'Tis the Season to Market

Design Gift Ideas for all budgets, large and small.

Develop product gift ideas to fit budgets large and small. For example, "Gifts under $10", "Gifts under $50", "Gifts under $100". You get the idea…make it easy for them to find the right gift. Making it easy makes it more likely.

Create holiday bundles.

Along those same lines, if you can, create holiday bundles. You know, pre-packaged items like soaps and shampoos, fruit and cheeses or vitamins and health supplements. Holiday packages are top sellers because it takes the thinking out of gift buying. If you can't physically bundle, virtually bundle by offering a gift certificate that your customers can buy and give as gifts. They are your customer because they like your products. I'm sure they think others will like your products too.

Give customers the info they seek.

Did you know many holiday shoppers buy their gifts on the phone and after normal business hours? Who has time during busy work days? Your FreedomVOICE information extensions will really help you because they let your customers get details about your products and promotions when it's convenient for them. Someone calls at 3a.m. and bingo! He gets what he needs. No hassles. The goal here is to give them enough so they don't move down the phone list to your competition. Note: you can also give them ways to take action by combining fax back - allowing customers to have your promotional materials automatically faxed to them - or automatic order taking with any of the information extensions. With automatic order taking, you can program your system to ask as many questions to complete the order as needed.

Don't miss a single sale.

Even if you're out doing your holiday shopping, your customers can reach you with your phone system's Follow-Me Call Forwarding feature. And, you can add your home phone to your call forwarding list for after hours calls and use the Call Announce feature to decide if you want to take the call.

Put your customers in the holiday spirit.

With your phone system, it's easy. Just add seasonal on-hold music or record special holiday offers they hear while on hold. Or do both. See, what you're really doing is making it pleasant and worthwhile for your customers to call. That experience often makes callers want to buy from you. We've all heard about the surveys that show customers want to do business with companies that treat them right.

Be charitable.

What are the holidays for except to share. How about donating part of every sale to a charity or needy organization? Customers like to do business with a company who cares. Are you that company? By the way, at FreedomVOICE, every month we give to a number of important charities including Rady's Children's Hospital, the San Diego Naval Hospital and Water for Sudan. More on that later.

Give your customers a reason to buy from with you.

Like volume discounts. We've all heard them… "buy 2, get 1 free" and "25% off for orders over $100". With the right offers, your customers might see you as their one-stop shop for holiday gifts.

Personalize your holiday cards.

And I don't mean make them a "Hallmark Moment". I mean send holiday cards to every current and potential customer with maybe a little handwritten sentence or two to personalize it. If you want to really make an impression, get customized cards with your company name, logo and perhaps your photo. They're a great way to strengthen the relationship with your customers. And, they keep you top of mind when those customers reach for their wallets this holiday season.

Have a post-holiday sale.

With so much holiday hype and advertising going on, a lot of small businesses become invisible. But wait…here's another winning idea! Make your biggest seasonal promotion after New Year's when there is less chaos and the chance of reaching your audience is much greater. The holiday rush is over and they can concentrate on your great offers.

Give a free gift.

"Free Gift" still works. Talking with a friend the other day, he mentioned that in tests of referral programs, the program that performed best wasn't the one that gave the customer 60 days free or the one that gave the referee 60 days free, but instead was the one that gave both the customer and the referee 30 days free. Maybe holiday shopping follows the same psychology? If the giver benefits as well, maybe they're more likely to buy.

In one of the tips above, I talked about using the information extensions on your phone system to get your product messages to off-hour callers. You likely have this feature but in case you don't, I'd like to offer it to you free for 30 days. It's really cool! You can create menu-driven audio brochures to promote your holiday specials and give the caller a bunch of ways to take action. There's no limit to the number of recordings and menus. Call Customer Service at 800-477-1477 ext. 2 or simply click here to go to your WebLINK login and add it to your account.

Well, that about wraps up this issue. See you next month with more tips and ideas to help your business grow. Until then...

All the best,

Eric Thomas
Founder & CEO
FreedomVOICE Systems

FREE Ultimate Sales Tool!

Try our Information Extensions FREE for 30 days.

Create menu-driven audio brochures to promote your holiday specials. Unlimited number of recordings and menus allow your customers to find just what they need, 24/7.

Call Customer Service at 800-477-1477 ext. 2 or simply click here. You'll be directed to your WebLINK login to add this product offering to your account.