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All of us look ahead to taking a dip within the pool in the course of the summer season when the solar is shining, however the inevitable dip in gross sales from June to August can go away enterprise house owners in a bind.
In response to one 2023 research, two-thirds of B2B companies expertise a gross sales droop over the summer season, and of the companies affected, almost 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 droop, 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 season 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 undeniable fact that junk mail advertising works. Postcards could not appear as engaging as a flashy social media advert, however they go away an enduring impression nonetheless. People can maintain a tangible card of their palms and reserve it for a wet day. Analysis exhibits junk mail has an common engagement price of 95% and is interacted with at the very least 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% mentioned they spend an excessive amount of time on-line and wish to scale back that point.
The very nature of junk mail forces a person to cease and take time to learn the commercial. This offers you an even bigger alternative to hook your prospect and shut a sale. Enterprise house owners even have much more focusing on choices with junk mail than digital commercials, so the marketing campaign shall be more practical and ship higher outcomes.
Sixty-five % of households with incomes of $100,000 or extra made a purchase order up to now 30 days due to junk mail promoting, analysis exhibits. So not solely do prospects pay extra consideration to mailers, however in addition they usually tend to buy a services or products from you consequently.
My firm mails 232,000 postcards per week solely 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. It’s possible you’ll obtain extra leads from different advertising channels, however they will not be as top quality as those you get from mailers.
2. Enhance your advertising funds within the 4-6 weeks main as much as summer season to have extra leads within the pipeline
My only advertising precept is to market like loopy — market greater than you assume is sane. The rationale for it’s because the quantity of effort you set into your advertising 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 funds to extend leads. Whether or not which means you mail 1000’s 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 extra telephone calls to previous prospects and clients each summer season.
Even when you do not have the extra cash to do that, give you low-cost or no-cost methods to succeed in out to prospects extra and unfold consciousness of your model. This may very well be public relations, extra posts on social media, electronic mail blasts or larger telephone name quotas for gross sales reps if enterprise is slower and so they 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. This may get you thru the lull till October comes together with the traditional move of purchases.
3. Re-ignite previous clients and outdated leads with new affords and retargeting
Acquiring new results in get you thru the summer season droop is vital, however remember 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 may be automated by means of a junk 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 sources. 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 succeed in out and begin advertising 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, akin 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 accessible to present clients. In case you are an ecommerce enterprise, do one other advertising 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.
Associated: Enhance Your Enterprise With Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting — a Detailed Newbie’s Information
In addition to implementing all of those techniques, you too can use the additional time in the course of the summer season slowdown to plan out the advertising for the remainder of the 12 months. The final quarter, very similar to a soccer sport, is all the time probably the most intense, so make investments some consideration on the way to finish the 12 months sturdy. With all that further money coming in, chances are you’ll simply find yourself rewarding your self with a margarita poolside.
