Here are the five key money-makers for your business, says Kim Morrison
Inaction is the death of any business so now is the time to look at what you can do in 2021 to generate additional sales. Without taking regular action every single day to grow your business, inaction will cause your business to become stagnant. Clients will disappear, your sales funnel will be empty, and your sales revenue will dip to zero in a heartbeat.
Let’s avoid this scenario! Here are five action tasks that will lead to increased income and business growth in 2021.
1 Email your customers regularly
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is NOT dead.
Email is the easiest way to stay in touch with customers and prospects to let them know about your new offerings, products, services and promotions. However, you need to make sure you don’t just bombard your email list with sales promotions but mix them with valuable content too.
2 Focus on customer service
You’ll never please everyone but you may as well try your best. Inevitably customers will contact you with questions or refund requests so be prepared to answer these requests in a timely manner. Stick to your rules about refunds but never disregard or disrespect a customer. Negative online reviews are easier to find than positive ones.
3 Increase your prices
When was your last price increase? Are your prices competitive with the current market of businesses of your calibre? Can your ideal client still afford your new rates? Be confident that your expertise is worth that new rate and break the news carefully to your current clientele so they don’t jump ship.
4. Repackage your offerings
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Simply take your older content – books, programs, blog posts, white papers – and create new bundles or an entirely new product. The information or products should obviously be a topic that would appeal to the most people and make sure to price it accordingly.
5 Create a new offering for old clients
People buy from those they know, like, and trust, so open up your existing client list and create an exclusive offer just for them. Make the offer sexy, exclusive, and time-sensitive to get quick action
results.
How do you know what to offer?
This is an age-old question of many business owners and it boils down, as always, to knowing your target audience. How do they want their information presented? What are the hot topics in their industry? What struggles do they have every day? The simplest way to know what they want is to simply ask them.
Another reason you might not know what to offer is because you don’t have a plan, either for your business or who you want to help. Writing a business plan with action steps is imperative for business growth.
I covered the main areas you need to think about in my last article but if you’re not sure, please get in touch.
Social media news
Facebook Adds New Monetization Tools for Gaming Streamers: Facebook has added some new monetization options for gaming streamers ahead of the holidays.
Facebook Takes More Proactive Steps to Alerts Users Who've Engaged with Misinformation: Facebook will start sending users specific notifications about posts they've engaged with that have later been identified as false.
Facebook's Looking to Take on Cameo with a New Celebrity Streaming Option: Facebook is developing a new option that would enable users to pay to face time with celebrities, similar to Cameo.
Facebook Identifies New Coordinated Manipulation Efforts Originating from Russia and France:Facebook says that it's detected two new networks of foreign operatives seeking to manipulate citizens in North Africa and the Middle East.
Facebook Adds New Christmas-Themed Features to Messenger Kids: Facebook's added some fun, Christmas-themed options to its Messenger Kids platform ahead of the holidays.
Facebook's Removing its Free Access Option for Facebook Workplace: With more users signing up to its enterprise platform, Facebook is now removing its free access option for Workplace.
Facebook Expands Brand Collabs Manager to Include Facebook Groups, Adds New Group Post Options: Facebook will now list public groups in its Brand Collabs Manager to facilitate sponsored content opportunities.
Facebook's Testing an Instagram Content Calendar in its Creator Studio Tool: Facebook's testing a new feature in its Creator Studio dashboard which would provide an overview of your Instagram post activity.
FTC Launches Lawsuit Against Facebook Over Antitrust Activity: The FTC has launched a new antitrust suit against Facebook, which could lead to the break-up of Zuckerberg's social empire.
Facebook Shares Insights into Key Topics of Discussion Across Facebook and Instagram in 2020: Facebook has released its 'Topics and Trends' report for 2021, which outlines the key topics that saw increased discussion across Facebook and Instagram in 2020.
Facebook Is Updating its Approach to Hate Speech to Combat 'The Worst of the Worst' Cases: Facebook is changing its approach to hate speech in order to better address 'the worst of the worst' cases.
Facebook Is Stepping Up its Efforts to Remove COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation: With COVID-19 vaccines now being shipped, Facebook is boosting its efforts to eliminate misinformation, which could undermine public health efforts.
Instagram Tests Sharing Reels to Facebook's News Feed and Watch Listings: Instagram's looking to amplify Reels by enabling creators to cross-post Reels to Facebook as well.
Instagram Reintroduces the 'Recent' Tab in Hashtag Searches in the US: After removing the 'Recent' tab from hashtag searches in the lead-up to the US Election, Instagram has now re-added the option for US users.
Instagram Adds Shopping Tags to Reels, the Next Step in its eCommerce Push: Instagram has added shopping tags to Reels as it continues to pressure TikTok.
Instagram Launches New 'Shoppable' Christmas Catalog to Highlight its Evolving eCommerce Tools: Instagram has launched its first ever shoppablecatalog, in collaboration with fashion influencers in the UK.
Instagram Tests Adding Timers to Stories to Boost Engagement: Instagram's reportedly testing a new listing option for Stories which highlights how long they have left before they disappear.
LinkedIn Adds New 'Products' Tab on Company Pages to Highlight Specific Products: LinkedIn is adding new product showcase pages to your LinkedIn Company Page options, providing a new way to share information about your key products.
LinkedIn Begins Testing Ads in LinkedIn Stories: After launching LinkedIn Stories to all users, LinkedIn is now testing its first ads in the format.
LinkedIn Adds New Company Page Roles to Provide More Management Options: LinkedIn is rolling out some new company page roles which will provide more ways for page admins to manage their presence.
LinkedIn Provides More Market Data with New 'Sales Insights': LinkedIn is launching a new 'Sales Insights' platform to help businesses better understand emerging market shifts.
Pinterest Partners with NAACP on New Inclusion Advisory Council:Pinterest has announced the formation of a new partnership with the NAACP as it seeks to improve its diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Pinterest Adds New Board Features to Improve User Navigation: Pinterest has added some new board tools which will better enable people to search and take notes on specific Pin discoveries.
Snapchat
Snapchat Announces New, $3.5 Million AR Creator Fund to Help Fuel the Next Stage of AR Development: Snapchat has announced a new, $3.5 million AR creator fund to help power the next stage of AR development.
Snapchat's Latest Bitmoji Fashion Options Could Help it Lead the Way in the Next Big eCommerce Shift: Snapchat is working on new Bitmoji and AR integrations which could help better position it for the next big eCommerce shift.
TikTok
TikTok Updates Community Guidelines and Safety Tools to Better Protect Vulnerable Users: Ahead of the holidays, TikTok has announced a range of updates to its community guidelines in order to better protect users.
Samsung Announces New Partnership with TikTok to Bring TikTok Videos to Your Home TV: TikTok on your TV? Samsung has announced a new deal with TikTok to stream TikTok content to new TV sets.
TikTok Remains Available in US as Latest Deadline for its Forced Sale Passes: The latest deadline for the sale of TikTok to a US company has passed, yet the app remains fully available. Here's the latest on the TikTok takeover saga.
TikTok's Looking to Expand its Video Length Limit to Three Minutes: TikTok's testing a new option which would enable users to upload videos up to three minutes long, triple the current limit.
TikTok Shares Insights into its Top Creators, Clips, Trends and More:TikTok has shared insights into its best performing content of 2020, including top creators, rising stars, trends, effects and more.
Twitter Confirms the Shutdown of its Separate Periscope App in March 2021: Twitter has confirmed that it will shut down its separate Periscope live-streaming app in March.
Twitter Signs New Hosting Deal with Amazon Web Services, Which Could Help Facilitate New Updates: Twitter has signed a new deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) which should improve the speed and responsiveness of the platform.
Twitter Seeks to Provide More Brand-Safety Tools with New Ad Verification Partnerships: Twitter is working to provide more brand-safety options to reassure businesses about ad placement.
Twitter Acquires Multi-Participant Streaming App Squad, Which Enables Screen-Sharing Within Chats:Twitter has acquired multi-participant video chat app Squad, which could pave the way for new video streaming features in the app.
Twitter Outlines the Biggest Tweet Trends of 2020, Including TV Shows, Sports, People and More: Twitter has published its annual listing of key trends, including the most tweeted about celebrities, sports teams, musicians and more.
Twitter's Testing a New Option Which Would Limit Tweet Replies to Followers Only: Twitter's testing a new option which would enable users to restrict their tweet replies to followers only.
Twitter Halts Test of Threaded Replies, Shuts Down Experimental twttr App: After testing them out for over two years, Twitter has now decided that it's not going to go with threaded replies on tweets.
WhatsApp Adds New Chat Backgrounds, Including Dark Mode Specific Designs: WhatsApp has added a range of new chat backgrounds, providing new ways to customize your WhatsApp chat threads.
WhatsApp Adds 'Carts' to Further Facilitate Shopping Within Message Streams: WhatsApp is taking yet another step towards facilitating eCommerce with Carts, so users can add multiple items to a shopping order.
YouTube
YouTube Will Now Remove Videos Alleging Voter Fraud in the 2020 US Election: YouTube is taking a tougher line on claims of voter fraud and manipulation after the safe harbour deadline passes.
YouTube Outlines New Measures to Combat Hate Speech on its Platform: YouTube has outlined some new measures that it's implementing to combat hate speech.
