English
Usually a great rush before the biggest holidays of the year is a perfect time to enhance brand awareness and boost sales, isn’t it? This is why a well-thought-out plan and consistent communication during the pre-festive period are of critical importance. For small businesses, in particular.
To quality showcase your business, you do not need to allocate a large budget for advertising. It would be enough to wisely use several free but highly effective tactics.
Workable strategies are the ones that have been already used and stood the test of time. Meanwhile, the most valuable advice is given by those who have already tried it. For this reason we talked to Giedre Gizaite - the founder of the e-shop „Pas Giedre“.
Žygimantas Gedvila
Effective strategy that stood the test of time
Giedre believes that proper care of both body and environment are equally important. She keenly supports and encourages sustainable consumption. At her e-shop, you can find a variety of eco-friendly body and household care products.
You will probably agree that such a business concept appeals to a broad audience in the modern world. Nevertheless, the success of Giedre’s e-shop depends not only on a right approach, a rich assortment, or a user-friendly and easy to navigate website.
Our interviewee devotes a lot of attention to communication with the clients. Giedre is convinced that you can attract customers and win their loyalty without spending additional money on it. Spectacular results could be achieved by purposefully and consistently using free strategies:
- knowing and selling the value of your product/service,
- paying attention to loyal customers,
- always keeping in touch with clients;
- effectively using social media.
Offer your clients the value and best shopping experience
The first piece of advice from Giedre - focus on the value of your product. Saying value, she does not mean the price. Value is the advantage that your client gets after purchasing your product. When offering the product, clearly communicate what benefits it provides and how it solves your clients’ problems.
What makes the product unique? How will it make your buyers’ life more comfortable? These are the questions you must be able to answer instantly in the middle of the night. Clients want to trust you. So make it possible for them to rely on you by offering real value.
“People pay for the experience, not for the items. Sell them the best experience you can offer,” Giedre suggests.
Pay attention to loyal customers
The second aspect that in Giedre’s opinion needs to be considered - loyal clients. Every client is different and unique.
“Analyse your annual or quarterly reports and compile the list of people who dedicated time to your business, who bought the most of your products or visited your store the most frequently. Give them additional attention. You can demonstrate your appreciation in a variety of ways. For example, send a dedicated newsletter with a discount code or treat them with a small gift,” the founder of the e-shop “Pas Giedre” shares.
We all love receiving personal attention. Such symbolic moves will cost you little, but could result in better trust, higher retention rates and new clients brought through sincere recommendations.
Collect contact info and reach out to your clients
According to Giedre, contact information of your clients is the biggest asset of your business. Wondering how to collect it? Let’s see. For instance, you can ask the audience to subscribe to your newsletter. You can set up a form on your website and collect the emails. If you do not run a website, therefore, chat with customers on social media.
“Don’t be afraid of building connections on social media by messaging your clients directly. You have nothing to lose, and it also costs nothing. But it could be extremely beneficial for your business. You can approach a customer and ask for one’s email address by offering your newsletter. Additionally, you can provide a client with a symbolic discount for another purchase. What concerns newsletters, enrich them with information about new products, special offers or simply tell the stories about your activity. Do not forget to include some entertaining yet useful content, for example, about current or future trends,” Giedre says.
Each of us has a very own and authentic history to tell the world. Make the client familiar with your story - this will help build strong relationships based on trust and loyalty. And, of course, will boost sales.
Do sales on social media
Quite many small businesses begin their activities on social media. Only after some time, they decide to create a dedicated website. Some choose to do it the other way. Giedre thinks that both options are worth a go as every additional sales channel contributes to business growth and gathers a different group of potential customers.
For many years such social networks as Facebook or Instagram have been used not only for communication with friends but also for boosting sales. All the biggest e-commerce platforms can connect your website with social networks. Use this possibility.
“If the technical aspects cause you any trouble, do not hesitate to ask for help of specialists. The aim is to attract more customers from different channels. The more effectively you do it, the sooner you can enjoy new clients coming from both social media and Google search,” Giedre emphasises.
Boost your visibility on Google
In case you run a physical store, do not forget to make it quickly found on the Internet. If your client wants to visit your shop and needs to immediately get your address, the one must find it within a few seconds. Today time is one of the most significant values.
To be easily found on Google, take care of your “Google my business” account. Here we share some useful tips:
- make sure you fill in all the fields of the form,
- stand out with some quality pictures of your business,
- use “Google my business” account to inform your customers about new offers or products,
- provide additional information which could create value to your clients (for example, catalogue, menu, etc.),
- encourage your customers to leave the review.
Reviews increase reliability. According to the “Think With Google” survey results, 88% of users trust the reviews written on the Internet as much as they trust personal recommendations given by their family or friends.
However, keep in mind that it is essential to not only ask for feedback, but also to react to it. Communicate with your clients, show that their experience and opinion matter to you. Even if the review is not as good as you expected, reply to it. Demonstrate how you solved the problem. If the situation is delicate and requires special attention, contact your shopper directly.
Every single business, even the smallest one, can earn unrivalled reputation and have many happy clients. The only thing you need to do - use every possibility you have. Giedre and her sustainable e-shop is a great example to get inspired. Know the purpose of your business, know the values and communicate about it to your customers.
