10 TIPS TO GROW A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IN 2023
By Nia Pearson
Do you want to grow your small business in 2023? After successfully helping hundreds of small business owners grow their business, I have put together an easy to follow guide with 10 tips to grow a successful small business.
Objective Areas: Profitability. Branding. Influence. Target Audience.
As with all aspects of life, having a well-thought-out plan, we are more likely to succeed. Before we set sail on the ten tips to grow your business in 2023, here are four categories things you need to run any business, Service/Product, Value, Clients/Customers and Sales. To learn more about these 4 categories of business, visit our blog.
The number 1 tip to grow a successful business is 2023, begins with a marketing plan.
So, let’s begin with the number one tip to grow your business successfully in 2023, have a marketing plan.
Too often, small business owners get caught up in day-to-day operations and neglect long-range planning. A marketing plan can be used for short term and long-term planning, and the purpose is to clearly define goals, strategy and tactics.
What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? (Link to Resources).
Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales?
Once you know your goals outlined, you can develop strategies to achieve each of them. If your business has more than one target audience, it’s best to have a separate marketing plan for each audience.
If you currently have a marketing plan and are not getting the results you want, you may need to update your marketing plan to reflect a new set of key performance indicators and tactics.
If you’ve never written a marketing plan, you will be happy to know that it will help you to achieve success in 2023 and beyond. Each year you should make adjustments to match your current business climate.
Benefit Of A Marketing Plan:
Outline the day-to-day marketing tasks. This can serve as your marketing checklist for hiring a social media manager, email marketing manager, events manager, etc. The specific strategies and tactics that will be used will vary depending on goals, target market, and budget.
The person that is writing the marketing plan for your business should have a good understanding of the company’s target audience, competitive landscape, and current industry specific marketing environment.
Define your goals: The first step in creating a marketing plan is to define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Once you know your goals, you can develop strategies to achieve them.
What To Include In Your 2023 Marketing Plan:
i. Situational Analysis: The situational analysis section of your marketing plan will provide an overview of your company’s current situation, including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information will be used to develop specific marketing goals and strategies.
ii. Marketing Goals: The marketing goals for 2023 should be specific and include a breakdown to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, and customer loyalty. Each goal should include a very specific customer/client journey which will start from stage one to closing new business.
The combination of marketing strategies will include online and offline activity, advertising, public relations, social media, email marketing, relationship marketing and more. See the below top 5 ways to win business when using an integrated marketing strategy.
1. Marketing Strategies: The marketing strategies that will be most effective are industry specific.
2. Advertising: Run a series of print ads, digital ads, podcast ads, to increase brand awareness and generate leads.
3. Public Relations: Generate positive media coverage around your brand and goals for 2023.
4. Relationship Marketing: Build relationships with industry specific key influencers.
5. Social Media Marketing: This will depend heavily on your target audience. Social media platforms are free but very time consuming. Content should not be duplicated, instead it should be based off the audience. (Consider platforms like, Instagram Facebook, LinkedIn….)
Example: REALTORS® – Instagram is one of the best online visual social media platforms. By 2025 Instagram is forecasted to have 1.44 billion monthly users. That is 31.2 percent of global internet users, making Instagram a great place for REALTORS® to help homebuyers see the options that are available to help them find their dream home and live the American dream of homeownership.
What content to share on Instagram:
- Coming soon listings photos
- Walkthrough videos
- Neighborhood photos
- Local parks, farmers markets, grocery stores, schools, coffee shops, city buildings, fire stations, etc.
6. Email Marketing: Nurture prospects and customers/clients generate leads, and drive sales. Consider Automation,
What To Include In Your Marketing Budget:
Cost of all advertising, public relations, customer service, social media marketing and automation when possible.
Marketing Evaluation: Evaluate the success of its marketing plan by tracking the following key performance metrics:
Brand awareness: Track this through surveys and social media analytics.
Lead generation: Track this through Lead Generation from your website that links to your Customer Relationship Management, (CRM) system like, Salesforce or, Zoho.
Sales: Track sales through Sales Automation, Point Of Sale, (POS) systems, Zoom, Quick Books, Intuit,or Paypal.
**Remember to review and update your marketing plan on a quarterly basis to ensure that it is meeting the company’s needs.**
2) Take Action: Don’t put that business plan in a drawer and forget about it. No matter how busy you are, set aside at least one hour a week to review your progress. This should be done with all business partners and all employees. A quarterly meeting should be scheduled with key vendors, marketing team, human resource team and all other key teams. The goal is to review process, modify action steps and set deadlines for accomplishing them.
3) Update Your Website: Update blog content and frequently asked questions, (FAQs). Add new photos from recent events, and projects, create new customer journeys. **Make the necessary changes to modernize your website.**
a. Does your business’s website answer questions of prospective clients/customers?
b. Does it look current, or is it sporting an old design?
c. Does it load quickly from desktop and mobile devices so clients/customers can access your business wherever they are.
d. Add ADA Compliance
e. Add SSL Certificate
4) Take Charge Of Your Finances: If you’re not already using accounting software, like Quickbooks, make 2023 the year you upgrade. A program such as QuickBooks is inexpensive, easy to learn and makes budgeting and forecasting simple.
5) Plan Ahead For Financing: How will you finance your business growth plans for 2023? More marketing If you can’t fund growth from profits in a cash business, investigate options for outside financing. This can be accomplished from community banks, big banks or private investors such as angel capital groups, or your family and friends.
6) Get Social: No matter what your industry, real estate, restoration, retail, legal, hospitality, etc. almost every business can benefit from social media. If you aren’t currently using at least one social media channel to stay connected with your current clients/customers as well as building brand awareness for new business, you are missing business opportunities.
If you are active on social media and not seeing the results you want, evaluate your analytics and make content changes. Remember to:
Be authentic
Be specific
Include a mix of education and fun
Share videos and photos
7) Delegate: It’s tough for small business owners to give up control, since most tasks can be done best by the business owner, but delegation is critical for business growth. Once you master a skill, pass it on. Give team members autonomy to make business decisions and stay up-to-date in weekly meetings. Structure operations so you can focus on your strengths and delegate the rest.
8) Human Resource: Do your employees have the skills your business needs to grow in 2023? Whether you need to provide additional training, hire new employees or outsource to independent contractors, think about the most economical and efficient way to fill the gaps.
9) Upgrade Your Systems, Software and Equipment: Whether it’s technology like artificial intelligence (AI), email marketing, text marketing, computers, or smartphones, small changes to make your business more efficient is the goal. You can make a big difference to your bottom line, quicky by having standard operating procedures in place. Decide what investment would have the biggest impact on your bottom line, and make it happen.
10) Celebrate Success: No matter how busy you are, be sure to celebrate often. Every win should be celebrated. The larger the achievement of important goals, the more motivated you will be to continue to focus on big wins. Taking time out to recognize results will re-energize you and your team for any challenge.
For all things marketing, consulting and implementation, contact Marketing 4 Real Results and schedule a consultation.
Nia Sherrema Pearson founded Marketing 4 Real Results, (M4RR) in 2015 after 15 years of progressive Corporate marketing experience. M4RR is based in Greater Los Angeles and acts as an outsourced marketing team for small businesses across the United States.
M4RR works with small businesses from all sectors, while specializing in the vertical markets of real estate, cleaning and restoration, retail and legal. Nia is a licensed California Realtor, IICRC Certified in Water and Odor and holds formal University degrees in Marketing and International Business.
