How to Increase Revenue in Your Business

Has your business fallen a bit flat? There will always be times when custom slows down, and therefore revenue and profits fall. However, smart business owners will see this as an opportunity. There is obviously more that you could be doing to increase your customer base and revenue, and low points in your business should spur you on to improve your service.

We want to help and give you ideas that get real results. Here, we’ll list some ways that you can revitalize and recover your business, bringing it back to earn even more revenue than before.

1. Take Out a Small Business Loan

This may seem counterproductive – but allow us to explain. The prospect of debt might be scary, but it needn’t be. Loans for small businesses can save companies from going under, if you use them correctly.

Here’s how.

It’s integral that you use the loan for investing in the long-term profits of your business. There’s no point taking out a loan only to pay existing debt, without improving your business. Here are a few ways to increase your revenue with a loan:

Order new, better quality stock, equipment and products
Invest in creating new products yourself
Renovate your business premises to be more inviting to customers
Hire a marketing agency to revamp your brand identity and marketing strategy
Take on new staff to improve customer service.

Get creative and think of ways that a loan could draw in more customers, get them to spend more and increase your revenue long after you have paid the loan back.

2. Upselling

Try to increase the average spend per customer. Examples of this include:

Waiters explicitly asking diners if they would like drinks, appetizers, puddings, etc.
Asking ‘was that a large?’ for any product available in different sizes
Featuring a ‘frequently bought with…’ notification on your website

Basically, get customers to buy more by drawing their attention to more products and bigger deals. You’ll be surprised by how many people take up these offers – it’s more often than not.

You can incentivize your employees to participate in your upselling program by offering rewards to the best sellers – say, the first person to sell 10 large drinks receives a prize.

3. Increase Visits to Your Business

Create incentives for customers to visit your business, shop or website more often, such as creating a reward card system. A common one in coffee shops is ‘buy 9 coffees, get your 10^th free’. Or, create a promotion for your website where customers get a 20% off code after their 5^th order – ensuring a 6^th order.

Incentives with the promise of a free reward or discount makes customers more likely to do what is necessary to gain that reward.

4. Raise Your Prices

If you don’t get a lot of repeat business, raising your prices may be a solution for you. You may want to counter this with bringing in something new to your business so that people who have bought from you before may be put off by a noticeable price change. Make sure these people come back by distracting them with new products or services alongside the rise.

5. Expand Your Customer Base

The more people who know about your business, the more customers you’ll have.

Making sure your digital marketing strategy is up to date is integral, especially for online businesses. Easy online promotions to gain attention from new customers include:

Instagram: set up a giveaway which is won by a user ‘tagging’ a friend (who will then become aware of your business. The tag will appear on the timeline of both people’s friend networks)
Facebook: again, tagging is a great use here. Also, utilize the ‘event’ option to invite people to sales, promotional days and special events your business is holding. A person’s friend network will be notified when they click ‘attending’ or ‘interested’
Twitter: people will often tweet about bad customer service. Make sure you have a great digital PR strategy for providing good responses to online criticism. Responses that resolve customer problems with generosity and humor earn respect from other internet users
Pay for advertising on other large websites and blogs
Create an email subscription service with a discount code as a reward
Contact influencers about endorsing your products. A makeup company may send free items to celebrities in return for good reviews on their social media. Their fanbase will learn about your product and feel they’ve been recommended by a trusted source.

By following these tips, you can be sure your business’s ROI will increase tenfold. Good luck!