting in minimal effort because they don’t care. Great employees want to be at work, so they go the extra mile. Building respect gives employees a reason to produce and engage beyond their wages.

Involve your employees in the decision-making processes you go through as a business owner. If you want to buy a new line of stock, ask their opinion; when hiring new employees, check if they fit with your existing ones. You have the final say, but building a cohesive team that feels involved will help immeasurably.

You also want to foster trust, so you need to be as good as your word. Don’t promise your employees things you can’t deliver. Trust will help respect grow between you and your employees. If they can trust you, you will start to find it easier to trust them.

Get Involved with the Local Community

Branding is becoming ever more important. It helps you to stand out, which is vital for small businesses. Large conglomerates can afford to be faceless, but growing a local business means engaging with the local community and having a face they can trust.

Customers want to feel as though local businesses are trying to achieve more than making money. Look for ways that you can give back to the community—search for local causes to support or charities with which you can cooperate. Community outreach will help raise awareness of your business while increasing sales and customer loyalty.

Have you ever heard the adage, “no man is an island”? The same applies to businesses. If you want to grow a local business, don’t be afraid to use local resources to help.

Advertise your services in local newspapers and radio stations and make use of billboards around town. You should also consider putting on regular events, hosting fundraisers, or collaborating with other local businesses. These events will help potential customers become aware of your business and help you to build personal relationships.

If you can make a good impression with customers, word-of-mouth will be your most cost-effective marketing tool. They may only tell their friends to visit your business, but they could also leave a review on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.

Growing a local business can be daunting, but there is lots of help out there. For more information on how to grow your business quickly, contact Headquarters Digital Marketing at 732-682-6219.