Friday 30th of September 2022
Small businesses often do not have the marketing budget that puts their brand on the country&rsqu
...o;s map. The struggle to bring customers to the st...
Small businesses often do not have the marketing budget that puts their brand on the country’s map. The struggle to bring customers to the stores can become a challenge and hamper the growth of the entity. Without a year-on-year spike in the sales figures, the business cannot succeed and reach its true potential. Thus, entrepreneurs who are on the lookout for a business for sale in South Africa need to know the ways of attracting customers.
Whether you intend to acquire new customers or retain the existing ones, it takes planning and strategy to achieve the goal. Seasoned business owners have developed a variety of tricks to grab the attention of their target audience without spending a fortune on marketing gimmicks. Let us understand seven such ways of enticing buyers with appealing propositions that they cannot ignore.
When you have a limited marketing budget and want to attract local buyers to the community, you need to spruce up the branding. The first step is to get highly visible signage on top, a great window display, and fliers that helps buyers to locate your store in the commercial precinct. Put up flex boards and marquees to catch the eyeballs of passing-by traffic. Some small business owners go to the extent of making their sales executives stand at the entrance and invite people.
Use the unique point of sale material and beautiful interiors to make the busy shopper stop and take notice of the store. You can even offer services like free Wi-Fi inside the store or organise an event with a host to make people participate for prizes and get to know about your products.
The pandemic has made customers shop from local brands because of the restrictions and the desire to help small businesses during the economic downturn. Small businesses can take advantage of this changed buying behaviour and partner with neighbouring popular shops to create a symbiotic relationship. You can provide the customers with a promo code for shopping from the partner store and vice versa. It will help in expanding your customer base by interchanging them.
You can also hand out free samples in front of places that enjoy high foot traffic in the vicinity, such as a restaurant, a café, or an entertainment arcade. Create your Google My Business page for free local marketing so that buyers looking for your products and services can find you and shop from you.
End of season sale witnesses the maximum foot traffic. It has even proven right for e-commerce businesses that have benefitted from the Black Friday sale in November 2021. Offering discounts, coupon codes, and free gifts are enough reasons to get a swarm of customers in your stores. It is not only helpful in attracting existing customers but also new buyers. The period is influential in increasing sales rapidly and achieving your sales target quickly.
The sale period is also beneficial in selling the stock that is about to reach its expiry date or is no longer valuable to the business. You can earn from this discarded inventory by offering it at a very low price.
Customers can forget the brand name, product features, price, and packaging. However, one thing that they will never forget is the way you treat them. Customer service is a game-changer when it comes to satisfying buyers. It aids in customer retention, which is more affordable than customer acquisition. For example, a restaurant offering a smooth ordering facility, waiting area, soft lighting, appropriate level of music, child-friendly zone and highly cordial staff will consistently rank higher than a café where the customers struggle to order or settle.
With a solid customer relationship management program in place, the business can rise above competitors because the target buyers will come to the brand for the buying experience. It is vital for creating a league of brand loyalists who build the brand through word-of-mouth publicity. Thus, businesses need to provide buying support and after-sales service to keep the customers satisfied.
South Africa had close to 30 million social media users in 2019, and the number is expected to reach 40.77 million by 2026. Social media has helped small businesses to maintain their sales during the pandemic and create their brand visibility. Creating social media profiles and engaging with your loyal customers and potential buyers to understand their needs can help in improving your offerings.
It helps in boosting satisfaction levels among customers when they get a quick response from the marketer on the site. It can help in substantiating the image of the business as your existing customers will be talking about your products and posting positive reviews and ratings online. The increased brand awareness and trustworthiness helps in gaining more customers.
Online sales in South Africa have been growing at a rapid pace and generated ZAR30 billion in 2020. The pandemic has helped online businesses to grow during the social distancing restrictions. Offering contactless deliveries, e-commerce has become the preferred way of shopping for most customers because of the comfort associated with it.
Thus, business owners need to insert a virtual storefront in their websites to reach a wider market and find new customers across the country. It helps in reducing the cost of selling and marketing the products and increases the speed of the sales process.
Customer retention involves making your customers buy more through upselling. However, you need to give something in return to get them back to your doorstep or your website. Thus, you need to offer rewards. You can also ask them to get referrals for finding new customers and getting incentivised for the same. It becomes a win-win situation as you get the existing customers to buy more and acquire new customers.
Use customer loyalty programs that make them members of the elite club that gets to know about offers first and gets a higher discount. Keep them content by sending regular emails and connecting with them to get their feedback and reward them for their contribution to the business.
Conclusion
If you are interested in buying a business for sale in South Africa, you need to identify ways of attracting buyers within your budget. It will help you to save your advertising and marketing spend and gain from the increase in sales figures.
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