 With the surge of e-commerce last year, many small to mid-sized business owners in the retail sector experienced explosive growth during their respective lockdowns. For the simple fact that shopping online has been made easier now than ever, many consumers are sticking to the internet for their purchases. Are you a business owner keen to keep the momentum going? Read on for some handy tips on how to increase your sales volume this holiday season.
How To Increase Holiday Retail Volume for E-Commerce Businesses Plan Ahead of Time Some things to consider before the holiday rush sneaks upon you: predict your most popular items, stock accordingly, and plan for potential shipping delays. Try testing your shipping strategy to ensure your products arrive on time. Dialing in a positive delivery experience will increase customer confidence in your business. It also wouldn't hurt to plan out your work process and promotional strategies with task management software before things pile up. Encourage Customer Loyalty Discounts Rewarding your patrons is a great way to boost holiday sales because you'll incentivize them to spend more. Create a loyalty program this holiday season if you haven't already: discount codes, coupons, and well-timed BOGO promotions work wonders to rack up points and rewards. Consider offering special non-monetary deals to your frequent shoppers, such as exclusive gift bags, holiday packs with best-selling products, or a mystery item with every $10 spent. Deploy User-Generated Content Throughout Your Online Presence Data has shown that customers are increasingly more comfortable making a purchase online after checking reviews. Social proof through testimonials and other relevant user-generated content will ease any concern shoppers may have about the quality of products. Include some user-submitted photos, so potential buyers won't have to imagine how the product looks or feels, which ultimately gives them more confidence to add to their cart when they're browsing. Social Media Giveaways Depending on where your customers hang out, giveaways on sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are a great way to drive brand engagement. You may even want to seek out partnerships with other brands or even influencers during giveaways to cast a wider net to different audiences. Influencers are currently driving growth in many online companies such as shopping boutiques and personal service providers. Don't forget to include the appropriate hashtags so people can find your company quickly! Don't Rule Out In-Store Purchases If you have a brick-and-mortar location, in-store purchases might look a little different this year. Many people still want to shop or pick up in-store, so you can still get sales while keeping everybody safe. Try sending out frequent email blasts about new safety measures, ramped-up cleaning efforts, limited capacity, or make it known that curbside pick-up is an available option. Don't forget to include easy ways for customers to contact you by phone or email in case of questions. Prioritize Customer Support Take both positive feedback and criticism equally, because understanding your product reviews will help you focus on your brand and niche. Encourage your customer base to communicate and engage with you through live chat features, email replies, and quick response times. By prioritizing customer support, you get the chance to resolve disputes before they snowball. Don't let a simple customer service issue diminish your revenue goals. They may be extra stressed, so giving additional care will pay dividends. This past year has proved that the only constant in life is change. If you're a small business owner, enhanced marketing efforts this holiday season is a necessary investment to ensure continual growth. If you found this article helpful, talk to us at Go Lead Consulting today! Let's work together to achieve great results!
0 Comments
 One of the crucial determining factors in the success or failure of your business is how you get the word out there to customers. Even the best product or service won't succeed if potential customers have no way to find out about it. Get some tips for effective online marketing for small business in our guide below, then get out there and start engaging with your customers.
Online Marketing for Small Business: Let Your Customers Find You Research the Competition Understanding how other businesses in your field are marketing online can give you some insight into how to better market your business. See the experience they offer from a customer's perspective so that you can identify what works and what doesn't work, giving you ideas to tailor your own strategy. Find Your Unique Edge Once you understand what other businesses have to offer, it's time to identify what your own business has that gives you an advantage over the competition. Once you have a clear reason why customers should choose you instead of your competitors, you can drive that message home with consistent marketing. Understand Your Target Audience Before beginning a marketing campaign, take a moment to consider your ideal customer. What's their age, their gender, their income level, where do they live, what are their interests? All of these questions can help you better target marketing content to reach people that your product or service resonates with. Optimize Local SEO Build links with local content providers in your area to give your web presence more legitimacy in the eyes of search engine algorithms and your customers alike. Link building with local newspaper sites, local awards and festivals, or bloggers can help you establish yourself as part of the local online community. Create Engaging Blog Content One thing that will improve your SEO is having consistent posts on your website about topics related to your business. However, simply spamming slapdash articles won't fool the search engine's algorithms. You'll need a source of consistent content to boost your website's efficiency to the max. Utilize Email Marketing Reaching out directly to customers allows you to give them messaging about your brand that feels personalized to them. Research the tools necessary to reach a wide audience with your email blasts and tailor your messaging to get the most engagement possible. Partner with Social Media Influencers Marketing can be a tough business, so why not get all the help you can get on your side? If there are any social media influencers in your area, you can take advantage of their established presence to market your own brand to a wider audience. Reach out to anyone who might be able to help spread the word about your business; you never know what help you'll get. All of these factors to keep in mind can make online marketing seem overwhelming, but the good news is that you don't have to take on this challenge alone. Our team will help you on every step of the way towards optimizing your small business' online presence. Contact us at Go Lead Consulting today! Find Enterprise SEO Companies  Ad retargeting is an advanced form of marketing that displays relevant online ads to customers who have already shown an interest in a commodity. For example, let's say a person visits your apparel website and looks at a specific hoodie without buying it. Later, that person is browsing their Facebook and comes across an ad for the same hoodie. This strategy, when implemented correctly, can yield a 50% increase in sales! Here's how it can boost your e-commerce conversions.
How Ad Retargeting Boosts E-Commerce Conversions Segmented Audiences A successful retargeting strategy involves segmenting your audience based on their interests, intents, and shopping style. This can help ensure their experience is relevant and incentivizes them to come back to the site. For example, you can segment your visitors by how long it's been since they visited the site; someone who visited yesterday wouldn't see the same ad as someone who visited six weeks ago. Segmented audiences also help you show different ads depending on the prospect's level of interest. For instance, ads with discount codes work very well for "cart abandoners," while carousel ads might be more effective for those who only visited your product page once. Optimized Ads Creating visually appealing ads is vital to a retargeting campaign. Many other factors go into crafting an effective ad as well, like an eye-catching headline, compelling copy, and a strong CTA. Split-testing different versions to discover which ones drive the most conversions is essential to optimizing the effectiveness of the campaign. For example, many brands find they have more success with ads that contain images of people than ads that don't. Frequency Timing The timing of a retargeted ad is also crucial to the conversion rate. Showing too many ads is annoying and can result in "banner blindness" where the prospect no longer notices them. On the other hand, not showing them often enough means your message may not get through. Although there's no "magic number" that applies to every company, the general rule of thumb is to set a lower frequency cap for raising brand awareness and a higher frequency cap for retargeting users who are already familiar with your product. Again, split testing can help you find the sweet spot that yields the highest conversions. Ad Rotation One marketing study found that sticking with the same ads for too long can decrease the click-through rate by almost half. This is once again a product of "banner blindness," where prospects essentially stop noticing your ad because they've seen it too many times. To avoid this issue, successful retargeting campaigns will rotate through multiple ad sets with different images, headlines, and CTAs every couple of months. Burn Pixels The burn pixel is used to remove customers from your retargeting campaign, so you aren't advertising to those who have already made a purchase. Essentially, it is a simple code embedded on the order confirmation page that removes customers from your target audience list. This way, you conserve your marketing budget by only showing ads to people who have yet to become customers. Now you can see why so many businesses choose to use retargeting to boost sales; it's one of the most potent marketing strategies on the internet! Need some help implementing your own retargeting campaign? Contact us at Go Lead Consulting today!  One of the most essential components of running a firm is acquiring new customers. And one of the simplest methods to accomplish it is to send targeted visitors to your website. That may seem simple, yes? Fortunately, these tried-and-true techniques not only improve website traffic but also conversion rates.
How to Increase Website Traffic in a Way That Leads to Sales Conversions Implement an Effective SEO Strategy One of the most powerful methods to drive high-quality traffic to your website is via search engine optimization. When your website is among the top rankings on the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you not only get more traffic, but the people who are clicking through to your website are already interested in your offerings. Quite often, they're even ready to buy! It can take time for SEO efforts to yield results, but it's well worth the effort. Once your page ranks for the right keywords, Google will drive new customers and sales day after day for weeks, months, or even years! Use Google AdsAnother way to get high-quality traffic is by investing in Google Ads. With Google Ads, you only pay when a user actually clicks on your advertisement and goes to your website. This strategy works well in conjunction with SEO, especially for pages already ranking on Google. It essentially doubles your visibility in the SERPs, making it even more likely for potential customers to click through to your site! Utilize Social Media MarketingSocial media marketing is another powerful tool for traffic and conversions when leveraged correctly. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are great for establishing a connection with your audience and cultivating a brand that your audience knows, likes, and trusts. The key with social media is to post valuable, engaging content consistently. Start with one platform as your resources permit, and spread out to other platforms as your brand grows! Optimize Your Site for Best User Experience One of the best ways to boost your website traffic is by optimizing your page's user experience. By this, we mean making it as easy as possible for visitors to find what they are looking for within moments of arriving on your landing page, whether they're searching for a specific product or trying to complete an action - like making a purchase. A positive page experience is also valued by Google, which means it's good for SEO too. You can't go wrong with a minimalist, clean layout; the page will load faster, and there's less to distract the user from taking the desired action. Include Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)Strong CTAs added to social media posts, site content, and cart buttons are proven to increase conversion rates. Use verbs like "claim," "shop," and "save" to encourage prospects to take action. For example, "claim your discount" or "save your spot" are both great CTAs. Add a Pop-Up Lead MagnetConsider adding a pop-up sign-up form that offers something of value in exchange for the visitor's email address, like an ebook or a free webinar. This way, even if the visitor does not become a customer, they become a lead that you can nurture (and eventually convert) with email marketing. These are just a few ways you can increase your website traffic and boost conversions. Need some help implementing these traffic-boosting, customer-winning strategies? Request your free marketing analysis today, and we are happy to help you reach your sales goals!  With its low barriers to entry and minimal startup costs, podcasting is one of the fastest-growing forms of content creation in 2021. According to an estimate by a leading podcasting consultancy, there are more than 2 million podcasts and counting. In an environment that is becoming more competitive and saturated by the day, it's not enough to simply know how to podcast. You need a strategy that will help you stand out in a crowded field. Read on to find out how. How to Podcast for Profits: Strategies to Build and Monetize a Podcast
Thanks to a wide variety of low-cost audio equipment and production software, any person, business, or organization can make their own podcast. Starting a podcast is easy, but creating a successful podcast is a lot trickier. You are competing with literally millions of other podcasters while also vying with countless other sources of entertainment, education, and news for your audience's attention. But with the right approach, a podcast can be the perfect tool for promoting and developing your business' brand and customer base. Find an Experienced and Well-Connected Producer When setting up their company's podcast, many businesses make the mistake of focusing too narrowly on on-air talent while neglecting what goes on behind the scenes. Sure, having charismatic and engaging hosts is absolutely crucial to your podcast's success, but so is finding a talented producer. Your producer can make or break your podcast. Hosts are the voice and public face of the podcast, but the producer is the heart and brain. A good producer provides ideas for each show's programming and formatting while also taking care of key tasks such as editing and publishing the show. Most importantly, producers often act as a show's manager, recruiting guests and making arrangements for them to appear, so ideally you want a producer with a lot of contacts in your industry. Use Your Podcast for Lead Generation, SEO, and Networking A podcast is a great way to publicize your services and generate leads. One way you can do this is by incorporating calls to action into your interviews as well as at the beginning and end of each show. These can be small asks, like referring listeners to your website or your social media. Also, you can include links in the show notes so your sites are easier to find. Podcasts are also terrific networking opportunities. By inviting guests from your industry or adjacent sectors, you can start conversations that develop into full-fledged business relationships. Lastly, podcasting works well as an SEO tactic. You can embed a high-quality link in your show's description on large platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, generating loads of traffic to your company's site. Businesses are increasingly realizing the value of podcasts as a smart, creative way to generate business and engage meaningfully with their customers. Many companies want to break into podcasting but they don't know how to make it work for them. If you're interested in starting a podcast for your business, reach out to learn more about our podcast management services.  The bar for websites is continuously rising. Your potential customers want a website that is visually attractive, simple to use, and contains high-quality information
 The difference between an amateur website and a professional design for your web is enormous. If you're a small business owner, it's best to invest in the services of professionals. Here are some reasons why:
 In the world of marketing, there are a lot of different terms that get thrown around. With so many services available, it can be hard to know which one will best meet your needs and offer you the best return on investment. One term you may not have heard before is fractional CMO. If you're wondering what this means exactly or how it differs from other types of consultants, keep reading
 With so many in-person sales opportunities shut down in 2020, many brands began to reach out looking for new strategies to connect with their audience with sales messaging while they were unable to visit networking events or sell easily inside a brick and mortar venue. It became clear that until that point, many of these companies thrived without doing much work online, but the moment required stretching and planning new ways to operate. Now, those business leaders understand the value of having a foundational marketing strategy that incorporates online business endeavors such as digital advertising.
To help those seeking out strategies to use digital ads for conversions, we've outlined some information below to help define digital ads and share tips for optimizing your strategy to get better results. What is Digital Advertising? Digital advertising includes ads on search engines like Google; social media networks such as Facebook Ads, or display ads on web and mobile. Ads are one of the oldest and most common forms of advertising on the internet. What is Digital Ad Tracking? Digital advertising offers high definition targeting down to the individual user, allowing advertisers to reach the right audience with their message. For website retargeting, an increasingly common subset of digital advertising, marketers find their target customers through websites that are visited by consumers prior to conversion. With retargeting ads being served only when visitors have been identified as potential buyers (through cookies with some other form of validation), these type of ads provide extremely targeted marketing — a powerful way bring new leads into your sales pipeline. Today's marketers have plentiful data, so we're able to target individuals we believe have buying intent based on their online activity. Tracking cookies allow us to see a history of each person's interest in news, websites they visit, places they shop, and what they search for. This allows us to know which IP addresses (the markers that show what device a person is using) to target and work towards a close. The system can also go as far as providing a conversion cycle for visitors to your own website. A code added to your site tracks when a potential customer visits one of your properties such as your website or app. Once they visit a page you've tracked, the system knows they have interest and exposure to the brand and can target them with intention to close a sale. You can create sales cycles for each sales page of your website to stay in front of your target customer and consistently message them until they close a sale. The goal of this strategy should be to encourage action towards completing whatever step comes next: whether it's making a purchase or signing up for more information. In other words, with digital advertising you are targeting those who would most likely already have an interest in what you're selling and able to keep in front of them, so they can be converted into a buyer. What if My Digital Ads Aren't Converting? Digital advertising is just one piece of a total system of closing sales for your business. It's important to make sure all of the pieces to your online business systems work in tandem to get the best results from each piece. Every business is different, so what works for one company won't be the same best practices for another. If you're not seeing results from digital advertising, it may be time to optimize and review other aspects of your strategy. Some areas to consider:
How Do You Measure Digital Ad Conversions? Be sure that you are tracking conversions in an easy way. Statistics about each ad can prove useful as a starting point but don't get stuck there if you want to optimize your campaign. Even though many people measure clickthroughs, generally conversions are taken into account once a person takes an action on the landing page they were lead to after clicking through from an advertisement. These actions include things like watching videos or filling out forms (signing up for more information). Some conversion stats to consider include:
How Much Should I Budget for Digital Marketing Ads? Once you know which digital platforms are best for you, how can you determine the amount of your budget to spend? You should always do a test campaign and allocate the maximum amount possible for each channel. If you see results and want to continue with that tactic, then adjust based on those results and what is available in terms of budget. The bottom line is this: users are accessing information from smartphones at least once every 15 minutes , so they will likely see your ads multiple times per day (unless they opt out). By setting up retargeting through online advertising tactics, it's easier than ever to get more sales-ready leads into your funnel because you're targeting people who've already shown interest in your product or service. Since these ads carry considerable weight in terms of their capability to convert customers, a good budget allows you to pay to be seen more often in a shorter period of time, which quickens the conversion path. Taking a smaller budget might also reduce your capacity to achieve real results. For an easy calculation, consider the lifetime value of a single customer. For example, if a product costs $30 and a customer typically buys monthly for 2 years, your customer lifetime value is $720. This means you can budget to spend about $72-108 per converted customer and get returns over $648 each over 2 years. Digital ads can be extremely valuable as part of your overall marketing system and business foundation. With the right tracking and strategy, they can bring new leads into your sales pipeline. Remember that measurement is key to increasing conversion rates. Need help getting started on digital marketing for your business? Go Lead Consulting can assist with setup and management of Google Ads and Display, and we can also provide SEO, writing and website redesign to help you get better conversions. Sign up for a free marketing analysis. Here's a list of Digital Marketing Agencies For Startups  Small businesses often struggle with online marketing because they expect instant results. They try a single Facebook ad or email coupon promotion and conclude that nothing works. Unfortunately, customers don't respond to just one online encounter. It takes a variety of multi-layered encounters to get them to choose your business. Successful online marketing for small business requires a focused concert of smaller efforts (such as Google ads, SEO, PR, and content generation) over an extended period to show results.
|
RSS Feed