03.22.10
5 easy ways to increase sales and decrease expenses: Spring Newsletter:
With the economy slowly rebounding, many small business owners are looking for inexpensive and effective ways to improve the bottom line. Here are a few basic pointers to get your week started off right.
1. Keep in touch:
As I heard one business coach say, if you haven’t been in touch with your customers in 90 or 120 days, they are not your customers. Make sure to stay in regular touch with your past customers. It will make them feel like they are important to you, and you will increase your odds of getting repeat business.
2. Spread your expertise:
You are an expert in your industry, why not use the results of your years of experience to position yourself as an expert in your field? Spreading the word to colleagues, clients and friends is a great way to keep in the forefront of their minds when they are ready to buy. Start a blog where you can write brief articles on “How To” or join an industry website as a contributor -these are all inexpensive and easy ways to soft sell your services.
3. Promote, Promote, Promote:
Countless studies have shown that companies who advertise/promote during an economic downturn are more likely to be remembered than those who don’t. Try free or inexpensive promotions such as email newsletters, starting a Facebook fan page, going to networking meetings or distributing mailers for a few cents each.
4. Loyalty:
It seems you can’t go anywhere these days without being asked if you have a loyalty card. Whether it’s M&M meats, Petro Canada, Safeway or Shoppers Drug Mart, these successful companies know the value of rewarding repeat customers. Find a way to do the same; have a contest, send thank you cards, or offer pricing discounts. It’s much easier to maintain clients you already have than getting new ones.
5. Measure the results:
The most important and most neglected part of marketing is by far the review. Reviewing and measuring your efforts is critical to know what works and what doesn’t. It’s the only way to identify and eliminate those activities that are simply a waste of time and money, and make every dollar count.
We now offer The Marketing Measuring Stick- a service that will monitor all your promotional activities and report to you which ones work, and which ones don’t. Why leave it to guesswork when you could know for sure what activities are costing you money, and which are making you money?
Click here to learn more about The Marketing Measuring Stick
