3 Things Mid-Size Businesses in Ohio are Doing to Continue to Grow

In the state of Ohio, there are roughly 5,000 mid-size businesses in operation, with a mid-market business being defined as an organization that brings in between 10 million and 1 billion dollars in annual revenue. These companies also account for nearly 2 million employed workers statewide, with 74% adding new workers at an average rate of 6.3% in 2014-2015. In comparison, mid-sized businesses nationally only grew their work force by 3.2%  - (National Center for the Middle Market.)

---

Mid-sizes businesses in Ohio are growing, and so far the benefits have been good ($226 billion in combined revenues in 2014-2015 - (National Center for the Middle Market). So, what are they doing differently to get ahead and grow amidst the many competitors they face, not just locally, but nationally as well?  And if you run a midsize business, but aren’t seeing these kinds of results, what’s missing?
​
Most successful mid-sized organizations in Ohio have begun to adopt a stronger customer engagement strategy, and with the continued evolution of the modern buyer's needs and the technology available to them, this has become a prudent and necessary focus for businesses, particular those continuing to grow.  

How does a company put together an effective customer engagement strategy? Here are 3 areas to focus on when getting started:

1. Track, Analyze, and Respond to Behaviors Quickly:  Understanding where your prospects have been, and where they‘re going, is critical to gleaning where they‘re at in their buying journey. This also helps you decide what type of message you should be using to effectively engage with them. Do you know who’s visiting your website? Downloading your resources? Interacting with your content?  Are you keeping track of, and quickly responding to, questions and concerns about your product or service? If not then you could be letting valuable leads slip through the cracks, or even worse into the hands of your competitors. Having an optimized CRM solution can help simplify and strengthen your hold on all of these areas, allowing organizations to stay in touch with consumers in real-time.
   
   
2. Provide Feature Rich, Interactive Content on Multiple Channels:  Marketing automation platforms, like Act-On, allow users to create and maintain a litany of content rich multimedia, then distribute it through emails, social media postings, landing pages, and webinars. These software suites have been around for a while, but interestingly enough more of Ohio’s midsized businesses started adopting these systems over the same time period as the study (on Mid-size business growth) and found it a very valuable tool, according to an article written in Crain’s Cleveland back in Jan. 2015. The strength of marketing automation lies within its native ability to track, report on, and alert users to any and all interactions with their created content. This comes in very handy when organizations want to stay proactive in engaging and following up with all interested parties.
   
   
3. Offer 24/7 Self-Service Customer Support & Nurturing: A company’s growth is not only affected by the customers it’s trying to attract, but also by how it nurtures and supports the ones it already has. Both marketing automation and CRM can assist mid-sized business when it comes to providing their clients with fully-integrated, 24/7 customer support, and an automated nurturing program, while still cutting down on your overall costs. Dynamics CRM Portals integrate with your CRM system and provide the foundation for a customer service web-portal that can process help desk requests, provide users with a place to pay bills and manage orders online, or allow access to special offers and communities. Marketing automation assists here by offering users the ability to create automated email programs that can continue to deliver current customers important content and offers without manually burdening your team. 

InfoGrow specializes in tailoring industry-specific, Dynamics CRM software solutions to help organizations streamline their sales process, find more customers like their best ones, keep the ones that they want, and ultimately grow sales. Effective customer engagement requires a multifaceted approach that starts with efficient lead generation and lead management, but also expands into continual client nurturing and self-service customer support.

 And for more information about the services and support we offer locally, please visit:
www.infogrowcorp.com/microsoft-dynamics-crm-local
 
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software and Customer Engagement experts, InfoGrow is located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and is proud to serve those located closest to home - Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown, and everywhere in between. 
​