The answers to the question depend on which marketing strategies will be viable for your business sales increase.
In other words, the key to increasing sales in your business may necessarily not be the conventional marketing you are used to.
I don’t know of any magical universal marketing strategy that will revolutionize sales increase for your business, but I know that; If you have an amazing product and cannot market or sell those products, it’s comparable to having packs of condoms in a convent, it is in the wrong location.
There is a need to improve your marketing game to increase sales. This means you have to learn how to:
get people’s attention,
turn that attention into trust,
convert those trust into sales.
This’s marketing and sales 101.
Marketing is what every small business owner should do. However, there are some Marketing Mistakes you should be aware of.
Some of them are;
Not identifying your target audience and trying to sell to everyone
This is a big mistake, when you make your products or services for everyone, you are not giving your product specificity. You need to know the exact persons to sell to.
You may spend months trying to market to boys, girls, women, men and end up marketing lipstick to a cross-section of men. You can see how awkward that sounds.
The act of selling to everyone reduces your client conversion and even social media engagement.
Posting only Product Pictures
The first thing you need to know about marketing is that you are not selling to robots, you are selling to humans who are prone to make the most purchase decisions based on their feelings/emotions.
Imagine having a friend who makes every conversation about them, no inclusion of others. We all know that we get bored of such kinds of friendships and find ways to avoid them.
That’s exactly what you do when you post only product pictures.
Don’t make your brands about your product alone, make it about your audience. Post yourself, post your clients feedback, and give valuable content to your audience.
Not Maximizing The Clientele List Especially those who Sell Recurring Products
Social media is a rented space, if your business model permits you to sell your product to a client again, why are you not exploring it? Build a WhatsApp or email list that will help you stay in touch with these customers.
This way you keep track of your clients, build relationships with them and update them about the latest trend in your business.
Selling Facts as Opposed to Selling the Benefits of your Products
Instead of telling us your products consist of 14% Shea Butter, 2% Tangerine Oil, and 21% Organic Fruits.
Sell us the benefits of those products, it could be something like; “Our body cream is naturally made, so you won’t have to worry about breakouts or toxic reactions”.
The application of this depends on your industry and the kind of business you run.
Not Putting a Face to Your Brand
You may not be making more sales from your products because there is no face to your brand. Your audience needs to see and feel like they know you and can trust you. This way they don’t feel worried doing business with you.
We have all seen or heard cases of vendors absconding with their client's money.
Recently I heard that a client ordered a readily made slide worth over N25,000, the client (should this not be vendor/seller)then proceeded to give the contract to a shoemaker who dubbed (copied) the slide for him at the rate of 10,000. (I don't understand this story. Do make it fit the change above)
You self see?
You have to use social proof to establish you can do what you said you are doing.
Most businesses don’t fail because of marketing, but because of BAD MARKETING.
A 2020 world bank report said, "most SMEs do not grow but remain
at the same size or exit, with a minority exhibiting rapid growth in productivity or scale”.
The report further noted that compared to large firms, "SMEs are more likely to close
their operations permanently. Simply put, SMEs are more
likely to run into financial difficulties and file for insolvency or bankruptcy.
So, having good marketing strategies will help you stay in business and scale to a larger organization.
That is why, we at the Caladium Lagos SME BootCamp remain committed to helping you scale and sustain your business.
The conversation never stops in our WhatsApp Community, join us using this link.
Which of these mistakes are you making?
If you have any questions or enquiries, please contact us via ayobankole@lagos-sme.com and copy our community manager via alex@lagos-sme.com.