Are your products spectacular but your sales less so? Perhaps you know people would love and buy your products if only they knew about them.
Increasing revenue in 2019 should be the goal of all businesses. The problem is that, while building products is fairly easy, actually selling them is another story altogether. Before they buy from you, people have to know about you, and they have to trust you.
Fortunately there are answers. Join us as we take a look at 6 simple strategies that will rev up your revenue in 2019.
Content marketing is an excellent way to boost revenue because it does all the right things.
To increase revenue with content marketing in 2019, you need to produce in-depth, valuable content that actually improves your customer's life. Your content needs to answer a specific query they have with more actionable information than your rivals.
The idea here is that you're using content – be it blog posts, videos or even podcasts – to strengthen the bonds between you and your audience. By educating them, you're building a relationship based on trust that will eventually (hopefully) lead to a conversion.
Without content marketing in 2019, your venture is doomed to fail. Indeed, Seth Godin said that content marketing is the only form of marketing left. This is because it consolidates your brand identity, builds the right connections with your audience and nudges them further down the sales funnel.
If you're stuck for content ideas, you can use a tool like BuzzSumo to find content that's already performing well in your niche. Then, you can put your own spin on it.
You can also use a tool like Answer the Public to find out the questions your audience want answering. The more questions you answer with depth and value, the more people will begin to see you as the go-to people in your niche.
A guest blogging campaign is a sort-of extension of your content marketing efforts. Instead of writing content for your own blog, you'll be writing content for other people.
Why? Because by posting original, unique and valuable content to other high traffic websites in your niche, you're putting yourself in front of even more people. Moreover, you're cementing your position as the expert in this niche.
Not just that but guest blogging provides ample link building opportunities. The more blogs you write for other people, the more inbound links your website will receive. This will turbocharge your SEO efforts and make your website more visible on Google.
It works like this: You draw up a list of authoritative, high traffic websites in your niche. Then, you come up with topic ideas you think they'll like, and which they haven't published yet. Then, you pitch your guest blog idea to them while outlining the benefits to them. Should they accept your proposal, you'll write the blog and include within it a link back to your website. Upon acceptance, the webmaster will publish it to their blog. Bingo.
Here's a list of the 15 best guest blogging tools to help you with your campaign.
Customer service is more important than product in the eyes of customers today. This means that if you provide super customer service that's better than your competitors, you're onto a real winner.
It's all about playing the long game. The better your customer service is, the more loyal your customers will be.
Not just this, but excellent customer service will also encourage positive reviews. On the flip side, if your customer service is woeful, don't be surprised if customers leave bad reviews that will – over time – decrease your reputation and revenue.
User experience is key, too. If customers arrive on your website and can't find what they want as quickly as possible, they'll bail out. And if they really wanted to make a purchase from you, they might be so frustrated that they'll leave a bad review.
Key to a solid user experience is your branding, which starts with your logo. Let's say a customer arrives on your website from social media but now feels lost because you've not got a logo. A logo creates familiarity, reassures the customer they're in the right place, and it helps to forge even more trust. If you don't yet have one, you can use a tool like Hatchful to design one in minutes.
So improve your customer service and user experience by making your website super easy to navigate. Install 24/7 support in the form of chatbots and digital assistants that are on hand to answer your customer's concerns instantly. If they're not providing satisfactory enough answers, make it clear to your customers that you're prepared to jump on a phone call with them.
Engage your customers on social media, too. Twitter is a great place to engage in social listening, which is where you search for mentions of your company. Then, join in the conversation is the time is right. For example, if a customer has had a bad experience, show empathy and understanding and do your best to convince them they won't have the same experience next time.
Have you ever bought something from a store only to be then offered something even more valuable for considerably more money? This is up selling in action. Cross selling, meanwhile, is when you're offered a product that complements the one you've just purchased. Both are great sales tactics that can really rev up your revenue.
There is an art to it, of course. For example, you wouldn't actually use the phrase "cross sell" with your customers. Instead, you could offer them a bundle. Let's say they're buying a camera from you – why not offer them a bundle that include a tripod and a memory card? Don't stop there but offer all this with a discount. It's the discount that increases the perceived value of what you're offering.
Amazon does this in a clever way. When a customer is browsing a product, Amazon will show them what products it's frequently bought with. This is cross selling – or bundling – in action.
When it comes to up selling, the stats are a tad bleak. Just 4% of customers will actually buy a better product if offered. But it's okay – this just means you need to get smarter about how and what you up sell.
For example, it's a good idea to promote your most sold products (social proof) or display testimonials next to your better, more expensive products.
These are 4 ways to rev up your revenue in 2019. As you can see, the strategies are simple enough. Improving your customer service, for example, isn't hard, while your content marketing efforts can be taken care of by a small offshoot team. Whatever tactics you go with, always focus on delivering value to the end user – and lots of it.
Michelle Deery is a freelance content writer for Heroic Search, a link building agency in Tulsa. She works with brands to help them convert more users into customers. You can find her on Twitter.