Want continued sales after Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

Congratulations!

I hope you had a profitable Black Friday - Cyber Monday 2018. How was it? Did you get sales and a host of new customers and email subscribers? Now that the sales are in, let's make sure that you have repeat customers in the future. Here are 4 Tips to Continue Sales AFTER Cyber Monday WITHOUT Pushing A Sale!

Listen, you've been pushing sale after sale down your customers' throats for the past few days and not just you, the entire retail and service industry! Sales from Black Friday alone pulled in over $6 billion from online orders this year. Your customers don't want to see another sale or promotion, but that doesn't mean you can't persuade them to shop in other ways. 

The 4 tips below will share how to continue your sales by focusing on providing the best customer experience and interaction with your brand. By showcasing a valuable customer experience, you'll have repeat customers without sounding like a used car salesman. 

Did you know? 55% of consumers today are willing to pay more if they are guaranteed a good experience. 

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1. Have nice packaging. Understand that if you have a physical product, shipping your customers' orders on time is basics 101. Your orders from Black Friday actually could've started going out on Cyber Monday because the Post Office was open, but I'll let you slide if you're waiting until today.

Now to make a lasting impression, try these tips: 

Package their items with care. Ensure clothing is folded nicely and lays flat. Do not roll up their clothes or throw them in the shipping bags sloppily. Wrap the clothing and accessories in tissue paper. If you don't have tissue paper, go to the Dollar Tree and get some! 

Include a Thank You note. Hand-written thank you notes are still appreciated and create a special experience for your shoppers. They know that writing a note takes time, so they will appreciate that you took time out to write a note just for them. (Just make sure you have good penmanship.)

If you can afford to, include a small surprise. Maybe you have a lot of inventory of an item that hasn't sold (and probably won't sell), so just add it in as a freebie and write a quick note telling them you included an extra surprise. 

Include a discount card. If you can print off a quick discount card, you can add it to the package. If you don't have time to print off cards, you can write the code on your hand-written thank you note. 

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2. Set up a nice e-mail flow. Now, I know you've gotten plenty of email address over the past few days and now we're about to really put them to work. Here are some "non-salesy" emails you should be sending out after your customers have shopped with you:

Thank you e-mail. Send a thank you email to all of your subscribers that shopped with you between Black Friday- Cyber Monday and thank them for their purchases. Let them know how much it means to you to have them as a valued shopper.

How do you like your purchase e-mail? About a week after your customer has received their item(s), ask them to leave a review of the product. These reviews serve 2 purposes: for testimonials and product research. Don't be upset if you get a negative review. That's ok. Use it as a learning opportunity to improve your products/service.

Show us your style e-mail. A few days after that, ask your customers to post a pic of them with your products on social media. Let them know that the best pics will be reposted. This creates free advertisement for your products and builds a closer relationship with the customers you repost. Everyone loves to be shared :)

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3. Respond to all inquiries. If customers have sent emails, DMs, comments, etc... respond to each and every one of them and take your time responding. Don't be dismissive or quick to answer. Actually, read and empathize with their question and respond politely and professionally (and with correct grammar) Even if it's a stupid question, still respond appropriately. Remember, bad news travels fast. So don't let a bad email create an opportunity for a customer to post on social media and say they had a horrible experience. 

Did you know? After just a single negative experience, 51% of today’s customers will never do business with that business again.

4. Be social on social media! Now that you've got new followers and probably reinvigorated your current followers, let's keep them engaged. This means you need to be sharing valuable content daily. Valuable content doesn't mean posting "Buy Now" or "Shop Now". Valuable content means understanding what your audience feels is valuable. For instance, as an online clothing retailer, your audience may find value in styling tips, knowing what celebrity wore what, what trends are popular this season, how to dress up their favorite sweater, etc... Posts like this allow your customers to see you as a resource and build trust in your brand.

Whatever social platform you're posting on, you should be sharing picture posts and video posts. Videos get more engagement, so I need to some videos on your social pages. Also, followers engage more when they see an actual person. So let's see your pretty face in some of those videos. In addition to posting, be sure to respond to comments, like your followers' posts, leave comments on their posts. This lets them know that you see them as a person and not just as a sale or a follower.  

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What's great about the tips above is that you didn't actually promote one thing but they can still create sales for you. Since these are already your current customers, they know how to shop with you, all they need is a reminder to do so. Sending out frequent emails and being active on social media creates a trigger to remind them to go shop with you. Now of course, you should still be sending out your sale emails and posting your products on social, but every email/post should not be a push for a sale. Focusing on customer service and a great brand experience will create lifelong customers and not just a one-time sale. 

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Reminder: Just because Black Friday - Cyber Monday has ended, that doesn't mean you get lazy. What's your game plan for December? Christmas is weeks away, followed by New Years. Your time before Christmas should be spent executing your marketing and customer engagement strategy for the month of December. It shouldn't be the week of Christmas before your customers hear from you again. 

As always, I hope you found this post helpful for your boutique business. If you have any questions please email info@theboutiqueconsultant.com and if you want to book a consult to get your strategies going for December, click here.