Achieving business growth using data is far easier than you might imagine. As you build your systems and processes one key approach is to review cases studies of businesses that are succeeding. That’s why this week’s article is all about reviewing small business case studies of business growth with data.

BrookdaleLiving.com provides community living options for seniors. They wanted to improve their digital footprint and started by making website improvements.

Their existing webpage was very plain and text heavy, with no imagery or video content for users. The site also didn’t include any testimonials or other content to nurture visitor interest. Brookdale Living decided to test two options for their website.

The first option included a static images of a seniors enjoying their lives with Brookdale Living. They also included links to pages that explained the various community living options offered. The page was substantially more visually appealing and informative.The second option substituted the header image of a woman with a brief video of testimonials from seniors enjoying their lives with Brookdale. The remainder of the website changes remained the same.

The result? The webpage with the static image achieved a 3.92% increase in website conversions, while the video webpage only increased by 0.85%.

Even more impressive….that seemingly small increase in conversions resulted in over $100,000 in new revenue for Brookdale.

Why the difference? Well, Brookdale learned that their target market included a large portion of individuals who did not go to college. They also learned that people who did not go to college were more likely to have slower internet speeds. Their target audience was also less interested in video marketing messages.

All of this translates into he video webpage underperforming due to slow load times and little interest in watching the video. Instead, static image site loaded faster and provided easier navigation to find the information users wanted.

One very common reason small businesses fail is poor cash flow. Typically, a business runs into this issue because revenues did not meet expectations or because costs were higher than expected.

Regardless of why cash flow is suffering, entrepreneurs need to respond to cash flow issues quickly. Failing to address the short- and long-term impacts of cash flow problems could spell disaster. Here is another small business case study to get you thinking about this issue.

A local bakery wanting to expand, was able to use cash flow forecasting to optimize inventory and maximize cash reserves. The owner started by gathering historical data on monthly revenue, expenses, inventory, and staffing.
With data going back a full year, the owner generated monthly trends for the next year in each series. She identified seasonal variations in revenue and expenses as well.

Armed with these simple forecasts, the owner began making adjustments to revenue based on promotions planned throughout the year. She next determined the inventory necessary to support her projected revenue. She also identified the number of staff needed to handle the orders required to meet her revenue forecasts.

With her inventory and staffing needs identified, the owner calculates the expenses she would incur in the coming year. Finally, she began performing what-if analyses by changing the projected revenues and expenses to see how her forecasted profits and margins would change.

After developing a plan that she believed would work well, the owner compared the bakery’s financial performance to her projections each month. She adjusted future forecasts based on how far revenues and expenses were from their target.

By making these adjustments, she was able to identify months where she expected financial challenges. She was able to make strategic adjustments to boost sales and control expenses as well.

Your customers are your lifeblood for success. And, if you build a strong, engaged, and loyal customer base, you’ll have a great foundation for long-term success.

As part of building your customer base, it’s helpful to look at Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). CLV is a metric that assesses the total revenue generated by a customer over the period of their relationship with you.

Importantly, CLV is a lagging indicator of value, meaning that it changes after customer purchasing behavior has changed. To that end, if you want to increase CLV (and who doesn’t?!?) you’ll need to make changes that impact purchasing behavior. Here are a few examples from a small business case study to illustrate this techique.

An e-commerce company sells gardening supplies and digital courses to help customers create the gardens of their dreams. As the business grew, the owner recognized that customers had some differences in their interests and support needs that could be used to increase CLV.

The owner began tracking which free content offers customers opted into so she could identify their varying interests. She also looked at previous order histories to identify customer interests. Customers were segmented in to groups based on interests in flower gardens, raised vegetable beds, kitchen counter herb gardens, and general landscaping.

As she collected these data, the owner began sending more personalized emails to her email list. The emails were tailored to provide value in the areas that customers expressed interest. By tailoring her email messaging, the owner was able to make significant increases in email open rates and click through rate.

With her messaging improvements, our gardening e-commerce entrepreneur also focused on her sales pages and checkout process. Having customers segmented by interest allowed the owner to provide more relevant cross-selling options to customers. As they selected items to purchase on her website, she showed them other commonly purchased items they would be interested in.

Additionally, the owner made adjustments to her checkout page. She added upselling opportunities, so customers could upgrade their purchases at the last minute. By providing these upselling and cross-selling opportunities, the owner was able to boost sales revenue.

Finally, our e-commerce owner decided she needed to improve customer experience after the sale to build a raving fan base. She entered all of her customers into a follow-up email sequence to check in about how their new purchases were working out.

Customers were guaranteed an email response within 24 hours if they emailed a question. She also offered her customers the opportunity to do a brief follow-up call regarding their experience and any issues they encountered.
Finally, she offered customers a 30-day no-questions asked return or exchange policy. Taken together, these changes made customers feel supported and heard. As a results, repeat purchases increased, as well as word-of-mouth referrals.

Your business growth journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Taking the time to learn how to use your data to increase growth is one positive step every entrepreneur should invest in. The small business case studies in this article are just a few of the ways you could achieve that growth. Take these ideas and consider how to implement them in your business to find new opportunities and improve revenue.