Small and medium-sized businesses rely on growth and new customers to keep the businesses running smoothly. However, last year was hard on everyone, and smaller businesses were hit the hardest. There is extra pressure on small and medium-sized businesses to recoup the losses from last year and make a strong rebound in 2021. The market has drastically shifted since the start of last year, and it can be hard to adapt to the new normal we are all operating in. There are many avenues, and methods businesses can use to pull in new customers from various places. No one new marketing idea will pull in enough customers and sales to keep a company afloat, as it will take a combination of efforts to make 2021 a profitable year despite all the unforeseen changes and challenges. The road ahead may be challenging, but it is entirely possible to climb and make your small or medium business successful with new marketing ideas in 2021.
Improve Your Current Customer Service Offerings And Options
Businesses can stall when thinking of new ways to attract customers because they often focus on products, prices, and marketing and overlook other critical areas of the business. It is not enough to sell good products and have eye-catching marketing to pull people in if the end experience makes customers walk away from sales. The checkout and shipping stage is where most customers abandon their carts, most often because checkout forces them to make an account before proceeding, shipping is too expensive, or there are not enough shipping options. Forcing customers to make an account might give your business valuable customer data, but you must decide if that data is worth driving some sales away as some customers will refuse to make an account just to buy one item.
Shipping is an even more significant sticking point for customers. When customers are already spending money, they don’t want to shell out an even larger percentage just for shipping. Amazon has put small and medium businesses in a tough spot as the ecommerce giant largely standardized cheap or free two-day shipping. Small business shipping solutions or promotions might sound impossible, but there are ways to make it work. If you cannot work with carriers to lower rates, at least offer multiple options. Some customers are more than happy to pay less for slower shipping speeds, and others will pay more to get their items faster. The critical point is that you give customers a choice rather than forcing them to pick one rate or not order at all.
Acknowledge And Adapt To Market Changes
There is no denying that the norms of every aspect of life have changed since the start of 2020. There are more people online than ever before as millions of people moved to remote work and learning. More people are becoming computer savvy and are grabbing technological ways to stay connected on the move or from a different location. The increased drive to online shopping, learning, and work means businesses must double down on online marketing or risk missing the main percentage of potential customers. The needs, wants, and pain points of customers have changed over the past year, and your marketing must reflect those changes. Consider what matters most to your customers now and how you can help them. Look at recent customer behavior to get an idea of trends that work, so you can follow suit to serve your customers best. Sticking to your old plans and what worked years ago will not yield the same results while also wasting your resources.
Work Smarter Rather Than Use Brute Force
When small and medium-sized businesses are trying to climb back into good standing, it can be tempting to fire on all cylinders and use brute force to reclaim gains. However, while pushing your business hard and throwing everything into trying to fix issues right now is good in theory, you are likely overlooking ways you could be working smarter rather than harder. Instead of jumping in to revamp your entire strategy flow, look at smaller things you could change that would make a significant impact. Switch your sites to HTTPS to give customers better security while shopping, add APIs to autofill information, offer customers a branded order tracking page so they can keep an eye on their order, work on reducing customer service response time, and look at data as it comes in to make the best decision about your next move.
Every business, small, medium, or fortune 500, wants to earn profits this year after the historically bad 2020. Small and medium-sized businesses have more at stake than larger companies, but there are many things these companies can do to improve this year. Work on systems that affect customers, like shipping prices and shifted customer priorities. No matter what you decide to improve, make sure you are working smarter rather than trying to force something to work.
