How to grow a small-scale business? The best tips!

This episode has a quality conversation between Harshal Shah and Claus Lauter, who deals with digital marketing and the growth of ecommerce stores. He will share great insights to build the right roadmap to scale the business to the next level.
Let’s begin the journey.

00:30 – The guest introduces himself as a dinosaur in digital marketing. He is helping Shopify stores earn more visitors and small businesses to scale.

01:35 – Host asks, “Do you provide support to a specific niche or any target?” Claus deals with various industries as he aims to work with people with potential and build their success stories.

02:20 – The host appraises the efforts of the guest to help the business to boost. He wants to know if higher technical expertise helps to resolve issues or if smart practices can work.

The guest says that tools like Shopify have the advantage of helping beginners start to form the basic store. They can go deep after a while. Most of the clients have the ease to build the store and connect with email marketing, but the issue is they face various problems like:

• Knowing their audience
• Struggling in basics
• Does not have the value proposition

These should be managed before getting into the technical side of the platform. Shopify gives a good range of templates for email, automation, or theme, which helps to get started. The main aim is to read and customize it for your business and look out for someone to assist in the process.

04:40 – The host wants to know the basic practices and things to follow while focusing on Conversion Rate Optimization.

Claus points out that people have heard of CRO but are unaware of it. The main aim is to make the most out of the traffic gained. The objective is not to generate heavy traffic but to retain potential customers.

Some points to consider are:

• Have all the right elements and in the right order
• Provide information to the customers
• Help in making an informed decision
• Build the trust of the customers
• Resolve technical and phycology hurdles

CRO is not just the AB testing, but the quintessential changes applied in the website to attain better results.

07:00 – The host agrees that it is important to understand the audience and measures of the website. He wants to know that big firms require designers, operation managers, server management, and multiple things, but how does the guest manage all these things?

The guest says that success depends on knowing what you can outsource. You do not need to become a developer, designer, or anything, but you need to understand their roles. This will help you to outsource your requirements to quality people.

Many people fail their businesses due to outsourcing because they are unaware of the whole process. The key is to get the knowledge and responsibilities of the person you are planning to outsource.

11:10 – The Host suggests that when you are an entrepreneur, it is important to know what you want. Make a checklist of things you are expecting from the business.

12:30 – The Guest shares a story that he has some virtual assistants, and the only advice he has for them are, “If you have a question, come with an answer!” This ensures that you have the right solution and upgrade their skills and motivation. It is important to see the outsourcing resource as your team.

14:00 – The host asks, how frequently do you have to train the virtual assistants?

The guest says that it depends on the task. He already has a team fixed for various tasks and deals with the people he has already worked with. But he does have to train some people for certain jobs.

15:00 – Host comes up with an interesting query, what is the future of influence marketing in the current trends?

The guest says it is important to understand that it is an expensive solution. It will eat up the margin if you have not decided on the profit margin. Influencer marketing is very effective for beginners if your influencer has the right audience. It is easy to create user-generated content with influencers.

17:00 – Host question, do you deal with designing and other elements of the business?

Claus states that he has some online courses to help the users. They say that you do not only want to increase the number of conversions but also the average number of orders and customer lifetime value. Managing all the marketing channels and making customers a part of your family is important.

• It is important to have a long-term strategy
• Build an environment to retain customers
• Provide good customer service and products
• Build a communication strategy to make users come back

19:00 – The host says that people today are focusing on gaining profit in the short term, but in the real world, it is important to focus on long-term strategies. He asks the guest, what are your thoughts about WhatsApp marketing, and have you dealt with it?

The guest has a few clients that use WhatsApp marketing. He says that it is a massive tool depending on the country. The platform will be used more for marketing in the future.

21:00 – Host is interested in the marketplace dealing with Shopify, Amazon, or more. What is the best method to optimize your platform to generate more revenue?

The guest says that Amazon is a huge platform that provides many things which might not be suitable for beginners. Having your store limit the risks of losing your business due to the standard code of conduct is better. Amazon is a good choice, but you must know the platform’s policies, rules, and standards.

24:00 – The host wants to discuss online vs. offline business. What do you think will happen?

The guest says people are now aware of the benefits of online shopping. Many businesses were failing offline and coming online. The pandemic has sped up the process.

26:00 – The host is curious to know if a small business can compete with Amazon, Walmart, or more.

Guest suggests they do not compete with Walmart as they provide everything to everyone and do not have the target audience. In comparison, a small business has a specific product sold to a particular audience which is great. It is important to position yourself uniquely by showcasing what you are doing.

This session was highly insightful, and the guest provided some great strategies for people that are thinking of or already have an ecommerce platform. We hope you got some plans to grow your business and bring it to the next level.