For small businesses and startups, making that first sale can be challenging. No matter how great your product might be, it won’t sell without proper marketing. Luckily, there are plenty of tricks that online vendors can use to attract sales.
Here are some of the most effective ways to sell your product online and improve your company’s bottom line.
Send Samples to Influencers
You may have heard the term “social media influencer” being thrown around in the marketing sphere for the past couple of years. These individuals are highly successful bloggers, vloggers, and models who have a following of thousands to millions of online users.
Companies will often send social media influencers free samples of their product in exchange for widespread exposure. A makeup company, for example, may send samples to a vlogger for review. In turn, their social media followers may be inspired to try out the product, increasing overall sales.
Just remember to choose the right influencer for your niche if you want to see results.
Start a Company Blog
First, you need to start a company blog. Content marketing is a free and relatively simple way to engage customers on your company website. By offering valuable information and insight, you can gain the trust of your customers and keep them on your site for longer.
Quality blog posts are also likely to be spread and shared through social media, helping to increase your exposure. These posts will attract more customers to your online storefront, improving your chances of making a sale.
You can also create guest blog posts on other websites to reach an entirely new customer base.
Improve Your Search Ranking
Blogging and guest posting aren’t just creative ways of engaging your customers. They can actually help to improve your company website’s ranking on search engines such as Bing or Google. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of boosting a site’s visibility in searches. If your website shows up past the second page of Google, three-quarters of users won’t see your link.
There are plenty of ways that you can work to improve your company’s ranking, with companies specializing in helping businesses to boost their visibility. A better search ranking means more visits to your site, which translates into more sales for your company.
Sponsor an Event
If you want to reach out to customers offline, one of the best ways to get your brand noticed is by sponsoring a major event. Sports games, stage productions, concerts, and more all use sponsors to help fund the event. While being a sponsor does require an initial investment, you’ll have your company’s name posted where everyone can see.
Acting as a sponsor also helps to build your brand image and give customers an idea of your company’s values. You can also give out small samples or swag to give people a taste of your product. This may encourage event guests to seek out more information about your company later.
Create an Email List
While many companies are making the switch to social media as their primary form of customer outreach, there’s still no substitution for an old-fashioned email list. One poll found that over half of marketing experts that use email marketing have experienced a return on their investment.
With an email list, you can contact customers directly with new products, deals, and content straight to their inbox. Collecting email information also gives you a better idea of who makes up your customer base, including factors such as age, gender, and interests.
You can collect emails by including an email subscription form on the front page of your website, or by asking customers to sign up for a newsletter.
Sell Goods Wholesale
Online vendors don’t have to market just to the customer. It’s also possible to increase your bottom line by selling wholesale to other retailers. This way, you’ll have a guaranteed income, even if you go through a bit of a dry spell with your customers. In addition, selling your product through multiple storefronts helps to increase your exposure.
Nowadays, many customers prefer the ease of online shopping, encouraging many vendors to set up online storefronts. With so much competition around, however, it can be challenging to attract sales. Fortunately, there’s plenty that you can do as a business owner to attract sales online.
