Category: Entrepreneurship

The eCommerce market is becoming increasingly crowded. Many new stores appear from year to year and even month to month, continually increasing the competition. Building and registering a business today is easier than ever before thanks to the Internet, but it is more challenging to maintain or grow sales than it was several years ago. 

It is estimated that, by 2040, about 95% of all purchases will be made online. This means that interest in eCommerce is growing very quickly. The main rule of business is: where there is a demand, there must also be supply. So you should provide it. But what to do to make consumers choose your offer?

In this article, you will find some tips to implement in your sales or marketing strategy in order to boost your sales. Grab a pen and take some notes, let’s begin!

#1 Think about your target

Targeting sounds pretty obvious. After all, before starting your business, this is probably one of the first aspects that you took care of. However, your offer and/or your customers’ preferences may have changed over time. Analyze website traffic, status page, bestsellers, and who your regular clients are. It may turn out that the most active customers are not those who had been targeted at the beginning of your journey. Knowing your target well helps with choosing the best communication channels, which is extremely important for eCommerce success.

Your marketing strategy depends on targeting too. If your target market has changed, your marketing channels should also be adjusted. Keep in mind to continuously monitor which groups have the most interest in your products. This way, you can use their interests to reach even more recipients and thus increase sales. 

#2 Use the power of referrals 

Referral marketing is one of the best low-cost solutions, but it could bring you many benefits. More than 80% of consumers trust the recommendations of others over other marketing efforts. It sounds like the perfect combination; low costs and possibly big profits. So what’s the drill? Referral marketing uses the power of your clients’ recommendations. In practice, a referral program works according to very simple principles. A current client recommends your brand to a friend by sharing a referral link, their friend joins your website, and you can reward one or both of them. You decide the rules for granting the rewards.

Referral marketing does not require a lot of resources or professional knowledge. Start by coming up with incentives. Accurate targeting will again come in handy here, as you need to know what will encourage your buyers to share their opinions. 

When the rewards are ready, it’s time to implement the referral program. To make this easier, use EarlyParrot. It will take you less than 15 minutes to install, and you will be guided step by step through the process. This tool allows you to design the program as you want, by setting the criteria and brand communication with the client. EarlyParrot automatically adds new customers and sends them invitations to participate in the program. Don’t worry about your existing clients –  you can import them to the system and send invitations too.

Now you just have to wait for the referrals to begin working and for new customers to start buying your products. 

#3 Implement a CRM

A sales CRM system makes it easier to communicate with customers efficiently and provide better service. It supports the management of marketing, sales, and customer service. Better management of these sectors will increase customer’s confidence and make you a go-to store when they need products from your industry. Did you know CRMs can boost lead conversions by as much as 300% and enhance purchase values by 40% at the same time? It sounds very promising. 

As a result of CRM implementation, your sales reps will have in-depth insights into every customer’s profile, resulting in more efficient services. Additionally, thanks to this solution, interactions between departments will be automated, which can only improve the speed and quality of work. About 33% of American consumers admit that it is highly likely they would switch companies after one poorly handled customer support situation. This proves that boosting sales and providing quality customer service are inseparable.  In this article, you can find the best free CRMs on the market, and how to choose the most suitable one for your team! Compare the price of CRM solutions and see which fit your budget.

#4 Take care of customer’s loyalty

Building loyalty among your customers is the basis of good sales performance. It makes them return to your business and also share opinions about you with others, which is a great foundation for referral marketing. If you would like to build increased levels of trust then you could start a loyalty program.

As with a referral program, start creating a loyalty program by determining the rewards. The criteria for obtaining them are also important. Should you reward the tenth purchase or give a discount on the fifth? Or maybe the customer will earn points that can then be exchanged for prizes? It all depends on your choice. 

You also have to decide on the method of collecting points. After logging into the account, would each customer have an insight into the number of points or do you prefer a virtual card with stamps? As many as 68% of Millennials say they won’t stick with a brand without a loyalty program, so you know what to do.

#5 Improve your sales pitch

This is a solution for businesses that use sales calls. If your sales team calls customers with offers, strengthening your sales pitch is the key to success. 

First, agents should be able to show clients if they have a problem that could very badly affect their business. Research should be conducted to prove that a particular agent knows, for example, if a client has had similar issues in the past. Sales representatives should then provide products/services (yours, of course) that address these situations. It is worthwhile to engage in discussion with the client and demonstrate knowledge of the topic. This way your company can prove its competence and professionalism, and be one step closer to a successful sale. You may also think about using an email warm up tool to increase your chances of success in sales.

If you improve your sales pitch, your company can benefit more from sales calls, and customers that had not even considered buying from you may do so anyway.

#6 Tell a story

We are all surrounded by stories from an early age, and they have been the basis of communication since ancient times. Human brains are better able to replicate information that has been passed down through history. Why not use this method as a sales strategy? 

Thanks to following a narrative you can take listeners on a journey that relaxes them and arouses positive feelings, allowing them to quickly absorb information contained within. Note that giants such as Ikea have repeatedly used storytelling in their ads, especially those for Christmas. It has to mean something, and it does. 

Storytelling drives ROI and conversion rates. More than half of all customers admit that they are more likely to buy a product after hearing a brand story. What is more, 15% of them will do so straight away. Making history not only stimulates conversions, but also makes positive brand associations with consumers and remains in their minds longer. And this allows you to achieve better results in the long term.

#7 Switch to mobile

More than 80% of US consumers do shopping online via mobile devices. What does it mean to you? That you should invest in an app. A mobile-friendly site is also cool, but you must admit that it is more convenient to do shopping via an app. About 50% of smartphone and tablet owners want to shop this way, so you need to provide this solution. 

Leave the application’s technical design to experts. You own the visuals. Choose a simple design with appropriate CTAs and traditional solutions that people are accustomed to, e.g. menu in the upper left corner. It would be good if you offered some sort of reward for downloading your app. Importantly, in order for it to fulfill its tasks, the app must be available both on Android and iOS devices. 

What’s more important, before launching your mobile or designing a web app on the market, make sure that all processes are working properly. You need to check that the app is connected with your referral and loyalty programs, that all available payment methods (even prepaid debit cards) work flawlessly, and that it is able to handle more traffic. You need to be 100% sure that everything works correctly, otherwise you can alienate customers with an unfunctional app and the problems that arise from it.

#8 Offer a demo 

Offering your customers a free demo is one of the best incentives you can provide them, especially if you are selling digital products. People like getting things for free, and if it gives them the opportunity to test a service or product before spending money on it then even better. 

If you are selling non-digital products online, the equivalent of demos are free samples. You have to choose them wisely. Ideally, the client should be able to choose what to try. Then you will be sure that these samples will be used and that the client may come back to your store for full-si\e products later.

Another similar solution is offering free trials, which work in a similar way to demos. People want to test a given products or service before spending more money on them, and this becomes even more important with increasing price. A study from 2017 reported that companies which provided free trials to their users had more than 60% higher conversions, so it is definitely worth considering implementing such solutions in your offer. 

Let’s power up your sales

The above list is just the beginning of what you can do to boost your business sales. Remember that it is best to step into the client’s shoes and think about what would encourage them to buy. 
Try at least one of the above methods and you will surely notice the difference. They may vary in their levels of effectiveness depending on the industry, but you will surely see the results. Check what works best for your clients, and don’t be afraid to try implementing new solutions. In the long run, they will surely bear fruit. One of the primary lessons that you ought to take away from this article is that building good and lasting relationships with your customers is the basis for successful sales, so take care of it.

How are we going to get customers to pay to cover our costs and generate a profit?

One of the biggest challenges (since there are many more) that every business has to face is customer acquisition and revenue generation.

Starting an online business is relatively easy, especially if you already have the technical expertise. You can get a head start with existing open source technology to hack a solution but eventually, you still have to convince others to pay for your solution. This is where most businesses stagnate and spend most of their time and effort, as mind you, it is not an easy feat.

Even if you have done all the necessary research and market validation, even if you have started building a list prior to coming up with an MVP, even if you have discussed your solution with hundreds (literally) of potential clients prior to having a fully working prototype, it is still difficult to break into a market and get a constant feed of customers who are willing to pay for the SaaS you have built.

Why is it difficult to acquire new customers?

1. 1. 1. There is a lot going on online – there is a lot of noise online. It is very easy to get buried under the ton of content generated daily. Basically, you will end up preaching to yourself or only to the converted.
      2. Competition – For one problem there are possibly tens or even hundreds of solutions competing for the same pool of potential customers. Most of the time potential customers won’t pick the best solution BUT the solution which is known to them or to their network.
      3. Budget restrictions – Some business (especially new ones) do not afford to spend thousands in online advertising with no guarantees on the returns! One mistake and their business will get blown away!

….and various others. Please feel free to add more in the comments section.

Lifetime Deal – the cure!

One promising solution to all of the above problems is the Lifetime Deal or in short LTD!

A lifetime deal is when a SaaS does a limited promotion offering a lifetime access for a fixed price. Usually, for a month’s worth, a user can have a lifetime access to a particular SaaS. Needless to say, such promotion will create a lot of buzz, especially when such a deal is promoted by influencers or platforms such as AppSumo and/or other similar communities.  Such platforms can take you from ZERO revenue to a SIX figure revenue in under a week! For SaaS founders this is intriguing and rest assured I, as a SaaS founder, was intrigued!

Lifetime Deal – the simple logic!

After talking to various SaaS founders in my network who have been through the process of offering a LTD on various platforms, I got to know the following:

1. 1. • you will get hundreds (and in some cases even over 2000) deals sold in days.
      • you will get a spike in customers. For some founders, it was very difficult to keep up with support tickets and feature requests.
      • you will get customers who buy a SaaS LTD with the intention of reselling it later on.
      • you will get customers who do not need the SaaS at the moment but might need it in the future (FOMO).

After a busy launch, founders are happily smiling with a fat cheque:

Number of deals sold X a month’s worth of SaaS plan

1500 deals X $49

$73,500

Lifetime Deal – the full logic!

Life is never simple! So are Lifetime deals! After further consideration and even yet more consultations with SaaS founders in my network, the real and full picture of a lifetime also includes the following:

1. 1. • With hundreds of raging customers all pushing their feature requests
      • Close to ZERO customers who are willing to upgrade to a subscription plan, even if the LTD plan is well planned ahead to be restrictive
      • Very few customers who are willing to refer others on a monthly paid plan
      • Platforms such as AppSumo charge up to 70% of the generated revenue, hence in the above example founders are left with a mere $22,050 from $73,500

Lifetime Deal – the fallacy

Even though a lifetime deal launch will generate revenue and acquire customers, after careful consideration of:

1. 1. • the hours spent to prepare for such a lifetime deal launch
      • the hours spent into supporting lifetime deal customers both during and post-launch
      • the resources such as hosting, software requirements and most importantly human resources you need to support lifetime deal buyers for life

you will end up with a net loss for each deal sold. This means, that the more deals are sold during a lifetime deal the more loss you will make in the long run. I haven’t yet met a SaaS founder who has put a LTD together and proved to me that it was worth the effort and generated a profit in the long run. If you are such a SaaS founder please come forward! I want to meet you!

So why not share them so everyone can learn from each other’s experience?

At EarlyParrot we don’t just sell a referral marketing platform, we compliment the platform with free tips and advice on how best to approach a referral marketing campaign. Most of the tips I give out are during our one on one calls which I have, almost daily, with our customers.

So why not share them so everyone can learn from each other’s experience?

I will be blogging about different referral marketing campaign configurations, different tips and tricks that we have used with our customers to improve previous results, case studies of proud customers who want to tell the world that they are using EarlyParrot, latest updates from our development department and general news about EarlyParrot.

Stick around for bi-weekly (or so) short posts.