In the current economic climate, where the vast majority of businesses are feeling the pinch one way or another, waiting for customers to ‘beat a path to your door’ is a surefire way to watch business income sink faster than a penny in a wishing-well.
Creative, cost-effective promotion is vital if you are to demonstrate to your customers that you can still deliver what they need at a price they are prepared to pay.
Listed below are 5 tips on how to maintain (or even improve on) your current revenue streams. These suggestions don’t fall into the ‘rocket science’ category and may be seen by experienced marketers and business owners as little more than ‘common sense’ marketing.
That’s the whole point. The trick here is simply to make sure they are being carried out.
1. Be sure you know what your customers want
In a changing economic climate, your customers’ needs may have changed and your business has to adapt accordingly. Talking to your customers regularly will go along way to helping you find out whether your business is still delivering what your customers want and, if necessary, how you can respond to any change in circumstances.
2. Examine your database
By keeping your database up-to-date, you’ll more easily be able to learn more about who your customers are and about their buying habits. Perhaps your business is attracting a different type of customer? Maybe customers are adapting their buying habits in response to a change in circumstances? Closely monitor these factors as they may have a huge impact on your unique selling point and how you market your business.
If you don’t have a customer database, find and install an inexpensive ‘off-the-shelf’ package as an easy way to set up and view customer trends.
3. Research your market
Scrutinise your market by reading industry magazines, visiting trade shows and by speaking direct to suppliers. This’ll provide you with strong indicators on how your business can respond to shifting market conditions. Subscribe to market data reports about emerging trends in your industry. Also keep one eye firmly on your competitors, focus on your unique selling points and the whole engagement process rather than just lowering prices.
4. Sell online
For the estimated 62% of UK small businesses who don’t have a website, an online shop can provide a marketing channel to a much broader and more diverse audience. Be sure that your brand and stock lends itself to an online marketplace. First of all, decide whether a website would actually be suited to selling products. Work out what will attract your customers to the site? What will they want to see when they arrive and what will make them return?
The online space can be a very complex area - and e-commerce in particular. So it’s advisable to seek the expertise of an experienced web designer if you want more than just a very basic e-commerce website otherwise the results may not meet with expectation and opportunities may be missed.
5. Send an e-newsletter
Request that your customers sign up (or opt-in) to a company e-newsletter. A regular e-newsletter will help keep your customers up-to-date with any special offers or promotions you have and may even entice old customers back. Measuring newsletter effectiveness is very important, so use a built-in response mechanism which reports which customers and how many opened your e-newsletters.
Remember to comply with the data laws. Information your customers provide needs to be handled in accordance with a number of laws and guidance procedures. For example, if an individual informs you that they want communications to stop, you must act on this request within a reasonable timeframe.
Of course, there is much more to promoting a business than by just ‘box-ticking’, however, the worst possible thing any business can do in a downturn is to carry on regardless - or worse still - do nothing!
