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All of us sit up for taking a dip within the pool through the summer season when the solar is shining, however the inevitable dip in gross sales from June to August can depart enterprise house owners in a bind.
In keeping with one 2023 research, two-thirds of B2B companies expertise a gross sales hunch over the summer season, and of the companies affected, practically 75% reported a drop in gross sales of 20% or extra. Additionally, one in 5 claimed dips of 40% or extra.
In case you are in one of many industries that anticipate a summer season gross sales hunch, there are methods to confront it head-on and stroll out of August victorious. These three techniques have been examined by my workforce through the years and have resulted in us reaching $100 million in annual income.
Associated: 3 Nice Methods to Beat the Summer time Slowdown and Get Extra Shoppers
1. Mail postcards each week; they obtain 600% extra income per lead
I’ve constructed my enterprise on the pure proven fact that unsolicited mail advertising and marketing works. Postcards might not appear as engaging as a flashy social media advert, however they depart an enduring impression nonetheless. People can maintain a tangible card of their arms and put it aside for a wet day. Analysis reveals unsolicited mail has an common engagement charge of 95% and is interacted with no less than 4 instances at dwelling.
However the efficacy of postcards actually is not any shock because of rising digital fatigue. One research that surveyed 10,250 customers discovered that 49% stated they spend an excessive amount of time on-line and wish to scale back that point.
The very nature of unsolicited mail forces a person to cease and take time to learn the commercial. This provides you a much bigger alternative to hook your prospect and shut a sale. Enterprise house owners even have way more concentrating on choices with unsolicited mail than digital commercials, so the marketing campaign can be more practical and ship higher outcomes.
Sixty-five p.c of households with incomes of $100,000 or extra made a purchase order prior to now 30 days due to unsolicited mail promoting, analysis reveals. So not solely do prospects pay extra consideration to mailers, however additionally they usually tend to buy a services or products from you consequently.
My firm mails 232,000 postcards every week completely selling our personal services and products like clockwork. Final 12 months, we analyzed 114,373 leads that transformed to gross sales in 2023 and located that we obtain 600% extra income per lead from postcards than digital advertisements. Particularly, $229.41 in income for each postcard lead versus $37.09 in income per lead from pay-per-click. You might obtain extra leads from different advertising and marketing channels, however they will not be as top quality as those you get from mailers.
2. Enhance your advertising and marketing funds within the 4-6 weeks main as much as summer season to have extra leads within the pipeline
My only advertising and marketing precept is to market like loopy — market greater than you assume is sane. The explanation for it’s because the quantity of effort you set into your advertising and marketing will decide your outcomes. The extra you make investments into your promoting, the extra income you may generate.
So proper earlier than summer season begins, about 4-6 weeks earlier than, improve your advertising and marketing funds to extend leads. Whether or not meaning you mail hundreds of extra postcards, create extra video commercials for Instagram or YouTube, or rent one other gross sales skilled to do outbound telephone calls, textual content messages and follow-ups, simply give it 1,000%. We rent 5 highschool college students on summer season break to assist make further telephone calls to previous prospects and clients each summer season.
Even when you do not have the extra cash to do that, provide you with low-cost or no-cost methods to achieve out to prospects extra and unfold consciousness of your model. This might be public relations, extra posts on social media, electronic mail blasts or increased telephone name quotas for gross sales reps if enterprise is slower they usually have extra free time.
By the point summer season is in full swing, it is best to have a great deal of results in pursue and much more gross sales to shut. It will get you thru the lull till October comes together with the conventional circulation of purchases.
3. Re-ignite previous clients and outdated leads with new provides and retargeting
Acquiring new results in get you thru the summer season hunch is vital, however do not forget about different alternatives to extend income, like bringing again clients for a second buy and revisiting outdated leads that by no means bought from you.
For the contacts who’ve been sitting in your CRM for years and have nonetheless by no means purchased a service or product, create an inventory and ship them a particular supply within the mail to encourage a response. These mailings will be automated via a unsolicited mail API connection. Whether or not you employ SalesForce, Zoho or different CRM platform, an API connection that automates these mailings will prevent money and time.
Do not assume these outdated contacts are a waste of assets. I’ve had prospects in my database that did not reply to our postcards and emails for years after which they lastly made the choice to achieve out and begin advertising and marketing companies with us. I am glad we by no means gave up!
For the shoppers who have not purchased something shortly, section them into separate lists, corresponding to: have not purchased in a single month, six months or a 12 months. Then, add them to particular electronic mail funnels and mail them postcards with an unique low cost code solely out there to present clients. In case you are an ecommerce enterprise, do one other advertising and marketing marketing campaign that targets individuals who deserted their on-line procuring carts. A QR code on the mailer will make it simple for them to hop again into your web site and full the acquisition.
In addition to implementing all of those techniques, you may as well use the additional time through the summer season slowdown to plan out the advertising and marketing for the remainder of the 12 months. The final quarter, very like a soccer recreation, is all the time probably the most intense, so make investments some consideration on easy methods to finish the 12 months robust. With all that additional money coming in, you might simply find yourself rewarding your self with a margarita poolside.
