Increase Your E-Commerce Sales

Moving customers through the sales funnel is key to your e-commerce business. Yet, it can be challenging to connect with them and convince them that you have the right answer to their issues. Since your target audience is never without their smartphones with the internet on it, you must connect with your customers each step of the way. The companies who do it best are successful. Some techniques have proven more successful than others, so you will want to be sure and use them.

1. Connect With Your Target Audience Where They Are

The more you keep your company’s name at the forefront of your audience’s minds, the more likely they are to think of you when they need your products. Almost every company can benefit from posting on Facebook regularly. The best time to post depends on your type of business. Consider these survey results:

Consumer goods- Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and Fridays at 11 a.m.
Media- Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Education – Wednesdays at 9 a.m. and Saturdays at 5 p.m.
Nonprofits- Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:30 a.m.
Technology – Wednesdays from 9-to-11 a.m.
Healthcare- Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-to-12 p.m.
Finance – Wednesdays at 12 p.m.
Recreation – Tuesdays at 2 p.m., Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and Fridays at 11 a.m.

2. Use Influencers to Create Buzz Around Your Company

You can change a lot of people’s minds when the right influencers are promoting your company. If you are a small-to-mid-size company, consider using multiple influencers that have a smaller following. Before hooking up with an influencer, spend some time learning about their followers as you want their followers and your target audience to match as closely as possible. If you are working with a limited budget, adding small influencers can help you attract more attention.

3. Employ Instagram-worthy Photos

While you can find plenty of free photo sites, they will not have the same impact as having a professional take photo of your products. Design each image to have an emotional effect on your target audience. People love to see themselves when they look at your photos, so choose options that feature people like your target audience. Select images that help to emphasize the unique selling points of your products.

4. Utilize Structured Data

On average, creating structured data for each of your web pages increases click-through rates by 43%, impressions by 1% and average position by 12%. Part of the reason is that your site is more likely to get selected for one of Google’s unique features, such as their shopping carts, knowledge panels, and other notable aspects appearing at the top of their page. They make the process simple by offering an easy-to-use tool to add to your code. If your site operates on WordPress, you can even use a tool to take most of the manual labor out of the process.

5. Garner Reviews

Over 70% of customers read online reviews before making a purchasing decision, with the average customer reading 10 reviews before deciding on the product meeting their needs the best. Therefore, you should make it easy for customers to find your reviews by claiming sites where your customers are most likely to look. Create ways to make it easy for customers to leave reviews when they are happiest with your products. Be sure to react to the reviews left regularly. Customers usually ignore reviews written more than three months ago, so you must keep harvesting new reviews an ongoing priority. Depending on your industry, some sites you may want to claim include:

Yelp
TripAdvisor
Better Business Bureau
Angie’s List
Choice
Amazon Customer Reviews
Consumer Reports
Manta

6. Claim Your Google My Business Page

If you have not already done so, you need to claim your Google My Business page. This location is one of the first places where customers will leave reviews, and you will want others to read those reviews and your responses. Not only does your target audience member see this pop up when they Google the name of your business, but Google is also more likely to pull from this section when they are creating their unique features. Therefore, you should take the time to optimize your listing. Start by filling out your business profile. Take advantage of Google Posts to promote sales, information and other details about your business. As with other reviews, you should be responding to the reviews regularly. You should also write your business description carefully so that it contains your most important keywords without looking spammy.

7. Create a Strong Navigation System

Do not frustrate your customers by making them spend hours on your site before they arrive at the products that they are most interested in buying, or they will head to your customer’s site. Most people look at a webpage in an F pattern. Imagine an F appearing on your page and put the product’s critical details somewhere along that imaginary line. If you have many products to offer, consider letting them lazy load as you only have about two seconds to get your website loaded before your customer heads to your competition. In order to encourage sales, it takes a great product described using your company’s tone by an outstanding copywriter on a well-designed page.

8. Offer a Secure Buying System

Almost 70% of shopping carts are abandoned, but you can do things to lower that number. Start by looking at your additional costs, such as shipping and handling, to see that you have them set at reasonable fees. Offer the customer a small reward for giving you their email address early in their visit and automatically complete this part of the form. Gather only the information that you need to complete the sale. Give your customers an opportunity to checkout as a guest. Allow customers to pay in as many ways as possible. Complete the steps to get an SSL certificate on your site. Provide straightforward ways to reach your customer service and equip the agents to answer most questions.

9. Give Your Customer More Than They Expect

There are many ways that you can give your customers more than they expect. Even if you must raise your prices a little, consider offering free shipping or free shipping over a reasonable dollar amount. Create opt-in offers that allow you to capture their email address. Suggest packages that give customers bargains if they buy more at one time.

10. Make Use of Remarketing Techniques

One of the keys to successful remarketing is to hyper-focus on what pages a customer visited. For example, if a customer reads one blog and left, you will want to capture them with a general message. Alternatively, if the customer visited several pages and looked at products in one of your categories, target them specifically with content fitting that category. Spend some of your resources retargeting customers who have brought from you in the past. Assuming they were happy with their first purchase, they are more likely to return and statistics show that they will usually buy more at one time.

Keep these tips in mind and watch your e-commerce business thrive. If you need help implementing them, be sure to contact us.