Starting up a business is hard. Many are doomed to fail within just a few short months. Yours doesn’t have to be one of the unlucky ones, but you do need to work to stay afloat. This is why every business, big or small, must plan their marketing activities each month. You can’t afford to sit in the dark or go quiet. Customers have to be able to find you. And you need to find your customers.
Plans to boost your sales each month should be consistent if you want to see steady growth. You should make sure you have your regular campaigns running liking a well-oiled machine. If you find figures or sales starting to drop, tweak the campaign immediately. You can’t afford to let sales drop off – your business could fail very quickly if you sit and wait.
Regular campaigns should be designed to give your business a bigger voice than your nearest competitor. Keep messages consistent and in line with the brand you’re trying to build. Random messages put out as experiments will offer little in the way of brand loyalty. Stick to your brand colors, tone of voice, fonts, and media choices.
Promotions are one-off campaigns that are designed to boost your sales. These are certainly more experimental than your regular media output. However, they should be planned and align with your customer’s expectations regarding branding. Promotions are nearly always price incentives for limited time sales. Pick one or two products each month that you can push. Your promotion might need a paid advertising campaign. Don’t forget your loyal customers that are following you through social media. They may share the news of a flash sale! This is free advertising for you, and should always be considered.
Search engine marketing is another monthly activity you should be involved in. Make sure you have fresh content and that it is fully optimised for ranking. Professionals like Anthony Howard can offer advice on how to maximise the impact of your existing content too. Plan to address old and new pages on your website each month to push the traffic figures up and the bounce rate down.
Influencer marketing is a relatively new avenue of advertising you might pursue. This is particularly helpful if you have several different products in your range. Finding influencers is easier than you think. You may need to provide free products for influencers to review. Once they have tried your product, they will write an honest review on their blog. As their blog is viewed by huge numbers of visitors, this could become a useful source of customers. Try to offer a product to an influencer each month.
As a startup, you may not have your own marketing department to rely on right now. However, boosting sales requires a clear, concise and effective marketing plan of campaigns. If you don’t have anyone helping with this right now, consider the benefits of hiring someone. You might find it easier to use an agency or freelancer at this stage. Make sure you have clear targets and plans in place that will help to boost your business every month.