Latest / Marketing For Tradies / #040 - The Number 1 Strategy to Eliminate Sales Volatility

Transcript

#040 - The Number 1 Strategy to Eliminate Sales Volatility · Marketing For Tradies

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every business has ebbs and flows throughout the year of sales and revenue.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know how stressful it can be when you are in a trough.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is it ever gonna go back up?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of businesses aren't building an email list right now.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the leads that are coming through their website aren't being put into a system.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your email list is your secret.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Websites That Convert, the podcast where your website stops being a liability and transforms into your greatest asset.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Shannon, and I'm going to guide you through the strategies and insights you need to build a website that not only attracts but converts.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every business has ebbs and flows throughout the year of sales and revenue and new customers coming through the door.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: This could be related to being seasonal, how active you are with your marketing, holidays, all kinds of different things that could cause this type of effect of the peaks and troughs and you know the ebbs and flows of sales throughout the year.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I know how stressful it can be when you are in a trough.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is it ever gonna go back up?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It can be really stressful.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: It can put a real strain on the business and stop you from feeling you are growing overall.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you see that, you know, over the years this is completely normal and you're kind of prepared for it in a way.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know it can be stressful and it's not really the ideal way to be running a business.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing a few things that you can do to line up more work during your off-peak months or seasons.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you can stop those troughs, you can decrease stress, and you can ultimately grow your business at a faster pace by increasing the baseline of those ebbs and flows and stopping such volatility in revenue throughout the year.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is to stop relying on word of mouth and referrals.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You need to implement an online marketing strategy that is going to help you buffer those types of the fall out of those type of leads and sales coming through because ultimately you don't you don't have control over word of mouth and referral leads.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And with online marketing and especially paid marketing, you have much more control over how much you want to spend, how many leads you want to get, and how fast you want to grow your business.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is if you're relying on word of mouth and referrals, make it a priority to look into other online marketing strategies that you can use to generate leads and sales in a more consistent pace throughout the year.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even if search volume might be up and down based on seasonal things, you'll still have a strategy in place to ensure that you're getting found by the people that are searching and that when the referrals and word of mouth dry up or plateau, you've still got business coming in from other sources.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is that you need to be building your email list.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your email list is your secret weapon that so many service-based businesses are not using to get more sales.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So any lead that comes through your website or inquires with you somehow should be put into a system.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to be building this system out with a full contact list.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And how this helps you in off-peak seasons is that if you can identify throughout the year that there's, you know, a couple of months on, you know, either side of the of the year, first half, second half, or wherever in the year it is, maybe it's winter, where you are not getting as many sales or leads and business coming through as normal, you can activate your email list, send an offer out to these people, and use what you've already created to get business coming through from a source of potential customers that you've already built.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this actually leads me into my next bit of advice is to start thinking about your marketing on an annual scale and map out offers and promotions that are related to the seasons throughout the year or whatever's going on in your business or going on in the world.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what you can do is market these offers across your social media, on your website, and to your email list, but you can prioritize these offers uh based on when the troughs are.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So again, if you're having lower months at certain parts of the year, maybe this is when you create special offers.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's when you are more proactive with the type of marketing that you're doing: promotions, seasonal sales, special offers.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always have to be a discount, by the way.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can activate these type of offers across, you know, all of those channels I mentioned, but especially your email list.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So point two and three is kind of combined, but a lot of businesses aren't building an email list right now.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the leads that are coming through their website aren't being put into a system.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're not building a contact list, you have no one to send emails and promotions to.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And these people in your contact list are so, so valuable because they've already, you know, engaged with you somehow.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: They might know your business, they might still be in the market for what you offer.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a huge opportunity cost not to be using your email list, especially if you have volatility of revenue and sales coming through the year, because you can map out the entire year as your like marketing plan or campaign plan, which is separate to you know your paid ads and your marketing funnel.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is just to counteract those lower months by being more proactive and having a plan in place for that whole year and then uh sending that promotion out to people that are already in your ecosystem.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, social media, email marketing, past clients, that kind of stuff.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't have to be overcomplicated either, by the way.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: This could literally just be in a Google Doc where you just have, you know, the month, maybe it's every quarter that you create an offer or a promotion or a sale or something special that will engage more people that are already in your audience.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you can map out Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and then uh maybe there's just one special offer a quarter because you don't want to do them too much.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you have them monthly, I just think you know, it's it's too much work on your side, and it's also makes, you know, it devalues when you do have a special offer.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So quarterly or twice a year for most businesses is probably enough.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you can definitely, you know, map out the whole year or firstly look at your revenue and see where the peaks and troughs are, and then prioritize two to four times throughout the whole year where you're promoting a special service or something that's relevant that people would want.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you can test different things, obviously, see what works with your audience, and then yeah, send this out to your social media and your email list to get that interest at the times when the peaks or the troughs are happening.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you might find, and we've seen this before, that when you know when to activate something like this, those troughs become your peaks, or at the very least, you remain or gain consistency across the year, which is gonna lead to more revenue to invest in your marketing and scale up.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be less stress for you, more customers, and more general growth for your business.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, an inconsistent business is super stressful for you.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna feel confident investing, and it's so simple to count these kinds of troughs.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, just to recap, if you have a business where you're experiencing these volatile peaks and troughs of sales and revenue throughout the year, firstly, if you're relying on word of mouth and referrals, get a marketing system and strategy in place to generate leads through other sources.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is the number one priority.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have that in place, make sure that you're sending all your leads into a CRM that you can then use for email marketing and map out your 12-month marketing plan.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Look at where the peaks and troughs are and prioritize creating offers, promotions, and sales in the times where there's troughs, which and send that out to your email list and your social media to get those people who are already in your audience activated at the time where you need it most.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I guarantee if you put this strategy into place, your business is going to grow.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I can also almost guarantee that right now, there are so many people in your audience that just need that extra incentive to buy from you.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably hundreds of thousands of dollars just sitting there.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so, with the right promotion, sale, or offer, you're gonna activate those people, but you need to have that email list, and you cannot build an email list and your business at the rate that you want to by relying on word of mouth.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So put those three strategies into place and that'll help buffer out the year and help you grow your business without those volatile peaks and troughs.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope this episode was helpful and I'll see you next time.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Websites That Convert.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you found value in this episode, please give us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Follow us on all social media, and if you're a service-based business owner that's looking to double their website conversions, book a call with my team using the link below.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.