In business, there seem to be two approaches. A common one with many marketers is to focus on top line growth for businesses. So that is increasing sales and things like website traffic. But it doesn’t always seem like the best way to focus on your business’s bottom line. Which at the end of the day, is more about controlling costs, rather than just increasing sales. You can be making lots and lots of sales. But the profit isn’t going to be high unless you’ve focused on your bottom line in the right way. So can only focusing on top line business growth actually be harming your business?
It does depend on your business. But for many people, shifting the focus to the bottom line is a more natural way to go about it. Then once you are sorted in that area, you can move onto top line growth and maximize it. You can’t maximize the sales you are making if you haven’t been controlling your baseline costs. But how can you do the latter? Today’s post is talking about just that; improving your business’s bottom line. Here are a few things to be thinking about and implementing in your business.
Know your target audience
Whatever product or business you are in, you will have a target audience. They are the people that are going to respond, interact with, and hopefully, buy your product or service. So it does pay to take the time to get to know them. Why are they your target market? How can your service or product improve their life? It is important to think about this kind of thing and how it can affect your decisions. If your target audience are the older generation, then is placing ads in social media really going to be reaching them? Are more traditional TV adverts going to be the best way around it, for example? So do focus groups, surveys, and research. It will help so much and be so useful when devising any kind of marketing plan.
Create a good marketing strategy
Speaking of which, most things in business need a strategy. For things to run well at least, they need a certain approach or plan. You can’t just bring a new product to market in any old way. It needs to be in a way that is going to be beneficial and show some proven results. The strategy might just be that you write it down and share it with others. When more people than just you know about the plan, then it means you can all focus on achieving it. So communicate well with your team, and you’ll start to see better results.
Cut down unnecessary costs
It is important to remember than your bottom line takes into account things like you daily spend in the office or workplace. It is easy to forget that, as they can just be expensed. But the less you pay out on things like utility bills or cleaners, the more profit you will be making overall, as there will be fewer deductions. You should even look at putting things in place that can help to protect your business as well. Things like insurance are important so that you don’t have massive bills to pay should the worst happen. The same goes along with the workplace and making it safe and secure. Something like basement tanking could be a good idea, as it can help to protect your premises from the risk of flooding. So if you live somewhere where that is quite probable, then it could be worth investing. Not only do you have to watch your bottom line, but you need to think about protecting it too.
Check your conversion rate
Checking your conversion rate, from how much you’re spending on marketing, to how many people visit your site or store, to how much people actually spend is important to look at. If you’re looking at less than a forty percent conversion rate, then it could be time to look at it all again. Something will have clearly gone wrong. And instead of carrying on with the strategy that is in place, you can look to make some changes. Otherwise, you are pretty much just throwing away money as it isn’t working too effectively.
Consult with an expert
If needed, consulting with an expert is a good idea. For startups, they might be thinking that they will be saving money by doing it all themselves. But at the end of the day, they can make so much more money when they get some expert advice. So if you are feeling a little stuck, then an expert could be the person to call.
