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How to Optimize Your Online Sales

Sven Sauder 10/28/2021

Tips on how you can optimize your online sales!

Table of contents

What are the requirements to optimize online sales?
What online sales channels are there?
As already discussed in the previous section, it is also very advisable here to carefully consider before using the respective channel what goals you have and how you can determine KPIs for these goals. KPIs, with which you can also get a picture of how the individual channel performs for the respective goal. This measurement will ultimately allow conclusions to be drawn about where you can still make improvements.
A greatly simplified example: A company plans to significantly increase sales targets for the next financial year. Sales is now dealing with how to achieve these goals. It is discussed how many new customers need to be generated and what potentials could lie in cross and upselling. Especially the area of new customers turns out to be very interesting. These new customers are supposed to be “lured in” with webinars, on-demand videos, white papers, etc., so that sales can convince them of the products and services at a later date.
SEO & SEA to be found
The previously mentioned optimization possibilities like SEO, SEA, and optimization for mobile devices already help to improve conversion rates. In our article about the seven best conversion optimization tools, you'll find out which tools are suitable for which optimization measures.
Web Analytics Tools

The wisdom “Profit lies in the purchase” is well known to every entrepreneur. Therefore, purchasing is often optimized down to the last detail.

But what happens when there is no cash to buy anything at all? When no sales have been made, resulting from sold projects, services, or products. So what happens when sales are not really going smoothly? You should at the latest (!) take care of the optimization of your online sales.

In the following article, we will discuss how to optimize your online sales as a B2B or B2C business. For both forms, there are different potentials, which we will explain to you with suitable examples.

First, we will get into the necessary basic concepts that are important to avoid blind activism. This usually feels good at first, as you have accomplished and implemented something. In the short term, this can help quite a bit. However, in the long term, this will not be worthwhile for you, as you will often face the same problem again and again. Therefore, we start with the basics!

What are the requirements to optimize online sales?

You know you should optimize your online sales? Very good, because that is already the most important step towards improvement. The reason for this realization often lies in one of the following problems with your online sales:

Sudden sales slumps
Missing (predictable) sales
Small shopping carts
Low personnel utilization
Little to no new customers

Are you fully aware of the problems? Because the recognition of problems forms the basis for optimizing your online sales. If not, the following example questions may be helpful:

What particularly bothers me about the current (sales) situation?
How did it get to this point?
What activities led to this? Or: What activities were missing to get to this point?
How do other companies in online sales do better? Why can't I replicate that?
What could I learn from others?
What would I be afraid of if one of my competitors were to “do” that?

It is important that you honestly answer these and similar questions yourself. Often it is also helpful if external parties assist you to avoid the risk of being “blindsided”.

Once the actual problem has been identified and sufficiently described, another major step towards improvement has been taken. This makes it much easier to redefine goals for your online sales. These goals are intended to counteract the identified problems and improve your current situation.

Here are two examples to illustrate:

B2B example:A goal could be, for example, that you want to improve your webinars. The underlying problem you identified for this is that you carry them out regularly and also generate many registrations. However, few registered participants actually participate. As a result, few or no opportunities arise, which is reflected in a sales funnel that needs significant improvement.
B2C example:A goal of an online shop could be to increase average shopping cart values and repurchase rates. The underlying problem you identified for this is that customers buy very few products. For example, this might be because you have not yet carried out any cross-selling activities, which in turn is based on a lack of technical know-how.

Once the goals are known, you should definitely agree on measurable KPIs and keep these prominently in mind. This can be done using Business Intelligence Tools as an example. The KPIs are important for you to make your own progress in efforts visible. Only then can you create a basis to make a good assessment of whether the measures taken (we will get to that in a moment) are really goal-oriented or if you need to readjust.

In our B2B example, the following KPIs could be: Number of opportunities per webinar, number of registrations per webinar, number of actual participants per webinar or generated sales through opportunities that came about through webinars.

In our B2C example, on the other hand, the following KPIs could be: average shopping cart values, growth of average shopping cart values, number of products per shopping cart, or number of repeat buyers.

At the beginning of this section, we mentioned blind activism. With the initial basics, we have hopefully now put an end to this and are moving on to planned activism. Because thanks to the recognized problems, defined goals, and corresponding KPIs, this is now possible. In the following sections, we will give examples of how you can optimize your online sales.

What online sales channels are there?

Unfortunately, this blanket question cannot be answered blanketly. It strongly depends on the product, the service, the business background, and other factors to make a qualified statement here. Nevertheless, the following list of channels should at least provide a rough guide:

Own website / own online shop
Social media platforms
Marketplaces (Amazon, ebay, OTTO, Zalando, fiverr, upwork, Machineseeker Group, etc.)
Affiliate networks (,)Webgains Comparison portals
Websites of partner companies
Each company probably knows even more channels. The basic question you should ask yourself at this point: Which channels make sense for you? Which ones are you already using and how do they perform?

How can you optimize your online sales?

As already discussed in the previous section, it is also very advisable here to carefully consider before using the respective channel what goals you have and how you can determine KPIs for these goals. KPIs, with which you can also get a picture of how the individual channel performs for the respective goal. This measurement will ultimately allow conclusions to be drawn about where you can still make improvements.

We are aware that this measure sounds simple and essential. However, experience also teaches us that many companies do not carry out or not sufficiently appreciate this foundation in their day-to-day business. Therefore, it cannot be mentioned often enough: Set your goals, work out which KPIs you want to measure these goals with, and carry out the measurement regularly! Only then can you draw more precise conclusions, on the basis of which you can carry out targeted measures for improvement.

In addition to the very general measures, there are of course concrete measures to optimize your own online sales. The following two are intended as examples.

If the goal is to generate more revenue through your own website or online store, you should definitely get support from web analytics software such as

Google Analytics or Matomo. With a tracking tool, you can analyze your company's data in one central location, measure the performance of marketing activities, content, and your own products, and therefore “make better decisions”. As website operators, this allows you to view important statistics and key figures, on the basis of which you can then make your qualified decisions.The revenues of your own online sales can be optimized in other ways as well. Especially in the B2C sector, affiliate marketing is a very popular method for companies to boost their own sales. The principle behind this is quite simple: In the affiliate networks, advertising companies (advertisers) are brought together with other website operators (affiliates). Advertisers provide affiliates with advertising materials in cooperation, which they can use and integrate on their own website. Services such as clicks, leads, or purchases are agreed in advance. If these services are generated by the affiliate and the advertising material, the affiliate is compensated by the advertiser with a commission. So, it's a win-win situation for both companies.

Among a multitude of affiliate networks, the following three stand out in particular:WebgainsAdcell

Awin

“But wait a minute”, you are thinking now. “That's marketing. We want to optimize our online sales here”. Right! But it should be absolutely clear to everyone that sales depend on marketing. And vice versa.

A greatly simplified example: A company plans to significantly increase sales targets for the next financial year. Sales is now dealing with how to achieve these goals. It is discussed how many new customers need to be generated and what potentials could lie in cross and upselling. Especially the area of new customers turns out to be very interesting. These new customers are supposed to be “lured in” with webinars, on-demand videos, white papers, etc., so that sales can convince them of the products and services at a later date.

And so we are at the right point: How will these potential new customers become aware of webinars, on-demand videos, white papers, etc.? That's right: through marketing! And this should also be taken into account during your optimization efforts.

The classics like SEO, SEA, Social Media, and Email Marketing of course must not be left unmentioned. Numerous providers and really great software are available for this:

SEO tools

SEA tools

Social Media tools

is to make processes in and around marketing & sales visible and to automate them as much as possible in order to make all results more measurable. This can directly support our effort to optimize our online sales! With the help of marketing automation tools, you can digitally map your current manual marketing processes. The digitalization of these processes allows you to merge various marketing measures, thus saving time and getting much better feedback on the successes and failures of your online sales.

How a Marketing Automation for Online Sales worksEspecially in B2B sales, you can gain a significant advantage through marketing automation for your online sales due to the sometimes much longer sales cycles and generally more complex decision-making processes. Let's go through a possible (simplified) customer journey of a company to illustrate this:An entrepreneur is currently looking for suitable software to solve a particular problem. Through research, this entrepreneur becomes aware of you through one of your SEA campaigns and downloads one of your whitepapers. This whitepaper provides general tips on a very specific problem.

At this point, you start with a marketing automation! Through the download of the whitepaper, you receive the first important information: the name of the lead, the email address, and possibly the first hints at an existing problem of the company (through the download of the very specific whitepaper). With this, you can at least do a basic assessment and categorization of the lead.

A certain time after the download, you (automatically!) contact the lead saying that you will have a webinar taking place next week, in which the topic from the whitepaper will be discussed in much more depth. Your lead signs up and provides you when registering with two further details about themself: the job title and the telephone number. In addition, they sign up for one of your newsletters. With this information, you can reassess and further qualify the lead.

After participation in the webinar, you (again automated!) send the lead information on upcoming events, for which interested people can sign up for free. Your lead selects the suitable (online) event and provides more information about themselves when registering: the number of employees in the company, areas of interest, current problem situation. Once again, you can use this information to assess and qualify the lead and get a very detailed picture of them.

With the help of marketing automation, you now have a very well-qualified lead that you can hand over to your sales team. And that without manual effort (except for the initial creation of this automation)! Your sales team will be very grateful for exactly this type of leads because they can now sell a specific product to the lead much more easily.

Yes, this is the optimal course of such a customer journey. BUT: That is exactly what you want! Sales should, if possible, only receive the best-qualified leads. This reduces the time invested in non-sale-ready leads, leaving more time for sale-ready leads. The result is that your sales team will achieve a significantly higher closing rate and more sales. And that, in turn, was your initial goal: to optimize online sales!

With the following exemplary tools, you too can implement marketing automation for your own needs:

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Salesforce Pardot

Mailchimp

An important self-responsibility is reflected in the optimization of your own online shop. Depending on how your shop was built, there are various approaches for this. Each shop system usually brings with it one or the other possibility:

SEO & SEA to be found

Web Analytics to measure and evaluate traffic

Optimize for mobile devices to also be able to sell well to mobile customersIntegration of customer reviews to build trust and much moreHere too, the rule is: These points should already be part of your standard repertoire. Regardless of the shop software used. If not, you will find suitable providers in the following

OMR reviews
categories that can support you:
SEO tools
SEA tools

Web Analytics toolsWebshops and shop systemsOptimize online sales with CRO (No, not the German rapper with the panda mask).

The previously mentioned optimization possibilities like SEO, SEA, and optimization for mobile devices already help to improve conversion rates. In our article about the seven best conversion optimization tools, you'll find out which tools are suitable for which optimization measures.

In addition, you should deal with the following questions:

What is currently preventing my customers from buying in my online shop?How can my customers make a purchase as easily as possible?How can I speed up my customers' buying process?

At which point can I work with personalization?What payment options do my customers want?At what point do my customers abandon the purchase? And how can I prevent that?

How do I still lead my customers to purchase the products afterward?

As you can guess, each online shop operator will have different answers to these questions. For this reason, we unfortunately cannot show a universally valid solution at this point. For this, however, with these example questions, each online shop operator can already approach their own optimization potential and identify the first points to optimize themselves.
This could be, for example, that you discover that the “Add to Shopping Cart” button is placed too small and inconspicuously. Or maybe you realize that it would make sense to include significantly more payment providers so that your customers can use their own “favorite”. Maybe there are also basic product information missing that a buyer would wish for in order to make a purchasing decision. This all sounds very banal and easy to implement. Often, however, it is precisely these quick wins that already lead to a noticeable success in your online shop and to a conversion rate optimization.
If you have already identified various points yourself, there are also various software providers that can help you get even better there:
Conversion optimization tools
Payment service providers
Content recommendation tools
But be careful, you must not succumb to the illusion that a software can take all the work off your hands and everything works immediately for conversion rate optimization. As we have already written in several places, the following also applies here: Recognize the basic problems, set goals and KPIs, and then implement measures to achieve your goals. In addition, it is particularly important for CRO to keep evaluating measures, fine-tuning them, and improving oneself.

If you feel incapable of recognizing the potentials yourself, it is definitely advisable to get professional help from agencies. There are several on the market that specialize exactly in this. They will conduct an audit for you, for example, in which potentials are supposed to be recognized and initial recommendations for action are given to you. Depending on the agreement, you can then optimize the discovered potentials yourself or the agency can also take care of it for you.

Summary of optimizing online sales

As you have probably noticed in the article, there are recurring steps to optimizing your online sales:

It is completely irrelevant what exactly you want to optimize. The first step for optimization always lies in recognizing a problem. Once you have recognized the problems of a poor performance, measurable goals must be set for their remedy. These goals should then be achieved by means of measures. If your KPIs indicate that the goals are not being achieved, the measures have to be adapted. If the goals are reached, you might want to set them higher for yourself in the next evaluation cycle. If you just adhere to these basic principles, you will be able to significantly optimize your online sales!

The following is once again all the tool categories that can also assist you in optimizing your online sales:

Web Analytics Tools

Marketing Automation Tools

Conversion Optimization Tools
SEO Tools
SEA Tools

Social Media Tools

Affiliate network

Weitere Tools sowie Bewertungen und Erfahrungsberichte von echten Nutzern findet Ihr auf OMR Reviews!

Sales

Author

Sven Sauder

Sven Sauder hilft Unternehmen und Unternehmer:innen, ihre Umsätze selbstständig und nachhaltig zu steigern. Dabei berät er sie zu Themen im Vertrieb, Marketing und in der Strategie.

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