Tips for increasing sales
Tips On How To Increase Sales
Having a marketing plan for your business is something most people do and understand the benefits of. Our marketing department has over the years had the advantage of working with several thousand businesses in our years as digital marketers, and one of the things that always strikes us is the enormous potential that is often there but not utilized simply because the companies do not quite know where to start with marketing.
Start By Defining Your Brand!
Very many do not actually have a brand. Remember that a name or a website with a logo is not the same as having a clear brand. A brand is really what defines your store, what makes you stand out from your competitors. However, not everyone has the money and resources to create expensive and time-consuming campaigns to build a brand, but it does not matter. There is, in fact, an easy and cheap way to build and communicate your brand:
Why Did You Start Your Business?
Ask yourself why you started your business? What are you proud of? Most often, the answer to those two questions can tell you why your particular store is unique.
Talk To Your Customers!
Ask your customers: What do you like about our store? Is there anything you think we can improve? Why did you choose us and not a competitor? When you talk to your customers, you usually understand better what works and what makes you attractive to the customers, and that should be shown through your brand.
Do Competitive Analyses
Look at your competitors' online stores and ask yourself: What are they doing well? What are they not doing well? This makes it easier to find "holes" and opportunities that you can exploit.
Use All Available Information To Build Your Brand!
When you have your story in place, the competitors' tactics and feedback from your customers, it is time to build your brand. That means it's time to start communicating your position in the market. It must be something as simple as:
- Why should customers choose you?
- What makes you stand out?
- What do you do that competitors don't?
If you have followed the above tips, you should now have found your brand.
Go Through Content And Language In Your Online Store
Take two steps back and dare to be self-critical. The most common problem tends to be that the communication in text is far too advanced and technical. Do you clearly communicate what you stand for? Does everyone easily understand what you sell?
All too often it is too difficult to understand the message if it is not adapted in the right way, i.e. simply, concretely and with clear expectations of what the customer gets when they buy a service or product from you. It may even be as simple as your customer group requiring clearer and more concrete information than what you currently convey in the online store.
The main message with this point is: “Know who your target group is and adapt the information to the target group's knowledge and questions.”
- Does your online store have the information that my target group needs?
A website is more or less worthless if it does not have information that your target group needs. This means that you must have information about what your online store does, descriptive product texts, clear prices, good contact information and good information about which services you offer (for example, shipping, support, payment methods, etc.). It is actually surprising how often some of the above information is missing, regardless of the size of the company.
- Do I use a language that my target group uses themselves?
Often you are in a terminology and a way of talking so that you forget how customers talk and communicate, which can be directly "life-threatening". This means that the content in the online store does not correspond to what customers are looking for so that you lose the target group, both on the website and in search engines. For the online store to be effective, you must start with a keyword analysis so that you find the words and terminologies that your target group uses and that are used when they are looking for products and services that you deliver. Adapt the content to the online store after that analysis so that the language reflects the content on the website.
“Remember that your brand is basically your content and your language.”
You will want to talk more about your competence in a language so that it is available to everyone, but with a focus on what makes your company different from everyone else.
- Overall Marketing Strategies
If you have come all the way here, your online store should reflect your brand, as well as clearly stand out from your competitors. I assume that the online store is already optimized for search engines, if it is not, then it is now time to start!
It is now the work that most companies find difficult begins…
There are several ways to work as well as hundreds of channels that are all good and that should be used, but where should you start?
- You don't actually need to start with everything at the same time!
- Remember that the most important thing is that you do one thing well and that you focus on what gives you the most back in sales compared to how much time and money you have spent (ROI – Return On Investment).
Content Strategy
Text content is king on Google, they want you to give your visitors as good an experience as possible. You can do this by making sure you have a lot of good content in your online store. Just remember that it is not the amount of text that is decisive, but the quality of it.
It can pay to work on this as the only thing you need to use is your own time. But if you do not have time or the opportunity to work with content on your own site or simply see that you do not have the opportunity to compete with other companies that do this more than you, then it is probably more important that you focus on other channels. It is then time to start working with marketing outside your own online store!
Paid Traffic
Paid traffic can consist of a lot, Search, Display or Social. If done correctly, it can be a very profitable way to get more sales. But there is a downside too. It can take a lot of time and money to monitor and improve your campaigns so that they become profitable. If your industry is competitive, many keywords and campaigns can cost a lot, which means that your landing pages must be very optimized and converting for it to be profitable to invest in paid traffic.
Social
This is something everyone can start with, you already have a network. Use it! Start by conveying your brand and what you do to as many people as possible. Just remember that the most important thing with social channels is that you have to convey something that is worth sharing otherwise the message will not get through and you can see it as wasted time. Example: Linkedin and Twitter are usually better for B2B (business to business) while Facebook is better suited for B2C (business to consumer). Choose a channel that you know is adapted and used by your target group, and focus on it!
Email is suitable for retaining and retrieving customers who have already shopped in your store, but is not a channel that should be used for so-called "prospecting". Email to people who are not familiar with your brand will most likely be perceived as spam. It is therefore important that your email campaigns contain campaigns or information that is relevant to your target group.
Local Marketing Online
If your company has a physical store and an online store, this is an effective channel to work in. Make sure your company is in Google Maps and on Google My Business. It takes a little time to set up, but once it's done, you never have to do it again.
Collaboration
Is there anyone in your network who can be an ambassador for your brand? Something that may be known or that many know who it is? Take advantage of this! Testimonials ("what our customers say") can be a good way to work as it also shows that you have loyal customers who are satisfied with your store. There may be a blog that writes a lot about exactly the products you sell? Contact them and ask if you can advertise on their blog or if they would like to write a post about you.
The possibilities for collaboration are actually mostly limited by your own imagination so use it!
Summary
There is a lot to do and it is easy to get tired and confused by all the opportunities and costs that can come, but remember that if you do nothing, nothing will happen either. Remember that all that is needed is the following: Brand, language, content, and that you must remember to share!