Every business owner will have at least one moment in their life where they need to make a sale right now. This can be through a personal situation, a downturn in your industry or simply just through no fault of your own.
It’s a time of high stress. Unfortunately, that’s not really avoidable as you care about your business and you want to succeed. But there are ways of getting through this with your dignity and business intact.
From a marketing perspective, you need to do something that has an immediate impact.
If you have an existing audience of customers, the first thing you can do is reach out to them. Ideally, you’ll already have an email list that you reach out to regularly, so this could be as simple as sending out a couple of emails.
Encouraging people to make a purchase right now may mean that you need to put together a special offer. This would be a time-limited opportunity to purchase your products or services at a discounted rate.
When you create a special offer just for your existing customers, this could be turned into a customer loyalty event. Something where you’re explaining to your customers that you’re rewarding them with a special offer to thank them for their business.
If you want to take your special offer to the next level, then you can offer it to people outside of your existing customer base. For this, you’ll want to put notices on your website about your special offer. Create a dedicated page letting people know about the offer and when it’s available till.
Now you’ll want to promote your offer.
Aside from your existing audience, you’ll want to reach new customers. A perfect opportunity for this would be to use paid advertising on a platform such as Facebook.
Here, you’d create an advert with an image or video and some text copy. Your advert can be targeted to people in specific locations, ages, genders, interests and more. Someone that views your advert will be able to click through to your website and take advantage of your offer.
If you have existing customer data, it’s even possible to create a “lookalike audience”. This is where Facebook will find people who are similar to your existing customers. It’s a more advanced strategy, but it can be very helpful if you have data from a large existing audience.
Beyond this, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or open your emails and reach out to previous customers. Check-in with them from time to time and see if they need any further help.
In the case of needing sales right now, you could let them know about your special offer and see if they’re interested.
Needing to make sales right now isn’t something to be afraid of. Yes, it’s an obstacle in your way but you can overcome it. Patience and a little humility will get you through.
Even if the business is great right now, remember that things can change quickly in this world. Take the time to ensure you’re regularly communicating and following up with your customers.
When you nurture great customer relationships, it’ll make it much easier to ask for a sale when you most need it.
