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All of us sit up for taking a dip within the pool through the summer season when the solar is shining, however the inevitable dip in gross sales from June to August can depart enterprise homeowners in a bind.
In accordance with one 2023 examine, two-thirds of B2B companies expertise a gross sales hunch 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.
If you’re in one of many industries that anticipate a summer season gross sales hunch, there are methods to confront it head-on and stroll out of August victorious. These three techniques have been examined by my workforce 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 proven fact that junk mail advertising and marketing works. Postcards might not appear as attractive as a flashy social media advert, however they depart a long-lasting 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 residence.
However the efficacy of postcards actually isn’t any shock as a result of rising digital fatigue. One examine that surveyed 10,250 shoppers discovered that 49% mentioned 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 a much bigger alternative to hook your prospect and shut a sale. Enterprise homeowners even have way more concentrating on choices with junk mail than digital ads, so the marketing campaign shall be more practical and ship higher outcomes.
Sixty-five p.c 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 additionally they usually tend to buy a services or products from you consequently.
My firm mails 232,000 postcards every week solely selling our personal services 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. Chances are you’ll obtain extra leads from different advertising and marketing channels, however they will not be as prime quality as those you get from mailers.
2. Improve your advertising and marketing finances within the 4-6 weeks main as much as summer season 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 rationale 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 will generate.
So proper earlier than summer season begins, about 4-6 weeks earlier than, enhance your advertising and marketing finances to extend leads. Whether or not meaning you mail 1000’s of extra postcards, create extra video ads for Instagram or YouTube, or rent one other gross sales skilled to do outbound cellphone 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 further cellphone calls to previous prospects and prospects 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 could possibly be public relations, extra posts on social media, e-mail blasts or larger cellphone 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 conventional circulation of purchases.
3. Re-ignite previous prospects and previous leads with new provides and retargeting
Acquiring new results in get you thru the summer season hunch is necessary, however remember 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 a listing and ship them a particular provide within the mail to encourage a response. These mailings might be automated by way 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 previous contacts are a waste of assets. 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, similar to: have not purchased in a single month, six months or a yr. Then, add them to particular e-mail funnels and mail them postcards with an unique low cost code solely out there 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 straightforward for them to hop again into your web site and full the acquisition.
Apart from implementing all of those techniques, you can even use the additional time through the summer season slowdown to plan out the advertising and marketing for the remainder of the yr. The final quarter, very similar to a soccer recreation, is at all times essentially the most intense, so make investments some consideration on how one can finish the yr robust. With all that additional money coming in, you could simply find yourself rewarding your self with a margarita poolside.
