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For the successful business, increased sales are the main route to growth. And if you have lumpy periods throughout the year, strategic planning of increased sales can smooth out the bumps and make revenue mercifully predictable.
Even a modest increase in sales can trigger downstream benefits, supporting bigger marketing spends, more sales staff, a better online presence and more. Here are our top five tips to get you started.
Go beyond the token effort most brands make on social media – truly engage and build your audience with compelling interactions. But don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert on every social media platform. Partner with a reputable online marketing firm to help drive your brand on social media.
They’ll likely tell you that YouTube delivers the highest levels of engaged website traffic, as most users spend several minutes visiting pages on the site. They may also tell you that 93% of shopper buying decisions are driven, or at least influenced, by social media. So be sure to invest in a robust social media program to supplement other marketing activities.
Automated marketing systems not only take much of the time-consuming and low-skill work out of the marketing process, they also identify opportunities that may well have been missed in the madness that is running a business.
Marketing automation puts the power of the marketing department in every rep’s pocket. Marketers can create compelling customer journeys, which means sales can remain engaged with customers before and between sales calls.
After each sale cycle finishes, marketing automation can keep you engaged with customers, helping you detect the right time to reengage sales to upsell and cross sell complementary or renewal products.
When designing a rewards program, think carefully about your customers and what they want. Also think about your business model and what you’re hoping to achieve. Airlines offer exclusive lounge entry, shorter queues and better seats to their frequent flyers, but if a cafe offered an exclusive lounge for regulars, they’d likely be laughed out of town. Their customers want coffee and then more coffee, so most offer the ubiquitous ‘10th coffee free’.
The fundamental driver behind a rewards program is to create repeat business and customer loyalty. So work out what you want and what your customers want, and design a winning program around that.
What better way to boost sales than by making sure your brand is seen? Partner with businesses in your immediate market to create inspiring events and marketing opportunities that spur growth for everyone involved.
Do: sponsor an outdoor movie evening, offer promotional giveaways at sports games or support a networking event that connects local businesses. But be sure to wow audiences with a stunning visual presentation to close the loop on your promotional ideas and activities.
Don’t: just hand over money for branding. Offer the event organiser a percentage of revenue that comes to your business as a result of the sponsorship – that way they are motivated to help make your sponsorship work.
Become a go-to expert for your valued clients. If you own a carpentry business, consider creating short, web-based instructional videos for homeowners who enjoy completing small projects themselves. They’ll soon see you as their expert in carpentry, so when that big job comes along, it’s yours.
Mortgage brokers might consider running educational courses at local schools to help increase financial literacy among young people, as a way of reaching young families likely to be in the market for a home.
Whatever you offer, make sure you become a resource for desirable content and reliable information, rather than a person trying to sell something.
If you want to close more deals, we’re here to help. Download our ebook and start closing today.
