What is MRR?

MMR, or Monthly Recurring Revenue, tells you how much income your business generates monthly. MRR gives you an idea of what you can expect to earn consistently over time. Knowing your MRR enables you to make critical decisions for business planning. In addition, this metric gives you a clear picture of how much money you have coming in each month that can be reinvested to build your business.

Types of MRR

MRR can be organized into a few different categories. By evaluating specific types of MRR, you can better determine exactly how your revenue is growing and what changes you need to make to increase it even more.

New MRR

New MRR is monthly recurring revenue that is generated from new customers. The New MRR metric helps determine if acquiring new customers is financially beneficial or costs more than you think. Looking at your New MRR and evaluating it against your total MRR can give you an idea if you need to adjust your budget, so your new customers don’t disrupt your profits.

New MRR also allows you to see trends in your sales and marketing success. If New MRR trends are upward, you know your acquisitions teams are doing something right.

Expansion MRR

When existing customers bring in more revenue than your base MRR, you see Expansion MRR. Expansion MRR typically comes from a package or plan upgrade or a cross-sell.

Because Expansion MRR comes from existing customers, tracking this metric allows you to study trends in sales and tweak your sales strategies. It’s more cost-effective to earn Expansion MRR than acquire a new customer, so you should closely monitor how effectively your team can upsell or cross-sell to your current customer base.

Churn MMR

Churn MRR is the revenue you’ve lost due to customers canceling or downgrading. Therefore, tracking your Churn MRR against New and Expansion MRRs is essential. For example, let’s say your business experiences a $2,000 growth in one month. That’s great at first glance. But you’re missing the big picture if you aren’t considering a Churn MRR of $1,000. You’re losing much revenue, even if your total MRR has technically grown.

How to calculate MRR?

Calculating your MRR is pretty simple. First, determine your ARPA (Average Revenue Per Account.) You find this value by dividing the total revenue from all customers by the number of customers you have that month.

Now that you’ve got your ARPA multiply that by your total number of customers. So, let’s say you’ve got 100 customers, and each customer pays an average of $100 monthly. So your MRR comes to $1,000.

Five tips to increase MRR

Once you’ve worked out your MRR, you might find it’s less than you thought. Or maybe it’s even stagnant. Below are five tips to help you increase MRR and customer retention.

Charge More

Too many businesses are underpricing themselves to beat out the competition. In reality, not charging enough for your products or services puts you in a position where you’ve got to work harder for less income. Charge more for what you offer. Customers equate price with value. You want to charge enough, so your effort is worthwhile. But by setting more, you also communicate to the customer that your product is worth more than competing businesses charging less.

Upsell

One of the most cost-effective ways to increase MRR is acquiring more revenue from your existing customer base. If you can increase the value of what you’re offering to your users, then charge for it. Offering upgrades, bundling or add-ons makes their lives easier. And people value ease and efficiency—so much that they’ll pay for it.

Get Rid of Unlimited

You shouldn’t be offering your services for free. Unlimited storage, unlimited users, unlimited anything: it costs you. Instead, offer tiered plans that increase in price as the value of your offer increases. Customers won’t hesitate to pay for products and services that provide value.

Offer Prepayment Options

Prepayment plans provide one of the sales game’s most effective customer retention strategies. If your customers are on monthly contracts, there’s no reason for them to stay with you longer than through the next billing period. Annual payment plans improve your MRR and customer retention, and they can yield a higher net gain over time—even if you offer a discount.

Eliminate Free Plans

When customers see the word “free,” it catches their eye. But once you offer something at no cost to them, there’s a minimal incentive for your customers to pay anything. As noted above, users consider paid products more valuable than free ones. But there are other issues with offering your plans for free. In general, free users will stay free, and your resources will be spent on customers who aren’t aren’t contributing to your growth. So eliminate free plans and focus on retaining paid customers by providing the support and products they value.

Conclusion

Working out your MRR according to its specific type lets you track crucial data that helps you shape your sales, acquisition, and retention strategies. Knowing your MRR enables you to determine if sales and marketing efforts are working. It also shows you specific strengths and opportunities to grow. Knowing your MRR allows you to budget and plan for your business moving forward. Determining your MRR is quite simple, and the data you get from calculating your MRR enables you to make sound decisions that help your business grow.

The post How To Increase Monthly Recurring Revenue: A Beginners Guide appeared first on Greektown Chicago.

Small businesses can effectively promote their brand by forming strategic partnerships, participating in local events, harnessing the power of social media, and giving back to the community while fostering solid relationships with their customers and local community members. By understanding and leveraging these approaches, small business owners can improve their brand visibility and contribute to the growth and development of their local community. – Bill Ross, Linchpin SEO

Understanding Your Community

Before implementing creative marketing strategies, small business owners must deeply understand their local community. This includes identifying the target audience, analyzing local demographics, and evaluating the competition.

Identifying the target audience

1. Determine the ideal customer profile: Analyze factors such as age, gender, income level, and interests to create a detailed profile of your perfect customer.
2. Study community trends: Stay informed about local events, news, and trends to ensure your marketing efforts align with the community’s interests and needs.
3. Conduct market research: Use surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather insights from current and potential customers.

Analyzing local demographics

1. Research population data: Gather information about the local population’s size, age distribution, and other relevant demographic data.
2. Understand cultural and social factors: Learn about the local community’s customs, traditions, and values to create marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience.
3. Identify niche markets: Discover untapped customer segments within your community that may benefit from your products or services.

Evaluating the competition

1. Identify direct and indirect competitors: List businesses in your area that offer similar products or services or target the same customer base.
2. Analyze competitors’ marketing strategies: Study their advertising methods, social media presence, and promotional events to identify strengths and weaknesses.
3. Benchmark your business: Compare your offerings, pricing, and customer service to your competitors to identify areas for improvement and potential opportunities for differentiation.

By thoroughly understanding their community, small business owners can develop marketing strategies that effectively cater to their target audience’s needs and interests while distinguishing themselves from the competition.

Collaborating with Local Businesses

Forming strategic partnerships with other local businesses can be a powerful way to expand your reach and increase brand visibility. Collaborative efforts allow small businesses to pool resources, share costs, and tap into new customer segments.

Cross-promotional partnerships

1. Identify complementary businesses: Look for companies that offer products or services that complement yours without directly competing.
2. Develop mutually beneficial promotions: Create joint offers, discounts, or packages that benefit both businesses and provide added value to customers.
3. Share marketing materials: Exchange flyers, brochures, or business cards with partner businesses to reach a wider audience.

Joint events and sponsorships

1. Organize collaborative events: Plan and host events, such as open houses, workshops, or charity fundraisers, in partnership with other local businesses.
2. Sponsor local events together: Join other businesses to sponsor community events, increasing visibility and demonstrating support for the community.
3. Create networking opportunities: Attend or host local business networking events to forge new connections and potential partnerships.

Shared advertising efforts

1. Pool resources for advertising: Collaborate with other businesses to share the costs of print, radio, or online advertising campaigns.
2. Leverage each other’s customer base: Promote partner businesses to your customers through newsletters, social media, or in-store displays, and encourage them to do the same.
3. Create a local business directory: Partner with other businesses to develop a directory or map of local businesses, helping customers find and support nearby establishments.

By working with other local businesses, small business owners can amplify their marketing efforts, strengthen their presence in the community, and create lasting relationships that benefit all parties involved.

Engaging with Local Events and Organizations

Participating in community events and supporting local organizations is an effective way for small businesses to build their brand, connect with potential customers, and demonstrate their commitment to the community.

Participating in community events

1. Attend local fairs and festivals: Set up a booth at community gatherings to showcase your products or services and interact with potential customers.
2. Join farmers’ markets or pop-up events: Participate in regularly held markets or temporary events to increase visibility and connect with the community.
3. Offer demonstrations or workshops: Share your expertise by hosting free or low-cost educational sessions at local events or venues.

Sponsoring local clubs and organizations

1. Support youth sports teams or clubs: Sponsor uniforms, equipment, or events for local youth organizations to foster goodwill and create brand awareness.
2. Partner with schools or educational institutions: Offer discounts or donations to local schools, or collaborate on fundraising initiatives and events.
3. Sponsor community organizations: Contribute to community groups, such as arts organizations, neighborhood associations, or environmental initiatives, to demonstrate your commitment to the community’s well-being.

Providing workshops and seminars

1. Host educational sessions: Offer workshops or seminars on topics related to your industry or expertise, attracting potential customers and positioning your business as an authority in the field.
2. Collaborate with local experts: Invite guest speakers from the community to present at your workshops, building relationships and expanding your network.
3. Promote your events: Advertise your workshops or seminars through local media, social media, and community bulletin boards to maximize attendance and engagement.

By engaging with local events and organizations, small businesses can forge strong connections with their community, increase brand visibility, and generate positive word-of-mouth, all while contributing to the betterment of their community.

Making Your Business a Community Hub

Transforming your business into a community hub can help attract more customers and foster a sense of belonging among your clientele. By offering a welcoming space and supporting local initiatives, you can create a positive atmosphere encouraging people to visit and engage with your business.

Hosting events and gatherings

1. Organize community-focused events: Plan book clubs, craft nights, or open mic sessions catering to your local community’s interests.
2. Partner with local artists or performers: Showcase the talents of local musicians, artists, or performers by hosting exhibitions or live performances at your venue.
3. Offer your space for community use: Make your business space available for local groups, clubs, or organizations to hold meetings or events, fostering stronger community connections.

Creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere

1. Design an inviting space: Arrange your storefront or interior to be comfortable, visually appealing, and easily accessible to all customers.
2. Train your staff to be friendly and helpful: Ensure that your employees are knowledgeable, approachable, and can provide excellent customer service.
3. Promote diversity and inclusivity: Encourage a diverse customer base by offering products, services, and events that cater to a wide range of interests, backgrounds, and abilities.

Providing resources and support for community initiatives

1. Offer information and resources: Display local brochures, flyers, and community event information in your business to help customers stay informed about what’s happening in the area.
2. Support local campaigns or projects: Contribute to community improvement projects or local initiatives, such as park cleanups, tree planting, or neighborhood beautification.
3. Advocate for community issues: Use your business platform to raise awareness of local concerns or advocate for positive change within the community.

By positioning your business as a community hub, you can foster a sense of belonging among your customers, encourage repeat visits, and demonstrate your commitment to the well-being and success of your local community.

Giving Back to the Community

Small businesses can strengthen their ties to the community and enhance their reputation by giving back in various ways. Volunteering, charitable donations, and socially responsible business practices can all contribute to a positive image and help create lasting connections within the community.

Volunteering and charitable donations

1. Organize volunteer events: Plan and participate in volunteer activities, such as food drives, charity runs, or neighborhood cleanups, to give back to the community and engage with customers.
2. Donate a portion of sales: Pledge a percentage of your sales to a local charity or nonprofit organization, demonstrating your commitment to supporting community causes.
3. Host fundraising events: Organize charity auctions or benefit concerts to raise funds and awareness for local causes or organizations.

Partnering with local nonprofits

1. Form strategic partnerships: Collaborate with local nonprofit organizations to support their missions and objectives through donations, event sponsorship, or in-kind contributions.
2. Share your expertise: Offer your skills, knowledge, or resources to help nonprofits achieve their goals and better serve the community.
3. Co-host events: Work with nonprofit partners to organize events that benefit both parties and foster positive relationships within the community.

Implementing socially responsible business practices

1. Adopt eco-friendly practices: Implement sustainable business practices, such as using energy-efficient appliances, recycling, or offering eco-friendly products, to reduce environmental impact.
2. Support fair labor practices: Ensure your business adheres to ethical labor standards, including fair wages, safe working conditions, and equal employee opportunities.
3. Encourage local sourcing: Prioritize purchasing from local suppliers and producers to support the local economy and reduce the environmental impact of transportation.

By giving back to the community and embracing socially responsible practices, small businesses can build a positive reputation, strengthen community bonds, and contribute to their local area’s overall well-being and success.

Measuring the Success of Your Marketing Efforts

To ensure that your community-based marketing strategies are effective, measuring their success regularly is essential. Tracking community engagement, evaluating customer feedback, and assessing the return on investment can help small business owners make informed decisions about their marketing efforts.

Tracking community engagement

1. Monitor social media metrics: Analyze your social media accounts’ reach, engagement, and growth to determine the impact of your community-focused content.
2. Track event attendance and participation: Measure the number of attendees, participants, or volunteers at your community events and gatherings to gauge their success and popularity.
3. Evaluate partnership outcomes: Assess the results of your collaborations with other businesses or nonprofit organizations, such as increased sales, customer referrals, or positive publicity.

Evaluating customer feedback

1. Collect customer reviews and testimonials: Encourage customers to share their experiences and opinions through online reviews, social media comments, or in-store feedback forms.
2. Conduct surveys or focus groups: Gather detailed feedback from customers to identify areas for improvement and better understand their needs and preferences.
3. Monitor online reputation: Keep an eye on your business’s online presence, including reviews, mentions, and rankings, to identify trends and potential areas of concern.

Assessing the return on investment

1. Calculate the cost of marketing efforts: Determine the expenses associated with your community-based marketing initiatives, such as advertising costs, event expenses, or donations.
2. Measure the revenue generated: Track the sales or customer acquisitions directly attributable to your marketing efforts to assess their financial impact.
3. Analyze the return on investment: Compare the costs of your marketing initiatives to the revenue they generate, and adjust your strategies accordingly to maximize effectiveness.

By regularly measuring the success of their community-based marketing strategies, small business owners can make data-driven decisions, refine their approach, and ensure the continued growth and development of their business within the local community.

Conclusion

Embracing creative, community-centered marketing approaches can help small businesses build strong connections with their local community, increase brand visibility, and foster customer loyalty. In addition, small business owners can create a lasting and meaningful impact that goes far beyond the storefront by understanding their target audience, collaborating with other local businesses, engaging in community events, leveraging social media, and giving back to the community. By celebrating the potential of these innovative strategies, small businesses can thrive and contribute to the success and vitality of their local community.

The post Beyond The Storefront: Community Marketing For Small Business appeared first on Greektown Chicago.

Read on to learn ten strategies to increase customer loyalty to your brand.

Talk to Your Customers Like They’re Real People

Your relationship with your customers doesn’t begin and end with a transaction. Many elements work in tandem, making customers stay loyal to your brand. And perhaps the chief of these elements is simply respecting the consumer.

From marketing and advertising to content to email campaigns and everything in between, address your customers as valued individuals, not simply a means to win a sale. This might seem obvious, but many brands forget that they’re building relationships with people, which comes across in their written content.

Talk to your customers like they’re real people. Consumers are savvy and know immediately when you’re being sincere, condescending, and schmoozing to make the sale. Respectful, authentic communication on all channels will increase customer loyalty from the first interaction with your brand.

Humanize Your Brand and Your Product

Shoppers don’t want to buy from a corporate machine. They want to do business with real people and buy products they can envision themselves using. So humanize your brand, and you’ll endear consumers to you from the outset.

Your brand identity and voice are significant in humanizing and personalizing your business. Therefore, your words and visuals should be warm, making buyers comfortable with your company and your goods or services.

Customers will be loyal when they feel a brand can see and understand their needs. In addition, humanizing your brand creates a sense of compassion and care, keeping your customers shopping with you for the long term.

Ask for Reviews (and Manage Them!)

Product review management is one of the most crucial aspects of earning customer loyalty (and cultivating a successful marketing strategy.) Consumers trust online reviews more than word-of-mouth recommendations or claims your brand makes about itself. Therefore, an honest reviewer has nothing to lose and every incentive to leave an honest opinion about their experience.

After the transaction, ask your customers to leave a review. Then, send them a link via text or email to simplify the process.

Asking for customer reviews creates loyalty in two ways. Firstly, when a customer leaves a review, they must articulate their experience in a way others can understand and benefit from. This causes them to consider exactly why they want to recommend your business, reinforcing their decision to buy from you.

Secondly, potential customers reading positive reviews are inclined to trust your company and like your products if others do so first.

Remember, bad reviews are nearly impossible to avoid. If you do get a bad review, respond. Ask what you can do to make it right. And once the issue has been resolved, ask for a review edit to reflect the customer’s new opinions and feelings about your brand.

Be Consistent in Everything You Do

Customers stick with companies that offer a sense of security and predictability. They want to know what to expect when they visit your site, store, or interact with a team member. And, of course, they want consistency in your products and services.

When you’re consistent in everything you do, you earn your customer’s trust and confidence, breeding loyalty.

Start a Loyalty Program and Promote it.

A loyalty program incentivizes consumers to make you their primary source for whatever goods or services you provide. Subscription-based services or exclusive memberships create a sense of community within your customer base. Members feel part of a group, encouraging them to press in more to your brand.

Loyalty programs offer practical membership benefits, like discounts, unique member perks, early access to goods or services, and other rewards. Having an exciting loyalty program with benefits your customers want incentivizes them to join. And once they’ve joined and enjoyed the perks of membership, they won’t have a reason to shop with anyone else.

Make Your Customers’ Lives Easier

It would be best to simplify every aspect of the buyer’s journey for your customers. Every interaction with your brand should be easy, from site navigation to understanding products to customer support and completing the purchase.

When you simplify the customer experience, you remove any friction shoppers feel in their purchase decisions. If shopping with you is easy, why shop with other brands where interaction is more difficult? Make your customers’ lives easier, and you’ll find their loyalty remains with you.

Connect with Customers Outside of the Sale

The customer relationship should never end at checkout. Connect with your customers before and after the sale to ensure they have a good brand experience.

Below are a few ways you can initiate touchpoints with buyers:

• Personalized texts reminding them of unique offers
• Email retargeting campaigns highlighting new products
• Responding to product and service reviews
• Maintaining open communication through social media and chat features on your site

Customers want to feel heard. Intentional connection creates happy shoppers, and happy shoppers are loyal.

Create Content that Matters

Today’s consumers don’t simply buy products from corporations. Instead, they buy lifestyles from brands like yours. Customers want to purchase from a brand that offers more than an exchange of goods for money. They want content that improves their lives and solves their questions or problems.

Create content that serves your customers. Relevant, informative, and innovative content meets a need. Your customers will stick with you when you provide original content created specifically for them. – Bill Ross, Linchpin SEO

Stand for Something and Share Your Values

Buyers use their money to make a statement. Consumers want to shop with brands that share their values. Targeting your customers’ values and priorities will help you draw them to your brand and compel them to stay.

Your brand needs to stand for something. If and when it does, talk about it. Share your values with your audience. Taking a stand will help buyers identify with your brand and encourage them to buy from you.

Prioritize the Customer Experience and Make them Feel Valued.

Your customers keep your business running. That’s the bottom line. If your customers feel like they matter to you, they will stay.

Prioritize the customer experience. Let the customer experience drive your decisions. Buyers who feel valued by a brand will be loyal, even if that brand’s prices are higher than a competitor’s.

Customer Loyalty and Brand Success

A brand’s success can be measured, in part, by customer loyalty. Returning, loyal buyers signal that a business meets needs and provides exceptional experiences that keep shoppers returning. By implementing the ten strategies above, you will not only increase customer loyalty. You’ll mYou’llname for your brand and gain the competitive advantage it takes to win your market.

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But does simply having a small business blog mean you’ll gain all these benefits and grow your online brand? NO!

Much more needs to go into your content strategy, and certain truths you should know before embarking on your content journey.

The Eight Truths About Small Business Content Creation

Truth #1: High-value content is the most vital part of having a successful blog, so if you think you can create low-value or short content to rank well and drive quality traffic, you will be disappointed.

The key to driving more website traffic is not producing more content, but instead providing more value with the content you produce. – Bill Ross, Founder of Linchpin SEO

Truth #2: The article’s title and headline can differ between 10 people reading your article or 10,000.

Truth #3: You’re frustrating users (and Google) if you’re creating articles that don’t have a content hierarchy to make them easy to scan.

Truth #4: If your articles don’t have a topic structure, you’re keeping Google from effectively understanding them.

Truth #5: Publishing frequency matters; therefore, a content calendar should be a priority within your content strategy. However, posting frequency means very little if your content is poor quality.

Truth #6: Without a good website information architecture to help users discover content and help search engines crawl and organize your content, you’ll confuse by both persona types.

Truth #7: A study published in The Journal of Behavior and Information Technology shows it takes just 50 milliseconds for a user to form an opinion about your website – making the experience your visitors have extremely important – so please invest in your website; don’t go for the cheapest design or branding, it will hurt more than just your website traffic and sales.

Truth #8: Creating an easy and effective way for users to share your content is essential for brand amplification. Now you’re probably wondering if social sharing affects search engine ranking; the short answer is kind of, however, not because of the links you get from the social media posts but because of user metrics.

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• Artopolis – A staple in Greektown since the new millennium, Artopolis offers an authentic Greek market and European style cafe. Prepare classic Greek dishes in the comfort of your home with Greek olive oil, honey, pasta, olives, wine and more—all available at Artopolis.
• Athenian Candle Co. – A fourth-generation, family-owned business that has been in Greektown for more than 95 years, Athenian Candle Co. still makes their candles in-house, and sells thousands of hand-dipped paraffin and beeswax candles of all sizes worldwide to churches of all denominations. The unique Greektown shop is also stocked with specialty Greek gifts and other religious items.
• Mariano’s – Mariano’s is one of Greektown’s go-to grocery stores. Whether you’re going for your weekly shopping trip, to grab lunch or running a quick errand, you can find anything you need at Mariano’s in Greektown. Insider tip: for a cheap and healthy lunch stop by the meat counter, for no fee they’ll grill fresh chicken, steak or seafood on the spot!
• ULTA – ULTA’s large inventory of beauty products and helpful staff make Greektown’s ULTA a must. Stop by to stock up on skincare and beauty items, and sign up for their email list for weekly discounts.
• Walgreens – Greektown’s recently renovated Walgreens is bigger than most other Chicagoland locations and is open 24 hours. Already an essential stop for any West Looper, Walgreens is perfect for those on-the-go shopping trips.

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