A PROVEN CUSTOMER CONVERSION STRATEGY
By Fernando Andrés Parra Bernal
Co-founder and General Manager of Sharko Consultores
Business Development, Marketing and Consulting at Sharko Group
Did you know that about 80% of the people that visit digital advertisements lose interest when they arrive at the landing page?
It is important to highlight that there is no step-by-step manual that allows us to walk on a unique and established route that leads us to success. We must consider all the factors that influence the purchase decision including our offer, a product or a service, which must be attractive; and our team, which must be fully aligned with the offer and the communication channels we use in our commercial and marketing strategy.
Next, we want to share some questions that have allowed us to formulate a proven conversion strategy:
1. What do you want to achieve?
What are your goals with your brand in digital media? Do you want to sell more, retain current customers or improve the service offered?
It is important that you have a marketing and communications strategy that clearly represents your brand. Remember that we only have one opportunity to capture the attention of our customers and we must do it in a structured way to achieve what we want.
It is necessary to track using the right KPIs: as the modern business guru Peter Drucker said, “If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.
Find a way to compare the results with the objectives of your business strategy.
2. Are you clear about the go-to market strategy?
There are a variety of questions you should ask yourself to plan how you are going to reach your customers and achieve a competitive advantage. Here are some examples to get you started:
How are your currently selling/ offering your product or service today?
What media are you using in order to capture the attention of customers?
What value are you providing to the customer?
How are our products or services delivered?
What documents or type of information are strictly necessary to complete a transaction?
In a nutshell, what is the detailed process of buying and selling and what processes can be simplified to improve the customer experience?
To help you defining this process, Sharko developed mobile and WEB application modules that contribute to designing the user experience according to your business model and that allow capturing essential information to quantify the impact of your business strategy.
3. What products / services do you have to offer?
Not only is it enough to count the products or services that you sell, you must also identify the value offered by each of them, their priority in the commercial strategy and the attributes that differentiate them from the competing products and services. Clarity in this subject will enable you to define the right message you communicate to your clients in your marketing strategy.
Always remember to talk about the benefit granted by the use of your product or your service. It is not enough to communicate how great what we offer works; The client needs to know more about what is there for him / her in a convincing way. Always consider a strong argument that supports and creates credibility.
Be interested in measuring which of your products or services have the best reach in the market. The way in which you execute your digital marketing strategy will allow you to capture information that facilitates decision-making and the adaptation of your business strategy towards achieving sales objectives.
4. Is the architecture and DNA of your brand defined?
In order to prepare the communications strategy, one of the important aspects to consider is the management of the brands, products and services of each company. This is achieved by defining whether the objective of the strategy is to promote a brand, a brand extension, a sub-brand, or a totally independent brand.
Furthermore, consider aspects such as the origin of the meaning of the brand. Identify the values that link your products or services with the person-client. Highlight the factors that make the brand unique.
Digital marketing tools allow you to objectively evaluate your customers’ response to your brand concept.
5. How much does branding help to promote sales?
Promoting your brand in social networks must have a direct relationship with the sales or commercial results sought. The memories it brings or what is known as the top of mind awareness (the extent to which the brand is perceived in the minds of consumers).
This relationship allows defining the focus of the strategy where the strength and frequency of communications are oriented towards the company’s brand or towards the commercial offer of products or services. It is important to consider those areas in direct contact with clients (sales force or digital communication channels) must be aligned with the message offering unique and differentiated value. Adapt the strategy appropriately.
6. Other marketing tools to build credibility?
In almost every occasion, showing a “behind the camera” helps convincing about the offer of products and services, as well as the company’s quality and service attributes.
Using this type of clips or photographs can be effective, as long as a professional and structured policy is handled at the time of taking pictures or videos for these types of campaigns. The structure and correct planning of the audio visual material have a higher impact than what is sometimes considered; Indeed, with all the technology currently available it is easy for anyone to generate videos and photos of good quality, but the complement of text embedded in the multimedia clip, for example, what is shown and how it is shown, are critical elements for the success of the campaign.
7. Customer service
Social networks are a gigantic door for customers to make inquiries, complaints and claims. It is vital to have a structured customer service strategy with established response and compliance times. Long waits means bad service and bad service is a bad reference; therefore it decreases the probability of success in future business opportunities.
We must take into consideration that the work of customer service through digital channels requires the right support of personnel with knowledge of the company processes in order to properly respond to customer requests. It is recommended to assign a community manager with experience, who will be ready to reply to all messages on time.
8. Target
The market and information tools have evolved. It is no longer enough to talk about “market niches” or that “a good marketing strategy points to a name and surname.” We must be specific to those who we really want to reach out too. Who is buying? Where do they live? What are their tastes, the brand they feel affinity for? Whic criteria do they use to make decisions? This allows us to identify the audience of the brand, the language structure that we must handle in the generation of content and allows us to see opportunities that open up in segments that we may not have considered.
Are our customers B2B or B2C? If you are trying to reach an individual (B2C) you could easily contact him/her via a social media community. If you are trying to reach a corporation, you may want to speak with the procurement department or, the owner who will have decision-making power within the company. You have identified the buyer and think about what will be the best way to attract the attention. Build content that promotes “clicks”, accompanied by landing – pages with relevant and compelling information.
9. Landing page
Imagine that social networks are a 4-lane highway. On each side you have billboards that sometimes catch your attention. What would you need to attract the customer’s attention?
What immediate value do you bring to make the lead take an action such as calling or visiting your store? And, what would you need to do to close that sell?
We must deliver something in return to those interested in our value offers. Could be intangibles such as insider information, recurring notifications, value tips, and discounts, among other things.
A Landing Page is the favourite place to finish telling the story. A user enters your landing page when your digital publication made him curious. That is why this page should be focused on what you promise the user and should have a contact space that can be a form or an online chat to capture information from these users that show interest in what you offer. With this information you can take it to the next level, closer and closer to your transactional objective.
Although these questions guide us to observe some of the elements that we consider relevant to have a successful digital communication strategy, it is important to emphasize the identification of metrics that allow us to compare the results with the proposed business objectives.
Sharko brings at your disposal the knowledge and tools to enrich your business strategy.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you turn opportunities into results!
