As businesses seek ways to boost their sales without taking additional loans, BusinessDay has identified five tips that operators can consider to drive sales without breaking the bank. In no particular order they are;
Create great content
There is a popular saying that content is king. Content is the gold mine that you don’t need gold to build. This translates to creating content being one of the cheapest marketing tactics that can give one the biggest returns if done right.
Content includes blog posts, videos, memes, reels, TikToks, podcasts, emails, newsletters, graphic designs, among others. Content can be used to get new customers and keep old ones interested even if they don’t have the money to buy the product at the moment.
For example, a skincare product seller can do reels, skits, short videos or simple designs telling people about skin care practices that work. When people try out these things and they work, they will easily patronize when the products are on sale.
Also, blogs or newsletters can be written to keep old customers, informing them about new products or share useful information
Use social media
To make more sales these days, it goes beyond physical sales. Since social media has a wider coverage of the audience, businesses need to leverage it like they depend on it.
If social media is not well utilised, businesses will be limited to only the people owners know. An important factor to know what social media platforms to use is knowing the business’ target audience.
Experts say many small businesses jump on the most popular social media platform because of the buzz, and after a couple of months or years, they realize that they have not been in the right space. This is usually as a result of poor customer research.
Read also: Keeping Nigeria’s business environment alive
Attend events
Another way to boost sales is by attending events. While many events are free, the ones that are paid for are usually not expensive. If the target audience of a specific business will be attending an event, it is only safe to be at the event. This will create an avenue to interact with some of the audience and tell them about the products.
In some cases, a display table can be used to sell the products. While in others, the events can be sponsored if at an affordable price, one will just ensure that their product is adequately posted.
It is not in all events business owners see those who will buy their products directly. Sometimes, they come in contact with investors, or those who will bring buyers to patronise their products. Events make networking possible.
Invest in SEO
SEO is search engine optimisation. It is as a result of SEO that a business website will show up on the first two pages of the search result.
The aim of putting out content via any social media platform is to get people to engage with a product. And to reach the widest audience possible, there is a need for website optimisation.
In order not to spend a huge sum of money in hiring an expert to sort this, there are basic SEO hacks a business owner can adopt to create more traffic on content created.
It is important to choose carefully the topic of discussion. What questions are the potential customers asking? Pictures, meta descriptions, and lists where necessary in content as well as keywords in descriptions for YouTube videos will help drive SEO.
Offer great service
As common as this sounds, experts say it is one strategy that works all the time. If great services are provided as well as better customer support, customers will always come back and bring referrals.
Businesses whose products are of better quality than others always get clients glued. It is usually the basic rule of marketing that many business owners overlook. So simple yet so important.
Consistently offer great service, without diluting products or using fake materials. Experts say being consistent for quality and great service is a way to get people attracted, and find you even if you are expensive.
