Emerging trends in technology have necessitated the birth of digital sales/marketing to meet revenue goals and increase sales.
The growing rate of digital sales/marketing is because people spend a high percentage of their time on digital platforms thus the importance of knowing how to sell online. This means that it is essential for every business to be online as that is where today’s customers reside.
Since the modern buyer is savvy in their search for potential suppliers, salespeople are expected to be well equipped with the best digital sales techniques required to subtly provide value for their prospects.
In this article, we’ll look at some concepts in digital sales and marketing and do justice to the topic “How to sell online ”
Digital Sales
Digital sales has to do with the use of virtual channels to connect with prospective clients or sell products and services.
Digital sales involves converting leads into prospective customers by convincing or persuading them to make a purchase.
The idea is to build a relationship on social platforms, provide value, develop trust and turn online connections into offline sales conversations.
Where Digital Sales take Place
Digital sales occur online, through several channels. In this article, we will dwell on the following: Chatbot, Websites, and Email
1. Chatbot
A chatbot is a computer program (digital assistant) that processes conversations between humans and digital devices in written or spoken form as if it were a human-to-human conversation.
If you are an internet user, you must have knowingly or unknowingly conversed with chatbots at different times.
The pop-up notification on your device requesting to help you navigate a website in the form of voice commands or chats are encounters with chatbots. Chatbots serve as live agents for sale.
Chatbots provide useful guides to customers through marketing funnels with real-time responses that are expected from brands via SMS text, social messaging services, mobile apps, websites, etc.
Chatbots can disseminate automated 24/7 incoming sales responses like hotel bookings, ordering tickets for events, recommendations, etc. Every online business requires chatbot automation to guide customer outcomes.
According to informi, ‘’36% of businesses use chatbots to generate more leads, and business leaders claim that on average, chatbots improve sales by 67%’’.
The Role of Chatbots in Enhancing Sales
- Increase Add to Cart Rate: Most customers abruptly end their shopping on e-commerce sites for personal reasons. Chatbots can help generate such customer data and forward automated messages to them as follow-up or reminders
- Encourage Customers as Virtual Assistant: When a client requests a chatbot in a journal publishing company that publishes both open and closed-access journals to provide a list of open-access journals the chatbot can redirect such client to their open-access catalog, explain the journal scope, and collect the client’s information for use by the company’s sales team. Chatbots can also offer discounts to clients on request. My former boss had to migrate the company’s web hosting to another because the latter had chatbots with 24/7 tailored help services.
- Improve your Services by Encouraging Feedback: You can leverage conversations between your chatbot and clients be they negative or positive. If specific issues or queries keep coming, you can get your team to improve on those areas.
- Generate Leads: Chatbot can help you generate leads for retargeting.
2. Websites
Having a website where customers/clients can place an order or have your products and services enhances sales. It is important to have a landing page where customers can have information about your services, and if they are not willing to make a purchase, they can leave their details or sign up for newsletters.
The Role of Websites in Enhancing Sales
- Build trust with case studies and testimonials: In the digital world, social proof from customers in the form of testimonials can drive sales, as prospective customers would like to hear from customers who have satisfactorily had an experience with a brand. Create a page on your website where you tell your visitors how satisfied customers feel about your brand through either text, video, or rating. As a person, I only buy goods or request services online after going through positive reviews or testimonials from such brands.
- Improve the on-site Customer Journey: The idea here is to keep it simple. Customers do not like to navigate very complex and hard-to-understand websites. People would rather buy from a seamless app, or website with well-organized landing pages and layout. The purchase process should not be too cumbersome. Your price list should be specific detailing all the costs giving it a good user experience.
- Create Urgency: A sense of urgency at your digital office is a very good sales strategy.
Subtly make your customers feel like a particular product is remaining very little in stock. Customers do not want to miss out on products that are limited in number, they will think that it is going out of stock because it is a good product. To convert leads to customers also use countdown timers on your offers.
3. Email newsletter
Every online business should have a mailing list, almost everyone use e-mail and statistics show that newsletter is one of the most effective tools for online sales.
An email newsletter is an electronic means of communication used by companies, or individuals to advise, inform, entertain, or share updates with subscribers.
A periodic and consistent promotional newsletter is a good way to keep customers informed and educate them about your business. A good salesperson will compel customers to buy a product via a newsletter by including special discounts with clickable links to a landing page.
The Role of Email Newsletters in Enhancing Sales
- Increase sales opportunities: A well-tailored and consistent newsletter should include offers with links to your digital office and promotions that can generate leads.
Digital Assets for Digital Sales
- Videos
- Testimonials/reviews
- Whitepapers
- Leads generation content
- Email marketing
- Podcast
- Case studies
- Research reports
- Affiliate marketing
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has to do with activities towards creating brand awareness through the internet.
Digital Assets for Digital Marketing
- Blogging
- Graphics Designing
- Web analytics
- Mobile Marketing
- Search engine marketing
- Search engine optimization
The digital marketer generates leads through newsletters, blog posts, eBooks, etc, and measures return on investment (ROI) and key performance indicators (KPI) while the digital seller closes the deal by turning leads into customers.
It will be useless to generate leads (digital marketing) without being able to sell (digital sales) the product.
How to Transition to Digital Sales
- Consciously Improve your Branding: This has to do with the intentional effort to create and influence the public view of a person by portraying them as authorities in their niche, making them appear more credible, separating them from their competition thereby advancing their career. Growing your brand involves; having a niche-building a good reputation-telling your story. It has to do with packaging yourself to your audience.
- You can transition to digital sales by telling your story, letting people know why you do what you do on digital platforms. You need to actively engage with your audience on social media, as that will enhance your digital presence.
- Improve your content marketing strategy: Content marketing is the art of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent information to attract and retain a clearly defined audience which drives profitable customer action.
To deliver the right content to your audience, you need to research who they are. Deliver content that is helpful, entertaining, informative, and educative if you want to keep your audience glued to your digital channel. Such content should be brief and concise to be on the digital space.
- Build a targeted network on social media: You can achieve this by requesting feedback from your follower, responding to their comments as well as sharing relevant content periodically.
- Leverage your social network for social selling results: Your followers on social media are your prospective clients. They are likely to refer people to you. Transitioning into digital sales may be possible by relying on testimonials, and ratings, which in turn, builds credibility. You can also go into partnership with someone on social media with a similar audience who is not a competitor.
- Nurture your network by using personalized marketing: Be sensitive to what they need and want. Know what they share, like, or comment on.
- Amplify your happy customer’s review/testimonials: Do this on all digital platforms. Share positive reviews about your business. Customers trust other customers’ views on products and services.
- Create buyer-centric social media profiles: Your Social media profiles should briefly tell who you are, your niche, and your industry. It should have a call to action button if available and a link to your website.
| Digital Sales/Marketing Dichotomy | ||
| Digital Sales | Digital Marketing | |
| 1 | Digital sales are a short-term process. It covers as sales process. | Digital marketing is a long-term process. Can span months or years. |
| 2 | It highlights products and services that are already available or visible on digital platforms | It identifies the needs of the consumer through digital marketing techniques and channels |
| 3 | It involves a direct relationship with customers or a one-on-one relationship | It involves a one-to-many relationship with customers |
| 4 | Here the center of attention is the customer | The center of attention is a group of people or a target audience |
| 5 | Here plans include details about the sales process, target market, and goals. | Digital marketing plans lay out what the products are, whom they will be sold to, their price, and what digital platforms the products are sold on. |
| 6 | It is specific – Connecting with individuals and converting them to clients/customers | It is broad – Building awareness for a product/service or business online and gathering leads for your sales team. |
| 7 | Turn leads into customers. It has to do with closing the deal from digital marketing | Generate leads. Creating online traffic around a product |
A study of this article will reveal to you that digital sales are necessary for every business that is online as it can increase a business’s revenue based on individual efforts and teach you how to sell online.
Whatever digital channel or digital office you are using, always remember that your efforts are for your customers The ultimate goal is to get your customers to buy your product or services. When you are building a website, or mobile app, responding to your client on social media, or creating a newsletter, put yourself in your customer’s shoes, think like them as that is the sure way to increase sales for your business.
Have questions on how to sell online? hit the comment section
