Marketing Strategies to Grow Sales

Depending on the marketing strategy you choose, your further sales will either increase or stay low. So what should you do? Which selling path you have to choose? Here are top 10 online marketing strategies every store owner needs to consider.

Strategy #1. Use as much ways for attracting and retaining customers as it’s possible

If your business arsenal has only one way to attract customers, keep in mind that it will not last long and can be changed at any moment. Use plenty of marketing tools to increase sales.

Here is an example: Wal-Mart uses more than 350 different strategies to attract and retain customers. While most businesses use only 1 or 2. Some of them simply don't even know about other methods.

How many ways to attract customers do you use?

In addition, despite the fact that Wal-Mart is one of the largest retailers of consumer products, this company does not depend on its suppliers. The share of any supplier in the total Wal-Mart’s supply does not exceed 4%, when total number exceeds 3,000!

Be aware that if you are using only one strategy in marketing, it's not about when the problems start emerging, it’s how soon you will get these problems.

Strategy #2. Education marketing

Education marketing (Marketing Training) is a relatively new form of marketing. The core sense is to offer your customers something to learn. Give them an article about products you are selling, it should be either descriptive or should allow solving their problems more effectively.

In fact, educating your clients works well for two reasons:

1. 1. This increases the trust and loyalty to your brand or store. When you teach your customers, you’re immediately giving them some value. Your customers will be surprised by the fact they are offered to find a solution to their problems more effectively, while other stores try to make users buy stuff.
2. 2. While training it’s a lot easier to sell. Since selling your products or services can be embedded into learning. For example: if you sell a juicer, you can write an article on how to maintain health, youth and beauty with natural juices. That’s why only those who are interested in the health eating will buy your juicer.

Just as well some other informational resources work, for sure you’ll get lots of appreciative customers.

Strategy #3. Measure your key performance indicators

While you are so much into educating your clients and visitors don’t forget to track on your performance indicators. Those are the figures that show you ‘how cool your store is’. Previously we’ve already talked about those metrics you should track, you are welcome to see them.

Mere knowledge of your store’s parameters allows to have a conscious approach to managing sales and not turning them into some chaos.

So what do you know about your key metrics?

Strategy #4. Use the right marketing model

The problem lots of people often face is a lack of real results. They might have had a small number of sales, but then in quite a few cases they seem to hit a brick wall. The sales can slow down or can even stop when more competition moves in, or they just get stuck on making a pittance for doing what can seem like a lot of work.

They don’t really understand that there is quite a number of different methods that can be used for your internet marketing business. This leads to continuous change of methods, jumps from one to another without implementing any of them, or making them work.

Here is a small list of methods you can implement in your own business.

• Cross-sell;
• Up-sell;
• Bonuses to regular customers;
• Bonuses that increase value of the product - for raising prices and increasing conversion;
• Regular contact (keep in touch);
• Training sales assistants and sales managers;
• Testing prices;
• Interesting elements to your target markets (contests, sweepstakes, webinars, seminars, tests, surveys, etc.)
• Remake advertising on the principle of direct response marketing;
• Use strong headlines;
• Use irresistible offers;
• Limit offers in time;
• Use call-to-actions;
• Simulate successful companies;
• Master copywriting - write texts that sell;
• Use social networks;
• Arrange partnerships with non-competing companies;
• Add reviews;
• Add recommendations;
• and so on ...

And how successful is your marketing model?

Strategy #5. Don’t sell from the doorway. Use a two-step selling

Selling your products directly is very difficult and expensive. If you try the two-step sales method, you will definitely feel the difference. With this technique you'll be able to turn your marketing upside down. And there will be no necessity to go after the customers, because they'll be chasing you and will be craving to buy your products.

Here is an example of its use. Imagine two computer stores that have alike assortment. They sell same computers, notebooks, and the prices are almost the same. Customers of course chose products only by the lowest price...So what to do?

To boost sales and brake the competition one of those stores released a small book for parents of high school students, called: "101 Ways to help your child get into the University of their dreams." Most of those methods involved the use of a computer with an access to the Internet. And at the end of the brochure there was a proposal which went something like this: "Come and see us every Saturday with your kids, and you'll see how the secrets from 50-th to 68-th work. Free internet and tea with cookies and friendly instructors are guaranteed."

And on those Saturdays they "accidentally" had discounts on computers displayed as demos. The owners of this store built two-step system for processing customers. First step generates a stream of people, and the second - the discount allows to sell more than the competitors.

Strategy #6. Using unique selling proposition

If you are not having a unique selling proposition, then your customers will not be able to differentiate your business from hundreds of offers. Unique selling proposition should answer the question: "Why should I, your potential customer, among a number of other companies pick yours?" Think about how exactly are you standing out from hundreds of other similar businesses, and specify it as a bright USP.

Strategy #7. Free reports

Using free reports - this is a very effective marketing strategy that is not used by 99% of your competitors. Free Report is a small booklet of 10-50 pages, which gives answers to FAQ. Why do free reports work?

Let’s see: you have $100 for ads, assume that there were covered 1000 users. How many people from that thousand were interested in your product? As a result most of your advertising budget was spent on uninterested people.

Instead, you can spend the dime on advertising your free report. People love free stuff and willingly respond to such offers. So you immediately cover the part of the market, where people are interested in your products.

Strategy #8. Keep in touch

What’s the most popular practice among successful companies? Sending e-mails, two or three times a month. As a rule it’s enough to understand whether each person will or will not be the customer.

Strategy #9. Create a price range

Take a look around and you’ll see that most successful companies sell products in various price segments. They create lines of products for not to miss the profit.

Car companies produce a wide range of vehicles - starting from small cheap cars to expensive and luxurious cars for wealthy audience. Software companies sell at least three versions of the same software - Light, Standard, and Premium, where you can add a variety of Gold, Platinum, etc. As a result each buyer has an option.

Each segment of your target audience should have their own version of the product.

Strategy #10. Use cross-selling

Cross-selling can increase sales, without attracting new customers and changing anything in your products. Have a look how cross-selling works in Amazon. When you pick any book, you are automatically shown other books that are purchased with the one you’ve chosen.

Another classic example of cross-sell - is McDonald's. When you order a hamburger and Coke, friendly seller asks you to have French fries or an ice cream. This is a carefully calibrated sales system, which included cross-selling elements. With the technology of cross-sell, you can quickly increase sales with no additional investments, not attracting new customers with an existing product, and almost no efforts from your part.

Image Sources:horseshoe magnet, business man, key performance indicators, business concept, unique selling proposition, writing e-mails by Shutterstock

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SPEAK UP!

This was some theory and as for the practical application it's all about you. Probably you have already used some of the techniques described above can you please share your experience. Most readers of our blog are just starting their marketing experience and will be interested to know how this or that technique helps boost sales. You're free to talk.