It’s safe to say that all businesses’ end goal is to sell. That’s the only thing that will keep a business profitable. To succeed, companies must enhance every digital sales channel a client comes in contact with. The idea is to accompany them down the funnel from the awareness stage until the actual purchase. This is where a robust digital presence strategy comes in.
Even before the pandemic, e-commerce was already gaining momentum. And brands were looking more and more to build a solid online presence. During the pandemic, this became more relevant, as people were forced to stay home and could not have in-person visits to their favorite stores. According to Statista, during the peak of Covid-lockdowns, between 2019 and 2021, retail platforms reported a surge of 22 billion visits in June, up from 16 billion visits just five months earlier, in January. Despite mass vaccination campaigns and the return to a more normal life.
However, just because people are buying more online, it does not mean that you should automatically expect a significant boost in your digital sales. Remember, there’s still a lot of competition out there trying to grab the attention of the same audience segments you are. Instead, your brand must have a thought-out digital presence strategy. This plan will efficiently lead customers through the funnel and help you boost your sales process.
Before looking into the different areas of digital marketing, let’s dive into a few key aspects to keep in mind when designing your strategy.
Being At The Right Place At The Right Time
The first step to boosting your digital sales is to have people visit your website. Creating an attractive design and easy navigation entails a deep understanding of your target audience’s interests and behaviors. Knowing your customer segment and their problems will increase your chances of being seen by them.
For example, if you know what concerns your customers’ segment, you can write a blog post that helps solve those concerns using relevant keywords. If you do everything right, the next time a prospect does a Google search looking for some help, your business will be on Google’s first page offering the perfect solution to your target audience’s recurring problem.
This premise also applies to online advertising. If you know your target audience is big on Instagram but rarely uses LinkedIn, you can focus your advertising strategy and budget on a strong Instagram strategy.
You do not need to be everywhere at all times. The idea is for your business to be on the strategic platforms offering to solve a problem when it appears.
Attracting And Keeping Prospective Customers
Once on your site, you need to be able to answer how your product or service solves your prospects’ problems. Tell them what stands you apart from your competition! Your website needs to be strategically planned to offer answers and solutions to your visitor’s concerns.
Guiding The Way For Buyers
The next step is to make the sale. Visitors are usually ready to buy, so it’s still essential to make your website functional and easy to navigate. Use the right call to action (CTA) and have all the information readily at hand. This will help your visitors convert sooner. Include your product or service’s information and testimonials from past happy customers, and provide all the payment information to guarantee customer satisfaction.
Making Your Brand Trustworthy
Another important aspect of helping you boost your digital sales is making sure that your website looks professional and legitimate. Remember, your visitors will recognize you by the entire purchase experience you provided for them. All links should be properly working; images should be attractive and professional, avoid typos and grammar mistakes, and privacy policies and support should be easily accessible.
These details can make or break your customers’ online experience with your brand. So, make sure you watch out for any issue that might hurt your brand’s credibility.
What Does A Digital Presence Strategy Include?
Let’s explore together the different tactics you should focus on when building your startegy:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO refers to attracting website traffic to a website or a web page from a search engine. In other words, it means that your target audience is finding you on a search engine like Google. Instead of you looking for them. Although this, of course, does not happen by luck. It happens thanks to a solid strategy based on researching relevant keywords and a constant process of experimentation to keep your site on the right track. You also need to stay mindful of changes in the Google algorithm.
Digital Advertising
Just like SEO, ads can help to create greater brand recognition and drive traffic to your website. What’s vital for digital advertising strategies is recognizing which platforms are relevant to share your content. That and making sure that they appeal to and help solve your audience’s problem. You will be the one finding your audience here. Reaching them will depend on demographics, locations, interests, and behaviors that apply and your audience.
Social Media Management
It’s no surprise that social media management is part of any online presence strategy. While the platform may vary according to the industry your business’s industry, your audience is undoubtedly spending some of their time on social media. Social media has become a great place to connect with your audience, start a conversation with them, or even more.
In 2020, Instagram introduced Shops, allowing customers to access your shop directly from your profile, posts, or story. When people visit your shop, they can explore your products and take steps to purchase them. And while this might not work for every business, it shows that social media platforms are becoming more friendly in helping convert visitors. So whether you use social media as a direct selling point or rather a tool to engage with your audience, it still makes social media a crucial online channel that can help your business boost sales.
Email Marketing
Believe it or not, email marketing and automations deliver the number one return on investment (ROI) of all digital marketing tactics. Aside from that, email marketing also has the advantage that it’s the only tactic that does not rely on any algorithm. So, it depends on choosing a good time and day to deliver. Of course, your email is still competing with all the other emails sitting in the recipient’s inbox. But writing a catchy subject line and highly personalized content is critical when doing email campaigns. The possibility of offering attractive promotions, coupons, and delivering highly segmented content are a few of the main reasons email marketing has such a high ROI and why so many recipients end up moving down the funnel.
Website
Your site is the most significant point of contact for any buyer’s journey. After all, it’s where all the purchasing is probably going to occur. Your website should be seen as your virtual office, a place to make both existing and potential clients feel at home. It should be engaging and draw visitors to convert to buyers or, at least, subscribers to your newsletter. Your goal is to make this process as smooth as possible. While paying attention to all the details, from design, to making sure it is accessible to everyone. You can check if your website is accessible and ADA compliant here.
The main point to understand here is that your website reflects your brand. And you want to make sure that the impression it leaves on visitors is that of a brand that cares for its clients and visitors.
Key Takeaways
Every possible channel where your business and your target audience interact gives them a look into your brand and its values. What’s essential when wanting to implement a digital presence strategy is knowing that it’s not necessary to be everywhere, but rather the key is to be in all the places where your prospective customers are. Being at the right place at the right time when someone has a problem that your business has the solution to will boost your conversion rate and entire sales process. It’s all about being strategic.
Feeling overwhelmed with the idea of creating your online presence strategy or improving your digital sales? You’re in luck; Team Colibri can help you handle it all! Schedule a meeting with us today and get the insights you need.