If you’re like most of us, you want to sell more products on your website. As a business owner or marketer, you know that there are countless ways to reach your target audience and improve sales. In fact, there are so many strategies that it can feel overwhelming at times.
It’s easy to lose sight of your goals and end up in a position where you’re not sure what to do next. We know how frustrating this situation can be, and we want to help.
Today, our goal is to take some of the confusion out of the equation and share some of the ways we dramatically increased our sales last year. The tips outlined today will cover several worthwhile strategies, so you’re bound to find helpful information you can bring back to your business, regardless of your industry.
Let’s start by talking about one of the oldest and most effective digital marketing strategies around; email marketing.
Restructure Your Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to sell more products. Over 4 billion people use email, and that number is growing each year. The thing is, your email strategy needs to evolve over time if you want it to scale with your ever-expanding lead list.
When you first started creating email campaigns, they were likely sent out to all of your subscribers at once. While blast emails can be effective in some situations, targeted emails tend to have a much higher conversion rate.
There are several ways you can start segmenting your audience for more effective email marketing. The first thing you should do is create a way for new subscribers to self-segment.
We like to add optional questions to our signup forms. These questions give us valuable information about the needs of each subscriber. For instance, we tried asking users why they think they need our product or service. This information helped us determine what kind of content and offers we should send in the future.
You can also send questionnaires to your existing subscribers. Let them know that the purpose of your survey is to personalize their experience, and most people will participate. Use what you learn to develop targeted campaigns, which will eventually lead to more sales.
Prioritize Social Selling
Next, let’s talk about social selling. There’s an excellent chance that you have various social media accounts for your brand. The question is, are you using these platforms to their full potential so you can maximize your sales and engagement?
Social selling is the act of using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to find, connect, and nurture prospects. Simply sharing every time you have a promotion or new product isn’t enough. You have to get involved in various conversations taking place across well-known groups and your social media profiles.
The best way to get involved and show your worth is by offering help to potential customers. You can resolve common pain points and help your audience reach their goals through your content and products. If your goal is to nurture your leads and show them the value of your brand, you should start by creating and sharing content or engaging with potential customers when you see their comments.
If you’re curious about what kind of content performs best on social media, the answer is video. A whopping 43% of consumers say they want more video content from brands. You can choose to upload premade videos or host live events. Think about your audience’s goals, interests, and needs, and create videos that focus on these factors. If you put your audiences’ needs first, they are more likely to visit your website and eventually become customers.
When you consider that 3.96 billion people use social media, it’s clear that social selling will continue to play a prominent role in how online businesses sell to their customers.
Improve Your SEO Ranking
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a prominent role in the growth of your business. We all use search engines like Google to find products and information every day. Quickly think about what you would do if you needed to troubleshoot an issue with your car. You would likely use Google or YouTube, right? You’re not alone. A whopping 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine.
Much like email and social media marketing, SEO tactics have changed drastically over the last several years. However, the baseline definition, which is to boost traffic and sales by optimizing your site for search engines, remains the same.
The differences boil down to how we optimize our website to rank for specific keywords and phrases. Tactics like researching competitor keywords are still effective, but you need to add more to your strategy.
For example, voice search has opened up brand new doors for business owners that want to bring more traffic to their website. Did you know that 62% of smart speaker owners have used their devices to buy products online? The thing is, search results vary between smart speakers and traditional search engines.
You can improve your voice search ranking by creating content that focuses on keywords that a user might say instead of type. This slight variation in phrasing can make the difference when someone searches for your site. If you gradually improve your SEO rankings across the board, you will see more sales as consumers become aware of your brand.
Build Trust with Visitors
Finally, you can sell more products if you show new visitors that you’re trustworthy. We’ve all visited an online store in the past and thought, “I’m not entering my credit card number on this website.” You never want visitors to feel that way about your site.
The best way to build social proof for your business is to include reviews on product pages and strategically throughout your site. Research shows that 88% of shoppers are influenced by reviews. If someone finds your business for the first time, they want to see what shoppers think of your products and customer service.
You can also build your reputation by including trust badges on your forms and payment page. Many businesses use security companies like Norton and McAfee seals on their forms because both of these companies are well-known and highly regarded. When a new user sees that your site is supported by the antivirus they’ve used for the last decade, they are more likely to approach your company with built-in trust.
We also advise making it easy for visitors to reach your live support team. If a customer has a question, they don’t want to search around for an answer. The ability to instantly connect with a brand will improve trust with your audience and lead to more sales.
Final Thoughts
The core marketing strategies outlined here today have all been in use for years. However, the way that website owners and marketers can generate sales with these tools has changed significantly. There are several paths you can take from here, depending on your industry and goals. Take your time and gradually evolve your marketing plan around your customers’ needs, and you will see long-term growth.
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Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.