10 key strategies to increase your online sales
In the last 2 years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has experienced a change in the way it buys, giving way to an increase in online transactions. Whether it is a product or service, many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the opportunity in the crisis to open their business or online store.
The digital world raises the possibility of entrepreneurship even without having a physical space. A simple landing page, an Instagram business account or a small online catalog allows you to offer your products, whether in your city or abroad, as well as services of all kinds. But at the same time it poses challenges when it comes to competing for the market.
With a good sales strategy, your online store can achieve significant growth. Today we will show you some strategies that will help you improve a better experience for your store visitors and increase your online sales.
1. Determine your sales objectives well
The first step before implementing any strategy is to plan and define clear objectives of where you are and where you want to go. To do this, your goals must be achievable and, while they must be ambitious, they must not be unrealistic or unattainable.
In other words, the percentage of growth that you will aim for should be based on the desire to sell more, but also on your sales history. This will serve as a frame of reference on which to base yourself when making numbers.
Check what your past sales projections have been and what the percentage achieved is. In case you have sellers, check what percentage of them actually met their goal in previous years. If you see that only a few achieved the results you were looking for or that in previous years you have not come close to your projection, the goal may be unrealistic.
Of course, the idea of implementing new sales strategies is to grow those numbers, but you have to be based on real trends within your niche. A good idea is to carry out a market study. Good research will help you better understand your target market, their buying habits, what motivates them, etc. For this you can establish buyer persona profiles .
Based on the analysis of your research and your profiles of potential buyers, you will be able to better define your strategy and execute it well to increase your online sales conversions.
Once the above is done, you can draw up your sales plan with well-founded objectives.
2. Define the personality of your brand and what is your added value
If you've never done it before, it's time to start working on your brand personality so that your messages are clear about what added value you offer . Your advertising messages should speak directly to the customer on a personal level.
Remember that the attention of your potential buyers must be captured in the first seconds in which they see your page, your store or your online catalog so that they stay to see what else is there. The average visitor will see your page for 10 to 15 seconds and you should use this time to convey value and inspire your potential customers to buy.
The more consistent your messages are, the more consistent your brand will be. Therefore, your entire business strategy must be designed to convey this value. This includes the way you address the customer, the graphic design of your advertising, the way you present your offers, etc. All this in turn will help increase the engagement of your customers: Meet me, love me, buy me.
An important factor at the level of connection with the customer is to show him the benefits that he obtains when buying. Once you identify what solution the customer is looking for, what problem you are solving, or how your offer benefits them, you can more easily establish advertising messages that are truly persuasive.
Pro tip:
Whether you have a website, a landing page or just an Instagram account where you have your products, it is a good idea to add videos where the benefit you are selling is shown to the customer.
Visual information has an impact very quickly, much more so than text. Try to make them short, with simple language and highlighting the most important thing that the client will get. In addition, make sure that the aesthetics and language used in them coincide with your entire brand image.
Remember: The client does not want to hear how good you are, but how he will benefit from what you offer.
3. Work on the presentation and user experience within your store
If you have a web page to offer your products, it is important that your page looks well structured and easy to navigate. Also, make sure that all links, galleries, plugins, etc., work properly and provide the correct information to the customer.
Also, all your product photos should have the same aesthetic. For example, if you show a product accompanied by accessories that match or are being worn by a model, all other images must match.
A good design sells more. So if your website needs a makeover or upgrade, don't hesitate to invest in it. You'll thank yourself later.
* Find a web design expert now
If you don't have a website yet, but instead have your store as a catalog on a social network, you should be just as careful with the aesthetics of your images. After all, the image sells.
Organize your products or services into categories to make it easier for visitors to find them. Create different sections in your story highlights to anchor and organize everything, but be careful not to use too many subsections that the user gets lost and doesn't know how to go back or ends up not seeing the rest of the stuff because it stays within a single category.
A great idea is for your story highlights sections to have category-related icons so the customer visually knows what they'll find before they even enter the category. Hire a freelance designer for more attractive iconography .
Pro tip:
Use attractive headings on your landing pages or categories, so that when visitors arrive at the page they stay longer and see what is in the section of their interest.
Always include a detailed description of your products even if it is obvious what they are, as the text will help search engines on the internet and social networks to find your results and show them to your potential customers.
Do not forget to also add the price to each product and detail the payment method. If you have a web page, make sure to place a CTA button ( call to action ) to encourage the purchase.
Make things easy for your customer. Only 1 action at a time:
An important part of the user experience is that you provide your customer with the power to make a decision. Therefore, once they are viewing your product description they should not focus on anything other than buying.
Something recommended to achieve this is that you only place a call to action button at a time. If you have to guide them through steps, try to focus the customer's attention on following the guide you give them to complete the purchase. Once this process is finished, you will be able to show them more or offer them other complementary products or services.
Finally, take into account the ease of making the payment within your site, you must offer alternatives or different payment methods so that not having one of them does not stop your customer from buying. Check that the checkout process is easy to carry out and that the details about shipping costs, taxes and others are as clear as possible.
4. Add reviews from other customers
Surely on more than one occasion you have seen advertising or have been recommended a new restaurant or store and you have resorted to social networks such as Facebook or Tripadvisor reviews to see what others say.
Reviews and recommendations from other users or customers are very useful to influence people's purchase decision. Therefore, it is important not only to provide good service, but also to actively ask your satisfied customers to give you some reviews about what they liked about your products or services.
It is important, of course, that if they are not the ones who publish them, you have their explicit permission to put their comments and a name on your website. This will build trust so that other people are also encouraged to buy.
Something important to keep in mind is that all your reviews must be real, even if they are from friends or acquaintances. They must have tried your product to talk about it. Don't buy reviews or add bots to your site. Also don't buy fake reviews or ones you've paid to write, even if they don't know what you're doing, or eventually users will start noticing and trust will decrease.
5. Provide clarity on your warranty and return policy
Above all, if you already have a website, you should have a special section where you detail what guarantees you offer to users. For example, if you accept returns or exchanges. Also, what are the conditions for these guarantees to be met.
If you don't have a website, but you place your products on sites like marketplace or Instagram, you must place information about what your policies are, either in the description of your store, your bio or in each product in a brief but clear way.
Remember, what is in writing in your store is the basis of the customer-buyer agreement. If you establish, for example, that you will not accept returns on certain garments, the customer must be aware of this before buying.
The transparency of your store will be based on these rules and this will also help build trust .
6. Use the power of social networks and online communities
Whether or not you have a website for your products and services, you need to work on your social media strategy to help reinforce your brand image. These networks must have a specific strategy and regular publications.
The most recommended networks to post company information are, without a doubt, Facebook and Instagram, but as other platforms emerge, you can consider having a presence on them.
In addition, much of the decision on which networks to make a presence depends on your target audience.
For example, if what you offer is professional services, perhaps it is also convenient that you have a presence on LinkedIn. If you are in the area of architecture or decoration, furniture, etc., Pinterest can be an interesting platform to attract an interested public to your landing page on Facebook or website. If you are targeting students or people looking for tutorials, YouTube and TikTok should not be left out.
Remember to use hashtags in your posts, as well as summaries or descriptions with keywords related to your products and services.
If you have a blog ( preferably, you should have one ) keep it updated with fresh content and share your posts on your social networks.
Also, take advantage of groups or communities to also join and share content directly with a group that is interested in topics related to what you offer.
For example: if you have a plant store, sharing plant care information on your store blog will lead people to better understand your brand. This way, you will have more opportunity to see the rest of your content and what you offer.
At this point, it may be useful for you to hire a freelance community manager , who will help you by assisting your social networks without having to hire them permanently.
7. Offer free trials and promotions
A good strategy to attract more potential customers is to offer some temporary promotions or discounts. But it is important that it is well defined and that the visitor to your online store knows that the offer will not be repeated again.
If there are special dates to celebrate, you can also use them to offer a discount, a coupon or a gift for purchases over a certain amount.
If you offer a service, one idea is to provide personalized advice for a few minutes or give away a free trial for a few days. This last strategy is used by many platforms such as Netflix, Canva, Asana, LinkedIn, YouTube, among others, so that their users discover the advantages of paying for their Premium service.
8. Implement an online advertising strategy
Of course, the most important thing about the presence in the networks is the creation of your community and developing your brand identity. That is, generate engagement and organic traffic. However, in such a competitive market, it would be a mistake not to carry out advertising campaigns as well.
Two of the best places to create your digital campaigns are Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google Adwords.
To set up a good campaign, it will be useful to know who your buyer persona is and the habits of your customers: What do they like, what activities do they carry out, what are their habits, what are the values with which they identify and what motivates them. But also what is their age range, countries from which they follow you the most. Other data of interest are: from which devices they browse and the days and times of most interest. In this way, you will be able to segment your target audience when setting up your campaign.
Just like on your website, your campaign messages should be clear and not distract the customer with too much information. You should focus on asking them to perform a single action.
According to the objective, this action can be:
- Follow you
- give you like
- Subscribe to your news
- Visit a landing page
- Go to your website
- Buy a product or service
- Ask for information
- Register on your website
- Download a document
- etc.
The CTA that you place must be aligned with your objectives and also with your sales funnel (funnel).
Pro tip:
A good idea is to implement A/B campaigns to see which one converts the most. You can seek help from a digital marketer to segment your target audiences. It can also help you define objectives in each campaign. Remember that each stage of growth requires a different goal.
9. Capture information from your customers
As part of your marketing strategy , it is important that you consider going one step further, offering your customers offers related to the products or services in which they have shown interest.
You can do this through a form directly where the client can register to request more information and from where you can obtain their name and email.
If you already have a web page, you can incorporate a form in a visible area of it. If not, you can easily create one through a service like Google Forms or Zoho Forms, or other specialized services like Typeform, Paperform, or Wufoo. These are easy-to-use tools and allow you to create better-looking forms.
Another way to collect information is by offering some downloadable: A guide, free document templates, a brochure, an ebook or any other document of interest.
Important:
All your newsletters should only be sent to people who are already interested in your products and services. Do not fall into the mistake of buying databases on the internet. Otherwise, your emails could be marked as spam if they start receiving people who have never heard of you and are not particularly interested in your products.
Find an Email marketing expert to create your newsletter strategy. You can also entrust the shipping configuration to it.
10. Offer timely support
Be it help bots, an FAQ page, a ticket system, etc. It is important that your customers get the information they need when buying. You can start by implementing a chat where you resolve their doubts. Then, go identifying what are the most common queries that they make you. In this way, you will be collecting relevant information that your customers request. You will be able to transform this information into an FAQ page in the future.
You will also be able to use this information to configure help bots. Some services such as Meta or Whatsapp can be programmed so that the client chooses options and consults on their own. In case an answer is not found, you can put the option to speak with an agent. You can also submit it to a ticket placement service like Freshdesk, Jira, Hubspot, Zendesk or other.
The objective is to generate in the client the confidence that is required to take the last step towards the purchase, in case of doubts. The next time he visits your store, it will be easier for him to make a decision.
*Hire help to set up your customer support system
As you can see, the increase in sales depends much more on the experience you provide to the user and not only on the product itself. It is very important to take care of the aesthetic aspects of your online store, as well as the ease of options. But also, that the client feels trust and identifies with your brand.
The above strategies can be a useful guide to increase your online sales. Focus on understanding the needs of your customers and choose the ones that you think are best suited to your store.
Posting Komentar untuk "10 key strategies to increase your online sales"