All business owners know that in order to be successful they must keep a healthy balance of sales while simultaneously bringing in new customers on a regular basis. This constant quest for revenue can drive a small business owner mad with the thought of each emerging trend in business marketing.
How does a business increase its online earnings?
This article will take you through five different methods which are guaranteed to help increase revenue.
Method 1: Engage Past Customers
The first step in increasing sales at an online business is to contact previous customers.
The cost of obtaining new customers (called cost-per-acquisition) is often pretty high after each employee, marketing effort, and product cost has been factored in. Compare that cost vs a customer that has already been through the sales funnel – the profit margins are pretty considerable!
As a loyal customer, the relationship between business owner and customer has already been established and only needs a nudge to bring the customers back into the fold.
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One sure-fire way to make another sale with a past customer is to offer a product at a discount as a way to show your thanks. Even though the product will be sold at a discounted rate, after factoring out the cost per acquisition costs during the first order, your online business will still profit immensely and can lead to additional quantities per order from a previous customer.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to discount a product, you could try offering the sale of one product as partial credit toward the next. This encourages them to check out the other things you offer without directly discounting the main product they’re buying.
Get your customers on the phone, send an email, or write a letter explaining that your online business would like to offer them another product. If you’ve built a strong relationship then they may be more than thrilled to check out the next thing you’ve got for them!
Method 2: Up-sell Products
During the sales process, the customer has their wallet out and has become eager to complete the purchase. There’s no sense in quelling the thirst for your products by sending them straight to a thank you page – after the initial order has been placed, offer complimentary product.
Customers are often willing to spend additional money to help improve their emotional gains from the purchase.
For example: If your customer just bought a mountain bike, a helmet would make a whole lotta sense wouldn’t it?
Your customer will tell themselves that it would go perfectly with the deal and complete a set – do this for each sale and you can instantly improve your sales on your online business.
Method 3: Drop-in With an Email
It’s dumbfounding to see so few online businesses not taking advantage of newsletters.
Emails are essentially free (minus basic costs), which lets you sell directly to your customer or lead with a minimal amount of investment. Why not spend a few minutes drafting and sending an email?
Here are a few things to keep in mind with email:
- Don’t overload your list by offering products each day. Instead, find a great time to announce a new product, promotion, or exclusive deal that makes sense to your audience.
- Always try to capture the email of visitors hitting your website. Offer a free incentive such as a coupon, free shipping, or additional item with their first order. Even if the visitor bounces you can still send them marketing messages to bring them back into the sales funnel until they decided to opt-out.
- It takes a few contacts with prospects before they buy, so stay in touch with those that have yet to do so. Do this via newsletter or occasional email blasts. Drop-in blog posts, announcements, and more.
The goal is to make your email list a thing that’s just as great as your main site, blog, and other social accounts. It’s gotta have value. Give people a reason to subscribe (and stay subscribed), and eventually, they’ll find their way to your sales pages.
Method 4: Hold a Promotion or Contest
Everyone loves a good discount or free items, and there are no exceptions to those seeking products and services from your business.
The easiest and most cost-effective way to hold a promotion or contest is to offer some form of digital good since A) it’s already created, and B) it can be delivered automatically.
A second option, if you’re selling a physical product, is to hold a contest or promotion which offers the newest, hottest item.
Third, you could offer an hour of your time if you offer services. This works well because you can use that time to pitch and bring someone into the fold, or up-sell them on something while on the call!
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So, how do you go about doing a promo or contest? Try this:
Send out your promos through social networking, get your customers involved by telling their friends, and be very public with your contest – the more you can bring through the door the more likely they are to buy.
Use a contest tool to track submissions. Then, do a big announcement of the winner – even better: do this as a live broadcast so you can make it into a big event!
Once it’s all done and over, drop a thank you email to those who participated. This is a great touchpoint to talk about your business, too, and even soft pitch a product by directing them to something newsy or something like a blog post.
Method 5: Test and Optimize Your Sales Message
There are many factors into why people buy the way they do but the only way you can truly understand your market is to continually test your online business’s sales message.
Using split testing, try out different headlines, graphics, bullet points, prices, and product descriptions. Do each test one at a time and set a new benchmark each time a new round of tests have been completed – always go with the better performing page.
Likewise, every other aspect of your business should always be testing its sales message.
Change up your advertising, follow-up calls, email messages, and how you answer your phones. The smallest element of your online business could lead to gigantic sales – you’ll only find out by testing.
Scale Your Sales, Scale Your Business
Don’t be afraid to try out something completely new.
Who knows? That one little tweak you make to your sales could create thousands of more dollars for you!
