My 5 Easy Tips to Boost Sales (& Profit!) for Years to Come

Every month I'm introduced to business owners who have a cracking range of products/services but are struggling on the sales side. This can range from struggling to sell at a profitable level through to simply not selling enough (volume). Some companies are hitting big revenue numbers but struggling for profit, others achieve a high average sale value but they aren't doing it often enough. In either scenario, it's amazing what impact a solid marketing plan can make and here's how...

1/ Focus on what you want to sell (less is more!)

This sounds simple but the truth is that we can all sell more 'stuff' right? The key to success is finding those items which are profitable or enable future sales opportunities and overall, grow your reputation. Don't confuse this for limiting the range of products/services you sell, you don't need to cut back (although it can be beneficial to be more niche), you simply need to focus. In some scenarios you can focus on your brand and what it stands for, e.g. Nike and 'Just do it'. In other ways you might need to standout by telling the world your new mobile phone has the best camera on the market!

Whatever your business, the more specific you are in your marketing, the more impact you will have.

My tip: Write down 1 product/service/feature which if I gave you £1m today to advertise, you'd focus on. Whatever you instinctively write down will likely be the biggest and best area for any marketing plan to centre around at this moment. It can change throughout the year, that's fine - but not too often ok. Even firms with millions of pounds a month centre their attention on one key area.

2/ Critically assess what you're showing the world

There are lots of opportunities to have a presence online (website/social media/search engines/review websites/email/blogs/videos etc.) so is your company a) active & fresh across these key areas and b) effective?

Ask yourself some simple questions;

• Is your website really hitting the right note and attracting your next best client? Whatever it's delivering now it could be doing more so find out what you need to do to make that happen.
• Is your social media hitting the right notes and adding depth/value to your word of mouth?
• Can people easily find you for terms related to your products/services in search engines to add credibility?
• If you've got reviews online, what do they say? If you don't...why not?
• What are your competitors doing that you're not...and should you?
• What are you pushing out to your audience every month via email/content and how much are you investing in design to make it look as good as it could?
• Would a series of videos help separate you from your competitors and develop the typical sales cycle faster?

My tip: Don't control your online content yourself - get experts involved who can see your business from the outside as they'll see the things you take for granted. If you want to push your sales up in volume and value you need help.

3/ Always ask yourself; "How many potential new/existing customers have heard from us today?"

This point is centred around building your awareness and getting in front of your target customers on a regular basis. Equally it's about making sure you inspire those existing customers you've worked so hard to get in the first place. If you sell amazing Accountancy services or fantastic Bathrooms, you need to let your potential customers know you exist and why they should buy from you. If you're looking to immediately boost sales, don't blow your limited budget on things which 'might' show a return like print advertising or sponsorship. They do have a place within a carefully constructed marketing plan but they won't get the till ringing (do tills still ring?)...instead consider search engine marketing because that's where your next customers are likely to be searching and also look at ways to go direct. For example utilising LinkedIn, buying data etc. if you're in B2B as this enables you to profile the type of companies you want to be working with.

My tip: Request proposals from marketing agencies (yes like ours!) to see what we would recommend. We've got one question we ask every new potential client which determines what we recommend and funnily enough it's not "what's your budget?". It's "what's your revenue now and where do you want it to be?".

From there we can come up with a tactical plan to get you there which would include key elements from our Digity 360° inspiration board:

4/ You need to invest in marketing (like every other successful business)

As above there are a lot of opportunities to get your brand out there so you need to invest time and money to achieve that. There's no point spending a load of cash on your marketing if you're not actively involved in the process. Equally there's no point you spending loads of time getting involved in your marketing if it doesn't have the backing to get seen by a big, relevant audience. So have a plan with a budget and remain in control of it with your agency.

My tip: Arrange to meet regularly and feedback as often as possible regarding the impact of the activity - enquiries/sales volumes, sources, values and overall impact on your business.

5/ Don't look for quick wins, plan for growth!

There are ways to make an impact at key times during the year but looking for quick wins often just leads to headaches. Running a 'Sale' for example can be a way to get an influx of leads but are customers buying on a discount really the customers you will build an empire from? People who spend more money on a purchase need to be informed as to why to spend more and they need to have a level of trust. This takes time to build, develop and communicate but it's exactly the area that will make a huge difference on your future sales performance.

My tip: Have an annual planner for the business which details any campaigns, promotions, new releases etc. and hit your target market at key times to make an impact and standout.

I could write another 5 tips pretty easily but the key for me in life and business is to keep things as simple as possible. I try and keep these at our core and certainly set these as the foundations for the marketing plans we create and implement for our clients.

I hope this helps and if you'd like to see what our team at Digity can do to make a big impact on your sales going forward, let me know. We can arrange to meet and show you more over a coffee; t: 01189 100 012 or email: chris@digity.co.uk.

www.digity.co.uk