Most small business owners begin their companies because they want financial freedom and to hold their own hours. However, in a 2011 report by Forbes, over 80% of small businesses had an annual income below 50,000 USD. This is well below the average American household income of 60,000 USD a year. This means that most small business owners are hardly gaining any more financial freedom than a regular Joe working 9 to 5.
This is why the most basic problem of any company today is this: "How do I increase sales and make more money?"
#1. Identify your best buyers
Most small businesses have an idea of their general target market and try to focus their marketing efforts on selling to that demographic. However, instead of marketing to a hundred thousand in your target demographic and praying that one of them takes the bite, focus your marketing efforts instead on the ones who you can make the biggest sales to. For example, if you're a food takeout business relying on passersby for the majority of your sales, you could focus your marketing efforts on corporations with hundreds of hungry employees instead.
2. Create win-win relationships with your customers
One of the most overlooked angles of a marketing strategy is thinking about how you can benefit your customer. A huge problem of most businesses is they like talking about themselves too much. They waste tons of money on expensive ads and all they talk about is how great and useful their product is. However, consumers don't really want to hear much about you, they're interested in themselves, their lives, their problems. Rearrange your marketing strategy to show customers how you can solve their problems, and people will come a-running.
#3. Take advantage of upsells
Once you've made a sale to a customer, you'd be a fool not to upsell. In 2006, 35% of the overall revenue of Amazon was a result of upsells. Put a little thought into things you could offer your customers that could make their experience with you even better. For example, if you're a travel company, you could easily upsell by offering travel insurance. Not only would it increase sales for your company, it would also reduce the need of a customer to go to another company for travel insurance, making their lives easier and giving them more value from your company.
#4. Build partnerships
You could also build mutually beneficial relationships with other companies to increase sales. For example, if you're a company selling home decorations, you could easily form a partnership with an interior design company to sell your decorations to their clients, boosting your own sales and allowing the interior design company to give more value to their clients.
#5. Create loyalty
After closing a sale, your work shouldn't stop there. It's tough selling to new customers, but repeat customers convert much more easily. In fact, according to a 2012 Adobe report on online customers, repeat customers comprised of only 8% of all customers, but made up 41% of total online sales. Make sure you build good relationships with the customers you make. Follow-up after making a sale to show that you appreciate their business, and have good customer services in place in case there's ever a problem.
Know of any other great ways to increase sales and boost revenue? Feel free to leave a comment below.
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