The low entry barrier has made it possible for anyone to start up an online business. Unfortunately, though, many don’t make it.
In fact, many sources reveal that approximately 90 percent of new online businesses close up shop within the first four months.
Although many reasons are cited for business failure, quite
a few have problems with how to sell effectively online.
If you find yourself in this boat, read on to discover the only two things you will need to focus on to get those sales. At least at first.
Discover Why Email Lists Are So Powerful For Selling Effectively Online
To sell effectively online, you need a good landing page and an email list. No matter what anyone tells you, without an email list, you will be struggling to make sales. And each sale you do make will end up costing you more both in terms of resources and effort, which will shrink your profit margins.
Email creates engagement, unlike any other medium, even social media, while landing pages boost conversions in a similar manner.
Many have said that email marketing is dead, but this is far from accurate. In fact, email is still bigger, more effective and a lot more profitable than all the social media platforms put together.
Statistics show that there are almost three times as many email user accounts as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. And it’s not just about quantity.
Marshall Manson of Social@Ogilvy published an analysis showing that organic engagement for Facebook posts has declined by approximately 50% over the last eight months or so. And the downward momentum is being maintained with expectations that engagement will hit rock bottom soon enough.
When you build an email list, your audience is already more engaged and more targeted because they have agreed to receive communications from you.
It means they want to hear what you have to say, which means your emails will get more attention.
Furthermore, you can communicate directly with your audience, tailoring the message and its appearance in any way you want, allowing you to build a powerful relationship with your target market.
Statistics reveal it takes as many as 7 interactions for a prospect to turn into a customer. The most effective way to ensure those 7 interactions take place is via email.
Additionally, Litmus shows that Twitter has a click-through rate of 1.64%, while Facebook’s CTR is even lower. Overall, social media platform conversion rates average at 0.48%.
In other words, out of every 1,000 people, only 4.8 will click through to your landing page. Compare that to a conversion rate of 4.15% generated by email.
And an email list is like the gift that keeps on giving. It’s an opportunity to convert prospects into loyal customers. And it’s a well-known fact that a loyal customer has a higher transactional value and a higher lifetime value than one-off buyers.
Furthermore, they are also more likely to become advocates, promoting your business to their circle of friends and acquaintances, which can generate even more sales for you.
So, if you want to know how to sell effectively online, you absolutely must start by building an email list.
Why You Need a Great Landing Page To Sell Effectively Online
You’ve built a powerful relationship the prospects on your email lists and they are regularly clicking through from the emails you send to your website.
What do they see when they get there? It could be an information blog post or it could be a promotional page, depending on what they clicked on.
If you are selling something, then you absolutely have to have a landing page waiting for them on the other side.
A good landing page will have a single purpose, namely to get visitors to do something you want them to do. In this case, it would be to buy something. By limiting the content and options on the page, you have a one in two chance that visitors will do what you want them to.
If you give them too many options, you distract them from the main purpose and your chances of conversion drop right down.
The key to succeeding with landing pages is to make sure each one is targeted to the purpose of the email you sent out.
If you’re having a three-day sale on a specific service, create a landing page solely around this offer and give customers two options: to say yes or to leave the page.
While there are many tactics and strategies some might discuss when you ask how to sell effectively online, the best place is to start is with what has proven to work, which is a combination of email marketing and landing pages.
Building an email list is one of the most important investments you’ll make in your online business and, as long as you look after the people on your list, it will be the gift that keeps on giving.
