Spring has arrived, apparently; summer is now just months away and some have even started the Christmas countdown.
For many businesses, the months through until the end of the year are great revenue earners but with interest rates on their way up, living costs increasing and consumer confidence at its lowest since 1988, this year might need some special planning. Now is the time to start!
Below we’ve outlined five tips on how to maximise your revenue as we move through to summer. There are so many different types of businesses, so to make the tips as practical as possible we’ve included ideas for consumer retail, B2B and service-based businesses.
1. Plan your communications ahead targeting key dates and activities
Being well planned around key dates and activities that are important to your customers, and in your industry, gives you the best chance to stand out.
In the retail world, as well as thinking about the major dates (Singles Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day etc), see if you can creatively use regional anniversary days, daylight saving starting, product launch dates or even new stock arrival dates. Look for points of difference from what your competitors might do.
For B2B and service-based businesses, the trick is often to work out which milestones are most important for your specific customers and how you can leverage those. You’ll also want to come up with marketing initiatives that set you up for strong sales when people return from summer holiday.
2. Make sure your website and social media is up to date
Whether you are selling a product or a service, to consumers or businesses, making sure your website has your latest information on it is vital.
Areas that are good to focus on include:
- Checking that your current products or service offerings are relevant and well represented and have great exposure on your home page and in the most recent social media posts. For service-based businesses, examples of recent projects and deliverables should also be included.
- Testimonials from happy customers and clients. This can either be about how great they have found the product(s) you offer and the customer support that goes with it, or for service-based businesses, messages that demonstrate service delivery and meeting time, quality and price expectations.
- Keywords that make you easy to find on Google. With so many people doing their initial research online, make sure your website is optimised with commonly-searched key words for your most important products and services. Ideally you want to rank as high on page one of search results as possible. Improving SEO and keyword rankings does take time, so the earlier you start the better.
3. Find the best ways to promote your offering and stand out
If your website ranking on Google and your social media reach aren’t quite where you’d like them to be, then start planning the advertising that will best get word out there about your products and services as well as any specials or promotions you have.
Google Ads and Facebook Ads can provide strong results, but it does take some time to work out the best ways to use these to your advantage. These tools are great to give an instant hit of traffic and leads to your website and any specials you have running.
We’ve also seen great results recently from well targeted PR into hard-copy publications that matter to specific target audiences. To gain PR, your story has to be unique and newsworthy, so make sure you have a point of difference before heading down this path.
4. Add repeat business as a KPI to your marketing
As well as having immediate sales goals from the marketing you do through to the end of the year, look for ways to gain repeat business and reduce the cost of future marketing activity.
It’s almost always more expensive to bring on a new customer than it is to get repeat business from existing customers. If you can use your promotions to also add to your newsletter database and build your subscriber base prior to the onset of Summer, then this is a great bonus.
So, dust off your Mailchimp or EDM templates, give them a spruce up and come up with some creative content that you can send to new customers with messages that are relevant at this busy time of year.
5. Make your current customers feel special at a busy time of year
Happy customers are great for repeat business and for referrals. Something to says ‘thank you’ to customers at the end of the year can give your brand a good boost.
Take some time to think about how you can improve what you are doing for current customers or make them feel extra special when they are time poor. This way you’ll not only benefit from their loyalty, but also potentially gain from positive word of mouth.
How you achieve this tip really depends on your business type and how many customers or clients you have. If you have a low number of large accounts, then it’s easier to really personalise your approach. For those of you with a large and diverse number of customers/clients, creating personalisation that matters is often the key.
Running out of time heading towards Christmas?
Talk to us about your marketing needs. We have got the expertise and experience to help you achieve your business goals this summer.
