Suzanne Stock 6 January 2014

Categories Data & Analytics, Email & eCRM, Innovation & Trends

New year's resolutions - 5 easy ways to drum up new business in 2014

Combat the January-blues with 5 ways to find new business in the new year

In many industries, January can be slow for sales as businesses recover from the Christmas and New Year holidays. However, there are several things you could do to kick-start the recovery –  here are five of the best

 
1. Tap your existing customers

Your existing customer base is also your most profitable, making them the first people to target with new sales efforts. You could consider:

·       Introducing a loyalty discount for existing customers.

·       Allowing existing customers early access to reduced prices and limited stock.

·       Just touching base – often a personalised mailing triggers buyer action.

Whether this contact is made by email, direct mail or phone is down to you and your customers’ preferences.

“42% of businesses measure success through B2B customer retention” – 2013 B2B Commerce Trends – Oracle.

 
2. Expand your contact list

Although existing customers are important, trying to identify new markets and buyers is still key to growth. Purchasing a mailing list will increase the potential audience for your next marketing effort without the overheads and lead times associated with organic mailing list growth.

Choosing the right mailing list provider will also help you target the right decision makers within the right companies.

 
3. Try something again

Ask your marketing department to identify your most successful campaign which resulted in the most sales or highest revenue. Using that knowledge, you can update and repeat the campaign in an attempt to replicate the previous successes.

However, you shouldn’t necessarily target the same contacts again. Repeating the process on a new mailing list is a better tactic for generating new business.

 
4. Try something new

Creating a whole new marketing campaign takes time and effort, unlikely to result in short term gains. But when done correctly with proper targeting, the results can be spectacular.

Laying the groundwork in advance could result in easy sales later in the year. By scoping the campaign for use later in the year, your marketing team has additional time to clean their contact data set, or add to it.

 
5. Ask for referrals

The best sales leads often come from word-of-mouth referrals by existing customers. Where these referrals can be achieved without intervention, so much the better. Otherwise you could:

·       Call existing customers and ask for referrals directly.
·       Provide some form of referral bonus or discount incentive to clients who do make referrals.

 

Again, referrals can be solicited via post, email or phone. You may even find that simply providing better service to existing customers removes the need for prompting them to make referrals.

 

 

There are a number of considerations which could help you start 2014 in the best possible way:

·       Your existing customers are your best source of revenue.

·       Your existing customers can be encouraged to help identify new prospects and leads.

·       Give your marketing database a boost by purchasing fine tuned, targeted mailing lists.

·       Lay the groundwork for success later in the year by spending the slower periods researching and planning new campaigns – the time will not be wasted.

 

 

 

Continue getting your marketing data into shape for the new year with a free e-Guide: 7 habits of successful digital marketers in 2014.