Boosting sales is an effective way to generate higher profits and grow your business, but how do you persuade customers to choose your brand and attract new buyers?
In this guide, we’ll share some top tips to help you increase product sales and expand your reach.
Promotions
Promotions are a fantastic way to drum up interest in your brand, particularly if you’re launching a new product or you’re trying to encourage customers to buy a specific product within your range or collection. Running promotions involves offering incentives to buy, including flash sales, discounts, and freebies or providing access to exclusive deals.
Before you start working on a post, email, or flier to advertise the promotion, think carefully about which types of deals or offers will have the most impact.
Use market research and analysis to identify strategies and tactics that are effective among your target audience. Ask your customers for opinions and ideas and use data from previous campaigns or sales to see what works best. It’s also important to align the promotion with your objectives.
If your goal is to increase overall sales, you may find that discounts on all your products are more effective than offering a free gift with a specific product purchase, for example.
If you’re aiming to sell large volumes of a single item or attract pre-orders for a new product, a freebie or a product-specific discount code may be more impactful.
When you offer deals to your customers, it’s often beneficial to set a deadline or a time limit. This creates a sense of urgency, which can persuade buyers to make the purchase as soon as possible and it can also trigger FOMO (fear of missing out). If customers feel like time is running out and they don’t want to miss the opportunity to save money or snap up a new, must-have product, they’ll take action.
Packaging
More than 70% of US consumers admit that packaging designs influence their purchasing decisions. When you visit a store, or you browse online, it’s natural to gravitate towards products that jump out at you or stand out.
As a business owner, it’s critical to understand the importance of packaging design. Whether you sell beauty products, luxury accessories, pet toys, or food and drinks, think carefully about the aesthetic of your products, the way you brand your products, and the information you provide before you go to market.
If you are launching a new product, or you are considering revamping an existing design, it’s beneficial to work with companies or individuals with experience within your industry or sector.
Share ideas and suggestions, evaluate different designs, analyze current market trends, and test drafts and templates on your target audience. Use feedback to address issues and make improvements. Add useful, insightful information and make sure you up-sell the USP of the product and its best features. It’s essential to consider safety and functionality, as well as aesthetics.
From the packaging of nutraceutical products and cosmetics to medicines and children’s toys, it’s critical to ensure that the packaging not only promotes the product but also protects it and facilitates safe access and use.
The designs you use for branded packaging should be relevant to the product, the brand, and your ideal customer. Choose colors, images, and fonts that will resonate with the target buyer and ensure that the look of the product and the tone of the messaging matches the brand identity.
Packaging for toys, pet accessories, and fun bath time products for kids, for example, should look very different from designs for luxury skincare products.
Step up your marketing efforts
Marketing is designed to create a buzz around products and encourage shoppers to make a purchase.
If you’re eager to increase sales, it’s wise to step up your marketing efforts. Analyze and evaluate existing campaigns and look for ways to improve and update them to connect with new audiences and persuade people who might already be interested to take the next step.
Build on successful techniques and effective platforms to convince customers to act now and use revamped campaigns to create more leads.
Running promotions is a brilliant way to supercharge sales, but it will only work if people know about the offer or sale. Advertise offers and make sure your customers know when the promotion is on and how they can take advantage of it.
Build hype by sending personalized emails and posting about upcoming sales on social media and specify clear instructions. If you’re offering an introductory saving on a new product, for example, provide information about the product using blog posts, emails, and social media videos and stories and add details of offer dates.
Make it as easy as possible for customers to buy the product by adding interactive shop now features to your social media posts and product links to your emails. You could also create a new landing page on your website and add clear CTAs to your homepage and other related product pages.
Hosting giveaways is an ingenious way to build a following before you launch a new product or start a sale. If you post regularly on Instagram, for example, and this is a platform that is popular among your target customers, boost follower numbers by launching a competition.
Decide what you want to give away as a prize, share a post with clear information about how to enter and add a deadline. Maximize exposure by asking customers and social media users to follow your account, share your post on their grid or story, and tag friends and family members to enter.
Offer better value than your competitors
To increase sales, you need to be able to persuade prospective customers that your product or brand is better than others.
Reducing prices and offering discounts can be effective, but often, adding value is the best way to turn heads. Customers want to feel like they’re getting the best deal and this doesn’t always mean paying less. Many people are willing to pay more to buy high-quality items or take advantage of perks like gift wrapping or speedy delivery, for example.
Focus on providing better value than your competitors. Keep an eye on prices and promotions and strive to offer your customers more. If you only charge slightly more for your product than a competitor, but the price includes delivery or personalization, for example, customers may gravitate towards your business.
Work to obtain 5-star reviews
Studies show that almost 50% of frequent web users post at least one review per month and more than 90% of us read reviews before making a purchase.
Reviews are a modern take on conventional word-of-mouth marketing and they can be incredibly influential. Positive, glowing reviews push us towards certain products, websites, retailers, or brands while negative feedback can send us running in the opposite direction.
If you run a business, it’s incredibly beneficial to try to obtain 5-star reviews.
Focus on providing high-quality products, make sure you can deliver on promises you make to your customers, for example, delivering items on time, and make customer service a priority. If a customer has a question, or they need help with an order, for example, they will judge the business based on their experience of accessing customer service and support.
Even if they love the product, they may deduct points for poor service or a lack of support. Provide responsive support options, treat every customer with respect, and try to make your customers feel special and valued.
Encourage your customers to leave feedback, share positive reviews, and incentivize referrals. Many of us trust recommendations from friends and family and we use reviews to help us decide which products to buy or companies to choose.
It’s beneficial to make sure that your reviews are visible and to encourage customers to spread the word. Reward loyalty and offer perks for clients who recommend the business to others.
Free samples, trials, and demos
Many people like to try before they buy.
As a consumer, it’s reassuring to know that you’re spending money on a product you like. Offering free samples, trials, and demos to customers is an excellent way to generate interest in a product, connect with new customers, and enable people to try the product before they invest any money.
From free food and drink to a complimentary trial for an online course, there’s scope to use this tactic to promote all kinds of products. Another option you may want to consider is a money-back guarantee if the customer doesn’t like the product.
Wrapping it up
Boosting sales is an effective strategy to increase profits and expand your business. If you run a company, and you’re eager to attract new customers or encourage existing clients to buy from you again, there are multiple ways to supercharge sales.
Run targeted promotions, increase your marketing efforts, and make sure your packaging designs set your brand apart. Offer better value than your competitors, strive to achieve 5-star reviews, and offer free samples, trials, or demos. Tailor your sales strategy to cater to the target customer and use analytics and feedback to build on successes, identify and solve problems and make improvements.