It’s almost the end of the year, many small businesses work hard to end their books in the black. To that end, we want to offer four ways small businesses can double their sales during the holidays. Hurry up; you don’t have much time until it’s 2009.
Personally, I find most companies’ marketing campaigns very lacking, to say the least.
Much of the email marketing I receive tends scarcely match my interests. Even when I opt in for special offers, they are usually broad and lame. Now is not the time to be lame. Small businesses have the opportunity to connect with their customers (past and present) and increase their sales during the holidays. Especially since consumer retail spending is becoming tighter.
Here are four ways to grow your small business during the holidays. I want to point out that these tips aren’t specific to only December; rather, you ought to be considering these ideas year-round.
- Offer Aggressive Promotions and Sales – What gets people to get in line at Wal-Mart at 2AM? A Samsung 50″ TV for $799 or an exclusive Magnavox Blu-Ray player for $128. When you are able to slash prices on attractive products, you will be building new customer relationships and reinforcing the ones you have. Fire sales such as Black Friday are rare; you realistically would slash products for one or two days.
- Offer Personalized Services with Products – For small business that sell items, the winning advantage for small businesses is to offer personalized and tailored services with it. By offering something unique and affordable with products, customers value the convenience. Examples of personalized services include installation/setup, one-on-one support, engraving or customization of the product. This also includes incorporating customer feedback and listening to them as you identify their needs.
- Leverage Buyer’s Impulse, Minimize Remorse – Around the holidays, buyers are more trigger happy with their mouse to buy anything if it’s a good price. Try offering your sales for a limited time, and while you achieve a sale on impulse, offer longer return/support periods for customers.
- Communicate with Past and Future Customers – The key in ending 2008 with strong sales is to achieve the correct level of trust and faith in a product or service. By communicating via email, phone or pigeon-mail, you are able to maintain that connection with customers and give them the tools to execute buying. Examples include holiday-themed postcards, warm emails or even follow-up voice broadcasts thanking them for their business.
As I mentioned in the tips above, you need to communicate with your customers. You can offer special deals for your customers by creating coupon codes in your shopping cart software. Afterward, shoot your clients an email in a targeted basis.
Don’t send a broadcast an e-mail to your entire database — that’s old school and will disappoint you (and your customers). Qualify your customers by sending special offers based on your customer segments: gender (guys and gals stuff), region of the country (shipping deals), previous purchases (upgrades/related products) and tenure (length of customer relationship). People respond to offers when they are qualified for them.
During the economic weather, people will be hunting for deals on the Web. Reward buyers for patronizing your business with tailored offers and great deals. I hedge my bets on small businesses ‘winning’ this holiday season when they follow up with customers and provide superior service.
How are you surviving this holiday season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Image credit: iChaz on Flickr]
