10 Tricks to Increase Online Sales
Roxana Humelnicu
Digital Marketing and Content Executive
Topic
Increasing online sales is the holy grail of all ecommerce businesses.
So, whether you want to generate a quick increase in transactions or to devise a long-term strategy to grow revenues and improve cash flow, look no further.
Here are 10 tricks you can use to increase your online sales.
1. Be keyword clever
In an increasingly digital world, the importance of being search-engine friendly is no secret. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the collective term for methods used to make websites and online content perform well in searches on platforms such as Google and Bing. Optimising landing pages and product pages with relevant keywords is perhaps one of the most important factors of SEO. Although the factors that determine search rankings are always changing, the keyword imperative is a constant.
After all, if you want your website or products to rank for certain terms, it’s only common sense that the relevant keywords are used in the copy of pages or descriptions.
That said, an important thing to remember about keywords is that quality should trump quantity. Gone are the days of stuffing web pages with keyword mentions to improve SEO performance because Google actually penalises websites that do so.
You should also look for high search volume keywords that significant numbers of customers actively search for and for low volume keywords that have less competition.
2. Content is key
Creating consistent, up-to-date and useful content for your website is another great way to improve SEO and increase sales. Be aware, though, that this is only a longer-term solution, as creating one or two blog posts won’t increase sales overnight.
Instead, implementing a content strategy which produces a steady stream of site additions that adapt to SEO ranking factor changes can help keep your website relevant.
Using keywords in that content is crucial for ranking, much like it is for landing and product pages. For example, informing your content with long-tail keywords, particularly around searches your target customers are making, can do wonders for your ranking performance.
Useful and informative content will boost engagement rates, allowing potential and repeat customers to get more involved with your brand which can, in turn, increase the likelihood of a purchase.
In addition, establishing yourself as an expert in your field by sharing your knowledge in your content can also increase trust, confidence and, therefore, positive perceptions of your products and services.
3. The power of video
Video is an increasingly powerful tool for increasing online sales, as any cursory glance at social media will tell you. Humans are incredibly visual creatures, so video allows you to deliver detailed information in a way that is easier to digest than written text.
With research by Optinmonster indicating that video marketers generate 66% more leads annually, more and more companies are creating video content to both entice customers and optimise for search.
This comes as no surprise as YouTube has become the second largest search engine in the world and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that videos on the platform play a significant role in influencing purchasing decisions. Therefore, just by placing your marketing videos on YouTube, you can drive online sales and with easy-integration you can make the most of video content by posting it to other social media sites too, including Instagram and Twitter.
4. Establishing authority
Domain authority is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), with a greater authority score resulting in a higher ranking. Although not explicitly acknowledged by Google, it is an important SEO ranking factor and can have a huge impact on online lead and sales generation.
One of the most popular and successful ways of increasing your site authority is to secure backlinks from other sites with a high domain authority.
In doing so, your website is seen by search engines as more credible which helps with the ranking position of its individual pages and, in turn, their click-through to conversion rates.
A great way to generate backlinks is to produce high quality, guest post content that links to your website, then outreach the content to sites with a greater domain authority.
In order to be successful in outreaching, content must be engaging, useful and something these other sites would want to publish.
If you can outreach successfully and gain links on high traffic websites with the same audience demographic as your target segment, it could have a very positive effect on your sales.
5. Email marketing
Email marketing is another way in which you can drive your online sales. Once you have built a mailing list (that is GDPR compliant, of course!) you can begin to create email marketing campaigns that can motivate people to click-through to your website and buy your products.
Successful campaigns include welcome promotions, such as a one-off discount code that users receive when they first sign up to your mailing list and seasonal or topical emails that are either planned or react to fast-changing consumer trends.
Email marketing can be highly personalised and targeted to increase chances of conversions. For example, depending on the data you’ve collected on your mailing list subscribers, you can populate first name fields so the message personally addresses the receiver. Research has shown that emails with a personalised subject line are 26% more likely to be opened.
Abandoned cart emails are a great way to remind customers of items they’ve considered buying. With an open rate of over 40%, remarketing in this way works to recover purchases and can even offer a discount or other promotion in order to encourage customers to complete the transaction.
Another benefit of email marketing is that it can be automated meaning that you can enjoy an increase in online sales and saved time, which can then be focused on other important business activities.
6. Retargeted PPC (pay-per-click) advertising
Paid online advertising can work quickly to generate sales through your website. While many forms of PPC can be expensive, particularly in competitive markets, planning campaigns strategically can help maximise your conversion values and ROI (Return on Investment). This involves running and tailoring campaigns for multiple platforms that are relevant to your target demographic, areas and devices.
A simple but effective method of using PPC strategically is to retarget ads to potential customers who have already shown an interest in your product or service by visiting your site and product/service pages.
As we all know, research and awareness are important stages of the customer journey. Many consumers use websites to gather information about a product and draw comparisons between competitors before purchasing.
Targeting these users is, therefore, a good way to ensure you remain prominent in their thinking as they move further along their journey.
7. Personalisation is crucial
Personalising ads is an effective way of getting the most out of your ad spend. Targeting ads at a specific demographic likely to be interested in your offering will increase click-through rates, reduce budget waste and and result in higher conversion rates.
Personalisation can also work for retargeted ads whereby potential customers are shown ads relevant to items they viewed or placed in their baskets. Reminding those who are still on the fence about purchasing, using personalisation in this way can significantly increase sales.
8. Calls-to-action
Conversion rate optimisation is another important way to increase online sales for any ecommerce business. CRO is all about understanding your current customers and website users and making it as easy and appealing as possible for them to complete their purchases.
One way of doing this is with calls-to-action (CTA), which are simply commands that direct potential customers towards a specific action. For ecommerce companies, this is generally buying your product or service, but can also include micro-conversions, such as filling out a contact form or downloading a whitepaper.
A clear CTA can have a significant impact on online sales, particularly when it links directly through to the shopping page or basket and provides a seamless route to the completion of a transaction.
CTAs can also be used on blog posts and other elements of a brand’s digital content. For example, placing a CTA linking to a relevant product or service at the end of a post reminds the reader that they can purchase your product after they have just spent time engaging with your brand.
Similarly, including CTAs to subscribe to newsletters and mailing lists is a great way to capture already-interested consumers, encouraging them to become more involved with your brand and increasing the likelihood of a sale.
9. Split testing
Running split tests can uncover some incredibly useful information that can help you better understand your audience and their behaviour. In a split test, you can create a number of variations of a landing page or ad.
Each version is shown equally but at random to users interacting with your brand. You can then monitor which page or ad performs better in increasing leads or conversions and apply your new knowledge to future activities.
It is recommended that you test different elements, including page layout, design, copy and imagery, to determine which combination generates the most conversions for your business.
10. Heat mapping
Heat maps provide visual data which illustrates how visitors behave when on your website. You can map things such as how and where users are clicking, scrolling and hovering, uncovering their interaction and engagement with content and other elements and functions on the site.
Heat mapping is a useful tool for CRO as it provides actionable insight that can be used to inform the future design and functionality of the website in order to maximise conversions.
So, there’s 10 tricks you can use to increase your online sales. Still unsure about how you can put them into action? Get in touch with our team today. Contact us at [email protected] or give us a call on 08453 31 30 31.