California Is Making Waves in Online Sales: Are You?
Internet sales are multiplying at a dizzying pace, and the Golden State is at the forefront of this phenomenon. This is not a huge surprise, considering that California is currently the fifth largest economy in the world, with a massive population directly influenced—and benefited—by the digital revolutions in Silicon Valley and San Diego.
Naturally, our residents are highly savvy digital consumers, armed with smartphones and laptops and ready to click “purchase.” As a result, California businesses in particular have swiftly learned how to best adapt to online shopper expectations in order to grab that coveted, competitive advantage—they are, in today’s popular parlance, “killing it” by adopting successful strategies for online marketing.
How to improve lead generation: Tactics from the Pros
To create lasting customer relationships, it is up to you to take the first few steps. Start smart by both gathering and distributing the right information to improve lead generation.
- Get those emails: So, your products are listed online. That’s great. But do the right people know? Are you doing everything you can to reach them and build your online presence?
Take a cue from successful online retailers from Sacramento to Baja: the most important thing to snag from first-time visitors, whether in-store or online, is email, email, email. Require it for entry into certain areas of your website, ask for it at interactive digital kiosks or at purchase, and use it as a form of contact for surveys, follow ups or special offers. Provide discounts to “members” who also get their friends and family to sign up. Businesses are much more likely to create a relationship with those who show initial interest, as opposed to old-fashioned, cold solicitation.
- Get social: It can be daunting to become immersed in the thick web of social media, but with millions of potential customers scanning the likes of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn on a daily basis, it is vital for retailers to meet shoppers where they are spending their time. Millennials, in particular, are predominately accessed via social media. A new study revealed 38 percent of millennials perusing social media purchased a product or service after seeing it on their feeds.
Once you have a social media presence, make sure to regularly share what you are up to. Offer specials and announce your upcoming product releases but be sure you’re not just talking about your brand. In this day and age, relevance is more important than a flashing neon sign, so along with promotional content, make the effort to build value into your posts by offering links to articles and blogs from your team with actionable tips, tools, advice and other content your target audiences may find useful. Show the world you have a deep understanding of the business you are in to showcase your thought leadership in the industry.
Bolster Online Sales Conversions
While building online presence is the first step to improve lead generation, the sheer size of your following won’t necessarily equate to sales success online. Many retailers see massive traffic to their websites, yet still find themselves lacking in sales conversions, with abandoned carts littering their virtual sales floors. Ultimately, success in maximizing online ROI is all about targeting the right audience.
- Less is more: In this fast-paced era of online shopping, the last thing a retailer wants to do is confuse or bore the potential customer with too much brand verbiage, product copy or technical information. Avoid clutter, above all. Whatever you are promoting is first priority, so present a single, crisp, clear image on the homepage, with a link to a second, more detailed page. This is one of the best ways to ensure that the right customer will come along for the ride, and will greatly increase the likelihood of a purchase and/or the sharing of that all-important email address that can be used to sow the seeds of future sales.
Keep in mind: today’s customer is highly visual, so be certain to include high-quality images and video on the landing page. Recent studies reveal 59 percent of people will read something well-designed and visually interesting, rather than plain text. You want the kind of images that can “say it all” before the customer reads a single word.
- Build your arsenal: Let’s face it, most small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are not equipped to run full IoT-analytics on every single online sales metric on a continuous basis. To meet that need, many successful California SMBs are looking at big data tools and solutions that automatically scan for anomalies, success areas, failures and potential opportunities. When it comes to the modern shopper, expectations are constantly changing, and only digital technology is truly fast enough to keep up. Make sure you’re taking advantage of these tools—as your competition surely will be.
We are living in an online world. Be part of it.
You might as well get used to it: business lives online. Practically every adult is now connected to the Internet through a variety of mobile devices, from smartphones to watches. Shoppers use apps multiple times a day to make purchases, schedule appointments and deliveries, see new products and services and take advantage of discounts. Statistics show that every two out of three minutes online is spent on a mobile device.
In fact, in all likelihood, you are reading this article on your smartphone or your tablet right now. After you’re done, you may be tempted to make a much-needed purchase of new bath towels. As you look down at your screen, switch over to an app (which has been configured to your liking) and prepare to click on the re-order button and experience the ease of modern commerce, ask yourself: “Would my customers settle for anything less?”[cite::171::cite] [cite::172::cite]