Struggling to Stay Afloat? These 5 Ethical Marketing Tips will Help you Increase Sales!
Tired of Struggling? Need to Increase Sales?
It’s Time to Face Reality
You started this amazing business because you want to make positive changes in your industry. You know why you’re in the business you’re in! Congratulations, that’s the first step to success!
Your products and services are of high-quality and your customers really love what you’re doing.
You’re also putting a ton of effort into your marketing, but the reality of it all is that you’re not earning enough money. You’re struggling with your sales and are always stressing about finding more customers.
Fact is, if you don’t find a solution soon, you’re not going to be able to make an impact in this world.
It’s OK, you’re here now. You got this!
We believe that the only reason why you’re not enjoying consistent sales is that your marketing just isn’t working out for you. To help improve your marketing, here are 5 easy-to-implement tips.
5 Tips to Improve Your Marketing
#1: Get in Bed – Make Sure You Really Know Your Target Audience
#2: Watch Your Language – Improve Your Copywriting
#3: Don’t Make Me Think – Enhance Your User’s Experience
#4: Offer Eye Candy – Make Your Stuff Pretty
#5: Enhance Your Marketing – Let an Expert Review Your Marketing
#1: Get in Bed
Make Sure You Really Know Your Target Audience
While you may not have any desire to sleep with your customers – and I really kinda hope you don’t – I still encourage you to really find out how to make and keep them satisfied.
Your customers are more valuable than prospects. It’s also less expensive to keep an existing customer than to find a new one, so it’s important to serve your existing customers well.
To be able to serve them well, you have to know what they’re thinking, saying and feeling when they look at your brand or are about to make a purchase. You have to know what will make them happy. You have to be able to solve their problem better than anyone else.
Here’s How
If you don’t know your customer inside and out, then it’s time to dig deep and figure this out. You can do this by conducting surveys, interviews, asking questions on social media, reading their responses in community groups, etc.
#2: Watch Your Language
Improve Your Copywriting
How many times have you read an advertisement and thought, ‘This is exactly what I need!’? Or have you often experienced the complete opposite, ‘What the ????’? Probably both at some point, right?
Your copywriting is extremely important but unfortunately, many people ignore this point. Pay close attention to everything you write. Not just the text in your newsletters or your About page or blog posts, but on your invoices, product labels, packaging, social media posts, etc. Everything you write reflects who you are and what your brand stands for.
Your words will either attract or repel your ideal customer, so keep your #1 raving fan in the back of your mind and watch your language every time you sit down to write.
Here at Ethical Brand Marketing, we write it like it is. We’re not sugar-coaters, nor tiptoers. We relay our message clearly, and sometimes quite loudly. Why? Because we’re talking to you, a go-getter who wants to become an industry leader to be able to make positive changes in this world. Go-getters are usually not quiet, pussyfooting around type of people. Right? No, you don’t waste time dilly-dallying. Instead, you take charge. You step up and make things happen! You move mountains! And we want to get you there faster!
Here’s How
In order to directly speak to your ideal customer, you have to first complete tip #1. You obviously have to really know who you’re speaking to first.
Once you know how your ideal customer thinks and speaks, then use the same language, e.g. the same terms, phrases, words, expressions, and examples. You want to make your customers feel right at home and think, ‘Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.’
Go back now and review your marketing materials. Is there anything you can improve right now? Do it!
Watch Your Language! Pay close attention to everything you write. Not just the text in your newsletters or your About page or blog posts, but on your invoices, product labels, packaging, social media posts. Everything you write reflects who you are and what your brand stands for.
#3: Don’t Make Me Think
Enhance Your User’s Experience
Usability is the degree to which something is easy to use. This is a huge aspect that many people get wrong because it’s too easy to assume that everyone else can read your mind. Well, guess what? Most can’t.
There’s nothing more frustrating than putting together furniture using a manual that’s been translated by a non-native speaker who can barely speak English. HA! I think we’ve all been there.
It’s your job to guide your visitors through your website, write clearly in your marketing materials and to teach your customers how to use your products in the easiest manner possible. It’s your job to not make them work more than necessary.
Here’s How
If you want your customers to download a .pdf, tell them directly and make it easy for them. Provide a download Call-To-Action (CTA) button at the top of the page and at the bottom and if it’s a long page, somewhere in between. Sometimes people want to download it right away, not after reading all about why they should download it.
Don’t make anyone google. If you want someone to find something, whether it’s on your website or an external one, give them the link.
Get this: I wanted to buy trial sizes of cruelty-free, vegan mineral makeup and took a picture of my face, sent it in, filled out a form telling them all about my skin and what my requests were so that they could send me a list of the products and the right tones I should try. This was their request, not mine, I was just following instructions.
Anyway, they mailed me back and my mouth literally dropped to the floor. They listed about 10 products and why I should try them. But did they add the links to the products? No, I had to search for them, one-by-one going back and forth from my mail to my browser. It was quite annoying.
Please don’t do this to your customers, unless you don’t want their business. I still bought the trial sizes and I like the makeup so much that I bought a few products after trying them, but I almost walked away just from that one time-consuming and annoying experience. Yes, I’m very picky, but I know I’m not the only one because my time is precious and so are your customers’.
#4: Offer Eye Candy
Make Your Stuff Pretty
Here’s How
If you’re not a designer and don’t have the talent or know-how to design your own marketing materials, please make the investment and leave it up to a talented designer to create your logo, website, document templates, packaging, etc. It’s your job to provide a detailed briefing so that the designer can take what’s in your head – or on paper – and create magic.
This may seem a little superficial, but let me tell you, people really do judge a book by its cover. Which is why I’ll spend many, many hours with my illustrator designing my own book cover when it’s ready to be designed.
Design matters. A lot. I’ll leave websites quicker than a wink if it’s a 1st generation design or if things are flashing all over the place. Or even if a video starts with the sound on without me pressing the play button.
Just like with your copywriting, your design has to fit with your brand, your message, and your audience. Every color you use has a meaning and they have to match. Text formatting, page set up and design elements all have to be consistent. And so does your font type and size.
I still see websites with 10pt font size, and well, that’s WAY too small. I’m blind and I get a headache when I squint. Sure, I know how to increase it (command +), but then I have to decrease it again because other websites have a normal sized font.
Marketing Rule 101:
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. You also want a positive experience and clear instructions, not more work, right?
#5: Enhance Your Marketing
Let an Expert Review Your Marketing
Most everyone agrees that 4 eyes are better than 2. You’ve probably looked at your website, design and copywriting so many times that you just can’t look at it anymore.
Not only that, there are things that you just can’t know because it’s not in your expertise, which is perfectly normal and acceptable.
You can’t specialize in everything and you shouldn’t because if you do, you’ll never reach your goals of becoming an industry leader because you’ll be concentrating on too many things at once, not your core business.
If this is the case, then it’s time to let someone else review your work.
Here’s How
If your sales are low and you know things can be improved, hire an expert to deliver a detailed marketing review.
With someone by your side, you’ll receive valuable optimization tips that you can implement into your marketing. Not all tips will be quick and easy of course, but if you have a step-by-step plan of what to improve, you’ll be one step closer to increasing your revenue so that you can reach your goals and not have to close shop and become an employee again.
Because your business rocks and it’s about time your revenue did too!
Need to Enhance Your Marketing?
What marketing activities have you rocked recently? Please comment below and let’s talk!
Rock On,
Photo credit: Nikko Macaspac on Pixabay.
