The Most Cost Effective Strategy to Boost Sales for SMEs

An open letter to SME owners. Here is the most cost effective strategy to boost your sales this year. Dear SME owners: If this is something you can relate to: “I’m not getting enough leads for my business. Operating costs are high, I can’t seem to grow my sales and I don’t have much control over it.” Then I encourage you to read this article completely because it will matter a lot to you. The sentiments above is a problem many SMEs face today. Why is this so? Here’s why: As an SME owner, you have many competitors, be it bigger or smaller than yourself. So you try to beat your competitors everyday. You can run a Google ads campaign, but the truth is: so can your competitors.  You can create a Facebook page: so can your competitors. You do newspaper ads or hand out flyers: so can your competitors. However, by utilizing a captivating flyer template, you can elevate your promotional efforts and stand out from the crowd. And the worst part? Some of your competitors can offer their products or services at a lower price or with a better offer. So how can you compete? This is a never-ending struggle for growth. The very simple reason why you are struggling to see the kind of sales growth you want to see, is in layman terms, due to lack of branding. With proper branding, everything changes. You see, the most successful local SMEs today all succeeded and flew ahead of their competitors because they have established a brand. Think of companies like Yakun, BreadTalk, Osim, Tung Lok, Thai Express, Bakerzin, the list goes on. We all know these brands for something specific they do or stand for, and that is why they experience continued success till today no matter if new competitors enter the market.

1. “Woah branding… so expensive”

That is true. The usual branding activities offered by branding agencies cost 6 figures at least and most SMEs will not be able to afford them. But what if there was a solution to create branding more affordably? Like 5 times less the cost of a normal branding campaign? As it turns out, there is. We call it strategic social media marketing. I can understand that when you think about social media marketing, you think of things like posting random Facebook posts, and running a $50 Facebook ad now and then – things that even your mother can do for you.

2. STOP.

You are completely wrong. And if you continue to think that way, you will continue to experience slow sales growth. Here is the truth about social media or Facebook you need to know:

1. Facebook is the most cost-effective branding tool on the planet due to its ability to consistently communicate with customers
2. You can post graphics and videos that build your brand (pictures and videos capture attention and tell stories)
3. You can run ads to exactly the people you want to target at any given time and generate customers on demand if done right (I know because I have helped SMEs generate over $1000,000 in sales from Facebook)
4. You can find out who your best customers (the ones who pay you the most are), and reach out to these people at a lower cost

And you can do all of this without the budget of a big branding campaign. The important thing to keep in mind is that Facebook is a medium for communication with customers. And constant communication will allow you to build a power brand if you know what you are doing. If you don’t believe me think about all the brands you know. Why do you know these brands? Because you see and hear about them all the time! Usually for one specific thing they do or believe in. For SMEs, Facebook gives you this power – to appear in front of your customers all the time for a cheaper cost than ever before. So how do you manage a Facebook page that builds your brand and generates sales automatically?

1. You need to know how are you different from your competitors, and why customers should choose you
2. You need to produce content frequently around your brand values and unique difference
3. You need to spend some money promoting these content
4. You need to spend some money running ads to sell your stuff

Yes, you still need to spend money. Do not think otherwise. Facebook needs to make money. So in order to succeed in Facebook you need to spend money. There’s no escaping it. But the amount you spend can be a fraction of what it would cost to do a branding campaign without being much less effective. Here is a concrete example. M3 Studio is an interior design firm with 47,000 fans on Facebook. They get almost all their clients from Facebook. They post engaging content on Facebook about their work, and interior design tips at least twice a week. And guess what this achieves in the mind of their clients? They become interior design experts because their clients constantly get educated by them. And because they keep appearing in their client’s Facebook news feed, their clients think of M3 Studio any time they want to redesign their home. Just because they keep appearing with good content. Education is the name of the game. Constantly educate, constantly post the right kinds of content, measure effectiveness, build trust, then sell your products. Your customers will buy because they keep seeing you around and they trust you. It works. This is probably the most cost effective way to build a brand in the digital world we live in today, will give you an edge over your competitors, and can grow your sales year after year. If you found what I have shared interesting, then you might be interested to find out more about our social media marketing services to help you in building a successful business and digital campaign. Get in touch with us today!