All business, regardless of industry, whether season al or not, will experience lulls. Perhaps you’re experiencing a slowed business revenue right now. Maybe it happened unexpectedly or gradually, which finally grew to be a major concern.
In any case, you can use this slow period as an opportunity. For what you say? With a little planning and creative thinking, you can circumvent those lulls and even find a revenue generator that can help your business during its busiest times as well.
Offer complementary products or services. Assess products or services that your customers would appreciate having (for free). If you have a food store, for instance, you can give away small kitchen essentials per order or some free desserts. If you’re a landscaper, you might offer snow removal during winter.
No matter what, it goes to show that your primary product isn’t the only asset your business has. Your expertise and location can also be utilized. Even if this goes off your original model, generating extra revenue is what matters.
Go into marketing mode. A slow sale season can be the perfect ground to ramp up your low-budget marketing campaigns. Give your email newsletter a makeover, promote your mailing list, creating discount coupons or provide bonus rewards to your social media followers. Try coming up with a cool way to engage your customers and integrate their own content (such as selfies at your business) into your marketing.
Start a loyalty program. A loyalty program can be as simple as a voucher per big purchase or a complex point system. Regardless of the format you use, the strategy will remain similar: you track customers’ purchases and reward them with a freebie or discount. This helps keep your customers coming back to get more reward.
You can also use a rewards-for-referrals to give incentive to customers who recommend your business to their friends. Loyalty programs continue to drive sales because they work all the time. Just makes sure that you’re putting time and investment into it so you can stand out from your competition.
Offer pop-up sales. Pop-up sales can be unannounced, publicized only to your social media followers or a specific segment of your target market, or declared just a few days prior to the event. Spontaneous sales event like this can help keep customers coming back to the store or going to your social media channels to know when you’ll be having a sale soon—or even better if you’re having a sale right now.
Set up an online store. All of the steps above can be boosted by having an online store or presence where clients can engage with you. With the power of the internet, your reach and potential can be tremendous.
If you’re not already selling online, now is the perfect time to set up an online store or presence. Not only is this a good project for the off-peak season, it can also assist sales during tough times. There are affordable, easy-to-use e-commerce solution to get you started. After your planning and marketing strategies are in place, you can buy a domain from Crazy Domains PH and get your business online quickly.
End Note
Pushing sales beyond the lulls can be hard, but it’s certainly doable. Take steps ahead of time and take the opportunity during a slow business phase to apply new strategies for your business to help you generate revenue when sales are low.
