We all know it: Life is tough for small businesses, and thanks to world events, it’s tougher than ever. This means that small local businesses need to work together in order to save money, jointly market and attract customers. There’s good news: Many studies and reports show that small businesses that are close to their communities cannot only survive but also thrive. This means that there are plenty of ways a business can grow by being active — you just have to find them.
Make Connections
Making connections has nothing to do with making a sale and everything to do with genuinely understanding and building relationships with your customers. There are two ways to do this. First, understand who your customers are. What does the data tell you? Where are they coming from, and what do they want? Second, make sure to always view your customers as real people and understand that your goal is to help fulfill their needs. How can you engage with them and build a connection and then use that connection as part of building a real relationship?
Smart Marketing
As a small business, you have limited resources. You can’t be everywhere, and you probably don’t have the funds to hire an expensive marketing agency to make sure you have a presence on all major media channels. The good news is you don’t need that. Remember, the final goal should be conversational commerce across all platforms. To that end, when you spend money on marketing, make sure that your expenditures are smart and targeted to get you the maximum investment.
Join Appropriate Groups
Improving your connection to the community can be done easily, thanks to the large presence of countless groups. Every community is different, but odds are good that others in your community have already done the hard work of creating solid networking and business groups you can join. For example, does your community have an active Chamber of Commerce? There are many benefits to joining one of these organizations. Failing that, what sort of social media opportunities are there in your area? Have you looked at joining a local social media group in order to expand your network and improve your connection?
Remember, improving your connection to your community is not something that happens on its own. It requires hard work and effort. However, thankfully, in most cases, the opportunities are already there.
If you’re in the tri-cities area and are ready to join the community, don’t wait! Sign up now!