As a local or small business owner, you know that your success is dependent on growing your business. You invest time and energy into each new project, hoping that it will be the one that turns things around for your company. But what if there are some factors outside of your control working against you? In this article we’ll explore eight common reasons why your local business is not growing as fast as it should be:
1. Lack of Business and Marketing Plan
Often you must have heard that failure to plan is automatically planning to fail. Planning is the first step in any business journey. A lack of planning is one of your competitor’s best friends — and a major reason for your local business growth stagnation. Therefore, having a business and marketing plan can create a vacuum for sustained growth, budgeting, cost containment, increased profitability, market penetration, and efficient and productive advertising. This requirement helps you to predict, project, analyze and prepare for the future of your local business.
Related: WHY LOCAL THINKING IS ESSENTIAL IN LOCAL BUSINESS WORLD
2. Failure To Differentiate Your Business
Another reason why your business is not growing is the failure to differentiate your local business (products and services) from your competitor. This happens mostly with generic businesses. Uncovering the reason why you are different from your competitors will help your local business grow. Rather than engaging in subtle offers, try selling values to your local customers.
For an instance, you are a local barber in a community of other competitive modern barbing saloons. What you need to stand out is to try to define your services in such a way that gives premium value over your competitors.
3. Your Local Business Website Is Not A Brochure
That’s right! Your local business website is more than just another way to show off what you do. It’s a marketing tool and, acts as a salesperson, that can help you grow your business. Your local business website is where local customers go when they’re looking for something specific or related. So, ensure that it reflects the level of goods and services, and quality provided by your local business.
“A brochure is a corporate marketing instrument used to promote a product or service offering. It is a tool that is used to circulate information about the product or service. A brochure is like a magazine but with pictures of the product or the service which the brand is promoting.”
wikipedia
For instance, if someone Googles “electrician near me,” they aren’t going to see an advertisement on Google Search or Facebook ads. they’re however going straight to their local electrician’s site! In addition, if someone visits an electrician’s business website, and then decides to share positive things about them with friends and family members via social media platforms like; Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp or Instagram (which many people do), then this will become part of the local company’s reputation online as well as off-site at work settings where colleagues may come across these posts while browsing through employee profiles during lunch breaks.”
If you have not considered creating a business website or online store for your business yet, this is an opportunity to get one.
4. Your Social Media Results Are Still Mysterious
The technology trend is ever-changing as well as social media. In today’s business world, social media is a great way to get your tailored message out to your local customers. But it’s also important for you as a local business owner to know how to leverage this medium for it to work for you, but not against you.
Foremost, social media is about creating tailored content(s) that resonate(s) with your local audience or customers. You need not only create content that drives sales but also provides value; otherwise, all of those messages will be abandoned like a toddler at a spin class. The goal here isn’t just making sure people see what your local company has done or has to offer. It’s getting them excited about what’s next so they’ll check back regularly and share their experiences with other unconverted customers (and hopefully spread the word).
5. You Don’t Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search is the future of search. It’s already becoming more popular than typing in a keyword, and it will continue to increase in popularity as more people adopt smartphones and other devices with built-in voice assistants. You probably must have tried this new tech hack to search for something online.
Voice searches are more precise than typed queries. This is because voice searches can understand the context better and make use of natural language processing (NLP). NLP has become an industry standard over time. Thus, this makes it easier for machines to understand what you mean when you speak instead of just typing out each word individually.
Natural language processing makes voices sound less robotic; this helps to feel more comfortable interacting with phones or computers when talking without feeling weird about it!
6. Lack Of Solid Search Engine Optimisation Strategy
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic
Wikipedia
If you’re not getting the results that you want from your SEO strategy, here are five reasons why:
- You don’t have a solid strategy in place to increase traffic to your website. The first step is determining what kind of traffic you want and how much it will cost. This may mean analyzing what type of user (customer) visits your business site (e-commerce or informational), how long they stay on each page and whether or not they return after being there once or twice. It also involves looking at where these visitors (customers or clients) are coming from (search engines vs social media), as well as who they are – keywords researched by Google? Social media accounts with followers? Blog posts are shared across different communities like LinkedIn groups or Twitter hashtags. etc.
- You don’t have enough keyword research completed before starting any campaign. This means having more than just one source where people might find out about your local business. That is, either through organic search engine optimization practices such as keyword research/analysis plus link-building efforts (social media platforms such as Facebook ads campaigns targeting specific audiences based on demographic information such as age group, paid advertising platforms such as AdWords PPC campaigns targeting specific markets based off demographic information).
7. No Presence In Local Directories
Your local business is not growing because you don’t have a presence in local directories. Local directories are the first place people will go to research your local business. They are also an amazing place to find new customers. It’s free! You can set up your own local business website.
Consequently, if the local business directory is properly set up, this could help grow both traffic and sales for your local business. It also ranks higher in search engines than any other type of website. Google lists them first when someone searches for something related to what you do or sell (like “pet groomer or portrait photographer“). And once local people find out about your goods and services through these listings — and even if they don’t want them right now — they’ll be able to give recommendations back around town that may lead others down their path as well.”
8. You Have Not Attempted Mobile-Friendly Marketing
There is no doubting that mobile is the future. Nowadays, people shop, search for information and learn about local businesses using mobile means. And this is how they find your business!
If you have not attempted mobile-friendly marketing yet, try it today. This strategy will help you grow your local business in your community and draw attention to what you do.
9. Bad Online Presence
Your local business is not growing because you have a destructive online presence. That is, your online engagement is porous. Your online presence is the direct opposite of your offline presence; keeping your potential local customers from finding you online. Hence, you will need an internet presence and marketing strategy and priority.
Related: How to attract online customers to your local business
Conclusion
The growth of your local businesses can have a profound effect on the economy. Beyond job creation, small businesses like yours also have a ripple effect on other aspects of the economy. Your local business can help to diversify a community’s business mix, which can lead to more stable economic growth. Additionally, it can help to create a sense of community pride and identity.
Finally, if your local business is not growing, do not simply maintain the status quo. This is referred to as insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A course correction in growth occurs when you alter what you’re doing or how you’re doing it. It is almost impossible to maintain the status quo. You either grow or wither. (PestManagement Professional)
Resources:
How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers in 2022
How to Create an SEO Strategy for 2022
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