Tools To Help Increase Revenue For Small Businesses
BY BRETT FARMILOE, FOUNDER & CEO OF MARKITORS
The COVID pandemic has created new challenges for small businesses and one of the best ways to overcome these challenges is through increasing your avenues of revenue. To help small businesses, we asked business leaders and financial advisors their best ideas and tools for how to increase these avenues. From utilizing Mailchimp to revenue trackers, here are 10 ways that may help your business increase multiple avenues of revenue.
PERSONAL BRAND
LASER FOCUS ON WHAT YOU DO BEST
ONLINE ORDERING AND PAYMENT ASSISTANCE
MAILCHIMP
SALES CRM
CONSTANT CONTACT
REVENUE TRACKER
ACCURATE INFORMATION ACROSS ALL INTERNET PLATFORMS
“CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES”
KEAP
Personal Brand
“One essential tool I feel businesses, especially solopreneurs, need to be taking advantage of in the pandemic is in building their own personal brand to stand out among the crowd and create additional opportunities and revenue streams. We already have a wealth of knowledge and skills, so why not translate it into additional products and programs that produce profits? By building a strong presence in the marketplace and being seen as a thought leader, you begin to pick up momentum in your business by providing value again and again to your potential clients. This turns them into warm leads and then you have an endless pool of clientele ready to work with you, even in the pandemic. When you have multiple lanes and income streams coming in, your business is no longer dependent on one program or product to carry you through these challenging times; you've diversified.”
Tisha Marie Pelletier, Tisha Marie Enterprises
Laser Focus On What You Do Best
“A lot of people are contributing success during the pandemic to "pivoting," as in starting a new COVID-relevant, business or career. But I think most of the companies that succeeded were not people who did something completely different, but who focused on what they do best and just changed the application of those talents. For example, a factory manufacturing branded masks for athletes instead of branded jerseys for athletes. Other successful people became more successful by having more time to think about growing their current business instead of traveling, or investing more money in upgrading technology instead of a bigger office space.”
Denise Meridith, World’s Best Connectors LLC
Online Ordering and Payment Assistance
“Since we are versed in the payment processing industry, my recommendation is looking for an online ordering method. You should seek a firm that can assist your business in driving visitors to your social media platforms. Once visitors arrive, they should easily be guided to your online ordering site(s) so customers can checkout and schedule pickup. This should include an option for your customers to pay by using a contactless method so you never have to handle their card directly.”
Erik Verryden, NexGen Partner Strategies
Mailchimp
“Email marketing platforms like Mailchimp can help a small business manage communications and customize a sales-driven automation campaign. Centralizing all customer information into an email marketing platform enables a marketer to send a targeted and timely offer that may incentivize previous customers to purchase again. Sign up for an email marketing platform, input customer information, and then develop campaigns that support your business.”
Gregory Drambour, Sedona Retreats
Sales CRM
“Small businesses are doing a million things at once, which is why having a sales CRM (customer relationships management) can help keep track of all the revenue opportunities in the pipeline. For our business, we signed up for Pipedrive CRM five years ago and absolutely love it. Whenever a new lead comes through our site, or when we receive a referral, we will add the contact into our CRM and assign a follow-up task with a due date. In the first month of using Pipedrive, we closed a deal - just by tracking and following up with sales leads. With a $15 / month option, Pipedrive is extremely friendly to small businesses and fills a key need for any business operating without a sales CRM.”
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Constant Contact
“One thing I frequently tell my clients is to take advantage of their email list and platforms like Constant Contact. This affordable tool has a great capacity to zero in on different interest groups and levels of engagement. Reaching out to people directly this way allows you to open up a real, meaningful conversation that isn’t just noise. To avoid bombarding people with unwanted messages, you can segment your lists to just the most engaged and tailor your messages to how your business can help ease their burden right now. Include helpful tips and links, too, as a way to offer something for nothing and let them know you’re available with direct links to contact you!”
Jen Urso, Steady Glow Digital
Revenue Tracker
“It is essential to know where your current revenue is coming from to decide the products and services you can use to increase your income. For example, suppose you are a service-based business that also sells supplemental products. In that case, it is helpful to track the specific revenue from your various services and each product. A point-of-sale system can track this, or your bookkeeper can track the revenue source through accounting software. You will also want to know your cost of goods sold to help determine your profit margins. Unless you are looking at the whole picture of revenue, prices, and margins, you will not know which items are the most profitable (or those that are not profitable and need to be discontinued) and where to target your marketing efforts to drive the most profitable revenue.”
Kimberly Bogues, Flourish Business Services, LLC
Accurate Information Across All Internet Platforms
“The Internet is your best friend! Make sure your online presence is just as impressive (and accurate!) as your business itself. If you have incorrect information on a platform such as Google, Instagram, or your website, that’s a potential loss of business. The first place people will look before they decide to frequent your business is online — photos, reviews, business info, etc. Put as much info as you can online, and update it frequently!”
Steven Totten, Visit Phoenix
Conservation of Resources
2020 was the year of micro-venture building for us. We are huge fans of "conservation of resources", meaning we don’t need to build our own. In some cases, we built ventures with two or more partners by aggregating each of our specialties into one service or product that offered greater value to all of the partner’s customers. Some examples were in managed security solutions, enterprise application support, and video/design production for custom software.
Brandon Wilson, STEADYNAMIC
Keap
The drop of in-person commerce during the pandemic has created an imperative for small businesses to look into shifting their marketing and sales online to generate business. One of the most robust tools to consider for any small business wishing to streamline their sales processes and increase their online revenue is Keap. The Chandler, Arizona-based company provides an app that serves as a flexible CRM, an email marketing platform, an eCommerce solution--basically, an all-in-one sales and marketing automation platform.
Atilla Vekony, Hughes Federal Credit Union
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Brett Farmiloe is the Founder & CEO of Markitors, a digital marketing company that connects small businesses to customers through organic search. He enjoys converting insights from small business owners into high-quality articles for brands.