Deciding on an online marketing plan that will nurture steady, sustainable growth can overwhelm small business owners. With time in short supply, the key is to find one or two growth strategies that will get results at minimal cost.

These proven growth hacks offer business owners a few simple, cost-effective ideas for attracting new customers, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately, getting more sales.

Build your email list

Recent research shows that e-mail marketing works; in fact, it promotes a 17% greater conversion rate than social media marketing. Permission-based marketing depends on a friendly exchange – your customer’s email address for a promise to provide value. As you nurture a positive relationship via your newsletter with special offers, useful or inspiring content and discounts, over time, your customers will want to buy from you. Reward new customers to sign up with contests, giveaways, referral bonuses and webinars. The bigger your list, the greater the return when you have a new product to promote – so if you decide to launch a company e-newsletter, be sure you make a consistent effort to attract new subscribers.

Offer social proof

One of the biggest challenges for small business owners is converting online leads into paying customers. It comes down to convincing people you’ve never met that you deserve their trust–which is why social proof is so important.

Adding testimonials to your website is a simple way to convince potential customers they won’t regret buying from you. In fact, this simple form of social proof can increase conversions by 34%.

Let your customers know you’d like their feedback and ask for permission to include their positive comments on your company website.

Other kinds of social proof you can use to win over customers online include:

• • • Case studies
    • Media mentions
    • Customers logos
    • Accreditations and certifications.

Create partnerships

This simple growth hack is effective both on and offline. Starting a partnership with a company that provides complementary products or services can quickly increase each of your email lists and give your sales figures an enormous boost.

There are many ways a business partnership could work. For example, you might negotiate a joint venture, host an event where you promote each other’s products, run a giveaway together, or launch a combined product or service.

Try out some new ways to market your business, but set actionable and achievable goals. For instance, you might have the goal of signing up 1,000 newsletter subscribers over the next quarter, or increase your blog traffic by 50% by the end of the year. Make it a habit to review your metrics to see how well your strategies are working. Then use this data to set new goals to keep winning over customers and expanding your business.