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4 Ways to Continue Sales After the Holidays

The days of Fall Savings, Thanksgiving Deals, Black Friday Blowouts, Holiday Specials, and End-of-Year Extravaganzas, are over and the “Holiday Hype” has come to an end. You may be wondering–what now? While it’s true that more than half of a business’s profits for the year can accrue during the 4th quarter, it is important to keep that momentum continuing into the new year. Here are 4 tips to help your business have a successful and prosperous new year!

Use the “New Year, New Beginnings” Strategy

The beginning of the year is traditionally the time for making a new start, breaking bad habits and forming good ones. Use those themes in your marketing to keep up your current momentum. Convince your potential customers that your product can help them achieve whatever goals they are setting for themselves. This isn’t limited to self-improvement for people; this can also apply to businesses. For example, if you sell office supplies, advertise those supplies as a way a business can organize for a successful upcoming year. The new beginnings mentality is also applicable to learning a new skill, starting a hobby, or renovating a home. Whatever it is that you are trying to sell, market it in such a way that it aligns with this ideal.

Have a Clearance Sale on Last Year’s Inventory

Do you still have leftover stock from last year? Don’t worry – shoppers have come to expect just one thing from retailers after the holidays: clearance. So take advantage of this and encourage post-holiday buying.

Along with clearance sales, offer different  incentives to drive even more sales. By offering up-sells, you can prompt more shoppers to reach thresholds on purchase amounts. You could also offer volume pricing or bulk buying discounts. This works well on smaller items that can be used as supply stock-ups or as simple gifts throughout the next year. When it comes to shopping online, flat-rate or free shipping is always an enticing offer.

If you run a loyalty or rewards program you can offer incentives for purchases made in January to earn extra rewards. Double points are attractive, as are additional points for performing certain tasks. You might also want to discount gift cards or certificates to help build revenue more quickly.

Give Your Business a “Fresh Start”

Use the new year as an excuse to give your business a fresh start as well. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to revamp your data lists. Make sure that your lists are current and up-to-date to ensure that you aren’t wasting effort (and money) reaching out to customers who have changed addresses, lifestyles, or are no longer in need of your services.

You can also take this opportunity to take a look back at all of the data you’ve been collecting and see what worked (and what didn’t.) Check out this article to discover tips on tracking how well your direct mail piece is performing. If you’ve noticed that a certain coupon brings in new customers regularly, keep using that! If another direct mail piece hasn’t seemed to have much of an impact, regroup and try again.

PrimeNet is always coming up with new, innovative direct mail pieces that are sure to stand out against the crowd. Perhaps if you tend to stick with mailing out self-mailers, you can switch to postcards. If postcards are a favorite of yours, try laminating your direct mail piece for an extra pop. Or try a new technique altogether – die cuts can be a creative way to capture attention.

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New Year, New Sales!

Although the holiday season has come to an end, don’t take for granted upcoming events that you can cash in on. In January, you can focus on winter themed events or fresh start savings. The Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, and Presidents Day are all in February. Soon after, you can “Spring into Savings.” Anything can be marketed as a way to get customers interested in your products or services.

The overall message is to just keep going! If you stop building momentum, it’s hard to start again. Use these tips throughout the year and your profits will continue to snowball. Next thing you know, it will be time to plan for next year’s holiday season!

The Importance of People in Healthcare Marketing

When it comes to marketing healthcare services, the people involved in providing healthcare are uniquely important. This is because healthcare is a uniquely personal service. When they look for a doctor or dentist, most people are preparing to be in a state of vulnerability. If your potential future patients can tell you care about them and their comfort, they’ll be more likely to try your business. Here are some ways to keep people included.

The Personal Connection

Many patients choose to stay with a given medical provider because they value the provider-patient relationship. But how can you give your potential patients an idea of what a great patient-physician relationship they could have? Healthcare marketing is often tough to do right. When you send communication to patients, you may frequently find yourself using direct mail. When advertising your healthcare business, you will, of course, need to include basic content information. Including pictures and background of your healthcare practitioners helps to put a face to the business.

Adjust Tactics Regularly

Just as with marketing any industry, when you market healthcare services, flexibility is an absolute must. When it comes to promotion, healthcare industries face unique challenges, including patient mistrust. Since marketing isn’t an exact science, you will need to take time to evaluate the success of a given method before continuing. If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to adjust. If needed, contact a marketing agency with experience in marketing healthcare industries. In order to make sure you adjust accordingly, it’s a good idea to use a few methods to track success in advertising, looking at metric successes, website hits, and more are all good ideas. If you choose to mail flyers, you may wish to add a discount or other incentive to bring the flyer to their appointment.

The Power of Video

If your potential patient sees a calming, professional-looking healthcare office space, they will be far more likely to feel inclined to visit your practice. And since patients don’t usually come to take office tours before making an appointment, including your office in your website’s video content is a great way to offer patients an introduction. Simply having a video on a webpage can affect both how long someone stays on a website and their likelihood of conversion at similar rates. Your videos can serve a dual purpose of being informational. Maybe you want to feature a doctor discussing how to protect against the flu, or a dentist discussing good tooth care habits. If you use direct mail as a health or dental marketing tool as well, consider including a link to video content on mailed flyers.

Just like with all webpage content, make sure your keep content fresh and consistent because you don’t want to start with several videos and then not update them for months. Start small and be consistent, and your site will automatically be seen as more trustworthy.

Take Advantage of Social Media

If you know anything about marketing, you know that social media is a great way to get a business name out there. Plus, social media offers an opportunity to allow current and future patients to get to know your providers. Maybe you choose to feature a doctor or nurse each week or share any additional accomplishments your staff has achieved. Consistent engagement on social media is key. Potential patients will likely be wary of an empty or otherwise neglected social media account.

An engaging account can also help patients build trust in your practice. By answering comments without giving direct medical advice, both current and potential patients will see that your practice cares. And by giving a human voice to your business, you’ll continue to support the patient’s trust as well. While you likely won’t be able to have medical professionals running these accounts, a social media manager can still help create a personable and professional appearance online.

Consider Adding a Blog

A blog adds a personal touch to any website. Including blog posts by medical or dental staff on your webpage, you’ll also provide free and valuable information to patients. You might consider including time-relevant blog posts, for example, blogs about paying attention to health during the holidays, or ways to avoid sunburn during the summer months. While a blog would add some to the work your staff already does, even an occasional blog post adds value to your business’s site. You can then cross-post these blogs on your business’s various social media accounts, which will amplify their reach.

The unique nature of healthcare practices means that you may need to take a little more care in advertising. By taking the time to include people in your marketing efforts, you’ll be more likely to successfully draw more business and keep current customers engaged.

Here’s another article you might like: 5 Health & Wellness Marketing Case Studies That Will Blow Your Mind

Are you ready for the shopping season? Black Friday kicks it off!

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Why send direct mail for Black Friday?

Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season. The time for hot sales and great deals is fast approaching, and that means it’s the perfect time to get your message out there to create your holiday hype! A unique direct mail design coupled with targeted offers to the most likely consumers presents a winning combination for bringing in profits for the holiday season.

You can expect to work closely with our professional account managers and design team to create a Black Friday campaign that gets customers in the door and helps you return the best results for your business! Start off the Holiday shopping season right with personalized direct mailers for Black Friday Deals!

For more details, take a look at our Black Friday samples here.

3 Things to Remember When You Open a New Retail Store

If you’re planning to open a new retail store, you may have a number of questions to ask yourself. What message do you want to convey with your business? How will it allow you to make a living? Where do you want to open up shop? Here are a few things to consider when planning the launch of your brick-and-mortar business.

What’s Your Mission?

Think about your mission in starting the store and what you want to achieve with your business. You may consider how you want your store to reflect your principles about business and the world in general. You may also want to consider the future. Will you donate a portion of profits to charity? Is this store a stepping stone to bigger endeavors? 

Location is Everything

When you are looking for the perfect spot to open your store, you have many aspects to consider. You might find a space that’s a killer deal, but if it’s hidden away where no one will find you without detailed directions, keep looking. You want a location that complements your business. You want an area where people will see you and a place with other businesses around yours that will probably draw a similar demographic.  

How Are You Going to Make Money?

You might not make any money the first day you open. It might take a little while. Having some savings as a backup before you open up can save you stress until some money starts coming in. Making a budget and adhering to it will help get you through the lean times as well as keep you on track when you start seeing some nice income. What methods of payment will you take? Retail POS systems often come with a learning curve, but they also have many features that may benefit your store’s needs. Be patient with yourself while you learn the ins and outs. You’ll also want to consider other options for customers such as whether you will accept checks. 

Where will you advertise? Social media is good but it’s not the only place to show off what you’ve got. If you already have an online version of your store, you probably have an email list. Don’t forget the importance of local mailings. If you have a website, the world is your audience when it comes to advertising.

Whether or not this shop is your first foray into the business world or if you started with an online store and want to branch out, you can take the next steps to move forward. With a plan in place, your brick-and-mortar retail store can become a stunning success.