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All of us sit up for taking a dip within the pool through the summer time 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 accordance with one 2023 examine, two-thirds of B2B companies expertise a gross sales droop over the summer time, 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.
If you’re in one of many industries that anticipate a summer time gross sales droop, there are methods to confront it head-on and stroll out of August victorious. These three ways have been examined by my crew over time 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 incontrovertible fact that junk mail advertising and marketing works. Postcards could not appear as attractive as a flashy social media advert, however they go away a long-lasting impression nonetheless. People can maintain a tangible card of their fingers and reserve it for a wet day. Analysis exhibits junk mail has an common engagement charge of 95% and is interacted with at the very least 4 occasions at residence.
However the efficacy of postcards actually isn’t any shock as a result of rising digital fatigue. One examine that surveyed 10,250 customers discovered that 49% stated they spend an excessive amount of time on-line and wish to cut back that point.
The very nature of junk mail forces a person to cease and take time to learn the commercial. This provides 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 might be more practical and ship higher outcomes.
Sixty-five % of households with incomes of $100,000 or extra made a purchase order prior 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 because of this.
My firm mails 232,000 postcards per week completely selling our personal services and products like clockwork. Final yr, 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 adverts. 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 and marketing channels, however they will not be as top quality as those you get from mailers.
2. Enhance your advertising and marketing price range within the 4-6 weeks main as much as summer time to have extra leads within the pipeline
My best advertising and marketing precept is to market like loopy — market greater than you suppose 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 time begins, about 4-6 weeks earlier than, enhance your advertising and marketing price range to extend leads. Whether or not which means 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 time break to assist make further telephone calls to previous prospects and prospects each summer time.
Even when you do not have the extra cash to do that, provide you with low-cost or no-cost methods to succeed in out to prospects extra and unfold consciousness of your model. This could possibly be public relations, extra posts on social media, electronic mail blasts or greater telephone name quotas for gross sales reps if enterprise is slower they usually have extra free time.
By the point summer time 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 stream of purchases.
3. Re-ignite previous prospects and previous leads with new gives and retargeting
Acquiring new results in get you thru the summer time droop is vital, however do not forget about different alternatives to extend income, like bringing again prospects for a second buy and revisiting previous 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 might be automated by way of a junk mail API connection. Whether or not you utilize SalesForce, Zoho or different CRM platform, an API connection that automates these mailings will prevent money and time.
Do not assume these previous 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 and marketing providers with us. I am glad we by no means gave up!
For the shoppers who have not purchased something shortly, phase them into separate lists, corresponding to: have not purchased in a single month, six months or a yr. Then, add them to particular electronic mail funnels and mail them postcards with an unique low cost code solely accessible to present prospects. If you’re 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 ways, it’s also possible to use the additional time through the summer time slowdown to plan out the advertising and marketing for the remainder of the yr. The final quarter, very like a soccer sport, is all the time probably the most intense, so make investments some consideration on methods to finish the yr robust. With all that additional money coming in, you might simply find yourself rewarding your self with a margarita poolside.
