The world has changed so much in the past few decades, that certain marketing practices are not as effective as they were prior. Customers have the ability to see millions of different businesses at the click of a button, so it is vital that your business stands out amongst the rest. If you are struggling to find customers or looking to expand your business, continue reading for seven tips to know about your business’s sales.
The buying process is very different from what it was 20 years ago. Buyers used to learn about companies and products through billboards and sales calls. Today, they’re tuning out interruptive messaging and using Google to take the decision-making process into their own hands.
Most people take the time to learn about your company and competitors before they’ll ever pick up the phone to talk to you. Successful entrepreneurs have adjusted their marketing and sales mindset to work with this shift instead of fighting against it. If you’re still struggling to understand today’s digital marketing strategy shift, here are the fundamentals you need to know.
1. Marketing and data go hand in hand.
Today, marketers must be analytical, make data-driven decisions and provide measurable results. If your marketing team doesn’t have the insight to measure ROI for digital marketing campaigns, they can’t possibly prioritize one campaign over another, let alone tie campaigns to revenue.
For example, marketers are quick to invest resources into social media marketing, but, according to the Sprout Social Index, only 15% of marketers use social data to track ROI. Not knowing how your marketing impacts your bottom line will end up costing you time, money and energy.
Equip your marketing team with a robust analytics platform that allows them to close the loop between marketing and sales activities. Tying campaigns to actual customers and dollars earned will make your efforts more informed and your budget better spent.
2. User experience turns websites into effective sales tools.
For businesses, websites are the storefronts of the digital age. If your website isn’t intuitive, user-friendly and personalized, visitors will never turn into customers because they won’t make it past your homepage.
Unfortunately, most marketers spend too much time worrying about brand colors and layouts and fail to turn their websites into effective sales tools. Design is important, but it won’t do anything if you don’t provide a good user experience.
To build relationships with visitors, you need to prioritize making your site responsive and dynamic. Start embracing smart content so that when a prospect or customer visits your website, they see content tailored to them. The right content management system will let you show different calls to action and copy to different contacts.
Most importantly, your website must be mobile-friendly. According to research by SISTRIX, over 60% of searches are carried out on mobile devices, as opposed to 35% on desktops. A mobile-friendly website is easy to access across all devices, and it will make your business seem more credible.
Plus, any money you spend on SEO will be wasted if your site isn’t optimized for mobile. Google prefers mobile-friendly sites, so if yours isn’t up to snuff, your SEO ranking will drop.
3. Content marketing is king.
Buyers have access to more information than ever. That means your marketing efforts should focus on engaging them with helpful content.
Think about all the ads you’re bombarded with throughout the day; odds are, you probably tune most of them out. Well, so do your potential customers. Ads, cold calls and email blasts are far less effective than they used to be.
Instead, businesses should focus on owning content online that their audience wants to consume. Evernote’s blog does a great job of this by sharing helpful, valuable blog posts about its industry and products, making its business a resource for buyers.
Creating easy-to-find content like blog posts, case studies and product videos can help companies play an active part in buyers’ research. And over time, you’ll become a trusted ally in the purchasing process.
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Original article published on business.com
