If you are a small business owner, you have probably started to notice what is happening in the national, state and even local economy as of August 2022. News networks are reporting that layoffs are starting to occur in particular industries, the housing market is starting to shift back to the buyer’s favor and everyday items continue to be more expensive to purchase every day. With the economy slowing and cost per acquisition rising, engaging customers at scale is critical. As a business owner, how do you react when consumers are obviously seeing the same news and are beginning to change their spending habits? There is no need to panic because when interest rates have to rise in order to combat inflation& there are cyclical events that typically take place.
What we do know is that consumer spending is still taking place because consumers are flush with cash and continue to have an appetite for purchases of all types. The cost of borrowing has gone up, but consumers tend to reallocate from “want” to “must have”. As a small business owner, depending on what products and services you offer, consumers are going to look to you to help them increase their purchasing power. Depending on your current contribution and profit margins, there might be wiggle room to offer a discount to your new and current customers. Consumers are typically drawn to discounts on your products and services in order to increase their purchasing power. Offering a discount can also incentivize your current customers to recommend your business to their contacts in order to help them save money as well. This is accompanied with the expectation that your business offers a great customer experience.
How do we get the word out, other than through advertising through normal communications channels, about discounts being offered when the economy is in a perceived downturn or decline? Let customers get the word out for you through their social media, sms and email. What we do know is that consumers love to share info especially when they know of a great small business that others might enjoy shopping and even more so when a discount is offered. What better way to do this than by offering a referral marketing program. The traditional word of mouth is a great tried and true avenue but incorporating technology and social media creates an even more viral channel to get the word out about your business. As mentioned in previous blogs, giving your customer a frictionless and easy to digital tool for them to communicate with your company and others is the ideal way to get the word out faster and more reliably. Digital referral marketing can have a tremendous effect on your company’s brand awareness and brand exposure whether in a good or bad economic climate.
The goal with any referral marketing program is to give consumers a frictionless tool that allows them to easily view and share campaigns that you have created and reward consumers who share your campaigns with others. Being able to track referrals and referral rewards is vital to understanding who has been made aware of your business and your offerings. Give consumers a tool to review your business profile, such as your business location and even pictures of your products and services, when first introducing yourself. Consumers can tell, even with only a brief introduction, whether or not they might want to do business with you. Consumers rely a lot on others’ opinions pertaining to whether or not you are referral worthy.
The Mission of Dealium is to create a centralized marketplace for both Small Business Owners and Consumers to congregate to see great referral offers and to see information about Small Businesses in relevant communities that offer great customer experiences. So when the economy seems like it is starting to contract or slowdown, it is important to also show new and existing customers that you are in their corner, and you are willing to help the maintain their purchasing power in difficult economic times.
If you are a small business owner and currently don’t have a referral marketing program, Dealium is an ideal digital marketing tool that is affordable, frictionless, value-added and truly helps improve your brand awareness and brand exposure. For about $6.75 a day, your small business can have a powerful app-based referral marketing program even without the need of a business website, expertise in setup and maintaining and even tracking new referrals.
Dealium is a cloud-based SaaS Digital Referral Marketing & Customer Engagement platform that integrates referral code sharing technology, SMS, Email & popular social media platforms. Dealium helps create brand awareness, brand exposure & new customer acquisition opportunities for our small business subscribers.
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