10 Strategies to Boost Small Business Sales

When running an efficient small business, it is essential to visualize each sale as growth. Therefore, it is important to consider implementing proven small business sales ideas whenever possible. When considering all of the challenges for your business, it is imperative to have a toolbox of strategies ready when you need to elevate sales promptly. Having several ideas stored away allows you to pick a couple and get to work without researching or considering how well they will work for your unique situation. While there are many proven strategies, you will know which ones mesh the best with your business, the target audience for your business, and the marketing budget you've created. Some of the strategies in this guide will touch on leveraging sales promotions, fostering lasting relationships, and utilizing innovative sales tactics to get the results you desire.

Leveraging Sales Promotions:

Implementing strategic sales promotions is a good idea when you want your small business to grow quickly. Promotions are not merely discounts but a great tool to attract, engage, and build customer relationships. When coming up with a sales promotion, it is essential to ensure that it minimizes risk to your company, makes a profit, attracts new customers well, helps retain customers you already have, and speeds up the sales cycle for your business. You can use Google My Business account/dashboard to create offers and gain more sales. Also, free samples are a wonderful way to get people to try your product, food, or service. Flash sales are great for social media because you can offer a discount for a day or two and drum up some business. Finally, increase sales and keep current loyal customers active with a buy one get one free promotion.

Use Free Marketing Ideas for Your Business When Your Marketing Budget is Low:

When considering small business sales ideas, think about the free marketing you can do to enhance the sales for your business. These ideas can take time but not money, which is wonderful if you don't have much of a budget. There are plenty of free keyword tools for SEO, like the tool by WordStream. When you find the right keywords for your business and enter them into your content, it is easier for potential customers to find you online. You can also work on your social media accounts daily, which will help people notice your business. Focus on your online reputation regularly, meaning if you get good or bad reviews, you have a great opportunity to reply professionally so the public can see that you prioritize customer interests. Post videos on social media sites about offers, your business, how something works, or your team doing something fun. A customer loyalty program is also a free marketing program that will keep your loyal customers returning more often.

Promote Your Business On Social Media:

A great way to get the word out about your small business is to promote your business on social media. The best way to do this is to understand who your target market is and where you want to gain customers. Having a niche can help you grow even faster. Targeting local customers is easy, but if you have an online business without a brick-and-mortar storefront, it can be difficult to figure out your target market. This is where targeted ads can be a useful tool. They allow you to pick and choose where, what time, who, and many other aspects of the people you want to see your ads.

Another way to promote your small business on social media is to approach someone who attracts people who are your target market and ask them to be an influencer for your company. It is essential that they have many followers so you see results quickly. You can tell them what you want, but allowing them to be creative in getting you business is usually the best way.

If you want to get a lot of business from social media, educating the public and posting plenty of content about your business is essential. Having a schedule will help you stick to growing a social media presence for your small business.

Tripwire Sales:

Tripwire sales are low-priced digital items, services, or products that lead to the customer purchasing one of your higher-priced items. This allows your customers to build trust in your business without having to spend money on a high-dollar item right away. You, in turn, start nurturing a relationship with your customers. Good examples of this at brick-and-mortar stores are the bundle boxes you can purchase at fast food stores. They are quick, have tons of food, and you get to taste a lot of things. Later, you may pay more to get a traditional meal. You can also see the same type of offers, which are digital bundles for online courses, print companies, and software.

Networking:

One of the top small business sales ideas is networking. It's not only a great way to learn how to get more sales from other small businesses like yours, but if you have a business-to-business service or product, it is a great way to introduce your business to potential customers. If there aren't networking opportunities for your type of business in your area, you can always attend conferences to attract new customers. You can also plan a local business workshop if you live in a smaller town or city. This workshop can include everyone, or be more specific, such as online businesses or cooking workshops by restaurants in the community to bring in customers for a group of businesses. You should also ensure you have as much of a local presence as possible, even if you are an online business. You can sponsor a baseball team in your hometown, join the chamber of commerce, and participate in trade shows to attract customers and get noticed by other business owners.

Direct Mail:

If you think about direct mail for promoting your small business, you may think it is expensive. When considering direct mail, it is essential to determine how profitable it would be for your business in comparison to other marketing ideas. Getting a targeted list is the top way to ensure your direct mail campaign succeeds. You can create a split test and multiple approaches to measure the impact of the campaigns, which will help you in future campaigns. Also, an amazing call to action can help ensure that you build interest quickly. If you have a list of past customers or customers that are interested in your product, send direct mail incentives to them to gain their business.

Email Marketing:

Email marketing is sometimes a forgotten way of marketing. The fact is that email marketing can bring many customers if you have the right subject line, and what you have to offer in the email is enticing enough. You should have an email opt-in on your website or blog to create an email list easily. Also, sending regular emails to your list will help keep your current customers engaged. The free monthly email newsletter with good information, directions, and fun facts can keep your current customers interested. Using an email service to manage your email list can ensure that email marketing doesn't take a lot of time away from your other duties.

Contests:

Running a contest is always a great idea because frugal people love coupons. Many small businesses will run a hashtag contest so that they can get more participation from people on social media. Not only will you gain followers, but you will also gain more views on your social media pages and your website when people check on the contest. Once your contest is over, ask for feedback so that you can run another contest with ideas from your followers. This also shows that your business listens, which is a huge attraction for many customers.

Get Referrals:

While getting referrals might seem like a way of doing things that aren't used any longer, it is still very profitable. If you offer a service to the public, asking for referrals is a great way to build your customer base long-term. To do this, you can ask somebody you've worked for in the past. Also, an easy way to ask someone for referrals is to send out a customer satisfaction survey and ask for referrals at the end of it. Also, if you work directly with a customer and build a relationship over a long period, ask them if they wouldn't mind carrying your card to give out to people who might want your service or product. You can even have discounts/coupons on the backside of the cards so the referrals will remember you more easily.

Start a Blog or Podcast:

Starting a blog is a great way to ensure that you start to gain an audience online. Not only should you include your SEO keywords in the blog posts so you are easily found, but you can also put links to weekly offers in your posts so people stay on your site longer. Depending on your small business, your blog can tell stories, have recipes, show that you are an expert, or talk about things that most people want answers for in their everyday lives. For example, if you are a plumber, a great blog post helps your customer, such as 'what shouldn't go down a home's drains.'

Another way to get attention is to start a podcast. Many people like to listen to podcasts as they commute, so starting a podcast about something unique in your business's niche is a great way to gain attention. Don't forget to have a script for your podcast and release a transcript as well so you can take advantage of putting SEO keywords in your content.

Once you have many options for your business sales strategies, it is imperative to test them to make sure they work for your specific business and keep track of the successes you have. This will help you easily spread the word about new products or services offered by your business and keep track of what speaks well to your target audience. Many businesses start their journeys online with small business websites, so contact us today for more information!

‍