As small business owners become increasingly uneasy about the removal of tax breaks, increased taxes and potential new costs for employee health care benefits, there are a plethora of articles cropping up everywhere on how to tighten the belt on the budget. Cutting costs on your insurance policies, voice and data plans, and credit card processing are always advised on the “to do” list and companies are often told to avoid cutting costs on customer service, marketing and employee perks.
These are all viable ideas, but they all miss the target. Instead of only concentrating on reducing expenses, why not focus on what you can do to shift your mindset over to increasing revenue?
Mindset Shift
The things that you are passionate about and give your time, attention and energy to often wind up paying it back in your favor which is why making the mindset shift from what costs you can cut to how you can generate your business more revenue is so important. If you concentrate only on reducing costs, where is your focus? You are pursuing a mindset of reduction when you give all of your energy to focusing only on financial matters. Is it good to be certain you have the best plan and the most effective use of your money? Of course!
Ask yourself what it is you really want. When you focus your time and energy on generating more revenue, you’re working to surround both your business and yourself with a financial means that can help you both grow and excel together. Focus mainly on cost-cutting and you are working on a reduction rather than an expansion mindset. Concentrate on staying positive and working to give your business what it is that it really needs.
How to Begin Generating Revenue
1) Marketing Campaigns
Was it the campaign where you targeted your database of repeat customers? You looked through your most successful campaigns for the last few years, sat down with your marketing team and designed a printed postcard which followed a clear, specific theme and hit the key buying triggers of the best campaigns. You may have even had so many good ideas that you designed a series of campaigns and hit several buying triggers. For the coming year, if you find that with all available marketing channels you no longer have as much time to design campaigns from scratch, why not check out free downloadable templates online? Design sites like PrintPlace make for great options with less generic, more professional print-ready postcard templates you can easily customize for your business.
2) Taking a Personal Approach
Perhaps one of your most successful marketing campaigns involved making personal visits to each of your top customers. Should you decide to repeat this again, it’s important to remember to take the following steps:
Call ahead and set an appointed time to do lunch or coffee.
Ask them questions displaying genuine interest in them and their business.
Bring along your latest product brochures and explain how your products work to serve them the best.
Follow through on your pre-determined call to action and depart with an order in your hands, knowing that you provided the best possible customer service.
Online Marketing
- Twitter, Facebook, Splurgy, Pinterest or Google+ campaigns could all push traffic to your special offer. Guy Kawasaki’s book What the Plus is a comprehensive guide to Google+ and a comparison of Google+ to other social media sites.
- You could increase their awareness to watch for your special offers. Anyone who called in the special code from the campaign could receive an extra bonus product or special discount rate.
- A special QR (quick response) code could be placed on your business card, brochure or postcard campaign. This QR code could direct them to a specific page on your website to receive a special only available with that code.
Be Creative to Generate Revenue!
Combine the most successful campaigns of the past and test them in combination with new marketing methods to achieve the best of all possible worlds.
Elaine Love’s expertise is in small business, marketing, branding and publishing. Her credentials include Masters Degrees in Communication, 30 years of entrepreneurial awards including “International Innovator of the Year,” World Class Speaking Coach, and author of 3 books. Elaine prints her business cards, stickers and brochures with PrintPlace.com. Contact Elaine on Google+ at +Elaine