One of the biggest ways in which the Internet revolution has changed business is in that many companies receive a variety of their revenue from their online sales. This is in stark contrast to the past where most companies would receive the majority of their revenue from a physical transaction with a customer. With this in mind, it is more important than ever that companies understand how to boost their online sales and steadily increase them over time. There have been many new technologies come out in the past couple of years to help companies with a website track where their customers come from and what their needs are. Here are five smart tips to boost your online sales.
1. Track Your Online Customers
Perhaps the most important thing that any company can do in order to boost their online sales is to understand their customer. There are many different website programs like Google Analytics that allow a company to see what links a customer clicked before going to a website to make a purchase. This is important because it tells a company where there customers are coming from and how much they spend after they arrive at a website. If a company sees that fifty percent of their sales come from a social media account link, they then know to put more effort in to that social media account to drive overall sales for the company. Knowing the customer and where they come from is the first step in to driving online sales because it should direct everything a company does from the perspective of marketing in a customer focuses way. In the Internet age, if a company does not focus on the customer that customer has a wide variety of options to move their business to.
2. Offer Things For Free
A great way to drive traffic to your website and to get people on an email list is to offer away products for free. For example, if you are a health food company you could offer ten dollars off of a fifty dollar purchase when someone signs up with an email address to your site. In the Internet world, having a large email list with active clients is a great resource to have. Internet traffic should be treated like a funnel, and the end goal should be to turn a visitor to the site to a buyer. By offering products or services for free, you are casting a wide net to your Canadian audience to draw them in and eventually make sales. This stage should be viewed more from an investment standpoint because there are going to have to be investments of money before you see a return. However, over time one of the best things that a business can have is a large list of clients that are actively informed of what a business has to offer.
3. Build A Better Website
Although it sounds simple, there are still companies in the marketplace with outdated and bad websites. If a company is going to rely on online sales to boost their business, it is imperative that their website is as up to date as possible. A website should be built around the customer experience, so knowing your customer is key. For example, if your average customer is a forty year old Canadian woman, you should design a different website than if your average customer is a twenty year old Canadian man. In addition to the website design, the functionality should be top of mind as well. Making a payment on a website should be as painless as possible. No company wants their customer to think twice during the paying stage of the process, but that is what so many companies do with a website that is not effective.
4. Social Media Marketing
One of the great aspects of social media is the fact that it is mostly free and the audience reach is wide. Understanding the integral parts of social media is important in reaching a broad customer base with effective social media marketing. Do not be the typical business owner that does not understand social media and ends up embarrassing the business. The social media marketing plan should be conducive with the overall business strategy of the company. Always work in links to social media posts to drive traffic back to the home website in the hopes of making a sale. In addition, providing usable content for social media readers and users will increase your social media following and influence. Take the first step today and start upgrading your social media account to increase your influence in the marketplace and traffic to your website.
5. Be Flexible
At the end of the day, if a majority of your sales are coming from an online medium you are going to have to be flexible as a business. There are many things that can go wrong with online sales and that is something you are going to have to be prepared for. In addition, just building a website once and never maintaining or updating it is not a viable solution in the marketplace today. Treat a website like you would any other important physical asset by paying to maintain it and fix it quickly as problems arise. Just like anything else, a website can break down over time. Over the next ten to twenty years, there are going to be many more technologies that come out and change the landscape of business online. It is important to maintain a flexible mind that is open to new opportunities in the world of business. By doing this, you can boost your online traffic and sales for your business in the short and long term.
