Most small businesses that close down do so because they do not have effective marketing strategies to promote their products or services therefore they cannot make huge sales. For a business to succeed it needs marketing strategies that will be used, do not make the mistake of starting a business without having marketing strategies you intend to work with. Let me discuss some marketing strategies for small business to increase sales rapidly.


Run a blog
Nowadays you will notice that you see companies now have their own blog, you may be wondering why but the real aim for them blogging is to attract customer’s to their business. Blogging on its own is a form of marketing.

Sometimes you even see some people blogging online and you think they are doing it for fun but they are actually doing it to market their business. If you notice you will see that most bloggers offer services and even sell products on their blog, what they are actually doing is blogging to market their products or services.

Blogging is a good marketing strategy to for small businesses; it helps you get customers online.


Build a website
A website is like your office location on the internet, if you don’t have a website, you are limiting your business in a way. Before dealing with a company, one of the things I check is their website and that will help me get some information about the company.

A website is there to provide necessary information to your customers but asides that it can also do a lot of things. Websites can help your customers order for products online, they choose the product they want and pay through the website. This will save them a lot of stress they should have gone through if at all payments were meant to be made offline.

Depending on the type of business you do, you can create an online store whereby customers can see all the available products and also shop online. This will give you advantage over your competitors as your customers will be able to shop in your offline and online store.

Basically some of the reasons a company will build a website is to build credibility, to attract customers and to increase sales, so you can see the reason why building a website is a good marketing strategy.


Use pay per click adverts
Whenever you log on to your system to browse and you visit a search engine site to search for some words, you will notice some search results by the side or at the top of the page relating to what you’ve searched for, these search results are adverts being sponsored by some companies of which this method allows them attract customers online.

If you want to do pay per click adverts, you can use Google Adwords or Bing ads, the reason why this method is effective is because you only need to pay when someone clicks on your link.

The good thing is that these adverts are not limited to search engine sites as they appear on other normal websites you surf on the internet.

When you logon to your Facebook account, you will see adverts by the side of the page, some of these adverts are pay per click advert and this is one of the big strategies other small businesses use in marketing their products, do not overlook it, it is something you can give a try.


Use affiliate marketing
You must have been hearing the term affiliate marketing in recent times as it is a common term mostly used by businessmen and it is actually one of the strategies small businesses can use to increase their sales.

The way affiliate marketing works is you recruit members to promote your product and you only pay them when sales are made, it’s that simple it is what some small businesses are using to increase their sales volume these days.


Use social media marketing
I’m sure if you have a Facebook account, you will some ads prompting you to like some pages and these pages are mostly sponsored by companies in order to build a community online.

This community will allow them to be able to communicate with their customers easily, through this community customers will get updates on products and also know when new products are launched.

Other social media platform you can use to promote your business includes Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin.


Build an email list
I doubt if you’ll not be subscribed to one or more email list from different companies and what they do is indirectly sell products to you through the emails they send.

Email list gives you control over your business because you can contact you customers any time you want, all you need to do is send an email.
You can also use this strategy too, you should try and get email address of all your customers, build a relationship with them by sending them mails and then you can start selling your products to them via mail.


Ask for Referrals
At a point in your life, you will notice that you recommended a product to your friends and family even without benefiting anything from the sales being made, that’s a form of referral as you are spreading words and referring people to buy the product.

In your business, you can also ask your customers for referrals too by telling them to refer friends and family to buy your products. Referral is one of the easiest ways to make sales as you do not have to do much in terms of marketing, all you need to do is to over deliver to your customers and you can get referrals from them easily.


Treat customers right
Let me tell you a top secret! In a recent survey that was carried out, it showed that most customers patronize a business because of excellent service delivery rather than the quality of product. So, don’t think it’s about how good your product is, if you have a good product and your service delivery is poor, you won’t make many sales.

Over the years I have noticed that I prefer to buy things from businesses that treat me like a friend, to cut the long story short you need to treat your customers right. The way you treat them really matters because that is what will determine if they are going to come back for repeat business.

The trick to get customers to keep buying from you and ignore your competitors is to provide excellent service delivery, which entails the way you relate with your customers during transactions.


Keep increasing your circle of friends
One of my friends was in the church for a service and he noticed that during prayers, when all eyes were closed, a guy and a lady were exchanging contacts, he was surprised but this goes to show how far some people can go to network with more people.

You also need to continuously and consciously increase their circle of friends, you should try and meet new people everyday, see every event as an opportunity to meet new friends. Don’t just go to events to have fun alone but also go there to make friends.


This strategy will really help your business in the sense that the more friends you have, the more likely your sales will increase because it is easier to sell something to your friends and they can easily tell others about your business.

Building your network can also help increase you influence as you have more chances of connecting with the key people in your market.


Create a strong brand
In recent times you will notice a lot of companies spend big money on branding themselves and even others keep on re-branding year after years until they get it right. Do you think they are doing it to just make their company look presentable? The main reason why companies spend big money to brand themselves is to attract the right customers.

Branding really matters in business and depending on the type of customers you want to attract, you should know how to brand your business. Your aim is to build a brand that your customers will be willing to associate with and tell their friends about.

Building a brand doesn’t always have to cost much but it is worth it because it attracts customers to your business and increases your sales rapidly.


Use print materials
Whenever you are walking on the road, you will notice that you might see some people sharing flyers or brochures, I see them all the time. This is also a simple marketing strategy that small businesses use to get more customers.

Asides sharing on the road, some businesses make use of events like seminars or product launch to share their materials. It might look funny to you but this works, it works because whenever a customer has a printed material like your flyer, there are chances he will take a look at time several times and it will let them know about your product.

They might find the seminar boring and feel like doing something else, so reading flyer will be an option. With this strategy you don’t have to talk too much all you need to do is share.


Offer price discount
This happens a lot during festive periods whereby you see most stores offer a price discount on products for a limited period of time, if you buy within the stipulated period you will buy at a reduced price.

You can use this marketing strategy too as it helps to attract new customers easily. Everybody wants to get a good bargain for their transaction. This strategy makes customers to spend more money because they might end up buying things they do not need simply because it’s at a reduced price.

I think I’m guilty of this too in a way, sometimes I tend to buy more when there is discount on price, I buy things I might not need immediately because I’m getting a good bargain. It is a strategy you can try during festive periods, just offer price discount on your products and you will see that it works.


Give free gifts to customers
One thing I’m sure of is that everybody loves getting gifts, so imagine when it’s free. You can decide to give out free gifts to customers who buy from you, this strategy works well and it will attract new customers to your business.

People want to feel appreciated and one of the ways you can appreciate them is by giving them gifts. It doesn’t really have to be something big but give them useful, if you do this not only will they buy from you but they will also be your loyal customer.


Offering credit to customers
If you want to catch someone’s attention easily tell that person that you want to give him a loan, even though the person might not want it, the person will still be curious and willing to know the conditions for getting the loan. That’s what it feels like when you tell customers they can buy from you on credit as they will want to know the criteria that qualify them.

If you are offering credit to customers you should also put security measures in place in case they do not want to pay back so that you can recover your funds. You should also know that it does not mean the customer will get a product without paying a dime at the initial point of sales but you might allow the customer pay 60% part payment while you convert the remaining 40% payment to credit.

You should also know that you will be charging the customer interest for products being sold, so in a way you are selling your products at a higher price.


Offering home delivery service
One thing that has also helped companies that have online store is that they do home delivery, who doesn’t like to sit in his bedroom and receive an order he made order for online or even make payments during delivery.

This is one of the strategies you can use to get your competitors off balance, when you provide home delivery services and your competitors don’t, it shows you are some steps ahead. Customers will prefer to buy from you because of the comfort you are offering them by delivering products to their homes.

Hey! I didn’t say you should use all these strategies at once but you can use a few that is well suited for your business and I’m sure your sales will increase.

You should know that same marketing strategy cannot work for all business therefore you should study your business and choose marketing strategies that will work for your business.

Feel free to tell me about other marketing strategies you have used that increased your sales.

Read more marketing tips on www.aboutmarketingmix.com

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jasper7:
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mrsage:
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