The new year can be a perfect time to re-evaluate your sales and marketing strategies to ensure that the following months result in strong sales. Taking proactive steps to ensure you don’t see a sales decline can help your business before it’s too late. Taking the time and putting in the effort to strengthen your business activities can greatly boost your bottom line. To avoid a sales decline this year, consider doing the following activities. Focus on Inbound Marketing If your sales activities are still largely centred on cold calling, you risk seeing a sales decline. Buying behaviours have changed and your selling strategies have to change, too. Cold calling and aggressive outbound techniques won’t work —as they haven’t for several years now. Put down that phone and start creating an inbound marketing strategy instead. With inbound marketing, you focus your efforts on pumping out fresh and informative content online—through your website, on your blog, on social media, and through email marketing—to lure potential customers to you. Chasing them won’t work, so get them to come to you by providing them with valuable information that they can use to make informed purchasing decisions. Inbound marketing will not only get you more customers and sales, but it will also increase your brand recognition and awareness, turn you into a thought leader in your industry, and build trust in order to turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. The Customer Is KingAre you still relying on the same old sales pitch that you use in every meeting? Do you tell every client about your newest awards and recognition? If so, it’s time to stop. The harsh reality is clients don’t care about you or your company. They care about themselves. In any sales opportunity, the customer is king. And every customer is different. Don’t use the same sales pitch on every client—tailor it to meet their unique needs. All it takes is a little effort and research. Stop talking about yourself and focus on them. On their needs, wants, and problems. Let them know what your products or services can do for them specifically. Have a conversation and be empathetic to their needs. Upgrade Your WebsiteOne of the most valuable tools you have in your inbound marketing toolbox is your website. In order to avoid a sales decline, upgrade your website for a better user experience. A stale, static website that isn’t updated frequently won’t attract and hold on to your visitors. Instead, make it fresh and dynamic and ensure that the style, design, and copy on your website are directly focused on the target audience you’ve identified. A responsive website that can be displayed well on any type of device—from a PC to a tablet and smart phone—can also help you stay profitable. Potential customers search for information online on a variety of devices and you don’t want to lose them because your website doesn’t show up well on their devices. Development custom ERP software can also help you. Be FlexibleEven the best sales and marketing strategies won’t be profitable forever. With technology constantly changing the game, it’s important to be flexible in every aspect of your business. New apps, software, and selling techniques are coming to light. You must adapt when necessary in order to avoid a sales decline. Look at the latest technology developments and see if any of them can help you get an edge over your competitors by making your business more efficient and streamlined. Go with the FlowIn order to avoid a sales decline, you must go with the flow—you can’t hold on to old ideas and tactics. You must adapt with the new world if you’re going to stay profitable in 2015. Create an awesome inbound marketing campaign, focus on your customer’s needs, upgrade and update your website, and be flexible with all your business activities. Make changes when needed.
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Blogging isn’t just for B2C companies. Companies should include blogs on their B2B websites, too. Check out these five reasons why you should start blogging for your B2B company. When you own a B2B company, you might think that blogging isn’t worthwhile. After all, you’re not trying to directly target the consumer; you’re targeting other businesses. This line of thinking is pretty common in the B2B world, but it can actually hinder your online marketing efforts. The reality is all B2B websites could benefit in a variety of ways from having blogs that are fun, informative, and helpful. Here are just five reasons we think companies should include blogs on their B2B websites. Buyers Are PeopleAnd people search for information online. Just because you target businesses as your audience doesn’t mean blogging isn’t worthwhile. The buyers within those organizations that you’re selling to are people just like consumers. They use the internet. They want to learn more about your products or services. They want to get to know your brand and your company inside and out before they agree to take the deal you’re offering. They want to do independent research to be sure of their buying decisions. When you blog, you are giving them the information they need to be sure that buying from you is the right decision. Your target audience isn’t just the business entity, but the people within it. Position Your Company as a Leader in the IndustryBuyers want to purchase from the leaders in the industry—the experts. They want to know that they’re not being duped to purchase goods or services from a company that doesn’t know what it’s doing. B2B websites with blogs show buyers that the companies they’re going to get in bed with are worth trusting because they’re knowledgeable. This knowledge turns into credibility, which gives them comfort in knowing that they’re making the correct buying decision. It lowers their risk. Read more: What is Saas? Drive Traffic to Your WebsiteB2B websites with blogs get higher rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing thanks to search engine optimization. Search engines look more fondly on websites that have a lot of valuable, original content that is uploaded frequently. Every blog post helps you rank higher, so more buyers will find your company when they’re looking for similar goods and services. They’ll click on your link, get to your website, and start to get to know you—early in the buying cycle. So by the time you contact them, they already know your brand, which makes selling to them that much easier, especially if they take part in the calls to action that you have all over your website. Be a Shining Star, Not a CloneWhen you’re selling the same products or services as many other companies, it’s going to be hard to stand apart from the competition. After all, your website copy is going to be pretty similar. Your buyers won’t understand why it’s better for them to buy from you than from your competitors. But a blog can help you shine and show them what you’ve got that’s different from the others. You get to share your opinions, thoughts, talents, and knowledge on your blog—and every once in a while you can promote your products or services, too. Read more: How I searched and found a company that delivers goods from China Something to Talk AboutB2B websites with blogs get people talking. They start conversations. When you share these blog posts on social media and have a comment section, you allow your buyers to give their opinions, get in on the conversation, and even ask questions. Once you get people talking, you get to start building relationships with them. And these relationships are key for your sales efforts. Increase Profits with BloggingBlogging can be just the thing your B2B company needs to increase profits. When you blog, you show buyers that you’re a thought leader, you get more traffic to your website, you set your company apart from the competition, and you can start conversations that lead to strong relationships with buyers.
Read more: 11 Actionable SEO Tips For Every eCommerce Website in 2019 Though Google has been including mobile usability as a factor in its search algorithm for years now, the effects have always been limited and ambiguous. No one really knew which factors were considered when calculating rankings for mobile or how many sites were actually affected by it. For this reason, many business owners postponed making their sites mobile optimized—it simply hasn’t seemed too important. But with the new Google algorithm that took effect on April 21, 2015, your company could be in big trouble if your website isn’t mobile optimized. This revolutionary algorithm change has drastically changed the way mobile friendliness is determined worldwide, in all languages. Millions of companies’ digital marketing results have been affected by the new Google algorithm. If you haven’t made your website mobile friendly yet, here are some major reasons why you need to—right now. Unhappy CustomersYour customers should be your top priority. You should want to give them the best experience on your website. You want to allow mobile searchers to be able to find the information they’re looking for on your site quickly and easily. You want them to be able to find your contact information within seconds. You want them to be able to clearly read your content. You want them to be able to easily click on your links. If you’re not providing your mobile visitors the ease of navigation and the pleasant viewing experience that they’re hoping for, you’re going to have unhappy customers—and that’s never good for business. If your site isn’t easy to access via mobile, your customers are going to jump ship and check out your competitor’s site instead. A Change in Rank OrdersIf you’ve been at the top of Google’s search results for a while now, you might think that you have nothing to worry about—but you’re wrong. You could disappear from the top page completely if your site isn’t mobile optimized. Google wants its searchers to get the most high quality and relevant results when they’re searching online using their mobile phones. It doesn’t want to direct searchers to websites with small text and terrible displays. So if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you’re probably going to get bumped off the list and replaced with a company that is. You’ll get demoted, and mobile-friendly sites will get rewarded with a higher ranking. Read more: Why does your business need an ERP system? Loss of SalesIf your customers and prospects are unhappy with their user experience and you’ve received a rank demotion, you’re inevitably going to see a loss of sales. Digital marketing is vital to the success of companies in this technological age and your strategy must now include mobile optimization if you want to keep making sales like you have in the past. Since 60 percent of web traffic is now coming from smart phones, you’re going to miss out on tons of leads, new customers, and new sales. Potential customers won’t even know about your company if you’re not showing up in Google’s search results. And the ones who do find you might get quickly turned off if your site is not mobile friendly. And on top of that, you might lose out on loyal customers, too: the ones who want to keep buying from you but move on to your competitor because you’ve made it too difficult for them to access your site via mobile phone. Get on BoardIt’s not optional anymore. You have to make your website mobile optimized now that the new Google algorithm has taken effect. Regardless of the money, time, and resources you’ve put into your online marketing strategy in the past, you’ll still see a drastic loss of visibility, customers, and sales if you don’t get on board with mobile optimization. The devastating consequences of postponing mobile optimization by a few months or even a few weeks can greatly affect your business’s bottom line.
Read more: SaaS - What is it actually? In today's competitive online market, you need to drive as much relevant traffic to your business website as possible. There are tons of ways to make it easier for the right people to find your website so you can generate more qualified leads and ultimately grow your sales. It's critical that you take the necessary steps to increase traffic to your website. If you're neglecting this aspect of your online marketing campaign, you could be missing out on potential sales. And guess where your prospects wind up. That's right: your competition. If people can't find your business website when searching online, they'll come across your competitor who has taken steps to increase traffic to their site. Consumers are using the internet to research everything they buy. If they can't find your website, you lose. Here's how you can increase traffic to your business website. Inbound MarketingThe purpose of inbound marketing is to attract the right people to your business website rather than using ancient outbound marketing strategies to generate leads. Provide quality content that is tailored to your target audience so they will want to come to your business website. Instead of making bothersome cold calls and sending unsolicited email blasts, redirect your time and energy toward inbound marketing tactics. Start pulling in relevant prospects and stop wasting your valuable time trying to push out stale sales pitches when no one is listening. Inbound marketing shortens the length of the sales pipeline. By the time your sales reps reach out to prospects, they are already informed and interested. Read more: How to Make Your SEO Strategy Google Friendly Content MarketingCreate and share valuable content on your business website. Content marketing is all about catching the attention of the right buyers with useful content that is specifically written for them. Start a blog on your business website if you don't already have one. Continue to share your new content on your blog. Write informative blog posts, create interesting videos, include case studies, create interactive quizzes, design attractive infographics, and offer free white paper and ebook downloads. The purpose of content marketing is to give interested prospects the information they want and need so they are well informed when it comes time to buy. Effective content marketing also puts you in a position as an industry expert and thought leader. Consumers will come to recognize your brand, recall your expert knowledge, trust your credible team, and turn to you when they're ready to buy. Social SellingUse social media to share your unique content and to interact with consumers. Social media networks will help you increase visibility, make connections, and build relationships. Take this opportunity to participate in group discussions, answer questions, and offer solutions. Used effectively, social media can help you generate more qualified sales leads. When it comes to social media posts, remember to follow the 70/20/10 rule:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Invest in SEO to increase traffic to your business website. Make sure your website is optimized for search engines so people can find your company when they search relevant keywords using search engines. Engage a professional if this is out of your area of expertise. Keep Track and TweakRemember to track all of your online marketing efforts so you can analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments when necessary. Many businesses forget or don't bother to keep track and analyze, but if you don't know what's working and what's not, how can you expect to improve? Use Google Analytics to analyze how your visitors interact with your content. Increase Traffic to Increase SalesIn today's internet-obsessed society, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find your business website. Increase traffic to your website to generate more qualified sales leads and increase overall sales.
Read more: Work with Linkbox.pro for your Backlinking Works Utilizing social media as part of your overall marketing strategies is generally a fairly easy process, but regardless of the simplicity it may seem to possess, you may still be making business mistakes with social media that could be devastating to the success of your online marketing efforts. The first and most critical mistake you could make is to think that any form of social media is a "fad" and that it will eventually fade into obscurity. Social media as a valuable tool in your online marketing efforts should be something you are devoting a fair amount of time and effort to, because it affords you a global reach for your company, brand, products, and services, and you can frequently use targeted marketing to focus on those individuals that you want in your sales funnel. Here are several mistakes your business does not want to make in your efforts to capitalize on the ability to use social media as a marketing tool: 1. Using the same content across all social media channels.Each different social media channel has a specific type of content that is dominant, and your marketing content should conform to the style and language of that particular channel. For example, you shouldn't post long-winded professionally focused monologues on Instagram or irrelevant and cutesy witticisms on LinkedIn. Source: Why Empathy Should Be at the Centre of Your Marketing and Sales Strategy 2. Don't use blunt advertising gimmicks to attempt to attract attention.Your advertising should be overt sales pitches, but disguised in attractive and appealing images, text, and other content that makes your site visitors want to learn more. If your content is filled with entertaining anecdotes and relevant imagery, stopping the flow of the user experience with a seemingly out-of-place call to action can ruin your site visitor's impression. 3. Establishing too many social media accounts for your company (or brand, products, or services).Your company should have one account on each social media channel, regardless of how many people are authorized to add content, create posts, or modify settings. If you have more than one "official" account, your potential visitors will not know which one is the "real thing" and may avoid them all. 4. Letting your social media accounts become stale.If you do not provide content in the form of posts, images, advertisements, and other data on a very regular basis, your potential visitors may get the impression that your company is not interested in maintaining a visible presence on the Internet. Online companies come and go at the speed of light, so make sure people know you are here to stay by staying visible and active. 5. Using the wrong data standards for analysis of the success or failure of your efforts.As with the fail of using the same content across all social media channels, you also cannot use the same data standards for determining if your social media campaigns are (or are not) effective. What works on Twitter doesn't necessarily work on Facebook, and applying the same metrics to both can give you skewed results.
As previously stated, social media marketing can provide you with a virtual goldmine of opportunity when it comes to reaching untapped markets and audiences. Don't let your company miss out on a powerful marketing tool and the subsequent leads, conversion rates, and profitability that can come with it if you utilize social media effectively. Source: How to Get New Customers More than ever, number crunching gives businesses insights into their operations, their performance, where they can improve, and even how they can improve. Inbound marketing’s no different: You need to know your campaigns are effective and driving the results you want—and how to fix them if they’re not. The problem: There are so many inbound marketing metrics available. You can track almost any statistic you want. Will make your work easier indexer tool. Worse, it’s probably not worth the effort. Sort the fluff from the vitals with these five inbound marketing metrics. 5. Conversion RatesA conversion rate is one of the most common and popular inbound marketing metrics available—and one of the most important. The conversion rate tells you how many customers or prospects have taken a desired action, whether that’s actually purchasing something from you, downloading free content, or simply clicking a link. In a marketing campaign, your goal is often to get people to act, so the conversion rate is incredibly important. 4. EngagementWhile it’s important to track traffic, such as post views and website visits to your social media profiles and blog, it’s more important to measure how much engagement you’re getting. Are people commenting on your posts and sharing them? Creating engaging, shareable content is key for any business today, no matter what you do. It increases your brand visibility and gets people interacting with your firm. Engagement creates organic brand ambassadors: people who trust your content enough to share it with others in their networks. Comments are perhaps even more important, because they often show a higher level of engagement—most people share posts without reading or after simply skimming through. A commenter likely has read the post. 3. Net Promoter Score (NPS)Would your customers recommend you to their friends and family? A net promoter score allows you to determine which of your current customers are likely to act as organic brand ambassadors for you, giving you free word-of-mouth promotion. Sharing your content is just one way your customers act as brand ambassadors. By measuring the NPS, you can get an indication of how successful your marketing truly is; a number that’s trending upwards shows your marketing efforts are increasing your reach. 2. Time on Site and Bounce RatesThese two inbound marketing metrics are tied up in each other. A bounce rate lets you know how many viewers hit your homepage and then simply leave. A time-on-site measurement can reflect the bounce rate, but it can also demonstrate how long potential customers spend on your site. More sophisticated inbound marketing metrics also tell you what those people do and how they’re using your site. Both of these inbound marketing metrics give you a glimpse into how compelling your content is. An ad might be effective in getting people to click through to your homepage, but do they stick around? How long do they spend on your blog posts—a couple of minutes? If people are leaving your website quickly, they’re not being enticed to stay, which may mean you need better design, a more engaging presentation, or better content. 1. ROIReturn on investment is a classic metric and not merely for inbound marketing. Essentially, you measure how much you earn back (your return) over your initial investment. If you put $10,000 into your marketing campaign, how much did your sales or profit increase as a result? Did you earn new customers?
If so, using a customer lifetime value measurement can help you calculate your return: Each customer is determined to be worth so much over the customer life cycle, and you can compare that number with your upfront investment in the campaign to acquire them. |