How to increase sales
by KE Inc
This is one of the most difficult subject.
We all learned some basic marketing back in school. But applying
what are taught in school to reality can be truly challenging. To
simply put, location, combined with the right publicity and
advertising strategies are the key to increase the sales, and in
this article, we will discuss how.
Merchandise:
Let's begin with merchandises. Personally, I can’t emphasize enough how
important it is to have the right merchandises that sell. Ask
yourself do
you know what the hot sellers are on the market? Do you
have items that the nearby competitors don’t? How popular are they?
You should find out. You must have the right merchandises that stand
out.
Advertising:
Unlike other sources that might tell you that you should invest in
newspaper ads, forget about high cost newspaper ads. For the most
part, newspaper ads don't really work anyway. On top of that
newspaper ads will cost a fortune. In the following, we will walk
you through some of the most useful and cost effective marketing
techniques.
1 flyers – distribute flyers around your
neighborhood. You will be surprised how efficient this method
will be. But to make it work, you must pay attention to how you
design your flyers. Simply put, a poorly designed flyer = a piece of
trash that will go straight to trash can. So consult with a
graphic designer if necessary.
2 Exciting store decoration and overall impression –
when you present yourself in front of a group of people, how you
dress, pose, and behave will have very strong and instant
impression on how others perceive you. The same concept applies to a store
interior. How attractive does your store look like?
Gather some opinions from your friends and family members, hire a interior designer.
There are even books you can buy that will show you how to decorate.
3 Local trade show – consider attending local
trade show. Local trade shows are good places to find
potential customers. Do some search and find out what local trade
shows are available.
4 Swap meet (flee markets) - when it comes to swap meet,
many people might associate the term with cheap, low end, garage
sale kind of items. That is not necessary true. Take the
swap meet of Orange county, California, for example, it is a high
class, clean, market place that takes place every weekend. More
importantly, the size of this swap meet is massive, attracting
thousands of local buyers every weekend. (Do you know many of
today's established, successful large import/export business owners,
with products ranging from fashion jewelries, shoes, handbags, to
clothing, started out at flee markets? It is true. It was hard work,
but they all persisted and never gave in.)
5 Promotion campaign – You've seen these all
the time. "Buy 1 get 1 free." "Buy 1 get the 2nd one for 40%."
Everything 50% off" and so on. The key is to create the right ads
that attract buyers. If you are not sure what methods work, you can
go to a few local shopping malls and observe how other competitors
are doing.
6 Website and email marketing - If you don't
already have a website, you are already very behind! Internet is
shaping how people conduct business and shop. Internet sale is a
multi billion dollars avenue. (We will be writing an in-depth
article on this topic and will be coming soon.)
7 Is your business listed by online yellow page
local? If not, you should find out how.
8 Do you know you can attract many potential
buyers by joining online social networking? Social networks, such as
Myspace or Facebook have become important sources of generating
revenue by a lot merchants
9 Community events - be sure to check with your
local city hall or community center and find out any special events
or festivals coming up.
The key to success is never give up and
persistence marks the difference between success and defeat.
All these strategies will take a lot of work, but if you are
persistent, your hard work will pay off eventually.
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