7 Free Incentives that Will Boost Your Sales

Incentives can be a valuable tool to give your sales a boost after a slow period. Whether it's the January blues or just a difficult month for your team, giving customers more reasons to buy from you is a sure-fire way to get your team over the hill.

However, offering big financial incentives may not be the best approach. It'll jeopardize your bottom line and could also carry a substantial risk if you're not convinced whether customers will actually convert.

1. Customer reviews

Thinking about the way you structure your website and, more importantly, where your customer reviews are, can be an easy but effective way to boost more sales. This free incentive allows potential leads to see how already-converted consumers have found their experience with you. It may seem like something small but it's a fantastic way to get people taking the leap to convert.

2. Recommend a friend offers

Send a newsletter or email to your repeat customers giving them an offer off future products if they recommend a friend who buys your service or product. Although this isn't absolutely free, as you'll need to honor the incentive amount, it is incredibly low risk. Customers are much more likely to recommend you if they have a reason to do so, besides a positive experience, and you'll have the boost of new business by the time you need to pay them their discount.

3. Special services

Whether you can offer priority treatment or 'membership' benefits like out-of-hours contact, giving customers a reason to be loyal can help boost your sales. More importantly than this though, they're likely to continue to increase your sales over a longer period time than short-term, one-off deals you can offer. 

4. Charity donations

In a more socially-conscious world, consumers are increasingly being swayed by companies who have strong ethics or are giving something back to the community. Have a special product where you give 5% of all sales to a chosen charity or have a certain period where you'll donate X amount for every service sold. This is a great way of increasing your sales and, although its money in a charity's bank rather than your own, you can get considerable tax breaks on any charitable donations.

5. Free consultation

Offering potential customers a bonus for signing up over a specific period is a great way to make them convert. For service providers, this can be a little more complicated but free consultations can be an effective way to give customers something of value without spending a penny. The only thing you have to invest is the cost of time with one of your team.

6. Bulk order incentives

If you want to boost your sales, targeting customers who are thinking about buying multiple items or services for a number of people, can be a straightforward way to see your profits go up. Even a small percentage off the total cost can be a significant enough incentive to persuade customers to make a purchase from you.

7. Offer samples

Product-focused businesses can offer samples to prospective customers to persuade them to buy a new product, but service providers can also benefit from a similar system. You can give leads who enter some of their details, a free template or the link to an eBook preview. These small incentives can be enough to persuade customers to go to the next stage in the buyer cycle but it also gives you information to follow up.