Unfortunately, having the ideal product or offering exemplary services isn’t the only requirement to successfully run a business. This explains why most startup companies with million-dollar ideas shut down as fast as they open.
The real challenge comes in introducing your products and services into the marketplace. Telling potential customers what exactly it is that you do, getting them to understand your business in and out for them to choose you over other competitors isn’t a walk in the park.
Today, most businesses rely on clicks to scale up their profits and boost sales. Your conversion rates highly depend on the sales and marketing strategies you employ.
But, how exactly can you know the right sales and marketing techniques to help improve your conversions?
What Is Sales and Marketing?
Let’s start with understanding the definition of sales and marketing before we get down to the strategies. The term sales and marketing is composed of two words with separate meanings.
- Sales is a term used in the business world to refer to all activities involved in selling tangible or intangible products to a consumer.
- Marketing refers to the process of promoting, communicating, distributing, and selling products. It involves everything from market research to advertising.
When combined, sales and marketing describe the techniques and processes of promoting your products and services. This is done to increase conversion rates and eventually turn visitors into paying customers. Good sales and marketing techniques are captivating, engaging, and hard to miss.
Below are five sales and marketing techniques that will help you skyrocket your conversions.
Introduce Fear of Missing Out to Spark Action
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is among the commonly used tricks in the game. Most people, especially millennials, suffer from needing inclusivity. Statistics from research conducted by TrustPulse indicate that 60% of people make purchases within 24 hours because of FOMO.
This technique involves pushing people to immediately purchase by convincing them they’ll later regret not taking action. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you’ll be merely leveraging your customers’ desire to grasp every opportunity to increase your conversions.
Since FOMO is already a popular technique, you need to be very tactical when using it. The last thing you want is to sound like a broken-record, desperately trying to close a sale. You can employ this technique through.
- Setting a deadline
Setting a time limit exerts more pressure on your customers. However, don’t keep extending the time limit after the offer elapses. Once your customers get accustomed to your non-absolute deadlines, they will not in any way feel pressured to buy or sign-in. This will affect both your conversion rates and maybe even tarnish your brand reputation.
- Showcasing previously missed deals
To keep your visitors on their toes, make a point of highlighting all previous deals and opportunities they missed.
For example, after an offer elapses, you can put up all the deals and use a captivating phrase like ‘Ooops, you missed it!’
The idea is to make your visitors feel like they missed out on a great deal and to keep them on a constant lookout for another opportunity or offer. Plus, this is also a smart way to send traffic to another page on your shop or funnel.
- Banking on your messaging
When using the FOMO technique, success or failure depends on how you use and arrange words on your page. Thus, you have to convey your message in a way that creates a sense of urgency.
Examples of such phrases include:
- We ONLY have a few slots left!
- Time is almost running out…
- Only a few pieces left… etc.
These phrases leave your visitors with the impression that other people are already buying or signing up to your offers, and if they don’t act immediately, they’ll be left out.
Invest In Your Sales and Marketing Team
Why spend thousands of dollars on lead generation tools if you don’t know what exactly sales and marketing entails? Even though lead generation tools can really help boost your conversion rates, they might not work for you if you don’t know what you’re doing.
That’s why it is vital to take yourself and your entire sales and marketing team for regular training. You can make it a routine and incorporate it into your budget.
Thanks to the internet, you no longer have to stop your business operations for a day or two to attend a workshop. Everything is now readily available online.
If you’re a startup entrepreneur operating on a fixed budget, you can enroll for multiple free online digital sales and marketing courses available on the internet. There are also numerous informative videos on YouTube created by gurus.
Recommended Reading: Aggressive Sales Tactics for Hungry Sales People
Another way of investing is through hiring a good sales and marketing team. Outsourcing your workforce is essential, especially if you’re not quite conversant with the whole concept of increasing your conversions.
Despite it being costly, it will help you get the job done without stressing yourself out. However, ensure that you hire a competent person or team.
Be Resourceful
To stand out from the masses, you have to be skillful in drawing customers in. Instead of being just any other spammy salesperson on the internet, approach your customers as a resourceful solution provider.
One of the best ways of being resourceful is through blogging. Create a blog which talks about topics related to the products or services you’re offering. It should cover the problems your visitors are facing.
For example, if you’re a realtor running a real estate agency, your blogs could be about:
- How to buy a house
- How to become a real estate agent
- How to invest in real estate
When blogging, have SEO in mind. Utilizing SEO helps you rank highly in Google searches. Luckily, finding the keywords commonly used by customers isn’t hard. There are several tools like Ahref Keyword explorer, Wordtracker, Google Keyword Planner, etc.
Recommended Reading: The Best Tools for Keyword Research
Since most of these tools are elaborate, you’ll quickly find out what kind of interests your potential customers may have.
While writing your blog, integrate your products or services through links on your pages and images. This is an excellent way to get conversions, even in the long run.
Make the Initial Step Simple
We are wired to always opt for the easier way out. Plus, your visitors don’t have so much time to scroll through a page without a clear call to action. Therefore, make it very easy for customers to sign in or make a purchase.
In your sales page, always place multiple CTAs at strategic places, such as immediately introducing a product slip in a CTA. This also saves you from losing customers since most visitors hardly scroll to the bottom of the page.
On the same note, ensure that your CTAs are clear. It is better to use action words, i.e.,
- Click here
- Get started
- View demo
- Shop now
- Learn more, etc.
Using direct words gives a visitor a straightforward direction of what they need to do and what they expect to happen once they click on the link.
Also, use contrasting colors to make CTAs stand out from the rest of the text. To increase your conversion rates even further, use enticing images or animations next to the CTAs to entice your visitors.
Focus on Forums and Communities
Online communities and forums with high frequent engagement rates are great for increasing conversions. Utilize platforms like Reddit, Quorra, Indiehackers, and Facebook to build your audience and direct traffic to your main pages.
Recommended Reading: Growth Hacking Facebook Strategies to Grow Your Website
But, since not all the sites are for sales and marketing purposes, you can’t directly promote your product. For example, Quorra is a question and answer website. What most entrepreneurs and site owners do is sparingly add links to their content when answering questions. The trick is to look for questions related to your field.
Facebook, on the other hand, has several groups that you can join. Look for a serious group with active members and, from time to time, answer relevant questions posted and add links.
Ensure that you add relevant links. For instance, if you want to offer further information, link it to your blog with related content and not your landing page. Remember, you’re free to answer the question in a way that accommodates your content as long as it fits what was asked.
Since most of these sites are free, join as many as possible. The more platforms you enter, the higher your chances are of improving conversion rates.
Conclusion
Increasing conversion rates is a challenge most entrepreneurs and site owners face mainly because of two reasons.
One: They use low sales and marketing techniques.
Two: Despite having the right knowledge and tactics, most entrepreneurs don’t know how to use them correctly.
The five sales and marketing techniques discussed above are an efficient, cost-effective, and simple way to get a head start in boosting your conversion rates.
There are also other numerous techniques readily available on the internet. Therefore, don’t limit yourself. Feel free to search, delve, and employ as many tactics as possible.
Note: The key is to employ the correct technique in the right way.