Tracking and measuring sales daily offers insights and a level of control for small brands to quickly make decisions and implement the changes needed to increase sales fast. But do such fast decisions come at a price?
A brief summary:
As I was searching for a new notepad to scribble some notes I found these handwritten notes inside my old notebook (circa 2017). In certain areas, such as track and measure, I remain rather old-fashioned. I like recording expenses and weekly business takings using pen and paper.
Tracking sales helps me focus on the business essentials. For example, if I have a slower start of the week the priority is to market the business directly to the potential customers. If I don’t market, nothing happens by itself. Whether you are self-employed or running a small business, there are always a lot of things to do that can take up your time and energy. Sometimes, before you know it, you spend your valuable time trying to fix a printer! While running a business requires many essential tasks to be completed on a daily basis, it’s the marketing that brings the sales and generates cash flow, a simple track and measure data is here to make you aware.
What are the 5 areas tracking and measuring can reveal in sales? What are the most important areas to track and measure?
Firstly, if you have a slower start to the month in sales than usual, there maybe a few factors affecting the sales.
Is it a seasonal fluctuation? Traditionally some businesses are quieter at certain periods of the year compared to others. If this is the case, quiet simply means a great opportunity to prepare for the busier period. For example, if your clients are away in summer, that means summer is the perfect period to work on your business. You can finally focus on areas that you don’t normally have time during the busier period. It’s also a great opportunity to send out special or exclusive offers to potential clients.
Sales is not an isolated area that requires regular tracking and measuring. Keeping an eye on the factors that lead to a sale is equally important. Check these 4 tracking indicators:
1. Website traffic tracking
2. Kpis for social media - these include social media ad metrics, including Instagram matrices, Facebook matrices, and others that are appropriate for your business.
3. Sales call tracking metrics. They will reveal if you need to address certain issues that might be affecting slower sales. We once had a client who we estimated was losing £1.2 million (million!) in annual sales because they had 114 calls a day from prospective clients (in a single day!) that never received a call back!
4. Content engagement matric. Simply put, how many people interact with your message?
What to do if you have a slower start to the week or a month? Here are 5 marketing ideas you can use to generate new leads and sales fast.
Run an email campaign to your existing database. You can send out a one off offer or run a more structured targeted series of email promotions. What you choose depends on your overall business goals, season, and target. Trying to sell anything to people who are not familiar with your business always takes a long time, but if you have a database of people who know you, and you understand their needs you have a good chance of generating sales faster.
Partner with other businesses that can either promote or cross-promote your services. For example, if you are a local baker, partnering with a local coffee shop could be appropriate and mutually beneficial. In this case, your brand will be endorsed by another brand that is trusted by their customers providing instant credibility. Running a referral program is another great way to grow your sales.
If flyers are all a waste of time, why do I keep getting them from IKEA, Google, and even Facebook through the post? (not to mention my local real estate companies). Depending on your business flyer advertising can bring you clients fast. Today, tomorrow, this week. But do make sure that your flyers or other form of direct mail advertising is designed to do what it’s supposed to do, sell your product or service. Depending on your business, handing out 100 flyers to the passing traffic could mean a very quick way to increase sales.
Do you rely on the website traffic to generate sales? If it’s been quieter than usual, it’s a good idea to review your online marketing. Starting with your website, check the number of people visiting your website or particular web pages. Understand how relevant those visitors are. Align your advertising copy and offering to your customers' journey. Identifying any flaws in your online marketing means you can then find the solutions to correct those errors.
Find a new way to engage with your customers and clients. Running a webinar or any other form of Live Q&A can be a great way to re-engage with your audience, which can lead to new enquiries and sales.
So to run a quick marketing campaign to increase sales fast or not? The benefit of being a small business is you can make fast decisions, and still remain in line with your core business values and philosophy. There are no corporate layers to go through in order for your marketing idea to get approved. If you see your sales are dropping or slowing down, making a fast decision to try a new promotional idea this week or month outweighs the risk of decreasing sales.
Do you need directions in your marketing strategy? Not sure about specific challenges? Start with a discovery call. During this call which usually lasts about 20 minutes, I will listen to your questions, challenges, and goals that you have. I will answer your question and will determine if we are the right match to discuss the next stages of working together.
To Growth
Tamara Forrest-Smith
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