Every year there are natural ‘buying triggers’, which vary in relevance from industry to industry. These are points within the year when your target market have increased motivation to buy. An office supply company, for example, may see a significant spike in sales coming into the end of each financial year, as company purchasers rush to squeeze as much out of their annual budget as they can, and claim the tax benefits now before the new financial year rolls over.
For business owners that target consumer markets, Christmas is a strong natural buying trigger, and now is the time to make sure you implementing seasonally-aligned strategies to make the most of this period. Sometimes it’s easy to assume that consumers will simply see your standard offerings in context of the holiday season. However, if you can provide additional context and ideally some form of value-add, you can achieve a significant jump revenue through this period.
At a basic level, ensure you have a strategy to increase sales to new customers with strong offers aimed at immediate action. The purchase decision making timeframe will be shorter at this time of year, particularly for products and services that are purchased as gifts for others.
Consider value-adds that reward the purchaser directly, especially when they are not the end consumer of the product or service. Just as importantly, focus on increasing the spend per customer to maximise your potential revenue. It’s much cheaper to up-sell or cross-sell to your existing customer base than to attract new customers. Consider sales tatics that reward multiple purchases, or extra incentives to purchase the premium offering instead of the economy level offing.
Happy feastive season!!
