My first year in business was seriously the most emotionally challenging year of my life, ha ha. But seriously. I think back to my college days where I paid around $40,000 in tuition and fees (yes, I realize that is ridiculously low — I worked my butt off to get in on a scholarship) and the lessons and material I learned there doesn’t even come the tiniest bit close to what I learned in just my 1st year of business. Dead serious.
Don’t get me wrong— I loved my entrepreneurship classes and learned A TON from each of them (ie, don’t start up a Valentine’s Day confectionery business with 3 boys. Lesson learned.) But sometimes just jumping in and figuring it out as you go is the best way to learn.
Here are 3 of THE BEST things I did for my business during that first year. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and I certainly didn’t start doing these things because I “knew” they would work— I just tried a heck of a lot of different things and these seemed to be some of the best ones that I implemented— and definitely brought me major $$$ in return!!
So without further ado…
1. Encourage your customers to tag you on Instagram and Facebook.
Initially, if a former customer would share a photo of their child with a LittleHighbury product on social media, I would send them a free headband.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Boy did I learn a lot from that! I still get flustered when I think about how much free product we sent out with that promo! Now, I just send them a simple note encouraging them to share their photos so that I can see their precious babe’s modeling our products. You’d be surprised how much people want to show off new stuff they’ve ordered, even without a free-item incentive!
This tip is seriously genius because you are essentially having people pay you for the product and they do some free marketing for you! It’s a win-win for both parties involved, and it can help your product reach some new eyes that are looking to buy exactly what you sell. Hooray for free (and effortless!) marketing!
2. Consistently add new product.
Note that this is not “constantly.” You will burn out if you are constantly adding new product. It’s a worthy goal, for sure, but it’s not nearly as important as adding product on a consistent basis. There is a reason that major fashion companies come out with multiple lines each year (winter, spring, summer, fall) — it keeps their customers coming back to check up on new offerings, and thus, keeps the company fresh in their customer’s mind.
I find it is SUPER helpful to create a calendar with “due dates” for product drops— or else they will almost always be pushed back/forgotten. And while I’d love to recommend a snazzy program for this, I am absolutely 100% a post-it note type of girl 🙂 I try and keep it flexible about which product I drop on that particular date, but always make sure that I at least add something. This doesn’t have to be a completely new line of product— it can be as simple as a color update on a graphic design print (offering more choices!) or bundling some pre-existing product together and create a specific purchase listing for that (which is an awesome way of upselling a customer!)
3. Send a thank you note to your customers.
Perhaps my #1 tip— send out a thank you convo (or email) to every single person I sold to. This is SO easy and SO often overlooked. I simply created a draft of a thank you letter that I could send to every buyer I received. It simply thanked them for their order, gave them an estimated delivery time frame, and encouraged them to share their pictures on social media and tag @littlehighbury in them. Super easy, just cut + paste as a conversation to each buyer. I would customize it with their name at the beginning (just pulled from the order information) just to make it seem more personalized.
The best thing about thanking a customer is that you have now made a personal connection with them. You already know they are interested, since they purchased your product, so the likelihood of them purchasing more is not that unlikely. With a personal connection, they are that much more likely to remember you and the super awesome shop owner that you are!
I receive SO many replies back to these emails thanking me for taking the time to write to them and keep them updated. Seriously. It is one of the reasons I believe I have a 50% return rate on previous customers.
So there you have it— 3 of my top tips for hitting your major revenue goals this year! Any tips you swear by with selling product? Jot them down below— I can’t wait to see them!
xoxo
