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Internet sales are increasingly important for most sectors. So much so, that for some companies it has become the main source of income.
“And it is that, so relevant is this way of selling products or services, that many businesses have been built on these foundations.”
This is the case of Zappos, an online fashion and footwear store that started directly selling online and hoping to find enough demand.
Its founder launched to sell products online in 1999 and more than achieved its purpose, as it is currently one of the main online fashion stores without the need to sell in physical stores.
For all these reasons, surely you have also wondered how to sell online and if it is possible to do it effectively. I am not basing myself here on beliefs, because there are data that show us that this is the case, the question is knowing how to do things well.
Do you dare to know my recommendations? So let’s get to it!
Is it possible to sell online effectively?
Before giving you the practical advice to increase the sales of your business, I must clarify that not one of them is going to work if you do not bring the previous work well done “from home”.
I tell you this because there are those who think that selling online is limited to launching an online store or doing promotions on social networks, when following digital marketing strategies focused on increasing sales is part of a business plan that has to work as a whole.
In this sense, it is necessary:
- Have an offer that solves a real need in the market for which there is still unsatisfied demand.
- Get to know the public in different terms, as well as their interests and purchasing behavior through the Internet.
- Know and act in the appropriate channels depending on the sector and the behavior of the digital consumer.
Only by complying with these 3 basic pillars, can we realistically talk about how to sell online through the means that the Internet makes available to us for it; marketplaces and digital marketing strategies.
marketplaces
“Selling through marketplaces greatly reduces costs in the short term, so it is usually a very attractive alternative for those who are just starting out.”
Selling through your own channels has many advantages, but it is not the only option. It depends on the sector in which you want to sell, you can choose one option or another.
For example, Zalando is highly recommended for fashion, while for the technology sector PcComponentes is becoming a benchmark.
In any case, I will not be talking about anything unknown if I mention Amazon as the leader par excellence. This is so, because as a marketplace it has made it possible for users to sell our items:
- Saving costs of dissemination and online positioning.
- Offering secure payment systems and, in some cases, logistics management.
digital marketing strategies
“Those who choose to sell in their own eCommerce are actually betting on a 360 digital marketing strategy.”
However, each of the strategies applied in the global plan are not only focused on how to increase Internet sales, but also on generating a community of prescribers related to the brand and retaining those who have already made a purchase in the past.
In order to achieve all this, it is possible to implement strategies from all or a combination of the different areas:
- Positioning in search engines: Essential to appear in search results and for users to know about your offer.
- Social networks: The ideal medium to create a segmented community interested in your business, and to direct them towards your offer.
- Email marketing: It involves non-intrusive actions that allow the user to consume brand content when they are receptive to it.
- Social Ads and SEM: To advertise both on social networks and within Google or in banners aimed at a segmented audience.
- Blogging: Pure content marketing to attract potential customers to the different digital channels of action.
Working on all or most of these strategic areas, immersed in a global business plan, is necessary to promote the possibilities of increasing online sales, although not enough (as we have already seen above).
Next, and as it could not be less coming from me, we are going to see a series of tips to optimize different aspects related to the contents of your 360 marketing strategy and, thus, increase online sales.
What to consider in your strategy to sell online?
As I was telling you, so far we have seen what the options are when it comes to selling online. Now we will see 7 specific ideas with which to improve certain aspects of your global marketing strategy.
More than ideas, I would call them popularly known techniques or practices in my area (content marketing), and that I know from my clients’ own experience that they work.
I am sure that these practices can also be of great help to you when it comes to answering the eternal question of how to sell online. Here I leave them:
1) Improve the user experience and web usability
Be clear that your 360 marketing strategy can go to waste if your website is not ready to give its best.
User experience and web usability are two basic aspects that must be taken into account when launching any type of online project, and even more so if it is a sales channel.
When a user makes an online purchase, we are asking them to trust someone whom they are not seeing and about whom they cannot create their own opinion. Therefore, what is going to be valued is the website.
In other words, the corporate website or online store will be the cover letter of your business. If things are not clear in it, it will not take long for users to go to the site of your most direct competitors.
It is for this reason that the best of experiences must be given, making everything comfortable and friendly, and seeking harmony in design, content and usability.
2) Include calls to action
Calls to action are messages that are usually presented in the form of a button and direct users towards a certain action. In this case, they could be calls to visit a product menu, add an item to the basket or complete the purchase process.
However, depending on the channel we are on and the message to be broadcast, they can also be used to get subscriptions to a newsletter or to download valuable content.
And it is that, the calls to action are very flexible and valid elements for email marketing, ads on social networks or display, as well as any web element (such as pop-ups, forms or banners).
Of course, to be effective they must be located in visible places, have a sufficiently striking design and a very clear and direct text message, of the type:
3) Share your story with good storytelling
Applying emotions in commercial messages is one of the best ways to humanize a brand. Managing to convey something to users through your story will make them feel the brand closer, more human and more trustworthy.
In this sense, storytelling refers to the technique with which to tell this story in the right way to create an enveloping atmosphere that makes users enter it. Let them feel each of the emotions you want to convey and make them their own.
This technique is used so that users keep information about your business in their memory, and thus you become on their “short list” when they need to find solutions for specific problems.
4) Make copy in the texts that describe your products
Whether you are going to continue to develop a complete strategy or if you are going to sell your products in a marketplace, you must keep in mind the relevance of the detailed description of the products or services that you offer.
He thinks that users cannot touch them or get a completely faithful idea of their physical appearance. For this reason, together with the images, the product descriptions have a lot to say in an online purchase decision.
To work the copy of these texts well, it is necessary to know the keywords that users use to find your product. For example, if you sell on Amazon you can use their keyword planner called Sonar, which includes many useful terms for .
5) Apply email copywriting techniques
As I have mentioned before, email marketing is one of the most highly valued communication channels, since it is not intrusive as it allows us to be ourselves who choose the moment to review the received messages.
However, to ensure that a campaign sent via email has the desired effect, techniques must be applied in the different text fields such as the subject, the body of the message and, of course, the calls to action.
From this channel it is possible to direct users to other channels, as well as take them directly to carry out a purchase process (although it is not usually the most recommended in a first shipment).
6) Create VIP content related to your product
Something that works very well is offering free products to users to obtain feedback, subscriptions to services or any other action that can be used to contact later and strengthen the sale.
Infoproducts such as special content that users can download work very well for this type of action, such as the one that I myself offer in the subscription form for my newsletter:
The ideal is to carry out these actions around the star products, the best sellers or those that are on promotion.
7) Include graphics and animations in your messages
The last idea that I bring you about how to sell online is focused on the use of graphic content in your online channels.
It is more than proven that this type of content is the one that works best when it comes to getting more engagement and a greater reach.
Therefore, we must not underestimate the , graphics, infographics, photos and videos. Content that has a place in all online channels and that can be used as protagonists or as support for textual content.
They serve as a claim to attract users and visually show aspects of the products that cannot be understood in any other way. Therefore, they are essential when working on how to increase online sales.
conclusion
Getting to understand how to sell online is a long process that not all entrepreneurs who venture to launch their business on the Internet are willing to go through.
Keep in mind that there is no written rule in marketing and, therefore, the strategies that worked for others may not work for you.
For all this, before…
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