When you notice a sales dip, it’s not fun, right? Nope. Definitely not. As soon as your numbers start dropping below normal, alarm bells start ringing. That’s ok. It is completely normal. But don’t let it psych you out. Try not to get too stressed. Instead, start thinking about what you can do.
You are already on the ball, as you have found this article. Whether you were searching our website, or typing into google, you have come across the right article. Even if you are not at that stage. If your sales are soaring and your days are bright! This article could still be a really handy read. Look over my suggestions and keep them tight for a potential rainy day. Who knows when sales could dip in the future? This article will teach you what to do when your sales dip.
Do Some Research
One of the first things I would recommend doing is research. When you see your sales dip, you want to take action right? First, find out if it is happening everywhere. What I mean by this is to check if you are alone. Find out if your competitors are also experiencing this. Or is it just you? For example, with the pandemic, some products and services really lost out on a large scale.
Obviously, businesses in hospitality, travel and retail have been disproportionately affected. However, with offices closed and home working at a peak, there was an office wear sales dip. To the point that some companies couldn’t last any longer. The owner of Men’s Wearhouse declared bankruptcy. This is just one extreme example of when sales dip, due to the effects of Covid-19. But even without a global pandemic, companies see dips in sales all the time.
This case is a good example of how an understanding of your market’s sales can be useful. It is vital to know if your sales dip is market-wide, or if it is specific to you. When it comes to office attire, it is clear. Everyone knew what was going on. Each business knew that people were working at home, therefore, didn’t need smart clothing. Sales did rise, however, for loungewear. So, there are peaks and troughs in every business’s sales, at different points and times.
Business Without Covid-19
When you don’t have an obvious reason like a world-stopping virus affecting your sales, do some research. Find out if your competitors are doing fine. If they are, it sounds like it might be an issue with your company. Work out what that issue is. Who else is in your business? What are they doing that you’re not? Have they got something better? Are they trying something new that grabs customers’ attention? Is there a new marketing campaign they have launched? Have they broadened their reach? Do they have a blog? Is their blog on their website active?
There is a new and upcoming understanding of the usefulness of blogs. Businesses are starting to realise how valuable they can be. Having an active blog immediately gives you a better platform. A blog can bring more traffic to your site and encourage clicks to your product or service. This can then result in more sales. So, potentially think about starting a blog or uploading regularly to an existing one.
However, if your competitors seem to be in the same boat as you, try digging deeper. Is there a reason your customers are turning away? Are people no longer interested in what you have to sell? Or is there an opposing product, undercutting you, making your products seem unattractive?
Find out what is going on in your market and work from there. Knowing the field gives you a great stance in business anyway. But having a grasp of general market sales can tell you more. This way, you can stop the stress and start to make a plan.
Does Your Sales Dip Reflect Your Audience’s Interest On A Whole?
Check your social media if you have it. Are you losing followers? Does this match your sales dip? If so, you know there is an issue with the brand as a whole.
If not significantly, maybe you need something new. Being active on social media with a sales dip can be useful. Try a new style of posts with a swipe up link to your website. Or tell them about the deals you have on. What have you got to offer? Let them know. They are clearly interested in your business, as they have taken the time to follow you. Make it worth their time. What do you do next to stop those sales from dipping any lower? Get feedback.
Get Feedback
Another great way to understand why you’re seeing a sales dip is to ask your customers. Ask them for feedback. When you get the chance, see what they think. They might have a better idea of what’s going wrong than you. Sometimes as a business owner, you see things through rose-tinted glasses. This is completely normal because your business is your baby. However, when you get a new perspective, you see things through new eyes and realise things you wouldn’t without it.
You can create surveys and ask your customers to take part. If you have a mailing list and you have consent to contact them, you could use this. Make sure you are complying with GDPR Data Protection laws. It is very important to make sure whenever getting feedback from customers, or any audience, that you have full consent.
This is almost like a primary research stage. So, it is similar to my last point, but can be just as and sometimes even more useful.
Hear the voices of what your customers want to say. They might want to tell you something about your service or their experience buying from you.
What Could Be Wrong?
You might have an issue with your landing page, or checkout page etc. Therefore, an issue like this, will, of course, affect your sales. A sales dip would be an immediate effect and you want to know about this kind of issue asap. Then, you can fix it. After the fix, watch your sales rise again.
Or maybe they have stopped buying because of your actual product or service. Maybe they are finding faults. Feedback will tell you this! There is no way you want to go on not knowing these things. Find out if there are issues and take it on board. It can be a hard pill to swallow. Hearing something is wrong is hard. But, once you listen, you learn and improve. This will only help your business grow.
How Do I Get Feedback?
One way is through surveys and questionnaires. To set this up, you can use a service like SurveyMonkey. They allow you to create your own surveys.
You could provide your customers with an email address to contact. Having this will allow them to contact you in their own time. Often, customers won’t want to tell you to your face about an issue. It can be much easier to give feedback or criticism through email.
Another option is having a webpage with the option to send in comments. A review box or review page can allow people to anonymously give notes. Furthermore, this makes it even easier for them to be honest with you.
Again, please make sure you are GDPR compliant. I don’t want anyone getting in any trouble for not sticking to the rules. Customer privacy is something all businesses should really value. Building trust with customers is crucial on every level.
Work On Your Reach
Create more visibility for your brand. Get on social media if you are not already. The benefits are huge. A business with social media has a much wider reach than one without. You can keep your customers in the loop. They know what you are up to. Keeping up with new product launches or deals encourages more sales.
I’m sure you already know about how great social media is. The benefits are well known and real. Figure out a marketing strategy. Learn what works for you and your customers. Build an audience and get higher engagement levels.
If you want to know about how to create a social media strategy, read our recent blog post about it.
Another great benefit of improving your reach through social media is the cost. It can be so low! Unless you actively promote your posts, it can be totally free. So, what is there to lose? Get to know our audience. Gain feedback in comment sections or direct messages and it is completely free. They can also reach out to you this way. No need to spend time asking and waiting for that feedback.
Beyond Social Media Apps
As I previously mentioned, blogs can be a great tool. It is another thing to do when your sales dip. Using a blog is another way to reach a wider audience beyond simple social media apps. If you already have one, great. If not, think about starting one. Write about things your audience will be interested in. What are the people who would want to buy your products, interested in? This will encourage active blog readers to find your site, then your products.
If you already have a blog, start uploading consistently. This shows your audience that you are active and trustworthy. Share content about long-form topics you can’t simply post about on Instagram or Facebook. If you have a bank of knowledge and information, your audience will know you are reliable.
It is also another way to bring more people to your site. When a blog ranks highly on Google, you get more views on your site. Therefore, it is likely you will get more clicks to other pages on your site. For example, after reading a blog about your latest product launch, a reader is more likely to find your product. If you link the page it is being sold on, they can immediately find it and buy it with ease.
Use Marketing Tools
What are marketing tools? They are services that help you with your business. When your sales dip, you can turn to these for help. There is a wide range of features within the different tools. One main category is in marketing campaign tools. Another is with social media management tools. Both of these are great and have some overlap.
One thing they can do is help you understand your audience better. Social media tools can give insights into who is following your profiles. Get the age range and the genders as well as locations and even the times they are most active. All of these factors tell you more about your audience.
It can show you the demographics and help you know who your platform appeals to. This might not correspond with your target audience for your products. If this is the case, these social media and marketing campaign tools can help you learn how to get the right audience.
With the activity feature, it also allows you to post at the right time. This gives you better engagement as a higher number of people see your posts. These insights encourage interactivity, which furthermore, promotes sales.
Maybe now is not the time to invest profits you don’t have. But there are so many marketing tools that are free. Or you can try free trials if you want to get more out of your research. Lots of services offer a 14-day or 30-day free trial with their different plans. These can not only help you learn about your audience but also help you create better content. We have articles about the best marketing tools and social media management tools, so check these out.
Try Something New
When we find something that works, we stick to it. That makes sense. However, it doesn’t make sense to stick to it when your sales dip. This is a time to find things to change your approach. We are creatures of habit so this can be difficult. But you’ve got to remind yourself that you are helping your business. Plus, you can always go back. If you try something new and it fails, there’s no stopping you from returning to a technique you’ve used before.
What do I mean by try new things or techniques? As I mentioned in my last tip, you can try new things with your social media. That could be making new styles of content. Switching from infographics to videos or product placements. Think about promoting your posts if you have only ever let them reach organically. Growing your social media platforms is a new technique so many businesses are trying. And it is working. People have found such large audiences for such low costs. No bills for TV adverts or time spent collecting a marketing list.
Another change you could make is to switch up your marketing strategy. Think about offering deals if you don’t already. You could start up a loyalty scheme. Where repeat customers can build up points and earn rewards or get discounts. These kinds of offers will draw people in.
Launching new products is another way to encourage a sales dip to cease. It’s an extreme way to get new sales, but if you have something in the pipelines, consider bringing it out.
Conclusion
I hope these suggestions will help you and your business. All of these tips together should bring you out of your sales dip. But it’s important to keep at it. Try different things. Some of the tips I mentioned. All of the tips I mentioned. It’s up to you. But don’t give up. As cliché as it might sound, no one won the race by stopping at the first hurdle. Power through. You will have better days. Keep the business on track and see results.