Jan 15, 2019

The Most Effective Digital Sales Engagement Techniques

by Digital Marketing Institute

Sales engagement refers to the interaction between a seller and a prospective buyer. Significant importance is placed on how they communicate and the results from this mutual collaboration.

Digital sales engagement is evaluated based on how customers respond to content or information that has been provided to them. It can involve measuring the number of likes or shares on a social media post, the number of emails that are opened, the length of time spent watching a video, and other examples of digital sales-to-customer communications.

With the continuing evolution of various digital platforms and the reliance on mobile devices, businesses and their marketing teams must consider implementing more effective digital sales techniques. It is no longer just about selling products, but also about appealing to customers and finding ways to engage with them. If this critical component is missed, businesses will suffer either by going unnoticed or being considered insignificant in an ocean of competitors.

If you are looking to advance your sales engagement techniques and cater to customers in a manner that boosts your profits, continue reading! This article provides information on practices that can be adopted and measured to ensure that you are garnering the attention of customers and reaping the rewards.

Social Media – Much More Than Just Networking

Social media offers its users the opportunity to network and socialize with individuals from various parts of the world. It also enables them to share, like, and create a variety of content, including images, videos and written content. These platforms are ideal for both people who like to consume content and those who like to create it.

The reality is that social media has progressed from its initial reputation as a fun pastime, and it can prove to be a vital tool for digital sales professionals. According to data from 2017, there are more than 208.9 million social media network users in the US alone, which is well above half of the population. The majority of these users come on these sites not only to connect, but to be entertained, to discover new things, to share them, and to participate in the excitement.

So, when you witness an upsurge of followers or engagement on your page after a post, you should take note of that activity and explore why it engaged people so much. It indicates that people believe in what you are offering and are eager to see more. They are following you to see how else you can inspire them and elevate their interest in your company.

As a tool, social media can be used to monitor and analyze how customers are captivated by your content. You can interact with them, pinpoint their concerns, and respond to their inquiries. Social media can be used as an investigative tool that permits you to uncover helpful information such as user data. This includes customer behaviors such as their interests, patterns of use, general trends, and other important aspects that can be valuable for your company’s marketing efforts. 

Social media data can be retrieved through the review of shares, likes, comments, impressions, new followers, click-throughs, hashtag usage, and other metrics. This information can be used to identify which type of content performs better and results in more engagements such as shares, mentions, clicks to your website, and potentially an increase in sales.

Frequently reviewing your social media engagement metrics enables you to understand what’s working or what’s working most successfully, so you can then replicate those results with similar content.

By regularly collecting and analyzing data, you can improve customer engagement, and sales too. Social media pages offer business users the opportunity to view key analytics information. However, make sure you’re measuring the right things and, more importantly, that you’re creating the right content to begin with. You want to practise strong digital sales techniques through social media in order to see the desired results, such as more website click-throughs.

Using Psychological Cues to Engage Consumers

Psychology plays a pivotal role when it comes to encouraging consumers to purchase products. Understanding consumer behaviors is essential to developing a strategy that promotes customer engagement and sales.

In a Business Insider article, science reporter Tanya Lewis explains the significance of understanding the reasons behind why people behave in the ways they do. She pinpoints that being aware of behavioral patterns and motivations can have noteworthy outcomes for all businesses. Lewis mentions a full list of psychological devices that can be implemented to attract people and attract them to your brand.

With that in mind, here are some of the most important practices you can work on.

Anchoring

Anchoring, in marketing psychology, is recognized as a mental tool that helps advertisers secure their brand messages, products or services into the minds of consumers. An example of anchoring is a “Free Trial” experience, which helps to guide consumer decisions by offering initial information and hands-on experience with a product. They can reap the full benefits of this when they make an actual purchase at a later stage.

Providing this product trial enables users to become acquainted with the product and make a choice based on how they have received the information. In a sense, they are primed to appreciate the product after having experienced it personally, and are therefore more likely to purchase the full version.

This element of marketing is very successful at getting consumers interested and encouraging them to support the brand. Being primed with specific or exclusive offers persuades them to commit to and appreciate your company.

For sales professionals, anchoring can be useful in engaging clients, maintaining their interest, and subsequently closing a sale.

 

Priming

Priming is a form of psychology that trains a person’s memory or thought process. It involves presenting individuals with a stimulus – such as an image, words or colors – which prompts specific thoughts or actions. In marketing, this is beneficial because presenting consumers with specific elements or primers can influence their buying behaviors

An example of priming is presenting images or videos on websites or even social media, which encourage consumers to obtain a particular product. It is a subconscious element that primes individuals without them even realizing it. In digital sales, priming can be implemented through the use of color, text, pictures, audio, and other features to incite an urge to buy.

For an eCommerce website especially, pictures can be used – either in the foreground, background or as a part of the page – to prime emotion or a particular action that you wish to have performed.

In-product messages are another form of priming. These can be beneficial as primers because they help to capture the interest of consumers while they are using the application or product. It permits sales professionals to keep up with customers while they are on the go, and it also prompts them to perform a specific action.

 

Social Proof

Social proof is a term created by marketing professor and author Robert Cialdini, and it implies that people will approve of something once they have witnessed others doing the same. Consumers will measure a product’s value based on how others respond to it and how popular it appears. People look to celebrities, experts, friends, family, or any real users of the product and large groups of consumers to confirm its legitimacy.

For this reason, online influencers can play a fundamental role in driving sales and encouraging consumers to purchase a product. For businesses, acquiring an influencer to promote a product online, subtly, is beneficial in many ways. It exposes consumers to advocates of your brand and the products you are offering. It also motivates them to buy your product after seeing someone they trust supporting it.

According to social media data, six out of 10 YouTube subscribers are more interested in following the advice of their favorite YouTuber than a famous celebrity. This information shows the strength that social media influencers can have on driving companies’ sales forward. It is highlights how social proof is influential in guiding consumer behaviors.

Conclusion

Using social media and psychological cues to improve sales and customer engagement is critical in the digital world. Companies, sales professionals, and advertisers must find unique ways to engage customers, as this is pivotal in attaining sales and reaching targets.

It is no longer about just pitching your product or service to consumers. Today, consumers are very savvy and well-informed. You need to have genuine marketing tactics to appeal to today’s consumer and keep them engrossed.

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