The end of 2018 is quickly approaching and most of us are planning for 2019. One of the most common goals for the New Year that we are hearing from our clients is the need to increase online sales with digital marketing. The competition will only increase in 2019 – but so will the opportunities for sales growth. Here are my recommendations to increase online sales and to make 2019 your best fiscal year yet!
Prepare for the Voice Search Explosion
Get on the Inbound Marketing Bandwagon to Attract Potential Customers
Inbound marketing is a strategy that utilizes content marketing, blogs, events, SEO, social media and more to create brand awareness and attract potential customers. A good inbound marketing strategy requires keyword research and personas to create relevant content to attract new customers. The blogs and social post should focus on ways to attract new customers. For example, researching frequently asked questions and creating your own unique content so that your brand is there to answer the questions.
Stay in Front of Potential Visitors with Valuable Content
Invest in Amazon Advertising in 2019 for More Online Sales
Activate Your Database with Email Marketing Campaigns
You have successfully gotten potential customers to subscribe to blogs, receive discounts and promotions of your products or services. It’s time to activate your customer database with drip email campaigns or marketing automation. Segment your audience to improve the effectiveness of the email marketing campaign. For example, you can target local customers with in-store sales to increase your total revenues.
Cross-Sell & Upselling to Increase Your Bottom Line
Cross-selling is a sales technique used to get a customer to spend more by purchasing a related product for something that a customer already bought. I get this all the time when I purchase a pair of shoes and the online retailer shows me the matching belt and socks.
Upselling is a sales technique of inducing the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. For example, you intended to purchase the basic model and the sales rep sold you on the deluxe model with the 3-year warranty.
Both of these sales techniques can be implemented in-store or ecommerce website. Some of the ecommerce websites offer apps to help with the cross-sell and upselling features. I have seen the use of live chats to upsell. For in-store purchases, giving away a reward or an incentive to increase cross-selling and upselling.