Lately I’ve been speaking with many professionals who sell their products predominantly online. Direct online selling often creates amazing profit margins which can be invested in rich content and earned media, the most powerful promotional tools besides personal selling. Three topics keep popping up in our conversations:
1. Managing product pages on online sales sites. If you sell product through Amazon, keep in mind that your Amazon product page is like a mini website. It needs content, not just product and price. Ask yourself, how am I telling my story? Do I have a fresh stream of content? More importantly, do I have someone managing it in the same way I have someone managing my website?
2. Affiliate programs. If you sell your product online, an affiliate program is the thing to do. With these programs, other people or organizations sell your product on their websites. Prior to affiliate networks, individuals would sell one brand through multilevel marketing. Now, one affiliate can represent hundreds of brands.
Affiliates need to attract website traffic. They benefit from showcasing media coverage and third-party experts. A steady stream of engaging content helps affiliates attract new visitors and keep them coming back.
3. Discoverability. Across the board, companies struggle with discoverability. They want consumers to find them online. Their biggest stumbling block is their website. Many companies don’t have enough fresh, engaging content. Adding new content ‒ such as media coverage ‒ on a regular basis could help their website come up in search results.
One additional note: While your affiliate network and website sales funnel are important, we can’t ignore that personal selling is your best tool. So make sure your sales team understands marketing concepts. Ensure they understand how to leverage media coverage in their sales presentations. Your salespeople need to understand company vision and the strategy behind media coverage so they’re speaking the same language as prospects. Personal selling is very powerful. Generating media coverage and not leveraging it in the sales channel is one of the biggest mistakes some companies make.
If you think I’m here to sell media coverage and content, you’re right. I’m definitely selling that. With 27 years of industry experience, I understand their importance well. And I understand how important it is to deliver the content our clients seek. I attribute our agency’s success to actively executing content. We don’t get paid to try. We get paid to achieve.
Online selling is a fascinating practice, one that can lead to great rewards. If this topic interests you as much as it interests me, give me a call. You can reach me at 952-697-5269 or by completing our form. Let’s talk marketing.
