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Websites that sell products online are booming. In 2019, the largest online marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Etsy, etc. accounted for 58 percent of global online sales. People favor multi-vendor markets for a variety of reasons, including lower prices, greater product quality, and better customer service.

Get in Contact with Different Sellers

Ask merchants on different online marketplaces about the challenges and rewards of selling there. Use offline or online questionnaires to learn about sellers’ needs.

Market Research & Competition Analysis

Analysis of the market and competition is critical. Gather customer data and research your competitors’ market strategies. An American businesswoman named “Beth Comstock” famously said:

“Know thyself.” Know your client. Innovate.”

It will help you choose the correct company niche. Consider the issues your online marketplace will address.

Documentation or Requirement Gathering

After you finish your investigation, prepare a requirement gathering document to answer the following questions:

• What features do you want in your multi-vendor marketplace?
• How would you arrange shipping and delivery?
• Does it require third-party APIs? If so, which ones?

You can employ a technical team to gather requirements for you.

Select the Best eCommerce Platform

Choosing the correct technology is crucial. Choose an ecommerce platform with built-in ecommerce capabilities and easy customization. There are two sorts of ecommerce platforms: Saas and License. Licensed or on-premises ecommerce solutions are preferred for multi-vendor marketplaces due to their control and flexibility. If you have a tight budget, Saas (Software as a Service) ecommerce platforms are ideal.

Invest in Online Marketing

Setting up an online store isn’t enough in today’s competitive world. Digital marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to sell your online marketplace. Early on, you can focus on SEO and social media marketing. Google Ads are expensive, so hire an SEO or Adwords specialist to help you.

On-board Sellers after the launch

After launching your online marketplace, onboarding sellers is critical. Here are some tips to easily onboard suppliers on your online store:

• Make a list of additional online marketplace sellers.
• Create an email template that describes the benefits of selling on your platform and the pain points of sellers.
• Contact them via social media.
• Create adverts on sites like eBay and Etsy where numerous merchants are selling the same product.

Other options include print ads, billboards, and phone calls.

eCommerce is tremendously busy right now. As the world reopens and the pendulum swings back to brick and mortar, marketers are under pressure to make up for losses made earlier in the year. So here are the 5 essential takeaways to help you improve your marketing.

1. Present data with patience and care

Michel Guillet, Senior Product Manager at Salesloft, stressed the significance of knowing your audience. Marketing involves reporting to stakeholders, which must be made available. When creating reports, presentations, and dashboards, consider their time and skill.

Less is often more when it comes to marketing data analytics. Instead of 30 metrics in all your reports to senior management, focus on three or four critical indicators that tell a story. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” Michel paraphrased Cicero.

2. Create experiences for your customers

Navah Hopkins, VP of Strategic Marketing at AdZooma and former Justuno employee, stressed the significance of personalizing the user experience. She’s seen firms fail with their messaging or UX when they didn’t spend enough time understanding their customers’ reasons.

“Consider your customer personas, use data, and create experiences you would love using. “You can succeed when you build with your customers in mind, segment into personas, and target them with the right messaging–whether it’s ads, landing pages, or emails,” Navah said.

3. To grow, invest

In his specialization of Amazon, Tom Baker, CEO of FordeBaker, avoids shortcuts for rapid wins. For example, avoid manipulating reviews. While many brands employ this to gain an immediate advantage, it might have long-term detrimental consequences.

His advise is to consider long term and expand more sustainably. “Amazon isn’t a get rich scheme,” Tom emphasized. In that case, you’ll make bad choices.

4. Consider strategic differentiation

In a congested environment like Amazon, Marketing by Emma’s Emma SchermerTamir emphasizes standing apart. As competition grows, you must find and showcase your product’s unique selling points. Even well-known brands with thousands of reviews shouldn’t feel invincible.

Companies are changing and experimenting with new strategies to obtain an advantage over their competition. “If you don’t figure out how to differentiate yourself, you’ll inevitably lose ground to those that are,” says Emma.

5. Know your customers at a basic level

Charles Chy, CEO of MindCart AI, echoed many of Navah Hopkins’ points on knowing your audience. It’s tough to scale without mastering the fundamentals.

This crucial phase in creating an eCommerce business can be achieved by mind-type analysis, A/B testing, or market research. Your messaging, strategy, and design will all center on what your customers like. So you must actually grasp what makes them tick, their motives, and their frustrations.

“All marketing starts with knowing your customer,” Charles stated. “If you take the time to learn about your clients and their interests, the results will come.”

1. Slow and unfriendly mobile store

A website that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses 40% of its visitors! A one-second delay can reduce conversion rates by 7%.

Globally, m-commerce will expand from $128.4 billion in 2019 to $418.9 billion in 2024. Isn’t that more serious than you thought?

These figures clearly define what to focus on if you don’t want your clients to be disappointed when buying by phone. Focus is on mobile conversions.

The first goal is to reduce loading time, and the second is to improve UX/UI. Aside from optimizing images and building a responsive design for a website, we advocate converting to a progressive web application (PWA).

With its fast loading times and intuitive navigation, progressive web apps resemble native apps. PWAs are still websites that don’t take up memory. Marketers can use PWAs to re-engage customers via push notifications.

2. Refusing to Help with All Available Means

So the more useful information the eCommerce shop provides, the better. Digital marketing and IT continuously develop new ways to better showcase products online. Using them is one of the most common online marketing blunders.

a) Gifts

Gift finders and wish lists are already commonplace, yet many stores still lack them. Follow the structure of a Guess gift finder.

b) Virtual Try-on

It is the latest trend in footwear, clothes, and cosmetics brands.

It helps choose mascara, lipstick, and foundation, as illustrated in this screenshot from Lancôme’s online shop. A model with a comparable appearance can be chosen by uploading a photo or using a camera. It’s now easier to locate a mate! In terms of marketing, such a feature can elevate product presentation.

3. Absence of Customer Retention Hooks

a) Promo and Coupons

Amazing stats about various promos from surveys. For example, 90% of shoppers use coupons!

The golden standard for eCommerce is pop-ups with alluring offers, but not everyone uses them. The same goes for promo codes and header advertising. Fix it!

b) Subscriptions & Rewards

As a marketer, you may reward consumers for signing up for your newsletter. It simultaneously persuades people to buy now and allows them to return later.

In Conclusion

The takeaway for marketers is clear. Just avoid the above blunders and don’t be afraid to attempt something new like live streaming or other fashionable ways. If you can fix all of those concerns, your eCommerce store will be more profitable and liked by customers.

CRO (Conversion rate optimization) is the process of improving your landing pages, sponsored ads, and website design to increase your conversion rate. It’s the most vital part of your PPC campaigns because it helps convert traffic into sales or leads.

Instead of increasing search engine rankings and click through rates from the SERPs to increase website traffic, CRO is an important pillar of digital marketing that focuses on converting as much of that traffic as possible. Simply put, if SEO is about web presence and visibility, CRO is about getting people to take action.

This article will explore CRO and how it can help your company.

Identification of Macro and Micro Conversions

To start a successful CRO campaign, define your KPIs. Macro (or primary) conversions and micro (or secondary) conversions are the two main categories of CRO KPIs.

Relationship between UX and CRO

In some cases, the terms CRO and UX are used interchangeably. The goal of successful UX design is to make the website experience intuitive, enjoyable, and seamless. Every possible call to action (CTA) on a landing page should be obvious, appealing, and easily completed.

Both UX and CRO use A/B testing, customer feedback, and user testing to optimize landing pages, and good UX tends to correlate with higher conversion rates. Both seek to improve the performance of your landing pages and rely on testing and data to do so.

Why is CRO Important for Google Ads?

Paid advertising is a great way to increase traffic and revenue, but it can quickly become costly if not monitored and optimised. CRO improves PPC performance by lowering cost per acquisition (CPA). As a result, you save money while getting more conversions.

It also improves your Ads Quality Score by making your search ads more relevant to the landing pages. This reduces CPC and increases spend efficiency by getting the same number of clicks for less money.

These ads will not convert if they land on a poorly constructed landing page with no clear CTA.

How to create a Good Landing Page Design

Good landing pages make a big difference in the success of your ad campaigns and thus your conversion rates. ‘Relevance’ is the key. If a potential client or customer finds your page through a search engine, they expect it to be relevant to their search query. If it isn’t, they’ll bounce and go elsewhere (and the money you paid for their click is wasted).

Unsatisfactory landing pages hurt your Google Ads Quality Score, increasing your CPC and decreasing your ad rank, making it harder to sell your ads to Google.

Things that make up a good landing page

• A catchy headline related to your PPC keyword. To keep users on the page and take the desired action.
• Targeted copy The page’s content must convey what you’re offering and include the ad’s keywords. Keep the copy short and sweet.
• A clickable CTA. Make responding to your call to action as simple and appealing as possible.
• Design. Landing pages should be simple and relevant, with a clear call to action.
• Selected images. People are visual creatures, so a landing page devoid of images will be odd. Images of products and people using them are obvious choices.

Test

However, the key message here is to keep measuring and testing. CRO, like all digital marketing, is a never-ending process.

A/B testing allows you to isolate one variable, like a call to action, and create A and B versions (split variants). Next, test them to see which works best. Only one variable is changed, allowing you to confidently attribute the change to an increase or decrease in conversions.

Testing CTAs on both your ads and landing pages allows you to refine and test until you get the results you want and your conversion rates are maximized.

This type of split testing works better for PPC campaigns than organic SEO because optimizing two pages that do the same thing is more complex. There are methods and tools like Google’s Optimize that allow you to split test pages for organic SEO.

Heatmapping is an investigative technique that analyzes the user’s journey around a landing page to see how the UX can be improved. The page can be optimised and improved by testing and capturing data on where users click and how they reach your CTAs. The changes will improve the UX and encourage conversions.

Your PPC campaigns are a shot in the dark without a CRO strategy. Creating useful, relevant, and intuitive landing pages will increase your business opportunities and revenue.

Running a small but successful business requires a lot of help. Marketing your business takes time and energy between billing customers, generating new leads, and managing employees. So, where is the extra push coming from?

Social media marketing networks like Snapchat and Facebook can help your marketing department. Business social networking is now the norm in almost every aspect of society. But how do you take advantage of it?

Useful Facebook Marketing Tips

Facebook claims over 90 million small businesses. This makes Facebook an essential marketing tool for small businesses. It’s a quick and easy way to reach new customers and update existing ones. Both new and existing customers will learn about what you have to offer and how they can benefit from it.

The only issue is that it can be difficult to know where to begin. Fear not. We will share the best Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses that you can use today to get started.

Try Look-A-Like Audience In Paid Ads

One of the best features of Facebook advertising is the lookalike audience. It’s a simple way to find people who are more likely to buy your products and services without using Facebook ads.

Facebook ad targeting can be difficult to master at first. Lookalike audiences are often confused with broad targeting, but their approach to ad creation is distinct.

By default, you select a few users to represent your target or cold audience. Selecting a few customers from your current database reveals who your most engaged customers are and what keeps them coming back for more.

It also builds trust and familiarity with potential clients who visited your site and provided personal information such as phone numbers or emails (if they did).

Make Ads That Stand Out

Previously, Facebook was used to check in on distant friends. Swiping on Facebook has become an automatic action that people do without thinking or analyzing the content. Businesses must break the pattern and stop users from scrolling through their posts to get their message across.

A few key points to keep in mind when creating ads are

• If you want to grab people’s attention with emotional content, make sure your ads are simple and have a clear message. Don’t be too clever.
• Create compelling headlines and short descriptions for Facebook Ads to achieve their goal.

Use Testimonials in Ads

People enjoy seeing customers happy with their purchases. They want to be a part of a winning team. This is your chance to show social proof and build trust with new customers. Pick convincing, but not too specific, testimonials that show your company is the best solution for potential customers.

Solicit testimonials from people with diverse interests and customer types. Asking existing customers if they enjoyed working with you or reading your blog or social media pages is a great way to get testimonials. Or you can simply call your top ten clients.

What’s better than a satisfied customer raving about your business? Others who had the same issue and used your product or service to solve it will naturally increase trust in you.

Place Your Business On Facebook Maps

Using “Check-in” for your business on Facebook is a powerful tool. At first glance, it may appear trivial and uninteresting. But trust us: it’s a hidden gem.

People are more likely to follow back when they see someone from their industry or area checking in somewhere new and exciting. It’s also a chance to get verified, as Facebook won’t let you use the feature until your company is officially registered.

People like to see what others are doing and hear other people’s ideas, so check in frequently. This feature also allows you to advertise in local groups. This is one of the best Facebook marketing ideas for small businesses.

Use Video Ad Subtitles

Video is a powerful way to communicate. That being said, it’s easy for potential customers to skip over your amazing video, thus missing out on learning about your business, service, or product.

Using words in your Facebook video ads will increase views from potential customers. Subtitles can help you convey key points in your video ad.

Use Relevant Hashtags in Your Ad Posts

According to a Hootsuite study, people respond better to relevant hashtags used in social media marketing. If you sell clothing, use #fashion. If it’s a tech startup, use #technology. Getting the right audience for your business is crucial, so use as many relevant hashtags as you can.

Hashtags help you gain organic reach, so you don’t have to pay to advertise. Using relevant hashtags consistently also helps build brand recognition. In the long run, this will help you rank better in search engines and increase traffic from Facebook Ads.

Design A Customer Journey

Even before the customer journey begins, you must understand your target audience. Why not greet first-time visitors the same way you greet strangers? Make your customers feel welcome.

With customer journeys, you can set the tone from the start, making your tribe feel included. With a customer journey, make sure they only see relevant content so they don’t lose interest.

Compose horizontal and vertical content

Marketing on Facebook is more than just posting. The use of story posts allows you to reach a larger audience and keep your followers engaged. In case you missed it, the blue circle around the logo signifies a Facebook story.

Hence, Facebook Stories is a great tool to expand your reach and audience. You can use text, images, and videos to promote your business. Create vertical content is another option. You can make a collage or use other online resources to create a variety of content if you are creative.

In Conclusion

These tips will help you improve the results of your ads and campaigns. Experiment with different types of content and different audiences until one sticks.

Now that we’ve revealed some of our best tactics, there’s no excuse not to use them. Because every campaign is unique, what works for one may not work for another.

Do you want more email subscribers? You are not alone. Email marketing is one of the best ways to increase sales and convert prospects.

Yes, you’ve succeeded in building your lead list. Now you have to persuade those who gave you their name and email address to engage with your business.

This task may appear daunting at first, but there are numerous ways to build trust with your subscribers and increase open rates. Today, we’ll talk about how to increase engagement and value from your email marketing strategy.

Ready? Let’s begin!

Welcoming of New Subscribers

When someone fills out your email registration form, send them a welcome email. Welcome emails have an impressive 82 percent open rate. That is, for every 100 emails you send, 82 people will open them and read them.

To put this in perspective, welcome emails have a much higher open rate than almost any other type of marketing email. So now is the time to establish rapport with your new subscriber and keep them opening your emails.

To get the most out of your welcome emails, set expectations. Tell your new subscribers who you are, how you can help, and how often you’ll contact them. People will open your emails if they know they will get more from you.

Include lead magnets in your welcome email. If someone signs up expecting a 30% discount, you can win them over by immediately delivering on that promise.

Let Users Pick Preferences

Make it easy for visitors to choose their preferences before and after joining your lead list to increase your open rate. Our signup form includes optional questions.

For example, we may ask visitors why they joined our list. This data helps us identify specific audience goals and pain points.

After joining your email list, your subscribers can customize their experience in many ways. Users can opt-out of specific types of emails, opt-in to receive relevant content, and choose how often they hear from your company.

In order to build accurate customer personas, you should adjust how users select their preferences.

Addition of Value with Personalization

Next, let’s discuss how personalization can enhance the value of your emails. Surprisingly, 80% of shoppers prefer businesses that provide personalized content and offers.

Create a personalized experience for each of your subscribers if you want to keep them engaged with your emails.

Include first names in your emails as an easy start. Many readers feel appreciated when a favorite company mentions them by name. You can even personalize promotions for visitors’ birthdays.

Special offers not only personalize your emails but also encourage sales. Birthday deals create a sense of urgency (FOMO). 60 percent of people say they bought something after receiving a FOMO-inspired offer.

Personalization should go beyond offers. Curate email campaigns with content that meets each reader’s needs and goals. Adding a personal touch to your email marketing strategy can significantly increase open rates.

Send the Right Emails

Timing influences whether people open your emails. Many studies have looked into when businesses should send emails to subscribers.

The best time to send an email is Tuesday at 10 a.m. (local time for your subscribers). There are times when subscribers seem more receptive to reading and responding to marketing emails.

Further research shows that Wednesday and Thursday are excellent emailing days. Aside from 10 a.m., the most popular times are 6 a.m., 2

Experiment with timing to find a schedule that works for your readers. When deciding when to send your marketing emails, keep in mind your audience’s habits. You can even ask for email preference when visitors fill out their initial subscription form.

Verify Deliverability

Finally, let us discuss deliverability. Why bother growing your email list if your subscribers can’t receive your messages?

Surprisingly, 21% of emails sent never reach their intended recipients. So you’re probably wasting time, money, and energy on people who will never see your emails.

The good news is that you can do several things to improve email deliverability. A valid IP address and server are required to send emails from your own server. Several tools exist to help you test your emails and improve their technical deliverability.

We also recommend cleaning your list twice a year. You should try to re-engage inactive visitors with a unique campaign. If you still haven’t heard back, remove them from your list. If you keep sending emails to people who don’t read them, they’ll likely end up in the spam folder, tarnishing your reputation as a sender.

Conclusion

Getting people to read your emails takes time, but it is worthwhile. If you’re struggling to increase your open rate, these suggestions will help you build a compelling email strategy that keeps subscribers engaged with your brand.

Email is here to stay. Globally, there are 3.7 billion email users, with 4.1 billion expected by 2021. Also, people check their emails multiple times a day, so if you’re trying to market your business, an email marketing campaign can get your name into thousands of inboxes.

But sending a promotional email isn’t enough. Every day, people are bombarded with promotional emails, many of which go unread. That’s why you need to make your emails stand out.

So, where do you begin and how can you make your first email campaign a success? Let’s begin: Here’s how to start your first email marketing campaign that will increase engagement and sales.

Make an email list

You need people to have a successful email marketing campaign. That’s why you need to grow your email list to make money. With an email list, you can reach out to a large number of qualified prospects at any time. But how do you sign up?

Using an exit-intent popup on your site is a great way to get more email subscribers. Consider offering a discount or other freebie in exchange for a potential customer’s email address. Building a large email list is the foundation of any email campaign.

Select an email marketing service

Once you’ve built up a large email list of subscribers, it’s time to launch your email campaign. Gmail and Outlook are not recommended for bulk emailing. That’s why you need an email marketing service. Consider MailChimp, Constant Contact, or ConvertKit.

Using an email service provider gives you the ability to send bulk emails, manage your email database, and customize email templates. You’ll also be in compliance with CAN-SPAM laws.

Define your campaign’s goal

Before you send any emails, you must first determine their purpose. Not having a clear focus for your email marketing campaign will confuse readers. So, what is your campaign’s aim? Typical objectives:

User education on your product/niche

• promoting a product or sale
• Upselling customers
• Increasing blog/social media engagement

Pinkberry’s goal with this email campaign was to entice “inactive” users to return:

Remember to decide “why?” and “whom?” Will you send this campaign to existing customers, new users, or your entire email list? Determine your campaign’s goal and design your emails accordingly.

Craft your email

Begin writing your email after deciding on your email marketing campaign type. The first tip is to write a compelling subject line that will entice recipients to open your email. To test your subject line, use a free tool like CoSchedule’s Email Subject Line Tester.

Personalize your emails to each user; people will pay more attention if you say their name. It’s also important to design an email with a good mix of text and images. Emails should have a text-to-image ratio of 60/40.

Finally, keep your email campaign copy short, sweet, and full of personality. So you don’t have to scroll through a long email to get your point across. Instead of telling readers how great you are, focus on showing them how they will benefit.

You’re now ready to send your first email campaign. Remember that once you hit “send,” you can start tracking your results, such as open rates and sales or registrations. When you measure your results, you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t, and you’ll know how to improve your next campaign.

You can use analytics to improve your business by attracting new customers, improving your website experience, learning more about your customers, and more. You can study your analytics at Bookmark to improve your website and business.

Definition of Website Analytics?

Simply put, website analytics collects data from your website. Everything from how many visitors you have to where they come from and what content they like.

Here are the 5 most common analytic tools to help you grow your business:

1. Website traffic

This is how many people visit your website. It’s vital to know, especially when calculating your website’s lifespan. The visitor’s country, language, and more!

Say you have a website for a year and only 75 people visit it. That’s low, but what if you only stay up for 3 weeks and get 75 visitors?

That’s a good chunk. Website traffic refers to the number of people visiting a website over time. Ideally, you want more visitors as your website ages.

2. Traffic sources

Don’t get confused, we’re still talking about movement, but not your opinion. First-time visitors usually find your website via links rather than typing in the full URL. Those links are your traffic sources, and they fall into four categories:

• External links
• Web crawlers
• Social media links
• Email campaign visits

3. Bounce Rate

In short, a bounce occurs when a visitor leaves your site without visiting any other pages/links/CTAs. What causes it to ‘bounce’? The overall traffic percentage can be calculated.

Among the reasons for high bounce rates are:

• Slow loading
• Awful web design
• Clumsy navigation

Of course, this depends on your website’s content. However, many websites face a 20-70 percent failure rate. Anything over 30% is cause for concern.

4. Device type

We’ve seen how far technology has advanced in just 25 years. Your phone, iPad, or other device can now open any URL!

With analytics, you can see what percentage of users come from desktop or mobile browsers. Currently, mobile devices load 51.3% of web pages.

5. Visitor Type

To progress, you need to keep retaining your visitors and returning to your websites. This group of people/customers/visitors is your core audience! These are the ones you should keep an eye on to not only increase the number but also build a relationship with.

Your core audience is dependent on your site and what you offer, but you should expect a 30% return rate. Anything less could mean your site isn’t as engaging as you’d like.

Benefit of Web Analytics on Your Business

To advance, you will need to analyze analytics effectively. This can mean the difference between a highly trafficked, high-converting website and one that is stuck in a rut. Here are a few key points that we believe will forever change your analytics!

1. Know your target market

Don’t let a few nice reviews fool you into thinking that’s all there is.

Web analytics can help you create and find the right target audiences.

Your target market gives you more information than you need! Here’s what your niche expects from your site.

Finding your target audience will help you create marketing materials that delight your clients. The right marketing campaigns to the right people will increase conversions and elevate your website.

2. Leverage where your target audience is from

We must apply the Pareto Principle. For those unfamiliar, it is the 80/20 rule! So 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.

So what does that mean for web analytics? It’s too simple: identify your top traffic sources and maximize their potential. You want to use this data to make sure your website is serving their interests!

You can find visitor behavior by leveraging your audience’s origin. The length of time spent on the site or specific pages can be assessed.

It shows you which links were clicked and other actions taken by the visitor. Here’s why we need to use Bounce Rate! Bounce rates indicate disinterest in the page’s content or destination.

3. Set goals and landmarks

Setting goals and milestones is vital to your business. We’ve said it before, but those of you in the back-stay focused on your goals! In retrospect, a goal is you setting the bar for your site.

To be honest, unless you are doing this as a hobby, you should have a desired outcome in mind whenever someone visits your site. It could be a sale or a signup for your email list, but it should be specific. Small business owners want a large following, but that following means nothing if none or barely any of those visitors convert.

Companies like yours can now track specific goals using web analytics. Actively measuring goals allows your visitors to respond faster to data. But don’t get too hooked without knowing what events or goals to track. It’s pointless to keep track of every goal.

So, what?

Set specific goals and keep an eye on them while tracking. You can also use analytics to improve your website’s layout and track conversion rates.

In conclusion

Help yourself and your business grow by implementing these and other analytics keys today. Make your goals clear and watch your website traffic grow.

Clear out any junk that’s obstructing your site once more for those who missed it. Start tracking your website’s visitors and see how quickly you can reduce their numbers. Use the 20/80 rule to identify your top traffic sources and maximize their potential.

Yes, even a new business website can achieve this. And the best advice we can give is to get to know your target audience and build your website around them!

To fail to invest in social selling training for sales reps is to fail your team and your business. Social selling is a powerful asset, and how you deploy it will determine the future of any digital-first sales team. Today, 61% of US marketers use social media to generate leads.

But expecting your sales reps to learn by reading blog posts and trial and error is unrealistic. Your sales reps will be frustrated and your company will stagnate. Yes, your sales reps will eventually learn effective social selling, but training from an expert will speed up the process and get them started right away.

Despite the importance of social selling for digital-first brands, most companies do not invest in social selling training. 93 percent of sales executives have never received formal social selling training. How often do you believe companies invest in rep training?

1. Reps Want Training

Your salespeople are on the front lines, and they know where the industry is going. Every day, social selling becomes a bigger part of their process. They need – and want – to stay ahead. 53% of salespeople want social selling training. Ignoring training requests from your team may indicate a lack of communication.

2. Encourage More Relevant Prospect Conversations

Most B2B customers don’t get what they want from sales reps. We spend so much time selling that we forget to engage with prospects. Recent research shows that only 20% of sales conversations include client needs and expectations.

They are vital to long-term success. Qualifying leads necessitates understanding prospects. Buying too early turns off prospects.

To build genuine rapport with prospects, social selling training helps reps dig deeper. Training makes salespeople more effective in all channels, not just social.

3. Improve Sales Tools

Most digital-first businesses invest heavily in sales stacks. It’s easy to see how CRM, lead management, and communication solutions add up. But if your sales team isn’t using tools effectively or is using them haphazardly, your investment is wasted.

Sales reps’ tech has evolved as fast as their closing strategies. Social selling tools help reps manage relationships and stay organized. It will help your team see the bigger picture. It helps your team understand the value of social selling and encourages them to use all the tools and strategies you provide.

4. Develop a Long-Term Asset

Few things are more valuable to sales reps than a strong network and a reputation for connecting customers with genuine solutions. Agents must engage socially and view every interaction as a sales and networking opportunity. Building and maintaining a social presence is effective social selling. A defined social presence not only helps today’s deals but also positions your company and team for long-term success.

Holiday shopping has begun early, but you still have time to prepare your website, campaigns, and operations. Here are five strategies and elements you can implement now to prepare for a successful holiday selling season.

1. Refresh your Brand Story

Amazon continues to lead eCommerce brands’ holiday sales. Last year, 11% of consumers planned to buy all holiday gifts on Amazon. Inspire shoppers to buy by creating a compelling connection. Thankfully, Amazon’s A+ Content Manager provides a customized set of content tools. Optimize your Amazon Brand Story with content, photos, and visuals.

Describe your company in the Brand Story. You can add a logo and some products, as well as a brief description. You can customize this for holidays. You can highlight your charitable giving, environmental efforts, or holiday spirit.

Many businesses use this feature to promote holiday products or best sellers. They are eager to read and see what you have to offer.

2. Test those targeted emails

Holiday campaigns introduce new targets and market segments. Personalize based on past habits, age ranges, or who someone is shopping for. People are willing to share valuable data directly for content or indirectly through their website usage. Create an audience with that.

Then test, test, test. That’s useful for seasonal branding or expanding a standard campaign. It can also help with timed events like Black Friday campaigns or emails that count down to a sale. Visual elements should work but have alt-text, and so on. Create a holiday checklist for each campaign. So you don’t lose money at the end of the year.

3. Verify your sales SEO

Because most of your sales occur during the holiday season, you need to plan ahead. For starters, keep your site loading time to a few seconds. Improve overall performance and test mobile and desktop page elements.

Examine site elements first, then trends. Are you using last year’s trends? Updated product descriptions and keywords for this year’s shoppers? Combine the two to ensure you have the right product and holiday keywords. Using Google Trends to capture long-tail keywords for holiday sales is smart.

Also, don’t forget online store SEO. It all depends on your platform and tools. WordPress plugins check meta descriptions for keyword use, while Shopify plugins check product descriptions. The goal is the same, but the path is unique. Using sales SEO tools for your sales platform reduces the risk of elements breaking or forgetting eCommerce essentials.

4. Think of new deals or discounts

It’s not hyperbole to say that this holiday season is unlike previous years. We’re all facing a carrier shortage, supply chain delays, and record eCommerce orders. That can cause issues when you need to move goods quickly. But it also opens doors.

Many suggestions we hear involve deeper discounts or product giveaways, but this does not address supply chain issues. However, some eCommerce businesses now offer bulk shopping discounts to their regular customers and end-users. That could be a great deal for your company and customers. You get to move more product for less money, and your customers get everything they need in one big order.

This also shifts last-mile fulfillment to consumers. With a significant discount for bulk purchases, they get the large package and split it. That prompts them to take the packages to the post office or a carrier store. A win-win situation where you more than make up the discount provided by saving on fulfillment.

5. Consult your partners

This holiday season, businesses like yours need a clear path forward. It all starts with a discussion with your fulfillment partners. Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) should be in constant contact with carriers regarding shipping status. They can help you set holiday shipping expectations with customers.

Carriers tell my company where capacity issues are expected and which regions should be safe. They give updates on shipping times, capacity reductions, and more. eCommerce businesses should discuss these issues with their 3PL to plan ahead. Moving inventory, shipping early, and using expedited options for every order are all examples.

Planning for returns is part of this. Work with your fulfillment partners to understand their return policies. Do you need to clarify acceptable behavior? How many returns do you expect? Could they charge you more if you cross a certain mark? Plan now to manage various volumes during the holidays.