Many businesses are already on the way to generating their target number of leads. But all too many are wasting £millions of potential revenue by not implementing fundamental retail conversion strategies.
We see it all too often. Businesses will concentrate their full efforts on attracting new leads and prospects, and then expect potential consumers to convert overnight on their own.
Lead Nurturing is a concept you should already be familiar with. This is how to get more sales from your consumer enquiries through a structured, B2C, relationship-building process. If the concept is new to you, click here for how to nurture your leads 101.
Secret #1 HOW TO USE THE RETAIL CALENDAR FOR EFFECTIVE LEAD CONVERSION
This is one of the most fundamental concepts behind a successful conversion strategy. It’s evident within every purchasing landscape yet so many businesses are failing to take advantage of the seasonal conversion factors that are guaranteed to help them increase their sales.
A couple of seasonal consumer statistics
- Every household spent an average of £821 over Christmas last year, totalling a nationwide spend of over £20billion (YouGov)
- Last year’s Black Friday was one of the most successful on record, with UK shoppers spending an estimated £810million (Experian)
- almost 15% of Cyber Monday sales are achieved through email marketing
If it’s obvious that consumers are heavily affected by seasonality and established calendar dates, why aren’t more businesses taking full advantage of the conversion potential?
How to use the retail calendar as a conversion tool
Using the retail calendar is about more than just sending your leads a discount code the weekend before Christmas.
Particular dates benefit particular industries. The first step is to identify which calendar dates you can harness to help you convert your leads.
For example, technology companies traditionally dominate Black Friday whilst beauty products won out on Cyber Monday 2014. Expensive, wish-list, hobby and personal items are ones which are best to promote on traditional ‘discount dates’. Generally speaking, most home, garden and furniture companies will keep their marketing efforts concentrated on seasonal occasions; such as using late winter or early Spring to promote DIY or makeover products – some of the most popular times to do so.
Once you know which calendar dates suit your business and your conversion goals, you must commit time and resources to developing a strategy that aims to build a natural trust between you and your potential customers. Click here for a basic template of how to structure a Lead Nurturing process.
Most Leads will need to have been contacted by you a few times before they are ready to buy. Building trust and engaging consumers in a natural, flexible and TIMELY way is core to them following your eventual call-to-actions.
THE RETAIL CALENDAR GOLDEN RULE
The run-up to the calendar date is more important than the date itself.
Using every available tool in your arsenal is key to maximising your conversion rate – following seasonal trends and using the retail calendar is a simple yet highly effective method to help convert more of your leads.
Look out for more conversion tips and insights to follow and if you have any questions on how to build/grow your own leads database, contact us here.
