Graham McGregor: The 7 day revenue booster

There are simple ways to boost your revenues in the next seven days. Photo / 123RF

A few days ago I received an interesting letter in the mail from a local electrician I had used a few times.

The letter said that it was good practice to have the alarm system for our home serviced every 3 years or so and gave some reasons why it would be worthwhile to have this done before the end of February.

I worked out that to post a letter like this probably cost around $1.25 with postage and an envelope. And that if it went to 100 existing customers and only 10 customers said 'yes' to the alarm servicing offer up it would earn this electrician over $1,350 in new revenues with very little effort. (And the cost to promote this offer would be only $125.)

Which brings me to my marketing column for this week.

I call it The 7 Day Revenue Booster' because I want to talk about some simple ways to boost your revenues in the next seven days.

Here are three ideas you may like to test in your own business.

1. Give your customers an attractive reason to spend more money

Contact 25 or more existing customers who like your business and have spent money with you in the last 90 days.

Give these 25 customers an attractive reason to spend more money with your business. (It could be a Customer Appreciation Offer to show how much you value their business for instance.)

I find that an offer that includes an attractive bonus (with high perceived value that doesn't cost you very much) can often work very well.

Example:

I purchased a training programme recently that included a bonus that was easily worth (to me) 10 times the price I paid.

The bonus was delivered online and cost the business that gave it away no money to give it at no cost. And by giving this great bonus (which was only available for 3 days) they quickly gained a large amount of new sales from people like me.

2. Create a Premium Version of one of your most popular services

Create a 'Premium Version' of one of your services and offer this to 100 or more of your existing customers.

I saw an interesting example of this a few years ago when I needed an urgent repair done on my computer.

When I dropped it off at the computer repair shop I had two choices. For a fee of $X I could have my computer looked at some time in the next 8 hours to identify what the problem was. And then work could start on fixing it.

Or for an extra $50 on top of this fee I could have my computer looked at within the next hour. And then work could start on fixing it. (The premium version of this service was speed in this case. However it could easily have been something else.)

In my case, the repair was urgent so I took the premium service and I had my computer back and working well in the next 4 hours.

Here's the good news: If you go to a number of your happy clients and customers and offer them a premium version of something they have purchased in the past, a number of these people will often say 'yes' to your offer and give you more money.

3. Offer something useful from another business

With this strategy you go to a number of your existing customers and give them an attractive offer on behalf of another business. You then get a share of the revenues of any sales that this produces.

The key to this strategy is to first of all make sure the business you recommend provides great products and services. Then make sure that the offer you recommend from this other business is something that many of your customers will find useful.

Example:

If you own a dog grooming business you may find that a number of your clients might appreciate a special offer on a 'doggie day care' service.

Summary:

Each of these three strategies is very simple to put into action. And could easily produce a nice revenue boost for your business in seven days or less.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." Andrew Jackson

Take Action:

Try one or more of these revenue boosting strategies in your own business and see how well they work. If you like the results try these strategies again.

Helpful Resource: If you sell to businesses and have 100 or more business clients ask me for a copy of 'The B2B 7 Day Revenue Booster'. This short guide explains how to create an extra $1,500 to $5,000 of brand new profits in less than 7 days. Just contact me using the email link in this column.

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com.