Are you in the process of setting up an e-commerce website? Do you need help with your digital strategy and converting sales online?
We recently hosted a Business Growth Webinar with Collette Doyle, Founder and CEO of Unfold Digital, and she shared her knowledge of converting sales online.
During the webinar, Collette spoke about building a digital strategy, the online buyers’ journey and small changes that can make big impacts on your website.
We’re sharing our top 10 takeaways from Collette’s webinar so you can feel confident in implementing a digital strategy and refining your marketing tactics.
About Collette Doyle:
Collette has over 15 years of experience in sales and marketing and founder of The Christina Nobel Social Enterprise Programme. She is a global speaker, trainer, and lecturer on all things sales, marketing, and digital.
Collette offers full-scale digital consultancy services to many different industries, from tech to beauty to food, so her knowledge is valuable to any business looking to get more out of their digital strategy.
Get in touch with Collette.
1. “Write down your goals”
A simple but effective tip. Writing down your marketing goals gives you focus. It helps you determine the difference between your marketing tactics and marketing strategy.
Before you decide what you will do, you need to know why you are doing a campaign and what you want to achieve.
2. “Look at where your users live virtually and focus on those platforms.”
With the Internet and online shopping, it matters less where your customers live physically and more on where they occupy virtually.
This could be one or two core platforms so just make sure you are going where your customers are.
3. “A brand without a website is often seen as untrustworthy.”
Your website is your first impression.
Having an online presence increases your creditability and, if optimised, you can increase your findability through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), ads and earned media and reach more customers.
4. “It is pay to play on social media channels.”
This is how social media channels make their revenue so it’s no surprise they are charging you to display your ads.
- LinkedIn is the most expensive platform to advertise on but can be very useful for B2B marketing.
- Facebook is the most sophisticated ad platform. It has advanced targeting settings if you implement a pixel on your website.
- Instagram is great if you have high-quality images and videos to share.
- Twitter is a good customer service tool and a great way to connect with journalists.
5. “Social media should be a value platform”
So, you’ve set up your social media channel but how do you increase your following? You need to make sure you’re interesting enough to make people want to see your content.
Collette recommends implementing an 80/20 rule – bring valuable content 80% of the time and write promotional content 20% of the time.
6. “Don’t put your customer aside and forget about them.”
Retention is often seen as the forgotten stage, but it can be the most important stage in the marketing funnel.
If you’ve put in work to get a lead, built trust and made the sale, don’t forget to ask for feedback and continue to improve your offer.
7. “Inbound leads are higher quality and more likely to convert.”
In Collette’s experience, inbound leads buy quicker and can even have a higher sales value. Write good content on your website and make sure they align with your goals and marketing strategy.
8. “Everyone expects automation in this day and age.”
When you get a lead, try to respond within 24 hours.
This can be as simple as setting up a chatbot on your Facebook page. This keeps the lead warm and helps them remember who you are!
9. “If they haven’t converted now, it doesn’t mean the opportunity is gone forever.”
Collette says that the sales funnel isn’t always as linear as we’d like to think.
Set up nurture campaigns, such as monthly check-ins on Mailchimp, to keep your brand front of mind.
10. “Dig into what you can improve on and show prospects that you care.”
This is something you can do with customers and people who didn’t buy from you.
Ask your customers why they decided to go with your product or service. Ask people who didn’t buy what could you have done differently to make them go with you.
Want to get in touch?
If you would like to talk to Collette about your digital marketing strategy, you can contact Collette on LinkedIn here.
Want to watch the webinar? Get in touch with us at hello@accountantonline.ie.
You can also check out our upcoming webinars on our events page here: https://accountantonline.ie/events/
Kelly is the Marketing Manager at Accountant Online. Kelly is passionate about making the complexities around running a business simple to understand and accessible to the every-day person. Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Marketing from Dublin Institute of Technology.
