Overhauling your marketing plan and significantly increasing your month over month sales is no small task, however there are ways to make sales improvement easily. These ideas will cost you little to nothing and take just a small amount of time for you to see some verifiable improvement.
- Always Carry Business Cards: You already have business cards, and if you don’t get some. A business card is the physical reminder of someone’s meeting with you. People tend to hold onto business cards much more than pamphlets, email address or flier. Get used to carrying and handing out your card, and you give people an opportunity to find you weeks or months later and see sales improvement.
- Conduct regular clinics or classes: Clinics, classes and training courses are often free for you, and lead to instant revenue. Whether you are a restaurant showing people how to properly set a table, a tailor teaching business people how a suit should fit, or a sporting goods store showing the proper strokes in a kayak you have something to teach. By providing knowledge to your customers and being a resource, you build value that large retailers cannot match, even if you can’t compete on bottom line price.
- Create a Holiday: Or use an existing silly holiday that is related or not related to what you do. Give people a reason to have fun and celebrate and give them a reason to do it at your business. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and use your tools such as your emails list and social media to let your audience know about it!
- Focus on WHY you do what you do: You didn’t start or buy your business simply to make money or to pay the bills. You started what you do for a reason and it wasn’t just sales improvement, maybe you saw something missing in the market, maybe you felt a calling, maybe you knew that you could bring higher quality. What is your WHY? Customers can share in your passion when they know why you do what you do, rather than just knowing what you do.
- Leverage Social Media: While social media can be a major drain on your workforce and their effectiveness, it can be a great tool for you. Social media like any form of marketing is not a one time set it and forget it. Social media engagement must be continuous, and ongoing. If you stop posting and stop engaging your customers will forget about you. Provide them something of value and ask them to like, post and share their thoughts.
References:
https://www.thebalance.com/creative-marketing-ideas-retailers-2890276
https://www.thebalance.com/tips-to-increase-retail-sales-2890274
https://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/10-retail-marketing-ideas-to-boost-sales/
