Five Business Growth Hacks

All business success stories start with a series of small steps. The first step is coming up with the idea/concept. 

The second step is bringing that idea/concept into fruition.

The third step…well you get where I am going with this – especially if you are reading this article.

You’ve done the hard work to get this far. You are at the point where you are ready to grow your business. 

You may not be able to compete at the same marketing level as Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, or Amy Porterfield (yet) but you are miles above where you started so why stop now.

Take a look at these five business strategies that you can easily implement into your business. They may not send your ideal clients running to you overnight but they are another “step” in the right direction.

Low Hanging Fruit

One of biggest misconceptions for entrepreneurs is that people will pay whatever you ask. 

You’ve seen it: “Know your worth! Don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve”. That sounds all well and good but if they don’t know you, why would they pay you $2000 for a coaching session or $10,000 for your course?

This is where the low hanging fruit comes in. Call it freebies, tripwires, downsells, you name it – low hanging fruit is a way to still walk away with an email, a few dollars, and a warm lead. 

People are skeptical and while you may come “highly recommended” or what you wrote in a blog post or said in an interview “really hit home”, they still are precautious with high ticket prices. 

Avoid invoking the “why” and give them breadcrumbs to your high ticket items. Just like a bird in the park, guide them to you, earn their trust. 

Just remember, always have an indoctrination sequence and a nurturing sequence setup for your funnels. Also, make sure to have a call to action in all of your products – even the freebies. The objective is to lead them to your higher priced items.

You’ve got to crawl before you walk. Same goes for a prospective lead. They have to get to know you, trust you, and trust what you can provide before they are willing to empty their pockets.

Make Your Content Available

How does your audience normally find you? How do they find your products? Are you only selling your ebooks, memberships, courses on your site? 

Expand your distribution in order to reach the masses!

Incorporate your content into your Facebook page. Sell products directly from your Facebook Shop page (just make sure they are being sold on your website as Facebook will ask you to verify your domain ownership).

Utilize Gumroad’s free option to not only be placed in their directory, but to increase your exposure in Google Search (as their DA Authority is 88 and PA is 66 compared to newly established sites). 

Create a Kindle Direct Publishing account and self-publish your eBook (only pay when someone purchases).

Consider an affiliate marketing program and utilize sites such as Shoutcart to get influencers to put your products front and center.

Automate Your Marketing

You would think this one would be a given but after 13 years of being a Virtual Tech Assistant, I am still surprised when I onboard a new client who has been in business for years and still does not have an indoctrination campaign and nurturing campaign. 

 While I believe I have explained this in a previous blog (don’t quote me on that), I will quickly define it again here and the importance of both.

Indoctrination Campaign

This is the “Hi! This is who we are!” email campaign. The first email is an overview of your business – who you are, what you do, how you got started (reaffirm your experience), and why being a part of your brand is beneficial for them. 

The indoctrination campaign allows you to start a conversation, see where their interests are and based on their interests, allows you to push them into a nurturing campaign geared towards said interest.  

Nurturing Campaign

This is where you begin to nurture your warm lead into a hot one. They go into the nurturing campaign explained below IF and ONLY IF they interact with the indoctrination campaign.

To be clear, those who opt-in via a freebie, sales page, etc will normally have their own nurturing campaign geared towards complementary upsells/downsells based on how they entered.

For those who have only provided their email out of sheer curiosity (normally via an opt-in bar on your site), this is where you offer a freebie, transition them to a soft sale, and finally – introduce them to your high ticket item.

All of your nurturing campaigns start off different but can feed into the same ending (normally your reason for doing this – your high priced package/offer/membership/service).

Why are these so important?

Depending on how you acquired the lead, you want to attempt to keep them warm as long as possible. 

The best part about indoctrination and nurturing campaigns is that they do all of the hard work for you.

By creating an interactive funnel based on their clicks, engagement, opens (i.e. tracking their interest), you can keep providing suggestions that they would find appealing.

When you have the time, availability, and desire to do something a little more personal (a newsletter, a flash sale, a special offer), you can target your offers more AND utilize the data to create custom look-alike audiences if you wish to expand your marketing efforts into paid ads.

Collaborate Within Your Niche

Your competition is not the enemy. In fact, your competition could be your greatest asset. There are 7.674 billion people on the planet and 230.5 million of them are online shoppers. If you still don’t think there is enough for everyone, I can’t help you.

The point that I am trying to make is you don’t have to ostracize the competition because you believe they will steal your prospect, audience member, followers, etc. 

If they do, were they really yours to begin with? At that point they were simply looking for the best deal.

Find ways to collaborate with those who share the same audience as you. 

Webinars, Telesummits, Joint Ventures, Referral Programs are just a few ideas to help grow your list and your exposure.

You never know if a member of their audience might not be able to use your services, but their friend/parent/sibling can and your personality complements them better for where they are in their life right now.

Consultations and Free/Reduced Fee Trials

Consultations

The last approach I have is one I use myself. While I wrote a blog a while ago on the effectiveness of Free Consultations, I figured I would use this opportunity to share the logic behind why I implemented free consultations for my services and a reduced fee trial for my Flex Support Program. 

As a consumer, I have always been a fan of consultations. Again, if you have read previous blogs, I have stated time and time again “Fear is the absence of knowledge”. I like to know what I am getting myself into before money exchanges hands (it is easier to give money than it ever is to get it back!). 

As a business owner, I respect this perspective. I want to make sure anyone working with me knows what they are getting, have the answers to their questions, feel heard, and are completely comfortable with their decision. 

Why – because it reduces the need for refunds and chargebacks to almost zero (nothing is absolute). 

Trials

Same with free/reduced fee trials. Just like testing the water to make sure it is just right before completing submerging, people like to explore a program to ensure it is right for them.

Some companies prefer to do this as a money-back guarantee (which still creates some friction as many don’t know how difficult it will be to get their money-back). 

By providing consultations and free/reduced trials, business owners are able to create opportunities for those who were originally reluctant to either 1) get clarity on why this choice is right for them or 2) see for themselves how beneficial your product is for them. 

While these small hacks are not 100% guaranteed methods to make your business explode tomorrow, they will help you flourish.

You’ve taken this many steps to get here, what’s one more?