There appears to be an ongoing struggle between salespeople, who strive for quick sales, and marketers, who focus on long-term strategies. However, it is feasible to employ marketing tactics that enhance sales while simultaneously establishing a sustainable brand.
In business, it is uncommon to discover solutions that genuinely satisfy everyone. Nevertheless, this blog will precisely achieve that by examining methods to increase sales using long-term strategies that meet the needs of both departments and significantly enhance a business’ revenue. Continue reading to learn more about this.
How can marketing help sales
Marketing can support sales by developing the materials used during sales calls, constructing websites that enhance and expedite the sales process, and enhancing public recognition of the brand, enabling sales representatives to concentrate on highlighting the advantages of their product or service rather than spending time explaining its nature.
In summary, the main role of marketing is to assist in driving sales and expediting the progression of individuals through the buyer’s journey.
As the team in charge of each phase of the sales funnel changes, this is especially true. Historically, marketing would create awareness and generate interest in their product or service among prospects, while sales would assist these prospects in making the final purchasing decision.
Especially in the post-pandemic period, individuals are increasingly interested in self-education rather than depending on salespeople for guidance. Consequently, modern marketing teams are responsible not only for creating awareness among potential customers, but also for assisting them in their self-education process, ensuring their preparedness for making a purchase, and facilitating their decision to choose the marketer’s company.
In a reciprocal manner, marketing can benefit from a sales team’s input by receiving information regarding their prospects and clients, gathering feedback on the effectiveness of tactics and campaigns, and ensuring coherence in the brand narrative communicated during meetings.
Marketing strategies that increase sales
1. Outbound marketing
Using outbound marketing, reach out to customers and connect with them in their current location. This form of marketing, which is traditional, entails making your brand visible to individuals who are not actively searching for it.
This marketing strategy is useful for boosting sales in situations where your ideal audience is unaware of the existence of a solution to their problems, or when immediate results are required.
To ensure that your message has a targeted audience, it is essential to conduct research and identify individuals who would truly benefit from your website or contact information, rather than simply irritating them with your message.
Tactics used for outbound marketing:
- Print, TV, and radio ads
- Cold calling or cold emailing
- Trade shows
2. Inbound marketing
An inbound marketing strategy is the counterpart of outbound marketing. Its purpose is to boost sales by enabling individuals in search of exactly what you offer to locate your business.
By emphasizing education, you have the potential to assist individuals who are unaware of needing your help. When inbound marketing is properly executed, customers will autonomously convince themselves about the value of your products and services rather than being subjected to direct sales tactics.
Keeping in mind the new marketing and sales funnel, this marketing strategy has been specifically tailored to facilitate people’s journey from problem identification to solution awareness, considering our brand, and ultimately evaluating their purchase decision.
If you require quick sales, inbound marketing may not be suitable for you as it takes more time to initiate and yield results compared to outbound marketing. The process includes substantial content creation and search engine optimization to ensure that your website is discovered by people. However, if you are patient, you can effectively increase sales at a reduced expense.
The tactics used in inbound marketing:
- Content marketing
- SEO
- Social media
3. Personalized marketing
Personalized marketing comes into play when people do not want to feel like they are simply a number.
A company that offers a tailored experience is preferred by 80% of consumers, and 72% of consumers require personalization in marketing before engaging. It is observed that the application of this marketing strategy results in increased sales, with personalized marketing yielding a return on investment (ROI) of 20:1.
This approach utilizes a mix of inbound and outbound methods, along with extensive research and dividing the audience into segments, in order to precisely target individuals with your communication. Although this makes it more intricate compared to other marketing strategies, automation and various MarTech platforms can aid in streamlining these processes, making them feasible even for small and medium-sized businesses.
The use of personalized marketing strategies:
- Segmented email marketing
- Programmatic advertising
- Chatbots
4. Third party/User generated content
In today’s professional landscape, sales and marketing are considered to be among the least trusted fields. As a result, customer acquisition has become considerably challenging. Instead of seeking information and education from businesses, your audience now actively harbors skepticism towards any communication from them.
Focusing on what other people have to say about your brand through case studies and testimonials on your site, as well as user reviews and press mentions on other sites, can be a step-by-step marketing strategy to increase sales. By shining a light on satisfied customers, you avoid forcing your message on individuals who may not be interested in it.
Tactics for third party content:
- Public relations
- Highlighting reviews from sites like Yelp or TrustPilot
- Content marketing (for case studies)
5. Add confidence to risk-averse buyers
The aim of advertising is to convince your audience to transition from being a supporter to becoming a consumer. After identifying their concerns, create content that emphasizes why they cannot possibly do without your product. Present a clear picture of what they can anticipate following their purchase.
There are three types of pain points that are common and can be applied to any niche.
- Monetary: Prospective customers might burn money on crappy services or products.
Tip: You can highlight your product or service’s competitive price and value. - Productivity: Prospective customers might be tired of using a product that consumes most of their valuable time.
Tip: Emphasize your product or service’s features and benefits. Mention your current customers’ positive, productive experiences. - Support: Prospective customers might not get reliable, friendly, and supportive customer service throughout an entire sales process.
Tip: Reassure the prospects that your hand-holding customer support is at their disposal.
Marketing opportunities: Ways to make buyers more confident of your brand
- Showcasing testimonials
- Product reviews by industry leaders
- Trade show demonstrations
- Email marketing
- Flyers
6. Optimize videos
Video content is currently being widely used in digital marketing. If your customers are utilizing it, then it is recommended that you do as well.
Nowadays, marketers repurpose their blog content into videos, whether they are short clips or longer videos, in order to engage prospects and convert leads. It is important to ensure that these videos are mobile-friendly since most people now watch videos on their mobile phones.
Video content opportunities
- Testimonials from clients
- Reviews from influencers in your industry
- Educational videos on how to use your product or service
- Advertising for social media and traditional media
- Behind-the-scenes snippets
- Share a big announcement
- 360° experience videos
- Animation
7. Personalize the customer experience
To achieve conversions, it is important to personalize your marketing approach as a one-size-fits-all strategy will not bring success. Prospects who can relate to a company on a deeper level are more likely to become conversions.
Utilizing a variety of online data aggregation tools is a highly effective advertising strategy that rapidly boosts sales.
Use these resources for gathering demographic and psychographic information:
- 1 on 1 interviews
- Surveys
- Focus groups
- Online forums
- Facebook groups
- FedStats
- U.S. Bureau of the Census
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Current Population Statistics
Try these marketing personalization tips and trends:
- Send personalized emails
- Leverage data to enhance customer experiences
- Create meaningful Thank-You pages
- Create meaningful onboarding or opt-in forms
- Chat with prospects in real-time
- Personalize sales retargeting and follow-ups
- Provide context-based support
- Send segmented messages based on customer activity
- Engage customers in personalization activities (Ex: Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign)
8. Optimize voice searches
Consumers are becoming increasingly lazy due to the convenience of the internet in swiftly obtaining desired results, leading to the efficacy of tech-focused marketing endeavors. It is worth noting that a staggering number of individuals, a total of over 135 million in the United States, opt for voice search instead of manually typing on Google.
Here are voice search marketing tips and strategies:
- Determine voice keywords
- Write content with conversational, easy-to-understand language
- Use long-tail keywords
- Use voice technology for local searches
- Capture Google’s featured snippets
- Make sure the page loads fast. The average voice search result is 4.6 seconds.
- Use the schema markup, which includes all information about your business
- Keep it mobile-friendly
9. Organic traffic through SEO
Do not undervalue the effectiveness of search engine optimization. Despite the need for patience to establish a presence in organic traffic, the results are rewarding in the end. If needed, you can enlist the assistance of a knowledgeable SEO consultant to ensure successful SEO implementation.
Here are some top SEO tips you must try:
- Copy that caters to your target audience about a specific subject
- Custom images optimized for your website
- Information that draws interest and cannot be found anywhere else
- Content that encourages high scroll-through rates
- Links to other pages on your website that might interest the viewer
- Relevant hashtags and keywords
- Leverage AI in email, chat, and website personalization
- Focus on user intent instead of Google’s algorithm
- Ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly (We can’t stress this enough!)
- Use Analytics to monitor progress
10. Focus on the brand story
Your salespeople are the most important marketing asset for your organization until they offer a contract to a potential client, as they are not truly performing sales functions.
Aligning both teams is a highly cost-effective and crucial marketing strategy that businesses can implement to increase sales because it allows them to reach out to their ideal audience, personalize their message, and keep the brand top-of-mind, among other benefits.
This can be considered a strategy instead of a tactic because it is an ongoing process that continuously develops and requires various deliverables to be effectively implemented. By consistently confirming that the leadership is aligned on the brand’s focus and that all their teams communicate a consistent message in client meetings, on a well-designed website, and in other instances, you ensure that your business is transparent and easily understandable for customers.
The tactics in brand storytelling involve thinking step by step.
- Website
- Sales collateral
- Sales training
