As a small business owner, your goal is sales. Whether you are going on actual sales calls or speaking to raise awareness of your offering, you are ultimately trying to make money.
At Social Light we understand that, and it’s our goal to help you increase your bottom line. To that end we wanted to call your attention to a few ways you could be inadvertently sabotaging your sales.
Constant Promotions
Discounts are a great promotional tool that can create a nice spike in revenue. But like all good things, they should be done in moderation.
If you are constantly running sales and offering discounts than you run the risk of diluting the value of your services. Why would someone pay full price if that know that every month you’ll have some kind of a sale?
If you do have regular sales, you may see them becoming less and less effective because people hold off buying to see if your next sale will offer an even better discount.
False sense of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is a tried and true tactic that can trigger someone’s fear of missing out but the urgency should be real.
My favorite example of this is someone who said: Hurry “only 3 copies of my eBook left!”
Wait, what? We all know that there is no limit on the number of copies an eBook can have.
I’ve also seen emails promoting a “flash sale,” only to find out the offer is really available all month.
Creating a sense of urgency is a great thing, but don’t fake it. It’s hard to regain trust once your customers stop believing you.
Too Many Choices
Most businesses have multiple products or services – and we want to sell them ALL! Yet when it comes to promotions – especially ad campaigns – less is more.
Pick an audience to target and hone in on their specific needs by promoting ONE thing. After they’ve become customers, you can upsell additional things, but don’t hit them with everything at once. When you give people too many options they can get confused, or struggle to determine what the best deal is. If they have to think that hard, your sale goes out the window.
No execution plan
Sometimes an opportunity presents itself and you want to strike while the iron is hot. It’s good to be nimble, but you still need to take the time to think through the customer journey.
Before you post a hot deal on social media, think through how the customer will actually make the purchase.
- What web page will you send them to?
- Does it clearly spell out the deal or tell them how to buy?
- Is your system set up to process coupons?
- Do you have the inventory / bandwidth to handle a bunch of sales?
Make sure you answer all these questions before going live.
Need help making your promotion perform? Give us a shout.