Identifying and Implementing Quick Wins in POD Business Growth

To start the continuous growth of your business, you'd take an analytical approach. For example, prioritize, understand user reactions to your brand through A/B testing, and maintain the same level of results you've achieved. All the tips you'll read don't solve a specific problem, but our aim is to increase your business success. So, in this article, we’ll discuss business strategy development, ideas management, and how to prioritize your goals.

Table of contents

Map out your business strategy

Make changes, adopt A/B testing, analyze

Set priorities among your ideas

Stick to the goals

Conclusion

Map out your business strategy

To describe the importance of innovative ideas in a company, utilize the McKinsey model. The idea that enterprises should simultaneously reproduce the existing business model and develop new opportunities may seem hard. But this is not the case. So, there is a concept of three horizons describing certain periods. Each of them characterizes innovation challenges. 

Horizon 1 

That's what you need to do to maintain and protect your business in the next 6-8 months. That is the rapid introduction of new functionality.

Horizon 2

It includes expanding the existing business model and improving skills over the next 2-3 years. The goal is to make cooperation with new customers and the market more effective. 

Horizon 3

These are your plans for the next 3-5 years. During this time, you should create innovative products or even new businesses. 

The new market players often made the Horizon 3 breakouts. The point is that they don't use outdated rules or put forward unnecessary requirements. They're aimed only at crushing existing competitors. Reassign the Horizon 1 technologies, and you'll realize all the goals of Horizon 3.

These three steps clearly define what business strategy is and why is it important. Map your detailed answers with what you have and what you're planning. Then define the topics: efficiency, customer experience, risk management. You may include reducing costs, attracting younger generations, or targeting leads. 

Make changes, adopt A/B testing, analyze

To understand the success level of ideas you implement, consider them scientifically. Any changes in the brand affect not only its ambassadors but also new potential clients. Of course, these changes keep such a volatile print on demand business afloat.

A/B testing or split testing is a scientific way to get to the truth. It's a testing of two versions of the same web page or any other digital asset. Its purpose is to determine which one works best. While being in the POD business, analyze your online store.

You can also combine multiple options and elements in A/B/n testing (like UX or SEO).

Here are some ideas you can try on your website.

• Free shipping

Compare the conversions for selling your product with and without free shipping. By the way, one of the most common reasons for purchase refusing is additional shipping costs. You can also include it in the base item price.

• Attitude towards advertising

Recently, there has been a tendency among users on the Internet to ignore anything that looks like advertising. The best alternative is a wide-screen image with a slogan matching your brand. Include a background video about your product or company on the landing page.

• Call to Action (CTA)

That is an essential conversion factor on a store page. Thus, make the CTA button visible. Experiment with wording, font, placement, size, and color. 

• Photos

High-quality photos of the items or things you sell will change your business.

• Competence

When creating a customer experience, use expert advice as a genuine emotional connection with your target audience. Moreover, such an approach has enormous potential for sales increase.

So, in a marketing context, this tool functions as follows: you show both versions to an equal number of site visitors. Next, determine which of the options gave you the highest conversion rates. Accordingly, it becomes a winner and a new control with 100% of users. But what's next? Will you remove the "bad" option and use the winning one all the time? Analyze the results: if they're opposite to your expectations, then likely your hypothesis is incorrect. The testing of random ideas is a waste of time, money, and traffic. Therefore, we advise you to conduct qualitative research. Use qualitative and quantitative analysis to check the data. That is, how the user interacts with the site and why the refusals occur.

There is an enormous number of elements that you can test and determine which one converts best. 

Be creative and get started now!

Set priorities among your ideas

Draw two perpendicular intersecting axes: X and Y. The X-axis is efforts; the Y-axis is the values. Each category value grows from left to right and from bottom to top. So, you have a square with four cells: 

• quick wins (low value & low effort)
• distractions (low value & high effort)
• no brainers (high value & low effort)
• big rocks (high value & high effort)

Each of them you'd fill with tasks.

The themes discussed in the description of the McKinsey model apply to all the elements. Separate the distractions and focus on the most important ones. Calibrate the number of fields as you complete tasks. Significant changes will occur throughout the year, and your company will improve and undergo a series of transformations. Over time, it may seem like Horizon 1 is distracting, and Horizon 3 doesn't match your future goals. Revise and change these positions and stick to the broader strategic theme. This kind of planning will help you in setting priorities and achieve changes. 

Stick to the goals

There are several approaches to improve the industry success in which you operate while sticking to your goals.

For print on demand companies, their implementation is also necessary. Here are some tips on developing your marketing plan:

• Think in quarters

Divide the year into four periods. For each of them, prepare a workable business plan. Give it your ambitions. By utilizing this self-control method, you'll understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. 

• Change strategies

Different selling platforms combination (Etsy, Shopify, eBay, etc.) with client acquisition tools will lead to greater awareness of your brand. 

• Retain customers

Customers’ retention purchased in your online store is a guarantee of maintaining ongoing sales. That means they'll come back to your brand again and again while becoming its ambassadors. 

• Create joint initiatives

Make your POD business a community part: participate in social events or unite with other companies, creating a unique partnership. For example, you can collaborate with a famous tattoo artist or painter to design a T-shirt. 

• Be in trend

Keep up to date with the trends of the season and the political situation, which are essential to maintaining the print on demand business. These two positions are directly related to new trends in marketing and sales specifics. 

Feel your audience, don't neglect outsourcing and delegate tasks, optimize branding, use calendar holidays or events to increase sales. Such elements will diversify your online store marketing strategy.   

Conclusion

Starting a small POD business isn't an easy task just as any other business. For most entrepreneurs, maintaining the company's continued growth is an urgent problem that requires creativity and effort. So the most troublesome aspect is that a new audience is constantly appearing, and it may be hard to cope with its requests. To prioritize and understand where failure and success, use the tips and tricks described in the article. Good luck!