How to increase business sales in down times or perhaps just to meet your budget. Here we look at easy ways to 10 X your sales.
The 10 X furphy and other myths.
Yes, it is possible to increase sales by a factor of ten but try and do it.
The philosophy is very simple. Just do ten things ten percent better and you are
really kicking butt.
Therefore we should look at ways to make the improbable into possible.
How many ways do you have to market
| Web page | It all starts here with good SEO and keywords |
| Emails | Autoresponders |
| Newsletters | Every week |
| Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tictok | |
| Blog page | At least one per week |
| POP Ups | Site pops |
| Rewards Program | Frequent shopper |
| Local Directories | Easy to do |
| Google search | 5 Star rating |
| Networking | Once a week, sports clubs, social, breakfast |
| Old customers | Chase them up |
| Your customer list | An asset like no other |
| Barter Organisation | e.g. Barter card |
| Cold calling | Warm is better |
| Supply outstanding value | Do something different |
| Customer service | Follow up |
| Referrals | Set up a referral program |
| How to video | Sales and branding |
| White papers | Explaining your products |
| Advertising | Facebook, Ad words. retargeting |
| SMS marketing | Instant action |
| Strip signs | Flags, Billboards and street signs |
It is relatively easy to grab a couple of these to ramp up. Don't try and do them all at one time, get two or three workings properly before moving on. Put a schedule in place and implement times, spend and allocate personnel.
SEO is a starting place
Is your Web page getting traction and delivering you results? Use Google Analytics and see your true figures, capture area, devises, and performance over time.
Your page is the entry to your business, do you have a call to action, and are you using the correct Keywords?
Look at the number of sessions and the number of page views to see the activity. Bounce rate is important as well as the time on site. All of these can be changed.
My next is Email in all its varieties
A single email, an autoresponder series, and newsletters are the cheapest and most effective marketing available today.
To get to this blog page you may have read a newsletter of mine, caught a Facebook post, used a keyword, or other social media activity.
I send a newsletter weekly (YES every week) to my base about a variety of ways to get new business.
Newsletters may not directly sell, and that is not their purpose, however, they will brand you and have customers returning for a lifetime.
How to increase business sales using pop technology.
Using a pop on your website
This is really the product of the time. They can be used for sales, customer service, or support and work really well at keeping customers on your site and in your view.
You get an email address so they are an automatic inclusion to your email list, autoresponder, and newsletter.
There are many on the market and one I really like is Tidio
Video is a must
It is a fact that people use YouTube to search for answers, It is also true that the number of searches nearly equals those of Google, Yahoo, and Bing
How to videos rank really high as well as branding and direct sales videos.
Fortunately, these are now really easy to do and in fact, lift your results quickly.
Video increases your time on site thus a better SEO is achieved as well as visual recognition.
Times have changed and video is now really easy to do so try the below out and see what happens.
Every web page should have one video on it if not many more. If you are interested I also have a great product for linking the video where you want and tracking the results. This is by my friend Matt McDonald.
The Zoom choice
Video marketing has come a long way with the advent of broadband networks across the world. We explored using Zoom as a business tool in a recent blog.
The social media problem and ways around it.
We all know that social media works and it can deliver business to you. The problem however is that social media is more than one entity. Getting time to do them all is hard work and takes you away from your other duties, plus half-done media gets few results.
My belief is that everyone should have a LinkedIn account with a good Bio and photo. That is all you need unless you are a professional and then use it to get introductions.
To the rest of us it is just a set and forget operation that will see regular activity over time.
Next, choose your most important media and make sure it is done properly and regularly.
It may be Facebook or Instagram perhaps Twitter or even Tic Tok. They all work you just need to work them.
The only factor to good results is a continuous operation. Daily posting and great content and pictures will win the day.
Remember we are only looking for a 10% improvement to achieve our 10 X result.
How to increase business sales with rewards
Your rewards program
Think for one quick minute about the rewards programs that you belong to.
They may be a coffee card right through to frequent flyers rewards.
All the major retail companies have them and we use them regularly.
Groceries and Woolworths plus all others.
Clothing the top chains reward you as well as people like Ikea.
I have an app on my mobile where I store my cards and a quick count I have 15
currently in operation.
The question is why are these so important to all the top shops? The answer is pretty simple, it is because they work and keep customers returning for a lifetime.
You want to attract lifetime customers that return every time they shop. The rewards don't need to be big but they do need to be obvious.
However, the biggest deal with rewards programs is a captive clientele in which you can market to.
You have all the details, you know what they buy and maybe even the cycle of purchase history.
Send reminders, and offer discounts and bonuses in the buying time.
How to increase business sales is a working example.
One great example is the pet industry.
These guys have it all together. It is a fiercely competitive market so they chase every deal.
I have a cat on dry food and shop every 2.5 months. I change around a bit depending on price but have a pretty regular cycle. At about buying time I get bombarded with offers of store discounts.
What this means is that my buying will be from one of these outlets. Those that don't follow me will miss my business.
Think what that means for you, your competitor advertises to your customers and you miss out.
This method attracts a large percentage of all their business so where are you in the cycle?
SMS marketing provides instant results
The beauty of SMS is that most recipients make an immediate decision, a yes-no answer.
The days special, free bookings, in-store promotions any sort of immediate action.
I had one customer send 130 messages ($25) and they booked about $10,000 business in a couple of hours.
More ways to sales
This is why your customer list is so important
Having your customer list as a manageable product is a must in today's market. You need to be able to extract details to contact part of the list every day. It may be an email, SMS newsletter, promotion offer, or some sort of communication.
You can use products like Hub spot, a simple excel spreadsheet, or your email carrier to store your records.
I have about 20 different lists. Those in the list have similar interests so one single contact covers a range of users. Most are on one of three newsletters that I send out.
You must have an active list in regular action to stay in front of your client.
How to increase business sales with video.
Your local Google search
When someone types in a local search you need to be in the box.
Doing a local search on a specific product these three were in the main box under the paid ads.
This is interesting because my business Verdi has some advantages over the others.
First of all, I operate across the country so I use an 1800 number. Local searches certainly won't call a Sydney number (5000 km away) as in the Astra search.
I have taken the time to solicit some reviews to show a 5-star entry, people like my service so I will get a superior result to the others.
Searches need honesty before they click, we know that Office HQ has offices across the country but they are not open 24 hours a day. Astra shows a Perth Address with a Sydney phone number.
This needs to be a really good listing to attract local business calls because it is searched on Google daily.
Check your listing and see how you compare.
How did I get 6 great stars on my site? I sent out an email to a group of customers and asked them for a referral. My exchange was to do the same for them, problem solved with ease.
Having a company blog
This is not the easiest to do but it can attract massive gatherings over time. I write two or three blogs a week on business matters and link to them from nearly everything I do. From emails, newsletters Facebook other websites. Wherever and whenever I can.
My customers know what I do and when they are ready they will come.
New customers find me with Keywords and web searches as it promotes a variety of products.
The problem for most businesses is getting it done. There are a lot of freelance writers that are reasonably cheap and will do it all for you under your instructions. Try Fivvr or the local universities, for people looking for a part-time job.
Over time your blog posts will attract a following that could be in the thousands or even millions of followers providing a huge platform for selling products.
Conclusion
I could go on with ideas for hours however by now you should have some real bright lights popping up. Areas where you are behind and can make a minor correction for a 10% increase.
Maybe you can even 10 X your business using half a dozen ways to really attract new clients.
They are out there waiting for you to take some action to get in front of them and have a chance at business.
My list is not the only way however I have tried to slot them in without spending a lot of your money. Facebook advertising and re-targeting work as do Ad-words at a cost.
You may get business a bit quicker but don't throw money at the wall and make sure you get a return.
About
Ways to promote my business
