No longer do you have to wait for a customer to wander into your store. You have the potential to make a lot more money by posting your products online where people all over the world can have them shipped wherever they live.
That doesn’t mean selling online is easier than selling from a storefront. In fact, selling online is harder than the traditional way of selling things in a lot of ways.
If you aren’t happy with the success of your online store, or you simply want to find ways to boost your revenue, give these five marketing tips a try.
Get Familiar With Your Sales Funnel
If you don’t know what a sales funnel is, it’s time to get familiar with the concept.
It is important to learn how to optimize your eCommerce conversion funnel because it enables you to visualize the path your customers take on their way towards making a purchase in your online store.
The funnel includes multiple steps:
- Awareness, where customers get to know your products through social media, online search, and more.
- Interest, where the customer researches the details of the products they’re interested in.
- Consideration, where they compare products and benefits when deciding which product to buy.
- Action, where the customer is ready to follow through with a purchase.
By understanding these steps, you can create better marketing strategies that target people who are located in each section of the funnel.
Take Advantage of Ad Extensions
If you have ads on Google or Bing, you’re on the right track towards providing targeted attention to customers who are most likely to show interest in your brand, but if you don’t have ad extensions, you aren’t doing enough.
Ad extensions allow you to make your ad bigger, and they allow you to provide customers with more places to click when they are interested. These types of ads essentially break down your website so users can click on the main website, but they can also click on other links under the same ad that will send them to more specific pages within the website.
This is an effective marketing strategy because customers can see the different categories of the products you offer, and they can check out those categories with fewer steps, which can boost conversions.
Make the Checkout Process as Easy as Possible
Are you having trouble with customers abandoning their carts? It’s probably because there’s something about your checkout process that’s difficult, time consuming, or unappealing.
For example, do you force customers to create an account before they can check out? Consider adding an option where customers can check out as a guest. Do you wait until the very last step in the checkout process to show the final cost? If so, you may want to consider adding in taxes and shipping earlier in the process.
Making the checkout process easy also includes offering as many payment options as possible. Allow for credit cards and consider other easy payment methods, like PayPal.
Create an Offer They Can’t Refuse
Sometimes, customers aren’t quite sure if they really need to spend the money on your product. You can convince them that they should by creating an offer they can’t refuse.
There are many ways to offer coupons to customers to encourage spending, but it’s even better if you can include a sense of urgency on your website for new customers. Create a banner with a special discount that expires at the end of the day, or a special edition version of your product with limited stock. It may be just the push your customers need to complete their purchase.
Post Better Content
The content on your site matters, especially if you’re looking at customers who are stuck in the middle of the sales funnel. Create blog articles and videos that show how your products work or offer tips and tricks to your customers.
Your product descriptions are extremely important. Make sure they offer honest information about your products and write them using a tone that matches your business. For example, if you pride yourself on the approachable nature of your business, your descriptions shouldn’t sound like they could be found on Amazon.
Don’t forget about the images! Invest in professional, high-quality pictures to entice customers to make a purchase.
If your online sales are slow, you can do a lot more than sit back and wait for your fortune to change. Give these tips a try and watch your income grow.