During 2020, when the pandemic triggered lockdowns across the planet, a profusion of global digital companies flourished because the virtual world became the safest place to conduct business. This year, you can continue to ride the wave of digital popularity that your enterprise is enjoying, or you can step it up a notch. Here are 3 suggestions on how to grow online sales this year.
Step #1: Outsource Your Customer Support
The faster your business grows, the more difficult it becomes to give your customers the personalized support they need to resolve technical problems or after-sales issues, such as delayed or incorrect shipments.
Alienating your customers by not providing sufficient support is the fastest way to tarnish the value of your brand and destroy your online reputation. But rather than fretting over how you are going to afford the cost of hiring more people, simply outsource your online customer support to a virtual staffing company.
Your new virtual customer support team will efficiently handle all customer support tickets in any time zone throughout the year, taking care of your customers quickly and courteously over the phone, through live chat, via email, or on social media.
Step# 2 Streamline Your Productivity
The better the quality of your hardware and software, the more efficiently your business will run. This is because streamlined business processes built on the backbone of a robust technological system ensure high business productivity.
In the beginning, you’ll probably only need a robust computer system, high-speed Internet access, and all the applications necessary to run your business efficiently. As a small business, you will be able to run an efficient operation without needing to invest in expensive hardware or software.
But, later, as your business grows, the cost of hardware and software, data storage, and security protocols can run high and cut into your profits. At that point, you may want to abandon your legacy computer infrastructure and adopt cloud computing,
Cloud computing offers a plethora of benefits:
- You will reduce all your IT costs, costs related to managing and maintaining your computer infrastructure.
- You will be able to scale your business, adapting to seasonal changes in website traffic.
- You will find it easier to collaborate with freelancers around the world on your projects.
- You will ensure business continuity, i.e. protection of all your data should your home office or commercial office be in a place vulnerable to natural disasters, such as hurricanes or flooding.
Step #3 Optimize Your Marketing
There are two significant ways you can optimize your marketing: learn from the past and improve the expository and persuasive elements of your website to convince your visitors that you can deliver on your promises.
Here is a breakdown of each of these elements:
Analyze Your Data
If you have a successful business right now, it’s probably because you have a great marketing system in place. Since you have gathered plenty of marketing data over 2020, now would be a good time to analyze last year’s marketing strategies to get an understanding of what worked better than you hoped and what did not work out as well as you expected.
Since you’ve tested out many marketing strategies and tactics in 2020, now, during the early months of 2021, would be a good time to figure out the ones that worked best for your business.
Here are two aspects of your marketing data to review:
- Review your Google Analytics or other analytics tools to get an in-depth understanding of the results you got from your campaign launches.
- Review the performance of your different marketing channels, such as email marketing, YouTube videos, blog posts, and PPC advertising.
Once you’ve reviewed this data, try to fit it into the framework of the Pareto principle. If you remember, Pareto’s principle states that 80% of your results come from only 20% of the things you do. So, after your analysis, double down on the 20% of the marketing activities that brought in the highest profits and drop the 80% of moderate to low-performing activities.
Improve Website Copy
It’s curious how a simple thing as a change in a few words in your headlines or body copy can make the difference between high and low sales.
While you need good content, of course, to engage your readers and establish yourself as an expert in your niche, you also need specific calls to action throughout your copy.
For example, how well you word your opt-in offer determines how many people subscribe to your email list; how clearly you describe your brand’s origin story on your about page determines how many people consider you a trustworthy website; and how succinctly you outline the benefits of your products and services on your sales page determines how many people buy from you.
One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is to write their own copy when they have not been trained in the art of expository writing or the psychology of persuasion in print. The result is often one boring content page after another.
But, worse still, is one sales page after another inflated with hyperbole. If you try to use hyperbole to persuade, then hypersensitive consumers, wary of online scams, will instantly distrust your brand, considering your business dishonest. Instead of impressing them with your long list of business accomplishments and incredulous promises, you’ll frighten them away.
Hire content writers to create entertaining and informative content that engages people. Also, hire copywriters to create persuasive content to drive sales. When you can convince website visitors that you can deliver on your promises, then you’ll have the Midas touch.
Make 2021 Your Favorite Business Year
As the government spends trillions to jumpstart the U.S. economy, now would be a great year to grow your online sales to do your part in rebuilding the economy. It’s your time to flourish.
