Over 1.79 billion customers purchased something online in 2022. Online businesses are thriving in the digital age of today.
Big and small businesses alike are aiming to establish a presence on digital media. And many businesses are operating solely in the online space.
Existing without a physical establishment comes with its own set of challenges. We’ve listed some easy and efficient marketing and sales tips to expand your online business.
Whether you’re a completely online business or looking to expand its presence online, these tips will help you grow organically even on a budget. Let’s take a look.
Overview of the digital business landscape
Every industry today, whether information technology, automotive, food, SaaS, or retail, strives to establish a positive online presence. Many small businesses are solely online as it helps them save up on maintaining a physical establishment.
Running a business online is markedly different than a physical business. You have a broader outreach than just your local community and must adapt to different audiences' sensibilities to attract and engage them.
Below are some tips and tricks to hone your marketing and sales game and easily expand your online business.
1. Invest in an eCommerce platform
As more and more people take to buying goods and services online, it becomes important for businesses to provide them with a platform to perform the purchase with ease. Such a platform brings all the associated processes under one roof for easy operation.
The eCommerce for the automotive industry alone was valued at 66.34 billion USD in 2021. An eCommerce platform for the automotive industry will integrate with your existing systems and help you sell auto parts online.
This is something that might not be possible two decades ago but is now effortless. The platform not only makes selling easier, but it also helps you cut costs by streamlining your operations.
Here’re some of the key benefits of an eCommerce platform:
2. Optimize your website
Your website is the one-stop shop for your business. It’s what every marketing effort and digital presence leads a user to. An attractive, engaging, and easy-to-navigate website invites users in and makes them stay longer.
Having a website lends your business credibility and visibility. People will be more trusting to engage with you when they can find relevant information about you. Having an updated website boosts your marketing and sales efforts.
Here are a few ways you can optimize your website:
3. Use social media to reach out and attract
Many small businesses don’t capitalize on the outreach of social media by posting content for the limited audience they have as their followers. You need to work toward reaching a wide audience other than the people who interact with you.
You can achieve this by adding hashtags that can get you on the explore pages of the social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. This is the section where the platform suggests posts to users based on what’s trending and popular.
By adding these hashtags, you have the chase of appearing on the dashboards of people who may not follow you. Moreover, you can partake in paid campaigns that show your posts to audiences who don’t follow you but interact with similar posts.
4. Deploy chatbots
Chatbots are an excellent way of making users stay on your website longer than they usually would. By engaging with users in a conversation, you let them know that they’re being assisted at every point in their journey with you.
If they have trouble finding anything they’re looking for, they can ask the chatbot for help instead of bouncing off your website and looking for it elsewhere.
You can also let them know of the latest offers this way. Remember to end every conversation with their feedback on you can serve them better in the future.
5. Enhance website SEO
If your customers can’t find you when they look for content relating to you, they cannot engage with you. Website SEO helps you increase your visibility and appear in the search results for relevant searches.
Here are two key ways you can improve your website’s SEO:
Up your keyword game
Take a look at the keywords you currently use and identify the ones that bring you the most visitors.
Google itself provides useful metrics related to keyword searches to help you with this. Moreover, make use of longer, more specific keywords over generic short ones.
This is because longer keywords are more targeted and bring more authentic leads to your website. People searching with longer keywords are also presumably more ready to purchase.
Use videos with captions
Adding subtitled video content to your website not only brings adds value to your posts and pages but also helps Google crawl the content better.
This in turn helps Google index your content and website better and present it in more relevant and targeted searches.
6. Create valuable content
People don’t want to engage with surface-level content that doesn’t give them value. They want unique, interesting, and fresh content that resonates with them. This is admittedly challenging to do consistently.
Look for inspiration in what your competitors do. For example, the Korean Skincare brand Glow Recipe has a skincare quiz on its homepage that helps users find products suitable to their skin.
Other content ideas include case studies, interviews with notable people, behind-the-scenes, and podcasts. The key is to create content and share it bit by bit to generate interest and make the most out of every piece.
7. Capitalize on industry trends
As a business in the digital space, you need to be ahead of the curve and always on the lookout for new trends to capitalize on. Reading up and staying up-to-date on industry news will help you find opportunities.
Furthermore, being vigilant will also help you identify obstacles and be vary of them. Not every trend needs to be acted upon, but it helps you stay well-informed and prepared.
8. Tell a compelling story
The unspoken rule of operating in the digital space is creating a compelling story and telling it over and over. It keeps reminding your audience of your values and why they should care to engage with you.
An excellent example of this is TOMS shoes which came into existence as its founder was moved by the plight of underprivileged children. And now, all campaigns of the company harken back to helping underprivileged communities.
9. Garner user-generated content
User-generated content is one of the easiest ways to engage users and grow your online presence at the same time. Ask your customers for testimonials with pictures and videos and reward them with special discounts and offers for them.
Feature testimonials on your social media. It makes the customers feel seen and appreciated. And it incentivizes other customers to share their experiences, giving you organic visibility.
Tip: You have the option to allow what post appears on the ‘tagged’ tab, allowing you to curate the section in the most positive manner and remove irrelevant posts.
10. Personalize the customer experience
Emails with a personalized subject line are 26% more likely to be opened.
Offering a personalized experience to customers is crucial in earning their trust and loyalty. Strive to customize every exchange you have with them.
Address them with their name in your emails, social media interactions, and personal exchanges. Wish them on their birthday. Analyze data on them to identify their likes, dislikes, and curate relevant offers for them.
For example, if a customer has shown interest in a particular range of products from you, let them know of new launches in that range and offer them special discounts and offers if you can.
Focus on providing value to the customer to grow your business
Marketing and sales are crucial to the success of any business but become even more so when it comes to businesses that operate in the digital space.
To excel in your online business, you need to focus your marketing and sales efforts on providing value to the customer and enhancing their experience with you.
An eCommerce platform will help you process transactions easily.
Chatbots will help engage users on your website. Optimize your web space for maximum value and create content that will genuinely help your audience.
Let us know in the comments how you think a business can boost its marketing and sales to grow organically.