How to drive retail brand growth on a limited budget and small team
There were 324,995 retail businesses in the UK as of 1st of January 2024. With so many retail businesses actively trading, it can be hard to help your brand stand out – particularly when you have a limited budget and a small team.
However, standing out from the competition and driving retail brand growth is not impossible. In this article, we will share our low budget marketing tactics to help you achieve continued brand growth.
Work on Retaining Your Existing Clients
When people think about brand growth, they instantly think of what they can do to win new customers. However, one of the most important things you can do to encourage growth is to focus on retaining your existing clients.
There are many ways you can retain existing clients and increase your small business sales, even on a limited budget and with a small team. Here are a few key ways you can boost retention, successfully launch new products, and ensure your customers’ ongoing experience with your retail brand is a positive one:
- Rewarding loyalty with special offers and discounts
- Make the returns and exchange process as easy as possible
- Regularly check-in with existing clients and ask for feedback
- Address customer feedback and specific requests, where possible
- Create loyalty incentives to show your appreciation to existing customers
Your customers stick around because of how you treat them. Making the effort to show your appreciation and reward their loyalty can make a big difference. Sometimes it’s as simple as sending a personalised email of thanks.
Improve Customer Support
Customer experience is the key to business success and small business sales. If your customers have a seamless experience journeying through your website or visiting your store in person, they are far more likely to return than if they didn’t. To achieve this you need to provide the support your customers are looking for.
According to MailChimp, “The importance of customer service for your business cannot be overstated […] Implementing essential customer service can improve your relationships with customers and improve your business […] With top notch customer service, companies can cut down on customer acquisition costs and develop a loyal following.”
However, providing high-quality customer service can take time and money, often requiring a big team. Thankfully, with advancements in technology and quality support from virtual assistants, it’s now possible to help high numbers of customers despite budget and team size limitations.
Adapt to Trends
Staying up-to-date with customer wants and needs via trends is a great way to drive small business sales and grow your retail brand. Trends can have a huge influence on customer purchase decisions.
Social media is a free tool your business can utilise to keep up-to-date with industry trends. According to research, “71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media referral. This growing trend demonstrates how social media platforms are increasingly becoming popular channels for discovering and purchasing products.”
Whether you create an account on TikTok, Instagram or you start releasing YouTube videos, using social media regularly will help you understand what people are talking about and what’s gaining attention. You can use this information to steer the direction your retail marketing takes, launch new products successfully, and market your services widely.
Use Social Proof
People want to see that others are benefiting from your business. In fact, a study by PowerReviews discovered that 90% of customers read reviews before making a purchase.
Customer testimonials, reviews, and positive comments on social media help your brand gain better visibility and build a credible reputation. Many customers love flocking to the comment section on social media to find out what people really think about a brand they love. So, you need to pay attention to what’s being said about your brand and how you can alter opinions for the better.
This means seeking positive feedback from your customers, responding helpfully to comments on social media channels, and requesting reviews for your website. And the good news is, you don’t need a big team or extensive budget to achieve this. In fact, building social proof is a completely free process, it just takes time. So, whether you devote an hour a day to it or you have an employee whose job involves interacting with customers, you can build up your credibility and customer base effectively.
Enhance Your Online Presence
According to Statista, “Over 80 percent of the population makes e-commerce purchases, or to put it in other words, over four in five UK consumers are digital buyers.” Therefore, enhancing your online presence is vital.
If you want to increase customer reach and engagement, and ultimately increase your small business sales, you need to focus on strengthening your online presence, from your website to social media. Here are a few things you can do:
- Optimise your website for mobile
- Ensure your branding is consistent across all digital channels
- Set up a Google My Business profile
- Create high-value content that drives customer engagement
- Respond quickly and helpfully to online reviews and customer enquiries
Each of these points can be considered low budget marketing tactics but they can make a big difference to your business growth and success.
Final Words
Growing your retail brand is all about connecting with your customers and providing a high-quality service they can rely on. With the help of technology and the right prioritisation of tasks, you can ensure your business resources are put to use in the best places possible.
We hope the strategies we’ve shared help you drive retail brand growth on a limited budget and with a small team. Discover more tips for retail brand growth.
