At the end of June, Forbes came out with a bold prediction for an “extraordinary” third quarter in the stock market. But how’s the outlook for your business? If the excitement and drive you felt at the beginning of 2021 has started to fade, we’re here to help. Here are 5 sales and marketing “Scooby Snacks” that will help you ramp up your business alongside the stock market through Q3 and beyond.
Nibble No. 1: Retention Is Cheaper.
Let’s start with a little reminder of something you probably already knew. It’s better to retain your current clients than go after new ones. Remember, new customers don’t come cheap, and the success rate in your sales to them is lower than with returning buyers. In most areas of business, your marketing should focus on retaining existing customers, clients, or patients, not hunting down new ones.
Nibble No. 2: Never Guess On Anything.
Every marketing effort, from a full print newsletter campaign to an offer email, should be built around a well-designed goal. Everything should also be tracked, whether that’s logging A/B testing results or just crossing off names on a list. The best marketers don’t need to guess. With access to worlds of information on the internet, neither do you.
Nibble No. 3: Reevaluate Your Allies.
As part of its stock market forecast, Forbes predicted that during Q3, the spirit among businesses will shift from “the we’re-all-in-this-together” pandemic reaction to an individual strategy-based competitive operation. Don’t take this as a signal to dissolve all of your partnerships and collaborations immediately. That would just be silly! However, do consider reevaluating those relationships for the health of your sales and marketing strategies.
Are they really serving your company’s best interests and propelling you toward your goals? Are they holding you back? Did something that was meant to be temporary become permanent? Can you form more advantageous partnerships that will help you gain referrals and leads? Dig deep for answers to these questions and act accordingly.
Nibble No. 4: Automate, Automate, Automate.
When your motivation is low and your stress is high, there’s one easy solution: Let the robots do it! That sounds like a joke, but we’re serious. Automating as many sales and marketing processes as you can will help you sail through Q3. As Mary Clare Novak, sales content writer at G2, put it in an Entrepreneur article, “Investing in software can be quite the headache, but the end result can also save the day. If you automate mundane sales processes, it creates more time for reps to focus on what’s important: building a relationship with the customer.”
Nibble No. 5: ‘Eat My Shorts!’
“Eat my shorts” is just a funny way of saying that a good offer should make your stomach hurt. This is something we repeat often in Newsletter Pro’s office (not the “eat my shorts” part, the other part). That’s because we know it’s true. We help a lot of businesses reach out to their clients with offers. Some offers are great and yield impressive sales, but some of them — not so much. If you want customers beating down the door to get in on the deal, you have to offer something of real value. Otherwise, it’ll be no surprise when nobody is interested. So, make an offer, but make it a good one. Make it a really good one.
May your third quarter be filled with prosperity and promise!
