I talk with business owners all day – of every business size – about what they can do to generate new business and increase sales online.
If you’re in business today, and you or your salespeople are NOT getting the kind of online sales increases you’re looking for, it’s probably one (or all five) of the issues below.
So, here we go…
1. You’re Not Posting Enough Content
They say content is king. One reason for this is that with so much noise on the web, the way to really get people’s attention is not to spam them to death, but to provide them with high-quality, useful content to engage with.
You need to be SEEN and HEARD FROM online by your followers on a consistent and constant level. If your network and audience hear just a few times per week from you – THAT’S NOT ENOUGH.
Your content can, and should be, blogs, videos, memes, polls, vlogs, audio, articles and etc. You must think of your exposure like a Moving Parade. If your followers don’t have a continual “parade” of high-quality content from you, you’re forgotten and they’ve already moved on.
2. You’re Not Posting Interesting Content
This is a big one!! If you do step 1 above but don’t incorporate this step, then PLEASE don’t do either step! (For the sake of your customers and prospects.)
Your content (blogs, videos, articles, memes, etc) should be FUN, interesting, resourceful, educational, challenging, cool, different, etc. Not all at once, of course! But MUST have a combination of these, or your prospects will TUNE OUT and forget your company faster than they could read it.
Your content should be “sharable”. Something they enjoyed reading, watching or listening to, and they want their network to have it to. Birds of a feather flock together, so you WANT your prospects to share your stuff!
3. You’re Not Positioning Yourself As the Expert, As a Resource
Why should your audience buy from you? Why would an ideal buyer want to buy from you?
If they SHOULD be buying from you, and you’re so great – why aren’t they?? Most likely because you’re not positioning yourself as the EXPERT. The go-to resource in your community. The content that you’re putting in front of your target audience should be helpful and solve problems. Maybe even problems they didn’t know they had!
People want to buy from those that are experts – no matter what industry! Would you want a mechanic that read a book on how to fix cars, or the person who’s fixed 500 cars before yours? Would you want to eat an expensive meal prepared by a chef that watched a video on how to cook, or the one that studied under the experts for 10 years and runs 5 restaurants? EXACTLY!!
So, be the expert by sharing your expertise, your knowledge, your understanding of solutions to your client’s problems.
4. You’re Not Engaging with Your Audience
If you do the three steps above, and don’t respond to posts, questions and comments from your audience – then you’re just an advertisement and not a “real” person or company behind the posts.
When you put an educational post on Facebook, for instance, that leads back to your blog – you’ll start to get comments (on the post or on your blog). And either way, you need to respond and reply back. That’s the point of using social media and other online platforms to reach your audience. So you can ENGAGE and INTERACT with them! This give you influence over your network. They begin to trust you, and seek your help now, or down the road.
Remember, there’s a living breathing human being on the other end of that comment someone made to your post. Create a system to respond and interact with that person!
5. You’re Not Collecting Feedback
Another reason your business is not generating more sales online is, you’re not finding out what your audience wants, needs, is interested in, is disinterested in, wants more of, wants less of, etc.
If you’re not using tools and resources to get feedback from your audience and prospects, then you’re missing a HUGE opportunity to give them what they want. (Because if you’re not doing it, I can assure you, your competition is.) You may *think* you know what your buyers want, but you can better-yet ask them what they want.
What are their pains? What keeps your prospect up at night (other than the IRS)? If you don’t know, you need to inquire from them regularly and often – since needs and situations change.
I promise you, if you invest in doing these FIVE things into your marketing – you will see BIG JUMPS in your sales activity!! You’re in business for a reason (whatever that reason is), and your prospects are out there. They just need to KNOW about you online – done the right way.
CAN WE HELP? Reach out to schedule a no-obligation chat about your business needs and sales goals. A proper Client Engagement Strategy will help position yourself as the expert, provide info people want to share, as well as educate your community on how to buy your services or products.