How Can Marketing Help Me Make More Sales?

How Can Marketing Help Me Make More Sales?
Darren Westall December 14, 2020 Recruitment

People often ask, “what is the difference between marketing and sales?” – and although this may seem like a strange question to marketers and recruiters, to the wider world, it’s not. On the surface, marketing and recruitment can look quite similar – after all, the overall objective is the same. 

 

However, for a lot of business owners – and, generally speaking, most professionals who don’t specialise in marketing – understanding how marketing can help make more sales can seem a bit far-fetched. Some business owners are still reluctant to invest in marketing in the same way they do with other departments such as sales, IT or HR.

 

But, in order for a business to grow and for sales to increase, people at all levels and positions within a company need to understand exactly how marketing and sales go hand in hand.


Bigger Audience = More Sales

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? The more people your content reaches, the more sales you will make. However, if you want to increase brand awareness and ensure your marketing efforts aren’t in vain, there’s one key ingredient – investment.


Depending on your business, this could mean a small monthly investment into paid advertising, a slightly bigger investment such as an addition to the in-house marketing team, or a huge investment, such as a new website. Whatever it is your business decides on, investing in marketing will result in reaching a wider audience, and the good part is – you don’t have to spend a fortune to see results. Promoting a select number of social media posts each month, or investing in a platform to make sharing content quicker and easier, will correlate with increased sales.V


Retention Is Vital

One mistake business owners often make is believing that marketing only brings in new business. Of course, attracting new candidates and clients is one aim of marketing overall – but this is just one ingredient in a complex, elaborate recipe for more sales.

 

Marketing also includes education pieces. This could be anything from a blog about a particular industry-related topic, a video about your company’s products or services, or imagery detailing your latest offers and promotions. Whatever form your marketing content takes, one objective is always the same: retaining clients and customers.

 

Although new business is exciting, retaining current customers is just as important, otherwise, your business will constantly be chasing new sales as opposed to making more.


Make It Personal

Ensuring marketing material is personalised may seem like a bit of a stretch to some people. After all, how do you send an email to 10,000 recipients that includes each of their individual names?

 

Plot twist: it’s really easy.

 

Where possible, always personalise your marketing material. Whether it’s an email marketing campaign, a landing page on your website or a reply to a tweet – always use a customer or client’s name, if you can. (Email marketing platforms, scheduling platforms and a variety of software can make your marketing and personalisation efforts a lot easier than you might imagine.)

 

After all, 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalised – so if you’re looking to increase sales, personalisation is a great place to start.


Timing Is Everything

Did you know that you’re likely to reach more people based on the time and day you are posting? Of course, you did. Do you always utilise this knowledge? Probably not.

 

Look at the statistics for your website and all social media platforms you use to share your content with your audience. Make note of when people are most active and most engaged with your current content – this will give you clarity on when you should be scheduling your posts going forward. For example, everyone knows the best day to send a marketing email is Tuesday morning, and the least successful time is usually a Friday afternoon. But do you know what day and time is the most successful in terms of open rates, engagement, click-through rates and enquiries for each individual platform?

 

When it comes to marketing helping to increase sales, don’t forget that timing is everything. You can never be too organised or over-prepared when it comes to scheduling your marketing content to go live.


Video Is The Only Way Forward

If your company is yet to invest in video as a form of content marketing, you are definitely missing a trick. From Instagram Reels to TikTok and everything in between (including stories on LinkedIn – who else didn’t see that one coming?) video really is the future. And, the most important part to note is, this goes for all industries and sectors.

 

Of course, there are numerous forms of marketing that will help support your sales function, and just because video is the most important does not mean that copywriting, SEO, PPC and CRO should all just be tossed aside. The fact of the matter is, video can be used on all platforms and be optimised to appear in search engines on all platforms. Plus, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.

 

So, if your business wants to make more sales, but is yet to invest in video as a priority within the marketing strategy, the question is – why?


Make Sharing Content As Easy As 1, 2, 3

The most straightforward way to demonstrate that marketing can help make more sales is for all salespeople to share all marketing content. For example, if you produce a marketing video about one of your products or services, and ten members of the marketing team and one salesperson share it on LinkedIn – how many people will it reach?

 

But, if the same video is shared by ten members of the marketing team and twenty salespeople on LinkedIn – do you think this will increase more sales?

 

Of course, it will.

# Tags: Recruitment

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