For small business owners, sales can be unpredictable. One month, you’re barely making enough to cover basic business expenses, and then next month, your sales are through the roof.
In order to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship, small business owners must practice low-cost strategies to boost sales and bring in new customers. If you’re looking to increase sales on a tight budget, here are five marketing strategies that can help.
Create a ringless voicemail campaign
Ringless voicemail drops enable businesses to place pre-recorded voicemail messages into an inbox without causing a telephone to ring. Since ringless voicemail drops make it possible to directly input a message into a voicemail box, businesses can reach customers non-intrusively.
To start your own ringless voicemail campaign, form a small list of customer groups by gathering demographic information from a data company (such as Oracle). Make sure to research the loyalty campaigns of your competitors in order to craft a successful marketing strategy.
If you’re not sure how to start, enlisting professional third party services can help you significantly boost outbound sales. Companies like Stratics Networks offer ringless voicemail campaigns at affordable costs.
Invest in high-quality stationary
Although an increasing number of businesses now use email to deliver messages to customers and business partners, sending a more traditional letter shows that your business cares. As a result, businesses both big and small can benefit from investing in high-quality stationary.
Letterheads typically include a company logo, name, address, and contact information, making it easier for customers to contact a business. Professional and formal letterhead paper adds authority to your business, increases business transparency, and provides a sense of honesty and reliability that your customers will pick up on.
Use social media to your advantage
Today, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the most used social media platforms, with almost 1.6 billion active users on Facebook. Creating social media accounts for your business and using them to drive traffic to your website is a cheap and effective way to gain new customers and increase sales.
In order to effectively market on social media, start by posting consistent, relevant content to your viewers. For example, if you’re advertising your services as a fitness coach, try posting an article about recent health trends. Posting relevant content will increase viewer engagement, driving more traffic to your page.
Start a referral system
Creating your own customer referral system is a great way to increase customer loyalty while driving in new business. Try offering existing customers a discount on products or services when they refer your business to new customers.
Although setting up a referral system is cheap, make sure you’re satisfying current customers with your products and services before you drive in new customers, and the referrals will follow. Referrals can also help you find other small business owners to partner with, which can ultimately help you generate more revenue.
Reach out to current customers
Your sales depend on your current customers, and your customers can serve as valuable resources for generating even more revenue after their initial purchase. Consider making a list of current customers who’ve bought one product or service, and think of ways to upsell another product or service that could benefit them.
In addition to upselling current customers, try asking them for feedback. If your business is currently on Google or Yelp, ask current customers to leave a review. While five-star reviews show that your business goes above and beyond, lower reviews can reveal potential areas of improvement.
Although increasing sales on a tight budget can seem like a paramount task, these tips will promote the overall success and growth of your business.
