Small businesses are typically firmly rooted in tradition. You might own a local pizza deli. It might deliver online but that might be through a very old-fashioned website. You might be relatively successful but have no idea who your customers are. Or you might struggle with customer retention.

Small businesses are good at getting by on the day-to-day. But if one day you reach a point where you want to give your clothing boutique, café or pizza restaurant a new lease of life, consider these tips:

Get a new logo

Particularly if your business is family-run, it’s unlikely the logo has had a revamp for quite a few years. Is that correct? Thought so. If you have an artistic friend, consider asking them to design a new logo for you that you can display in the shop and duplicate on flyers and online. If you have money to invest, you could even hire a graphic designer or an advertising agency to help out. This re-worked design will make people notice your place after walking by without stopping for years! Just make sure to update your website and social media channels with the new design, or people may get confused. Logo Animations are a great option for digital media as they can really jump out, which is vital in a world where people have increasingly short attention spans!

Get social media savvy

Unfortunately, we do now live in an age where online presence is of the utmost importance. You need to find out what your customer expects from your business and cater your online presence to them. Websites like Chatmeter can be very useful in assessing and improving retail brand presences online and in real life too.  

Offer deals to encourage customers to return

This is incredibly straightforward to do if most of your custom is face-to-face. If someone comes in and buys a pizza one day, hand them a 2-4-1 voucher for the following Friday, for example. The chances are, that person will think they have lucked out and will return for the deal. You can encourage customer loyalty using this same principle repeatedly.

Throw an “exclusive” party

Use any excuse to put together a little gathering. Call it a launch, re-launch or birthday party. Whatever you like! Hand out flyers and invite loyal customers, family and friends to an intimate gathering. Serve up your finest food and drinks so you can remind attendees just why your business did so well in the first place. It will put you back on the map in no time.

Register as a business on Google

Speaking of maps, it is worth registering as business on Google. That way, if people nearby search “pizza place near me”, your business will pop up as somewhere they should visit. Making yourself so easily visible and accessible to the public will drum up custom in no time.

Revamp or create your website

If you aren’t particularly skilled in the world of online, hire a content agency to create a website for you. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated; it just needs to make it clear who you are and what makes you unique. Content agencies have copywriters who will make plenty of suggestions on what your site should look like and contain.

There you have it. Try one, two or all of these simple steps and see what happens to your business.

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