Today, we’ll help you set up that sale. We’ll provide a guide that discusses 5 tips on setting up your sale.
Read the list, and put it to action!
What’s the purpose of your sale?
Is it to get rid of excess stock? Maybe you’re doing so to finance newer or trendier products in your niche.
Maybe you’re selling for quick profits? If so, you’re targeting tight-budgeters and bargainers who might be interested in your offers.
Or are you using that sale to market yourself?
The 3rd Option Works Best.
Selling to get rid of excess stock is a sign of desperation. It’s a sign of bad business decision-making…
Plus, getting rid of excess stock means dumping products onto the market, and for pennies. This’ll make your business look bad.
In fact, it’ll attract the wrong type of customer.
The same applies to selling for quick profit. You don’t want to get into the habit of making “frequent discounts” just to get sales.
That way, you’ll struggle to sell at your original prices.
Use Sales to Market Yourself.
It’s an opportunity to differentiate yourself from competition.
With a proper sales structure, you can attract the ideal customers who’ll see value in what you offer.
Are you doing this sale to “attract new customers”? Or, is this sale for “long-term clients”?
Defining your market is important, since it defines what you sell end of year.
The Principle.
If you’re marketing to long-term clients, you’re usually selling “quality/value pieces” but for lower prices.
The reason is, long-term clients are more familiar with your products. So they can tell quality items from shabby ones.
As for newer clients – they’re more likely to seek a bargain. Here, you can offer a wide range of products, and for larger discounts.
Example.
Maybe you run a fashion store. If so, you might have different “shirt fabrics” on sale.
Some shirts might be made of synthetic fabrics. Those tend to be cheaper. And they’ll appease bargain hunters. But they won’t appease quality buyers…
As for something slightly pricier (like fine cotton), you can choose to launch a sale for long-term clients.
Another Reason to Define Your Market.
It helps you make the necessary preparations before launching a sale.
It helps you select the “correct marketing channels” to advertise your clearance sales.
For example, you’ll market to long-term clients using email and your social media page. As for newer traffic, you might want a PPC advertising strategy.
Both strategies require time to plan. With email and social media marketing, you’re designing posts and emails to send to clients.
Plus, you’re also designing coupons to hand out for your sales.
As for PPC advertising, you need to research both local and seasonal keywords for your ads.
Remember, your current PPC budget most likely won’t cut it at this time of the year… Make sure you adjust to the market demand and competition.
This ties into the previous tip. Your target market defines the products you should put on sale.
However, there are other “product choice rules” to note. To start…
Don’t Put New Products on Sale.
New releases, or trendy products shouldn’t be in a clearance sale.
Sure, you can lower their prices slightly. But to launch them with a “major discount” is a sign of desperation.
Plus – you get your buyers used to waiting for large discounts on new releases. This is not good for business.
Don’t Sell New Season Items.
Back to the fashion example.
If summer’s coming in, you shouldn’t put summer items on sale. After all, the season is still on-going, and you’re likely to get buyers for normal prices.
Instead put “autumn” or “spring” fashion on sale.
Also, you might want to save old “non-sold collections” aside if they belong to the current season.
You might have a better chance of selling them at a normal price, than through a heavily discounted offer.
First, you need to define the time period of your clearance sale.
Will it last a week? Or maybe you’re doing it for a month, specifically for upcoming holidays?
Define the timeframe where the offers are applicable. And make sure your clients are aware of that timeframe.
Marketing Frequencies.
How often are you sending out emails (to regular clients)?
Are you doing so weekly? Or maybe you’re sending emails every 3-4 days – just to keep your audience reminded?
Also, what about the frequency of your posts and ad purchases?
Defining frequency matters. You want to advertise without spam. But at the same time, you want to remind viewers of your presence.
It should be obvious by now that “clearance sales” are for physical products – not digital ones.
And with physical products, you need a location to sell/deliver items. So you have to define those before your sale.
Delivery Times.
If you’re a local business, delivery times should be short. They need not be more than 3 days.
Any longer, and you’re probably delivering city-wide, even out of state.
Define your delivery time to your audience. Over deliver when it comes to shipping times.
Also, make sure that a “tracking system” is in place.
Why?
On a clearance sale, expect bulk buyers. And this means lots of money spent per purchase.
So naturally, buyers will worry about their shipments. They’ll want to track their purchases, which may be in the “hundreds to thousands of dollars.”
Second – Do You Have a Store?
If you do, then advertising your location is a must.
You need to provide your target market easy access to maps and photos for reference.
A page should be available on your website that showcases and describes location. You can link to it from “PPC ads” or “email/posts on social media.”
Final Tip – Be Appealing.
The previous points add structure to your end of year clearance sales. They ensure clearly defined goals that gain client trust.
From there – your focus should be on aesthetics.
Make sure you find a Digital Marketing Expert to make creative and appealing ads. You want ads that are memorable to customers, especially in graphic form!
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