The playing field has never been level for the millions of small businesses that compete with larger companies. This isn’t new, and the Coronavirus crisis hasn’t changed that reality.
It can feel a bit like David versus Goliath: How can small, local businesses compete with massive budgets, robust sales and marketing teams, and the ability to have products shipped in one day? This challenge is more achievable than you might think.
Small businesses can close the competition gap by investing responsibly in the right technology and activating the consumer instinct to shop small.
COVID-19 has helped some small businesses to grow. People want to help their local small businesses survive, which opens great opportunities to build brand loyalty and deepen customer engagement.
Online and in control
How do you keep pace with corporations and establish a competitive edge? You need to understand how your customers want to do business and think creatively about how you can meet their needs.
There are many technology tools available to help small businesses improve efficiencies and productivity.
An online presence is something necessary to be relevant in 2021 and beyond
Getting started on building an online presence, whether it’s an e-commerce platform, interactive website, social media outreach, can seem like a daunting task. But when you have all your customer data working together, you’ll have a unique advantage because of the hyper-personalised experiences you can create.
Use technology tools to help level the playing field to find, win and keep your small business customers.
Consider these five steps when you square up against big business:
1. Create a single view of your customer.
Technology brings the perspective of a customer into focus. It shows their purchasing histories, communication preferences, and so much more— that you can’t see with just a spreadsheet or handheld ledger. Understanding your customer and having the data in a single spot (such as a CRM) needs to be a top priority.
Identifying trends through reports, seeing the health of your sales pipeline through easy-to-read dashboards, and including notes on customer-specific preferences, can help business owners make the right decisions for each customer. Having the customer at the centre of everything you do is one thing that technology can help you keep track of in an organised and efficient way.
2. Market intelligently.
It’s not just about sending an email. Technology can help you be a better marketer, find new customers and get your dedicated customers to return. There is an abundance of marketing automation tools to meet all business needs. This is where crafting an authentic presence on social media can help generate organic leads with minimal costs involved. Being responsive and engaging with customers can help them feel like they know you.
3. Automate the mundane chores.
Be open to how technology can help you focus on your core business functions and seek ways to increase revenue and decrease costs. This could mean outsourcing some of your accounting, either to an accountant or technologies like Xero or QuickBooks. Free up valuable time by identifying these tasks and automating themthen devote your time to focus on your customers.
4. Use predictive capabilities.
Reports and analytics are great tools that inform you how the business is doing. They can also warn you about potential future shortfalls as they track sales revenue and trends down to a more granular level.
5. Tap into resources and communities.
There are so many online public forums to join that are custom-built for small businesses. These supportive communities have resources galore and allow you to share what you’re doing, what’s not working and what the future industry trends might be. In the age of COVID-19, online communities have effectively have enabled SMBs to keep networking.
In the end, these technologies exist to help small business owners grow their businesses and create economic security in chaotic times. At their best, these digital tools enable SMBs to thrive in any circumstance and be the best businesses they can be. The right technology at the right time can help significantly improve your business.
Marketing: Mission & Metrics