For most small business owners, owning your own business is a dream come true. The freedom of being your own boss and succeeding to the best of your ability are facts of life for the small business owner. Sure, there's more stress than what you probably imagined when you were creating your grand plans, but with a little strategy and planning you can overcome any tough spot you get in.
Here are 8 tactics developed by successful marketers that are sure to make your business as successful as theirs.
1. Create A Unique Selling Proposition (One of a Kind Selling Point)
If you want to stand out from the crowd, create a unique selling proposition that stresses the benefits the customers will receive from doing business with you.
Don't go out on a limb to create new products and services to get attention. Just add a special benefit to the ones you already have... maybe it's quicker service or a guarantee. The most effective things to emphasize are benefits that your competition cannot or is not willing to give.
2. Use Testimonials
We all know that business owners think their product or services are the best thing going, but it's what the current customers think about it that really matters to your prospective customers. They're the ones who see things from their point of view... what they have to say about the business has an impact.
Testimonials play an important part in advertising - especially for small businesses. Yeah, big businesses with well-known names don't have to worry about it, but small companies can use testimonials as marketing tools to build credibility.
Think about it...how else can you gain credibility than by creating a group of satisfied customers and shouting what they have to say?
Look for ways you can make testimonials an effective part of your marketing campaigns.
3. Upselling, Cross Selling
Up-selling & Cross-selling are two of the most successful marketing trends today.
Up-selling means offering a higher grade or quality or size of the item that the customer may be interested in at the point when the customer is ready to buy whereas Cross-selling means offering other products or services which complement the item the customer is interested in, at the point when the customer is ready to buy.
Everywhere you go, someone is trying to get you to buy more. From fast food with supersize options, to clothing stores that try to sell you shoes to match your outfit, everyone's jumping on the bandwagon. Why? Because it works!
McDonald's is a perfect example.
Upsell - Would that be a large Big Mac?
Cross-sell - Would you like fries with that?
Use every opportunity to increase your sales volume within the customer audience you already have. Do you have a product that goes with the one they are purchasing? Offer it to them at the register. It's a proven and effective method for increasing sales. You may be shocked at the additional sales you can generate from those who are already buying from you.
Your customers already know that you have great products and provide satisfactory service. They trust you to come through for them. Think about it, it's much easier to make sales to someone you already have a relationship with.
4. Down selling
Down selling is where someone has declined your product or service offer and you offer them an alternative product at a lower price. The advantage of a down-sell is that even if a customer doesn't buy the product you'd ideally like them to buy, they're at least buying something. That means you get some return for your sales effort. And since they're now a customer they will hopefully have a good experience with you and be much more likely to buy higher priced items in the future.
5. Make Your Price Seem Smaller
Divide and conquer. The old war tactic works in marketing too!
When the price seems too steep, break it down into "buyable" size bites.
A $120 item is only 12 low monthly payments of $10.
A $365 purchase would only cost $1 per day.
Now that sounds affordable!
6. Paint The Benefits Pretty
Customers buy because they want to enjoy the benefits of the purchase. A lady might buy a dress because she wants to feel sexy, or a man will buy a book because he finds pleasure in reading. Emotions are the key element that drives purchases.
Use words and pictures to stir up the emotions that will instigate the sale. Let them "feel" the benefits, and they'll be more apt to head for the cash register. Put them where you want them.
7. Create Attention Getting Headlines
Are you ready to capture your reader's attention with a great copy? The headline is the place to start. How often do you scan the newspaper's headlines before you decide whether or not to read the article? Yeah, that's where we lose or gain the reader's interest, so it's a pretty important part of the advertisement.
A good headline should telegraph its message in twelve words or less. Double check those headlines. Do they make a promise of a positive benefit, or ask a provocative question? Don't settle for less than attention grabbing statements.
8. Provide An Offer They Can't Resist
Is your deal too good to pass up? If not, you need to improve it. I'm not talking about cutting prices even more, you need to make a profit, but you can make the deal sweeter by increasing the reader's knowledge of the value of the product, or adding bonuses that are perceived as valuable, but cost you little.