Sales and Marketing Tools – Get Ready for the Flood [VIDEO]

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When Lockdown ends, and people get back to their usual routines, they will want you back. Do you know how many services people have missed while trapped in their homes? How many manicures can a single population need, after all the hand-washing and scrubbing? Can you use this to market your future services now? With the sales and marketing tools available on your SimplyBook.me booking system, you can target clients old and new by prioritising their needs.

Lockdown is well underway and with a bit of luck, and a lot of sticking to the rules of confinement, we could see some of those measures lift in the next 4-6 weeks. The key is to be ready when the news breaks.

So many people have missed appointments through lockdown, whether seemingly trivial or essential and vital to their well-being. You want to get them through your doors as soon as they and you are able.

Let them know about what you have to offer with the sales and marketing tools at your fingertips. Since no one (except China, Denmark and Austria) knows when restrictions will lift for “non-essential” businesses, you need to ensure that you can prioritise the clients most relevant to your business.

Some ideas for getting clients to come back to you:

Sell packages that have an extended expiry date

Offer priority booking to clients who buy a package before lockdown ends. 

• Use email marketing with your client list to reach old one-off visitors, and loyal regulars, to let them know you’re giving them a priority.
• Send coupons and vouchers for discounts when they buy a package.

Offer discounted memberships for your sports business, if they sign up now to your online fitness sessions.

Get new clients to shake off their lockdown pounds with you, and sign up to video classes in the meantime – so many of us will end lockdown 20lbs heavier, I’m one of them.

• Use Facebook and Instagram to reach new followers. Give examples of how to keep fit and healthy while cooped up indoors. 
• Offer your membership subscribers some tips and help while they can’t get to the gym – even if you’ve deferred all payments until lockdown ends.

Advertise discounted rates for consultation work

While people are still under lockdown measures, whether it’s legal, financial or spiritual.

• Use video calling software in conjunction with your booking system to create a virtual meeting space.
• Offer referral discounts to every client that recommends a confirmed client to your (virtual) door.

Buy now, book later

When you accept payment online

• Packages and individual services. Buy it now and don’t worry about the cost when you get here.
• People aren’t spending money on socialising, non-essential shopping, self-care, or entertainment. Buy it now, and you have something to look forward to.

What can you offer a key-worker? 

• What wouldn’t that poor nurse do for a discounted full body massage or well-deserved mani-pedi?
• Self-esteem counselling for the burnt-out police officer that’s done nothing but uphold new rules and had abuse hurled at them for it.
• Maybe even financial advice for a supermarket employee – they are still there when the rest of us are working from home and hiding from a virus.

Not only will offering discounted services to key-workers be a superbly generous thing to do, but you can also send this offer to regular clients – most of whom will know at least one public servant, it is excellent publicity if nothing else. People like businesses with a social conscience. 

There are so many ways you can use the sales and marketing tools on the SimplyBook.me platform. I’ve barely scratched the surface here. 

The crucial thing to remember is this, don’t torment your clients with things they can’t have (yet), tempt them with something that they want when this is all over.

“My roots are showing, and I need a haircut. That’s the first thing I will do when this is all over. I’ll get a manicure too, all this hand-washing has sent my hands super dry.”