A company's digital presence can maximise its marketing efforts and outcomes. It can give a lot of exposure, which other factors can't. But, if you can't convert this exposure into actual sales, then it’s a sorry state of affairs.
Increasing online sales is the primary objective of countless businesses, large and small alike. Whether it’s the eCommerce giant like Amazon or the brick and mortar online store owner, converting leads to paying customers is the key to success.
Getting in front of the best prospects is necessary to be successful, yes it takes a bit of work, time, efforts, and costs slightly more but it's crucial for your business.
Thankfully, there are many ways you can make more sales online. Most of these strategies you can incorporate right away.
Value Proposition:
Always keep your value proposition in front and centre. Whatever you are selling, a product or a service, let customers know what sets your brand apart. Let's say if your products or services are priced higher than those of your competition, clearly state what makes your brand offering more valuable?
Each content page & CTA on your website should be designed to communicate and speak to your ideal buyer's needs. It should establish a connection (emotionally & practically) with your leads, and the sales team should focus on customer service rather than deal closure.
Marketing & Sales Teams Should Work Together.
Today, marketing and sales activities go hand in hand or, preferably, at times, overlap. Marketers continuously talk about how to delight customers or how vital customer experience is. Experts in the industry emphasise on integration among marketing, sales, and service departments can make or break the customer experience.
Your sales team should understand the marketing campaigns, and the marketing team should understand the sales process and the approach. It's crucial for improved customer experience. Happy customers boost sales.
Relevant content is vital.
Companies must also focus on delivering high-value and relevant content. It should align with your business objective as well as your customer's pain points. It should attract new visitors to your website and provide answers to their queries. Design content for customers in each stage of the marketing and sales funnel/cycle.
If your website currently catering to newly acquired leads only and not provides no value to warm leads & existing customers in your funnel, you may lose out an opportunity to close the deal. Create content strategically that nudges lead toward your brand offering. And if you are doing it for SEO only, then avoid creating it.
Embrace A/B testing:
A/B testing is the life and blood of your marketing strategy. Whatever efforts you are putting in your lead generation activities should be measurable. Running A/B tests allow you to assess the performance of your marketing campaigns. With A/B testing, you can determine each element such as - language, headings, CTAs, landing pages, form fills, and value proposition. And then, based on the outcomes, formulate a strategy that brings the best results. Focus on what echos with your audience to see improved sales ROI from digital activities.
Nurture Leads:
Support a customer throughout his journey instead of pushing the sale on a suspected prospect. Use email, mobile messaging, interactive webinars, and online chat to your advantage to maintain personalised engagement. It encourages the prospect to close the deal themselves.
Engage with happy customers:
Customer satisfaction is utmost important, and it's non-negotiable. The role of your marketing strategy is to delight a prospect, a warm lead and an existing customer at every stage in their customer journey. Customers who engage with companies over social media spend 20 -40% more money with those companies than other customers.
Online reviews, testimonials, and interactive data also cater to boost sales and enhance ROI. Leaving a review on a webpage or a product should be as easy and painless as possible for your existing customers. Make sure they do not have to go through a long process to write a review, they won't.
Listen and Pay Attention:
See if you can hear the real pain and problems which your products or service can solve. Instead of focusing on your goals, listen to what your lead is implying. Maybe there's an underlying problem, which they do not speak directly about?
Use Lead data to Improve:
Use your online lead data to see which parts of your sales funnel that are leaking leads. Update and monitor data dashboards regularly to assess your progress.
Digital Marketing is much more than just generating leads. Digital marketing today is all leveraging digital presence, lead-nurturing, and personalised engagement opportunities for improved ROI.
