Today small businesses are facing a number of unique challenges when trying to grow business. From shorter attention spans, higher expectations, and a need for instant gratification amongst customers ― even down to market clutter from the waves rising competition. Here's a few big tips every small business should know to help you rise to the challenge and grow business.

2. Today small businesses are facing a
number of unique challenges when
trying to grow business.
From shorter attention spans, higher
expectations, and a need for instant
gratification amongst customers ―
even down to market clutter from the
waves rising competition.
Here’s a few big tips every small
business should know to help you rise
to the challenge and grow business.

4. Cutting through the
clutter and getting
noticed is becoming
more difficult in the
digital revolution we’re
experiencing.
Regardless of whether it’s
business-to-business or business-
to-customer.
It’s dramatically changing what’s
termed the “purchase path” or
“decision journey” of customers.

5. New digital media and
communication channels,
the associated ease of
accessing information,
and the ability to interact
with brands instantly,
are changing the ways
customers everywhere are
purchasing.
image courtesy
wiki user Wuaiubon
image courtesy flickr user The Demo conference

6. With any prospect, once a need is triggered, two notable events occur
in starting their journey. Both move them to draw perceptions of
brands, products or services and will in turn influence their approaching
purchase.
Often termed the “initial consideration” and “active consideration”
stages, it’s noticed that prospects initially consider options from which
they were previously exposed to.
Afterwards, they actively search for, closely scrutinize and consider the
brands who seem to offer the best value relevant to fulfilling their needs
and which have been most readily accessible. (whether from options
pre-exposed to or new options discovered in their search).
This usually is a make or break period for small businesses.

7. As a small business you need to focus on effective
ways of landing your brand into your target audience’s
consideration set based on discovering how they are
making purchase decisions.
It’s a task not so challenging if you align your brand to
focus on understanding and staying connected to your
target audience as you’ll see mentioned next.
If your business isn’t visible or goes without
being noticed, than it has no way of being
considered by potential customers while
they’re making purchase decisions.
image courtesy flickr user Freddie Alequin

9. To drive customer acquisition and
revenue it’s a must to understand:
The nature of your target
audience, the manners in
which they’re making purchase
decisions, the influencing factors
driving those decisions, and lastly
how to deliver experiences that
will engage them based on those
decision drivers.

10. Gaining meaningful buyer
insights from building a close
connection with your target
audience.
Creating engaging and
immersive customer experiences.
Thoroughly researching your
market and target audience.

11. Within the digital age that has emerged, all businesses are being
faced with a number of complexities.
On one end buyers have become more empowered than ever ―
having instant access to information, having the ability to interact
with brands at will, and having control over those interactions. On
the other end market trends are obscure and today’s buyers are
overwhelmed with choices as a result of market clutter.
Both have made customers a moving target.
In order to respond to the chaos, you’ll have to place a serious
emphasis on truly understanding your target audience.
Understanding how your target audience behaves, what influencing
factors motivate them to interact with brands, and especially which
ones are driving them to purchase.
This requires conducting the kind of customer research that will
uncover the nature of your target audience, the manners in which
they are making purchase decisions, and what factors are driving
those decisions.
Following your research, you’ll need to take a critical look at the
insights you’ve attained and determine exactly how to deliver the
right kind of experiences that correspond to these purchase drivers.
Thoroughly researching your
market and target audience.

12. The experience a prospect receives, while interacting with a brand,
is increasingly the defining factor influencing their perception of the
value in it ― which will ultimately shape their intentions in making
purchases.
Buyers today are knowledge seekers and much more critical of the
value offered by brands. Hence, when buyers are trying to zero in on
brands they perceive could offer the most ideal benefits, the brands
who actually win them over are those able to best deliver a high
level of value relative to fulfilling their needs and wants.
Each time they interact with and experience a brand, they draw
perceptions based on the attributes, functional benefits, and the
emotional & self-expressive benefits (if any) that they receive from
it. You’ll need to deliver immersive experiences that can engage
customers in a way which they’ll feel they’re being provided a level
of value which resonates the most with them.
For this to happen your experiences must deliver benefits that
immerse buyers into the experience through the following:
Captivating expression that is novel and pleasurable and which
effectively conveys the value & message of your brand, Functional
benefits that practically fulfill the needs of customers, and Genuine
two-way dialog which provides customers with self expressive
benefits and that can also motivate deep emotional connections.
Creating engaging and
immersive customer
experiences
image courtesy wiki user Roland zh

13. Today’s digital age is empowering buyers. it’s enabling them to
learn of and decide on brands as well as recommend, criticize and
share experiences they encounter at will.
This empowerment is producing a more demanding customer ―
one whose critical eye for value is moving them to consider the
value of products/services and exactly what value means to them
more thoughtfully than ever.
Due to this, providing the right level of value has extended beyond
just delivering attractive attributes and benefits alone. There’s
also now a need to foster deep connections with customers that
motivate self-expression from them ― creating instances which
prompt for and expressly encourage customer’s feedback, opinions,
feelings, and suggestions allowing customers to directly personalize
their experience with a brand.
Building this frequent two-way dialog with your target audience,
as opposed to bombarding them with ads and sales pitches (i.e.
a one-way dialog), is the basis of building deep relationships with
customers which will then allow you to use any information gained
as insights into understanding their perceptions of value, individual
wants and needs.
Consequently, you must treat building customer relationships as an
investment and not another expense.
Gain meaningful buyer
insights from building a
close connection with your
target audience.

15. The digital world we live in is witnessing an explosion of new
communication channels and digital media.

16. People everywhere are discarding traditional
media in favor of newer media and technology.
This can be observed with the emerging mobile
presence, online video, and hordes of social
media networks.
image courtesy
wiki user Annie R.B. Elis
image courtesy flickr user Johan Larsson

17. Or the benefit they’re capable
of providing as strong
customer acquisition assets.
Many organizations are
already investing in these, but
without a clear understanding
of the change they bring
in influencing customer
behavior, mobility, and
interaction.

18. As a small business, you’ll especially need to
use emerging media and technologies to your
advantage.
Using them in a manner that is in line with how your target
audience is using them.
For instance, social media should be used for building
connections and engaging with your target audience ―
not for compulsively advertising.

19. Mobile technology has
become a cornerstone in
the daily lives of people
everywhere ― replacing
traditional technology
in endless amounts of
functions from shopping
even down to banking.
The popularity of social
media is continuing
to grow and is rapidly
becoming ingrained
in everyday social
and business life. The
immersive nature of social
media is inherently due to
its goal of driving two-way
dialog that’s organic.
As technology continues
to increase the ease of
accessing information, it
also propels customers’
“active consideration” ―
propelling their usage of
search engines to such a
familiarity that customers
naturally link higher
rankings in search engines
with credibility and
trustworthiness.
A few simple
but notable
examples
would be
A mobile-ready
website
An immersive social
media presence
Good Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)

20. Although a lack of resources and personnel may seem to be the biggest challenges for many small businesses,
in actuality the changing competitive environment, emerging product & service categories, and evolving
customer needs are some of the biggest obstacles small businesses face today ― as these challenges signal for
transformational shifts in how you’re structuring your business to truly live up to your brand promise everywhere
it is expressed, the amount of attention you’re devoting to creating & delivering the right kind of value which
will resonate most with customers, and the level of focus you’re committing to interacting with and building
meaningful connections with customers.
Building a strong brand and growing business is no easy task, but making transformational changes to your
small business will allow you to create a brand capable of navigating through the clutter and rising up to the real
challenges faced today.
Rising up to the challenge
As it’s becoming increasingly challenging for all businesses large and small alike, today’s small businesses are
uniquely challenged in attempting to grow business ― whether due to a lack of resources such as access to large
sums of capital or lack of manpower specifically in regards to possessing a strong leadership structure, customer-
centric marketing team, and an efficient sales force. However in order to drive growth, small businesses simply
must be adaptive and ready to respond with changing demands and situations.
Growing business

21. Vium is a strategic brand consultancy driven by big
innovation and brand leadership. We help businesses win
by delivering result-driven brand & marketing solutions
that transforms ideas and leads brands to success ―
providing a powerful blend of strategy, superior strategy-
lead design, leading technology and intensive research.
We transform ideas into winning brands
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