In general, most businesses try to improve their bottom-line growth by doing two things – generating top-line growth and reducing costs through better efficiency. Somewhere along the way, they get so caught up that top-line growth takes center stage.
This includes greater sales, more website traffic, and increased brand mentions. However, this could be a sub-optimal way of improving the bottom line. The second method requires greater emphasis – cost reduction. This means businesses must direct their attention towards metrics that involve costs like gross profit, cost per acquisition, return on advertising spend, and return on investment.
According to Gartner, a major aspect of building business resiliency is to manage spending. After all, nothing in the business world worth having comes free, not even organic traffic. The cost of acquiring new clients will continue to increase (not the other way around). So, you must consider the ‘cost’ of customer acquisition at some point.
Otherwise, does it make sense to spend $100 selling a product worth $50? So, pause the spending on acquiring leads and generate bottom-line growth through three actionable tips discussed in this article
Focus on Existing Customers
It is natural to have a thought process that makes new customers appear highly attractive. While novel sales opportunities must always be welcome, especially if you may gain better-quality leads, bottom-line growth depends on making the most of existing clients.
The statistic that customer acquisition costs 5x more than retention has changed drastically. Today, it could take anywhere between 5 and 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Also, let’s not forget that loyal customers are much more willing to forgive errors and poor service and repurchase in spite of them.
How can you focus more on existing clients? Some effective ways include –
- Collecting systematic feedback and analyzing the same. Then, work on areas your customers are unhappy with to give them a better shopping experience.
- Using attractive discounts and subscription plans. Ensure that these offers increase purchase volume, promote repeat orders, or upsell/cross-sell.
- Providing highly personalized services through account-based marketing
- Inviting the most valuable clients to webinars, seminars, and conferences
- Sharing customer success stories through publishing collaborative research, discussing case studies in conferences, and releasing video testimonials
- Keeping loyal customers updated on new changes within the enterprise. This could be something as simple as a new pricing model, upcoming blog, etc.
Improve User Interaction with the Website
The business website acts as the core anchor for all digital marketing efforts. It becomes more like a round-the-clock salesman, and a good user experience can help you sell even while you sleep. Many aspects contribute to a great website design.
One example would be that of page speed. A study found that a loading time between 0 and 4 seconds is the most optimal for conversion rates. Sadly, most organizations’ website pages take 5 seconds or more to load. In some cases, the mobile loading time is slower than the desktop counterparts.
This is unsustainable as visitors will soon get frustrated and leave without browsing, let alone shopping. According to ConnectionModel, webpage speed may sound straightforward but comprises metrics like time to first byte (TTFB), time to interactive, fully loaded page, and page size.
Now, the problem with slow-loading webpages is that even your best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy will not compensate. This is because PageSpeed and SEO are closely related – search engines use the former to rate the pages. Yes, Google does not want to deliver pages that load slowly and throw visitors off.
Besides webpage speed, other crucial aspects that go into making a website user-friendly include –
- Proper use of the white space
- Incorporation of compelling calls to action
- Use of hyperlink differentiation
- Segmentation of key information using bullet points
- Strategic use of images
- Well-designed and eye-catching headings
- Keeping 404 errors to a minimum
Use Social Media in Tandem with a Business Website
Your business website may offer visitors all information related to the brand and products/services, but it will fail to keep them engaged for a long-term relationship. The problem is that seldom do potential clients purchase after a single website visit.
This is why it is important to keep them engaged and stay on top of their minds through regular social media interactions. Spending on this marketing platform is expected to reach a value of $219.8 billion in 2024.
So, how can you integrate social media with your business website for better bottom-line growth? Try the following strategies –
- Place social media plugins strategically across different product pages.
- Embed a social media feed widget to display relevant hashtags.
- Include social media content that makes products shoppable. In other words, tag the products on different social media posts and embed the direct shopping link.
- Develop engaging videos for social media and embed them on your website.
- Showcase social media customer testimonials and success stories on your website.
Business growth and sustainability depend on a healthy bottom line. That will offer you the resources needed for business expansion, talent acquisition, and purchasing novel technologies. A solid bottom line is your key to weathering economic downturns. So, now is the time to assess – are you earning enough for your hard work?
