If you are a business owner trying to increase your profit margin, the goal is to sell more of your product at the highest price possible. In reality though, it is not always that simple. To entice new customers, you might need to reduce prices, which will obviously reduce profit margins. Another avenue might be to offer deals online. Is it worth doing this? Well, The Deal Experts certainly think so. They explain that by offering the best deals online you are more likely to attract new business. Here’s how it works:
Attracting New Customers
The most important thing for a new business is to be visible; one of the best ways a business can do this is making use of deals online. Offering discounts means that people will be more likely to buy your products or services. Everyone loves a bargain, right?
You can use deal sites to advertise your products or services. While you will need to pay a percentage to the deal site and you will more than likely have to offer your products at a significantly reduced price, the benefits can be massive. You will instantly gain more exposure, meaning you are likely to attract new business.
Take the Hit
It might pain you to offer products or services at cost price but believe us when we say that it is worth the hit for the potential it offers. Now here’s the important part; you need to be clever about it. What do we mean? Offer the discount only for a specific number of products or for a set period of time.
For example; if you have a product or service that you want to push, you could initially offer it at 50% off. Remember that of the 50% that you do make, you will have to pay the deal site a percentage. But if your product or service is good, you could soon see repeat customers. If the customer likes what you are selling and is happy with the customer service you have provided, he/she is more likely to come back in the future. You might even find that as well as the discounted product, they take a look around your website and end up buying other items while there.
Think Outside the Box
As well as using deal sites, you could offer discounts to select groups of people. If you have a deal running on a product or service through a deal site, you can expect more visitors to your website. Think creatively and take advantage of this by highlighting other offers you are doing. Maybe you could offer a 10% discount to the elderly on a Wednesday or give serving members of the military a discount on a Friday. The type of discounts and the groups that they apply to will be entirely up to you, but by doing this you can expect word of mouth to spread. Your reputation will get a boost, which is bound to increase sales.
Reward Customer Loyalty
Attracting new customers is important but don’t forget about existing customers. Loyalty programs help to reward repeat business and are a fantastic way to boost business and profits.
Use Deals Carefully
It is important to create a planned strategy when using deals to boost profits. Discounts and deals can help to generate more business, but if you are not careful it could get to the stage where you only ever make any money when you have a deal on. The idea is to get people interested and coming back repeatedly, not to train your customers to wait for offers.