If you’re like most businesses, you probably have big plans to increase sales this year.
But while it’s good to be aiming high with ambitious sales targets, you need to have the right strategies to turn those goals into a reality. Namely, you need strategies that are poised to deliver big returns in 2019 and beyond.
To cater to the ever-evolving consumer habits, you will need to be open about making some real changes in your current marketing efforts, and understand that what was working perfectly just a few years ago may not be nearly as effective today.
Luckily, there are a few hacks that you can use to significantly increase your chances of success.
So, to get you started, here are three methods that will help you increase your sales numbers in 2019 and beyond.
Cater to Your Mobile Audience
There’s no going around the fact that success online depends on being able to provide a seamless experience to all of your site’s visitors. And since mobile devices now make up the majority of all online traffic, these are the users that will determine if a company is successful.
Not too long ago, mobile websites were just starting to become a thing, but today the requirements for keeping your prospects happy are significantly higher.
In fact, having a mobile-first approach is essential and has become an integral part of the process when buying websites, so if you ever want to sell your website, you will need to make an effort to make it mobile-friendly and easy to use on any device.
Having a mobile site plays a huge role in your sales performance as well – even if you have a solid offer in place for the right audience, you’ll have a hard time converting your mobile visitors if they’ll struggle to navigate your site and they won’t be able to convert where you want them to.
But how can you make your site easier to use for mobile visitors?
Well, luckily, you don’t have to be a tech genius to make it happen.
The first and most important step is to make sure that your website can adapt to any device and screen size, positioning text and navigation in a way that’s easy to view and click on. That can be accomplished by using a responsive website design, which is universal across the most popular platforms.
If you’re using WordPress or Wix, chances are that your website is already responsive, but in case you haven’t updated your theme in a while, you should double check to make sure.
You can use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test to quickly find out if your site meets the requirements set out by the search engines.
But while having a mobile-friendly site is essential, that’s not all you could do to make your mobile-user experience as simple as possible.
Even though responsive sites are much easier to browse, they do have limitations – for one thing, adding more advanced functionality can be difficult, so if you want to provide additional functions for your mobile audience, you should consider converting your site into a mobile app.
That may seem like a complicated process, but it’s really not that difficult – there’s almost no technical knowledge required, so you can create a mobile app without experience in coding or app development and have another way to engage your mobile audience, maximizing your chances of increasing sales.
Update Your Old Content
Blogs have been around for a while now, so it’s not surprising that a lot of businesses have blog sections on their sites with quite a few articles. The problem is, most of those articles are out of date and not relevant to today’s prospects.
So, instead of allowing those articles to sit collecting dust, you should update your content and bring it back to life, giving yourself an additional set of tools to engage your site’s visitors and increase sales.
Upgrading your old articles makes sense because it’s much less time-consuming than creating a piece of content from scratch.
But what is the exact process you should follow?
Well, the first step is pretty straightforward – you should go through the article that you want to improve and find outdated information that needs to be revised.
Then, you should look at areas that could be expanded on or replaced altogether. An article that was good enough five or ten years ago is likely to be outmatched by what your competitors have written on the subject, so you should make sure that once you’re done editing, it’s as informative as any other article on the topic.
Finally, don’t forget to add rich media to the article as well – merely having an image under the title is no longer enough. Don’t be afraid to use graphs, videos, or even quotes to get your point across and make the content easier to digest.
You should also consider adding a more enticing call to action at the end of the article that tells the reader where to go next. You could even use a popup box or a banner with a content upgrade to entice readers to click through to your squeeze or sales page.
Motivate Your Employees
No matter how good your sales strategies might be, it won’t matter if you don’t have motivated employees that are willing to put in the effort that’s required to execute them properly.
That’s why employee wellness and motivation should be one of the critical areas of focus in your company if you want to see a significant increase in sales in 2019.
By keeping your employees engaged and driven to accomplish the goals that are set out, you not only increase office productivity which is a primary contributor to an increase in revenue, but you also improve employee retention, which can help build a more cohesive team and have substantial long-term effects for the success of your business.
You should also set up a rewards system and incentivize your employees to complete the tasks that are set out.
Whether you decide to opt for a more traditional financial reward or opt for an incentive travel option that can also include team building activities, the important thing is to let your employees know that you value their effort and are prepared to reward those that get the job done.
Another thing that you should consider is making sure that your employees have all the necessary tools to get the job done. Few things are as demoralizing to a team like realizing that the current tools and software don’t cut it, especially if the competition is using something more advanced.
You should look for technology solutions that help to streamline various parts of day-to-day activities. When it comes to improving sales, you should implement an easy to use CRM for small business which can help to optimize a lot of interactions with your prospects and automate some manual tasks, giving your employees more time to pursue more productive sales activities.
When looking for a new career opportunity, prospective employees look not only at the financial part of the offer but also consider office culture and the innovative technology that is used by the company.
If you invest in making these things part of your office culture, you will develop a reputation as a company that takes care of its employees and is interesting to work for, which will make it much easier to attract top sales talent, giving you an edge over the competition.
