It seems everyone, including me, is blogging about how to increase sales using Twitter, Facebook, and other social media tools. Unfortunately, the big question with businesses is: How do I reach more qualified customers? So I figured I’d give a few extremely easy ways to do so.
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Do you want fries with that? Maybe this isn’t exactly off beaten, but I’m always surprised how little this technique is used. For instance, when you are finished with dinner at a restaurant the waiter/waitress always (passively) asks you if you want coffee or desert. What if she said “can I offer you a piece of our delicious peanut butter pie? The chef just made it fresh this afternoon.” That is guaranteed to convert at a much higher rate.
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Video your product/service in action. When my wife and I got married, we received about a dozen solicitations from DJ’s, yet not one of us sent us a DVD of a wedding that he did where the dance floor was completely packed and everyone having fun. Wouldn’t have guaranteed the sale, but he definitely would have had his foot in the door.
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Create some news. Get people talking about your business. Partner with a local charity, create a useful new tool and give it away for free, or go against the grain of what your industry is trying to do. If everyone in your industry is creating products with lots of features, then you can create a product that does only one thing extremely well. If you need more help with this, check out Janet Thaeler and her great book “I need a killer press release, now what?”
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Speak with your vendors. Your vendors are as invested in the success of your business. They want you to succeed. After all, if you succeed, then they succeed. Talk with your vendors. Chances are, they have their ear to the ground and know who is looking to buy your product or service.
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Partner with someone with a large network. Your business will probably have evangelists. Partner with those people – especially if they have a large network that can help you succeed. You might have to give them some shares in your company, but the long term revenue that they help you secure might very well be worth it.
Bonus – increase your website’s efficiency. What a coincidence? It turns out that I’m giving a free webinar that will show you how to do just that. The webinar is Tuesday March 9th, from 3PM to 4PM. You can register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/547979112
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Greg,
Thanks for the mention – I particularly like the 2000 Flushes Superbowl campaign. If you organize a campaign around something going on you can score a lot of publicity. Magazines wrote about the campaign itself. Customers heard about it through blogs, Facebook and Twitter. I like the idea of engaging with mom bloggers if your product is mostly bought by women.
Here’s a sampling of search results for the campaign:
http://www.google.com/search?q=2000+fluses+superbowl&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGGL_en___US365
Good luck with the webinar Greg!
Blog on,
Janet