There are many ways to increase profit in a business. You can expand into new markets and territories. You can streamline and cost cut. You can acquire or merge with other organisations.
But those strategies can require a deep investment of capital, and will often be beyond the reach of an organisation. So in this guide we’ll reframe the question slightly: how can a business maximise its profit with the means at its disposal?
As it turns out, when you put a focus on digital growth, there are plenty of ways of increasing profit that require minimal capital, and that can be quickly implemented by almost any business.
4 digital strategies to improve business profitability
The key to improving business profitability is to take a long-term view. If you only ever look forward to the results of the next quarter, you’ll never make the truly transformational investments or changes that will drive continuous, sustainable profit growth.
With that in mind, here are four key digital strategies that, when implemented correctly, are amongst the most accessible yet effective ways to increase business profitability.
1. Dig into the data
Profitability is rarely the result of guesses and gut feelings—particularly in an age when data is so ubiquitous. Between social media, advertising, CRMs, websites and more, modern organisations have access to almost unlimited information. And if you know how to organise and analyse that data, you can get it to answer almost any question you care to ask.
Data can reveal who your ideal customers truly are, including audience segments you may never have identified before. It can identify trends in products and services that can inform your offerings moving forward. It can tell you how potential customers search for what you offer—which will often be very different from how you describe things yourself.
Data forms the foundation of the growth you will build. As new insights come in, you can develop and enhance your digital strategy in a way that increases the profitability of your business.
2. Carefully craft your marketing mix
Where is your marketing money best spent? Your strategy should include both paid and organic channels.
Pay per click (PPC) advertising guarantees that your brand will enjoy a prominent place on some of the world’s most desirable digital real estate, such as the top of the Google results page, and is a great way to instantly gain exposure to audiences you would otherwise struggle to reach.
In terms of organic marketing, SEO is a longer-term strategy, but one that can ultimately get you to the top of the search engine results page without needing to pay Google a cent. For social media, consider the platforms where your target audience spends their time, and work to grow a presence in those spaces through consistent, compelling content, while using advertising to boost your visibility.
Speaking of content…
3. Be purposeful with content creation
When you’re armed with detailed information on who you’re selling to and what they’re looking for, you have all the insights you need to create compelling content.
Content, whether in the form of blogs, landing pages, videos, ad copy or anything else, can be viewed as a form of bartering. You give the audience some useful or compelling information, and in return they give you their attention. You then capitalise on that attention by building brand awareness and trust, by increasing website traffic, and by ultimately turning prospects into customers.
You can make your content more useful and compelling by better understanding your target audience. Buyer personas can give you a clearer picture of who those audiences are, and can help you to personalise content to different segments. That content should focus on all three stages of the A-C-T buyer journey (awareness, consideration, transaction), particularly the first two phases which are so often ignored, and can therefore offer the greatest profit-boosting potential.
Improving your content is also about the little things, like A/B testing calls-to-action (CTAs) to ensure that you use the most compelling, highest-converting option every time.
And speaking of conversions…
4. Create a conversion-focused website
If you’re looking to improve business profitability, your website should be designed from the ground up to be your very best salesperson, not least because it’s the only one that will be working 24/7. It should be built to guide visitors down the sales funnel through compelling content, an easy to navigate structure and a smooth user experience.
No matter whether you sell D2C through an ecommerce store, or you use your website as a B2B lead-generation machine, the goal will be to increase conversions. Every element of your site should be intentional. It should retain a visitor’s interest, encourage engagement, build trust and address questions and concerns.
A well-oiled, conversion-focused website is also the type of site that Google tends to like, which is good news for your SEO efforts.
Enhance profitability through digital growth
At Growth Partners we have built a reputation for helping businesses do more with data, optimise their digital marketing efforts, create better content and convert more website visitors. In short, we know how to increase business profitability in a sustainable way through digital means.
As proven digital growth experts, we solve real-world business problems with targeted data analysis, strategic marketing thinking and best-in-class digital implementation. We digitally transform your online presence, and subsequently your business, through a complete suite of strategies and technologies geared toward business growth.
Our results are driven by DigitalArchitect® – a proprietary system that uses deep data to highlight online expansion opportunities and determine the strength of your business case for digital marketing investment, laying the foundation for continuous, sustainable growth.
Ready to transform your business, growing profitability now while also driving future demand? Reach out to us to kickstart your growth journey.
