Six Out-of-the-Box Ideas to Increase Sales
With any business, there is a constant battle of either wanting to outdo your previous year’s revenue or needing to keep up with it. If you have been battling between these two for a long time, you have most likely exhausted all possible sales ideas on the Internet.
To find the right fit for your business, consider our versatile ideas to increase sales.
1. Create an elite or first-class feeling
Treat your customers as extra special guests
Everyone loves a good sale; it is why semi-annual, annual, and boxing day sales are a big hit. This strategy focuses on giving your customers that warm fuzzy feeling. Make your customers feel extra special when you give them early or special access to sales or promotions.
Target potential customers who have shown interest in your business. Sending them early access to products or services similar to ones they previously looked at, could give them that nudge to make the purchase. This strategy also works exceptionally well for current customers. Give them that exclusive warm fuzzy feeling to initiate yet another purchase from your business.
Nordstrom often uses this strategy in their annual sales, giving Nordstrom credit cardholders early access before non-members. That feeling of exclusivity of being a Nordstrom cardholder and getting this VIP early access sale makes the customer feel special. Therefore, they are more likely to continue their loyalty to Nordstrom.
2. We love a great email
Email marketing is a dance between your business staying in your potential customer’s inbox and your email heading straight to spam. It’s essential to build a solid and smart marketing strategy that will continue to leave your customers anticipating your next email.
Nobody knows your customers better than you, so focus on content that receives the most engagement. Hubspot is a free tool that you can use to analyze your engagement rates, allowing you to make better decisions about the content you share with your subscribers.
Next time you work on your email content, incorporate some personalized and interactive features. Statistics have shown that in 2020, 59% of respondents said that they were influenced by email marketing to make a purchase; with those numbers increasing in 2022, it is clear to see the importance good email marketing has on sales.
3. Get up close and personal
Not all businesses can provide an authentic one-on-one marketing experience for their customers. Small businesses are in exactly the right spot for creating customized marketing to increase their sales. Consumers are already accustomed to a degree of personalization in all forms, from Netflix recommendations to social media newsfeeds – use this strategy to enhance your marketing.
Brand storytelling is a way to share your companies why and how with your customers. If your customers love your brand story, 55% of them are more likely to buy from you in the future and 15% are likely to buy from you immediately. Your brand story is unique and your customers want to hear it, this builds a trusting and deeper connection while also increasing sales.
4. Create more wow moments
Your customer’s experience begins the moment they show any interest in your company. Whether your business is online or has a physical location, it is your responsibility to create amazing experiences for your current and potential clients.
Providing the best customer experience isn’t just about replying to queries – there is much more to it. Think about the physical location and website accessibility, how you handle refunds, what customer assistance you offer, the engagement between your brand and your customer, your brand’s social media, etc. It is essential to provide your customers with the capabilities to make a seamless purchase, both online and in-store. Creating engagement with your customers through social media or by using chatbots online solidifies the customer’s experience.
During the pandemic, Ralph Lauren created virtual stores where customers enter the store and shop like they would in real life. They can look at the mannequins in the windows, go through the archway to enter the store and choose where and what they want to browse. This gave their customers that extra special wow during a difficult time.
5. Give your shoppers options
Buy now, pay later (BNPL). For your customers, this translates to ‘enjoy now – pay later’.
Interest-free installments are a great value-add for your business. A projected 59.3 million users will be using BNPL services in 2022, with a forecast set to climb to 88.2 million users by 2023. While all those 59.3 million users might not utilize this, it gives your company a larger target market.
The BNPL service is a great way to alleviate your customer’s financial worries by allowing them to purchase what they want immediately and pay later without the stress of interest rates. As a business, you want to provide the most enjoyable experience for your customer. It is important to understand that this sales tactic is more efficient in the retail market or for smaller businesses. Some of the more notable BNPL companies include Klarna, Sezzle, and Afterpay.
6. Make Your Brand an Experience
Make your product or service stand out. This is where branding comes in.
The Cambridge dictionary defines branding as “the act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services”. And to some extent, that is correct, but branding has been misunderstood to be just the look and physical appeal of the business and nothing more. Through a marketer’s eyes, branding is defined as the created relationship between the consumer and the product or service through an experience. This experience is your gateway to creating a deeper and more meaningful relationship with your customers.
Experiential branding is an approach to the overall branding of a business or its products or services with a focus on creating an experience that the consumer is looking for. This branding tactic has been especially successful with over 91% of consumers reporting that they would be more inclined to purchase the brand’s product or service after participating in a brand activation or experience, and 40% felt they would become more loyal to the brand.
Experiential branding has been successfully used to create engaging and memorable experiences for customers. Let’s take the example of Red Bull’s Stratos project. Red Bull’s 2012 Stratos skydiving project created such a memorable experience for everyone when a skydiver named Felix Baumgartner jumped off of the edge of space with just a parachute. Red Bull Stratos “sought to surpass human limits and advance scientific discoveries for the benefit of humankind”. So what does this mean for your business? Experiential marketing can be a fantastic way to increase brand awareness, customer loyalty, and unforgettable experiences. It is also a perfect way to increase your sales in a very dramatic and out-of-the-box way.
Digital marketing can be a hard pill to swallow. The task of trying to keep up with trends, customers’ likes and dislikes, and managing social media platforms can be daunting. But marketing is all about trial and error, so continue working on a strategy that works best for you and your customers to create winning ideas and increase sales.
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Ann is a freelance radio, TV, and podcast producer. Her work has been featured on CBC, The Globe and Mail, OWN Canada, Investigation Discovery, and The Cable Public Affairs Channel.
