Technology is constantly evolving, and given the spotlight placed on emerging tech sectors and the rising popularity of digitalization, it’s no surprise why e-commerce continues to grow with each passing day. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find many business startups begin their adventure through different online platforms or already existing enterprises allocate more resources in their online presence to capitalize on the surge of innovation in the digital world.
However, before you consider scaling your online business to meet growing demand in the market, you can’t simply scale up without accounting for your current sales performance and strategies beforehand. And if you’re like the many young, aspiring entrepreneurs with bright business ideas but sub-optimal sales funnel conversions to prove the sustainability of their ventures, we strongly recommend optimizing your sales funnel framework before anything else.
Priority Number One Deals With The Elements Of Attraction
Firstly, like any other sales funnel, we must start at the top and reinforce the elements of attractions related to your products and services, essentially maximizing the features and mechanics in place that hook in customers and catch warm leads. And, since we’re operating in the context of online platforms and expanding in e-commerce, the elements of attraction we’re concerned with consist of (1) building a beautiful website and (2) getting the most from different advertising channels.
- Build A Beautiful Landing Page And Functional Website: While it may seem like the most obvious actionable step that every online business startup must take, far too few entrepreneurs actually invest the necessary resources in creating an eye-catching landing page alongside a functional website. As a result, even if your direct links take them back to your official site, visitors still feel less inclined to purchase anything due to the looks. Therefore, we suggest reviewing your current web development and design, highlighting any areas of improvement that can be fixed ASAP.
- Work With Multiple Advertising Channels: Nowadays, advertisements are the bread and butter of any marketing professional to build a loyal audience and convert them to recurring customers. In fact, even professional real estate agents understand how quality pictures combined with appropriate display ads for their listings can quickly expand their target market from the immediate locale. So, it is in your best interests to apply the same logic of working with different advertising channels like TikTok, YouTube, and many other platforms.
Show Value By Maintaining High Customer Engagement
Secondly, once you’ve covered the bases for attraction and shining the light on your brand image, the next item on your priority list is showing these potential customers the value they deserve by maintaining high engagement numbers. By today’s standards, people have a growing preference for brands that act and appear more down-to-earth and human than their counterparts, and interaction is a surefire way of being relevant.
- Interact And Share Relevant, Interesting Content: Although some companies can feel a bit “off” when trying to engage with memes or staying updated on the latest events, what matters most is that you’re interacting through interesting content. Of course, you will definitely want to avoid any bad press, but whatever keeps eyes on you and the clicks coming through does parallel success in many instances. Plus, it’s an excellent way of mixing your target audience’s newsfeed with other relevant information for your branding.
- Support Your Audience And Content Creators: In addition to interesting content, another way of showing value and maintaining high customer engagement is by supporting your audience and connecting with other content creators. Many successful partnerships are built between hardworking brands and online influencers, and while numbers will take some time to actualize, your audience numbers will accumulate. Furthermore, it also prepares you for any disruptive changes in the online space, especially with Meta opening a virtual world application for everyone to use.
But, When It Comes To Final Conversion, Focus On The Team
Last but not least, once you trickle all the way down to the edge of a sales funnel where it’s all about closing the deal and making the sale, you want to avoid shoving the idea of making the final purchase down your customers’ throats. Sure, there’s some merit to hard-selling and keeping them on their toes, but you’ll soon realize that it’s a lot more organic and sustainable for your target audience to make that conscious decision themselves.
- Pay Close Attention To Your Sales Pipeline: Likewise, we can’t just sit on our butts and when for the sales numbers to start moving upward, so you’ll want to invest in your sales team and pay close attention to your sales pipeline. While most people often associate sales with negotiation and persuasive talk, data visualization and trend analysis play equally significant roles in making business decisions. Specifically, you might want to keep track of CRM data alongside sales functions.
You Can’t Scale If Your Sales Performance Says Otherwise.
Almost a month ago, we finally saw retail sales reports positively turnout due to holiday shopping. If you’re looking to scale your online business with increasing demand, then your sales performance shouldn’t be slacking either. Therefore, optimizing those sales funnels as early as today will save you from many headaches much later down the line and give you an edge in your respective industry.