If you are looking to grow or scale your business in the new year, there are 6 things that will have a big influence on your results in 2022.
- Going All In or All Out on Social Media
- Increased Organic Marketing vs. Paid Advertising
- Deepen Connection and Shorten the Buying Cycle
- Differentiate and Have a Bold Point of View
- Lean Out and Do Less But Better
- Focus on Customer Centricity and Value
In part 1 of this 2-part series, we dove into the 1st 3 trends, you can find the post here. Let's round things out with the next 3 trends.
Here's what I dive into in this episode:
- How to stand out and embrace what makes your business different
- How a business mentor got to 8 figures with differentiation
- Why doing less but better is essential in 2022
- Where you may be leaving a massive amount of money on the table
- An easy way to work smarter not harder with content creation
- How to increase customer-centricity for increased results
- How to better align your offers with your next level client needs
- The reason you might not be getting the results you once got
Tune into Episode 55 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast or keep reading below.
Top Strategies for Business Growth in 2022- Crista Grasso. Click To Tweet.
Differentiate and Have a Bold Point of View
One of the things I talk about inside my Build to Scale Offer Incubator program is the importance of the 3 P's when creating an irresistible offer - Packaging, Pricing, and Positioning.
This also applies to your business as a whole, especially how you position yourself. Standing out is more important than ever with the steady rise in competition with so many people leaving their careers to start businesses.
One of my business mentors shared that his successful path to 8 figures came from establishing a bold point of view and consistently getting it in front of his target market. He was looking for people who recognized that they had the problem that his business uniquely solved better than anyone else, and it worked.
By the time a prospect would get onto a sales call, they were already sold and the call was more about how and when they could work together than it was about if they should.
You want to stand out, embrace what makes you and your business different from the sea of other businesses serving the same niche, and don't be afraid to boldly share a polarizing point of view.
If you don't differentiate, you run a high risk of getting lost in the sea of other businesses.
What is your bold point of view and what do you stand for? Why is it important to you and how is it different from what others are doing or saying? Why should people care and want to align with your point of view - how will it help them get the results they really want?
Lean Out and Do Less But Better
This is not the year to be a dabbler or to spread yourself thin across a lot of different platforms, channels, offers, and activities.
This is the year to be very intentional with where you are investing your time, money, and energy. Leaning out is doubling down on the things that add the most value to your clients and the most profit to your business and eliminating everything else. All that 'everything else' is waste. There is no room for waste or unnecessary complexity in 2022.
You want to go all in on the fewest number of things possible and do less things but better.
If you take social media as an example, choose your #1 channel where your target market is - maybe for you that's LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook or YouTube.
What would it look like if you went all in on that one channel? If you and your team deeply understood all of the features and functionality and took the time to experiment and see which of the features generates the best reach and the best conversion to actual paying clients instead of only likes and views?
Most people barely scratch the surface on the things they do and they leave massive amounts of money on the table.
Master one social media channel before you add more and work smarter not harder by leveraging a solid content repurposing strategy to be on multiple channels.
The same applies to all facets in your business.
Instead of having 10 different offers, what if you laser focus in on one scalable signature offer and spend your time optimizing the end-to-end sales and marketing funnel for that offer with the customer journey in mind? Imagine the increase in conversions and results you would get from that offer. (This is what we help you do inside our Build to Scale Offer Incubator.)
Once you nail your scalable signature offer, you can broaden your focus on your scalable signature offer suite.
Ask yourself - what are the things that are going to make the biggest impact on your customers, drive the most profit for your business, and position you for that next level of business growth?
Those are the things that you're going to want to go all-in on. Get rid of everything else and lean out.
Focus on Customer Centricity
In 2022, customer experience, customer retention, and having a solid referral strategy are going to be critical.
Your customer's lives have likely changed pretty dramatically over the past couple of years. Have your offers, marketing efforts, and client experience evolved to meet them where they are at now or for what they will need next? How do you retain current clients and continue to provide value?
Deeply understanding your customer and the customer journey will set you apart from so many other business owners who don't take the time to really get to know their customers' needs, desires, fears, and motivators.
Start with establishing your next-level vision for your business with your customer in mind, which I walk you through how to do in Episode 53 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
Consider what does that customer of the future need and want from you? What are the services, the offers, and the things that you'll be providing to them?
You want to be thinking about that now and starting to make it a focus for 2022.
You also want to recognize where you can better align your current offers and communications with what the customer of today needs.
"You want to stand out, embrace what makes you and your business different from the sea of other businesses serving the same niche, and don't be afraid to boldly share a polarizing point of view." - Crista Grasso. Click To Tweet.
In Summary:
Those entrepreneurs and small businesses that are able to combine customer centricity with connection, differentiation, and value, and those who run their business lean and eliminate all of the waste, noise, and things that aren't adding value and profit - those are the ones who are going to see massive success in 2022 and in the years ahead.
To start taking leveraging these opportunities:
Make decisions on how and if you want to leverage social media, paid ads, and organic marketing in 2022. Determine what makes sense for your business based on your vision, goals, business model, and targeted customer experience.
Focus on deepening connection and value. Look at where you can do smaller circle, higher touch, and higher value experiences for your clients.
See if there may be VIP options that you can add if you have things that are more group related and you don't have that now. If you do have that now, look at how you can either step it up or make sure you're emphasizing that aspect of your offer because it's something people are going to be looking for.
Next, you're going to want to differentiate and share your bold point of view. Embrace what makes you you, and your business your business. You're going to want to take the unique point of view that you have and put that out there, and avoid getting lost in the sea of other businesses that all look and sound the same.
Ultimately, you want to lean out and do less but better. Figure out what's working and go all-in on the fewest number of things possible and cut everything else. Be very intentional with where you are investing your time, money, and energy and avoid the urge to split your focus across too many different things.
Finally, stay customer-centric and put your customer at the core of your business in the decisions that you're making.
Which will you be focusing on in the new year? Do you have any other trends or predictions for 2022?
Share in the comments below.
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by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
