As we come to the end of 2020, entrepreneurs try to regain strength after the problems caused by COVID-19. We have surely gone through one of the most difficult years for our business and our personal lives, and many of us are concerned about what might happen next year. In order not to fall into distress and paralyze us, it is important to work on a small action plan to make the necessary adjustments in the operation of the company, and start 2021 ready to grow. Ann Marie Puig, an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Costa Rica, provides strategies to increase customer retention and enjoy better success in the new year.
One of the main points will be to focus on your most profitable products or services. Analyze the 20% of your catalog that accounted for 80% of your revenue. And then define which products or services you’re going to eliminate or which ones you’re going to spend the most marketing investment on.
It will also be important to strengthen your value proposition. Explains Puig, “Analyze how your potential customers’ needs and consumption habits have changed, and add new benefits to your main offering.”
Make sure you have time to reorganize your customer base. Today, the core of any successful marketing strategy is the business contact list. So, spend these weeks reviewing and updating data, segmenting databases based on customers’ interests or purchase history, and defining how you’re going to grow them next year.
If you haven’t already done so, it is probably time to open an online store. “If you don’t already market your products online,” says Puig, “it’s time to open an online store in a few minutes on a marketplace like Mercado Libre or Claro Shop, which also offer useful tools for sales management and inventory management link to Aspel SAE.”
You should already be doing this but always remember to stay in touch with your customers. Don’t just say hello to them for the holidays. Through email campaigns, social media, or even WhatsApp, tell them what you’re working on to better serve them next year. Keep your business fresh in their mind with periodic updates so they will turn to you when it’s time to shop.
Always offer special promotions and discounts. After such a difficult year, we all need a caress from the brands we normally buy, and those we see as partners to achieve our personal or business goals. The same goes for your customers.
Define which strategic tasks you’re going to focus on. As a business owner, your first obligation is to dedicate most of the day to tasks that bring the greatest value to growth, and not to more operational activities such as accounting or sales. Get ready to delegate more.
Redefine your team’s features and overall guidance. If you’ve adopted the home office during these months, it’s important to decide whether to do so definitively in some areas, and to plan a permanent reorganization of tasks and processes if the business operations allow.
Strengthen the technological structure of the organization. Next year, it will be vital to have billing, payroll and management platforms that work in the cloud and on a mobile platform in order to give flexibility to the operation and facilitate remote work.
Work on a digital transformation strategy. Asserts Puig, “With a focus on the medium and long term, analyze what your company’s positioning is against the competition, what you need to do to make your brand gain digital visibility, and how you can better serve your customers through marketing and online care channels.”
