Really simplistically, business is all about one thing and that is sales. It doesn’t matter what the business is or does, it needs to have a steady stream of sales. This is usually accomplished through advertising and marketing to attract prospects. So for one thing whether it is doing great or not so much, you need to be fairly aggressive at all times to promote it through advertising and marketing including organic strategies like blogging, linking, etc.
The higher the volume of sales, the more profit you make. Notice the word profit? That comes from sales but only if you are not spending too much money to run your business. You do need to be aware of how much you are spending to advertise, market and administer your business. Again real obviously you need to generate sales that exceed your expenses in order to realize a profit.
So it is not always the best thing to do to incur a lot of expense exclusively to bringing in new business. Although there should be some resources dedicated both ways, the leads and prospects you already have in your system should be encouraged to convert to a sale. In other words don’t ever write them off because they haven’t yet responded by transacting a sale. Wait a little while and then send them something new.
Once you have their contact information you should really concentrate as much as you can on showing them that the products or services that you are offering are just what they need or want, and can solve their problem, whatever it is. There is a science to email marketing in that there are better days and times of day when people are more receptive to email. So you might track this and try different ways.
As well, there are differences in rate of deliverability of emails with regard to sending plain text or HTML messages. While on one hand HTML is much more dynamic and attractive, you should also send plain text as it may be more likely to be opened and read. Of course the reputation of your autoresponder provider is of key importance in getting value for your dollar. You want to make sure that your mail gets delivered and preferably not to their spam folder.
A good copywriter can make a big difference in dictating how your messages are received by your prospects both old and new. You want to have content that is somewhat creative and dramatic enough to compel the prospect to make a purchase. Keep it business-like but yet friendly casual and interesting.
You should periodically check out your own business to see how your strategies are working. Consider each of the points above and make sure to ‘dot your i’s and cross your t’s’. Naturally if there are new things you can add to your arsenal, research them and see if it is possible for you to add them to what you are already doing (or even to replace something you are doing that does not appear to have much response over time).
