If you are running a small-scale business and don’t have adequate resources to fund the marketing of your products, you are probably worried about growing your sales without spending more than your pocket can afford.
Or even if you have a thriving business that operates on a very large scale but are going through some financial constraints, chances are that you are also floating in the same boat. While it can be increasingly challenging to find ways to increase sales when money is tight, it is certainly not an impossible task.
Share a Coke- rings a bell?
You were perhaps surprised one day when you saw your name on a Coca-Cola can. You must have wondered what’s all this about? And the next thing you know, everyone was running wild searching for the cans and bottles that had their names on them.
This was nothing more than a very creative and successful marketing campaign by the name “Share a Coke” started by the Coca-Cola team somewhere in 2011 that escalated their sales for the first time in a decade.
When the campaign reached Australia, they sold more than 250 million bottles and cans and the campaign has reached more than 70 countries till date.
All they did was create a marvelous campaign to boost sales by adding a ‘personal’ touch to their product. You could perhaps learn a thing or two from them and creatively market your product in a way that makes people feel connected with one another and that has them coming back to you for more.
The takeaway message here is to research your target market so that you know exactly who you want to reach with your product and how you can do that with maximum effect. Secondly, connecting with your audience on a personal level will pay dividends.
Time to use social media to your advantage
Social platforms can be a great way to market your products and spread the word so that it reaches the maximum number of people. However, first time entrepreneurs often complain that the lead generation process via social media is very slow. What they fail to realize is that they often fail to understand or set any objectives for their social media campaigns and thus miss potential opportunities to connect with their audiences.
One way to optimally use use social media is by creating low-budget videos featuring your product in a way that leaves people excited and looking forward to more. Creating videos that that makes people want to purchase your product or know more about it is a science and an art. Here’s a guide on how you can do it.
The video ‘First Kiss’ that went viral on YouTube in 2014 got 78 million views. It featured 10 strangers locking lips but it was soon realized that it was a sales-boosting advertisement for the clothing brand, Wren Studio. Their sales rose by a whopping 14,000 percent once the video started grabbing attention.
Using emotion as their premise, the makers of this marketing video did it on a budget of just over $1000 which also earned it the title of the ‘Number 1 branded video’ on YouTube in March.
If they could do it, why can’t you?
Engage in Social Listening – prioritize your customers
Sometimes, all you have to do is ask and listen. Giving importance to your customers can pave the way to increased sales of your products because they are the ultimate buyers. Their needs, preferences and feedback should be given priority. For this, you don’t even need a colorful, appealing advertisement to attract attention. Whether or not you are on a low budget, listening to them and then acting on their feedback can really change the game for your company.
Pret A Manger, a small sandwich shop managed to increase its sales and profit by 13.9% and 14.5 % respectively in 2015 and also launched 36 new shops. Their strategy? They asked their customers for insight and then acted upon it. It even bagged the ‘Brand of the Year’ award at The Festival of Marketing in 2015.
Pret A Manger started an online poll, asking people if they would support vegan stores. This turned a small sandwich shop to a chain of shops spread across 5 countries.
How about creating perceived demand for your product?
If you could create sudden hype and demand for your products by lowering prices while also ensuring that it increased sales, wouldn’t you?
This type of demand can be created in a number of ways or perhaps, the way Snapchat did for its newly launched product, Snap Spectacle? It created great excitement for its quirky, camera-equipped sunglasses not by displaying them on shops but through a limited number of vending machines which they like to call ‘Snapbots’.
And it looks something like this:
Everywhere a Snapbot is dropped at an hour’s notice, it is followed by hoards of people in long queues making videos and taking photos. They get to see a picture of themselves in virtual spectacles so they could select which ones they want and they can even pre-order. These spectacles priced at $130 on eBay are selling by the thousands each day.
You could do something like this to get a truckload of free attention on social media and even make it to papers for free! The goal is to create a hype around your product so that people can’t wait to get their hands on it.
Also make sure that your product isn’t readily available to everyone. This will create more demand and your sales are more likely to go up!
These are only a handful of the hundreds of innovative and successful sales-boosting and marketing strategies that are sure to work and reap desired results for your business. Do your research before developing a strategy for optimum results. Use software to improve your sales funnels and increase the productivity of your sales teams.
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