Understanding how to sell online involves knowing that, in a way, it is like having a physical store on a busy avenue. Even though there are thousands of people nearby, you need to be able to grab their attention, attract them to your products or services and convince them to buy.
To amplify your company’s voice and reach more people, sales strategies with Digital Marketing work like a megaphone. To reach the right people in the ideal way, it is essential to know how to use the channels and approaches with the public.
And I brought here 7 secrets that you can’t ignore to achieve online sales! Let’s go/
Online sales: an overview
Since the digital environment has become more popular in people’s daily lives, Marketing professionals have been looking for ways to create and improve the online shopping experience.
This effort can be seen in the evolution of the numbers. In general, e-commerce in Brazil has experienced growth and consolidation — especially after the pandemic.
For 2024, for example, an approximate 10% increase in revenue is expected, according to the Brazilian Electronic Commerce Association (ABComm).
If this forecast is fulfilled by the end of the year, the total revenue will exceed $204 billion. Under these conditions, the average ticket will be $492.38 and the total number of orders will be $414.86 million.
In addition to this general advance in e-commerce, specific sectors have undergone important advances.
Look!
B2C
B2C companies are those that sell to the end customer. By 2026, it is estimated that online stores aimed at this audience will have 100 million customers.
In this sense, the main highlights are the segments of household appliances, telephony, home and decoration, electronics, fashion and accessories.
B2B
B2B companies are those that sell to other businesses, including raw materials or services to carry out activities. Globally, 80% of B2B sales are expected to be made online by 2025, according to the report “The Ultimate B2B E-commerce Guide”.
According to SmartHint, B2B e-commerce saw a 785% jump in revenue at the beginning of 2022, compared to the pre-pandemic period.
However, there is still more room for development, according to Grand View Research.
Globally, the B2B e-commerce market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% between 2024 and 2030, and is estimated to reach a projected revenue of $33,317.4 billion by 2030!
Retail
In terms of retail, it is worth knowing that e-commerce represents a larger share of total sales, including offline sales. In 2010, for example, e-commerce represented 2.67% of total sales, according to ABComm.
For 2023, the expectation was that e-commerce would account for 9.92% of total sales, but the data has not yet been released.
SaaS
The acronym SaaS stands for Software as a Service, indicating companies whose model is based on attracting customers to sign up for recurring software plans. As these are companies entirely based on the digital environment, they encourage e-commerce.
In 2023, the global SaaS market was valued at $273 billion. It is expected to be worth $317 billion in 2024 and $1.2 trillion in 2023, according to Fortune Business Insights.
In practice, this represents an average annual growth of 18.4%, indicating an increase in sales including via the Internet.
“Adaptability is the key to success in online sales in an ever-evolving world.”
Steve Jobs
Secret #1: What to sell online
The first thing you need to understand is that practically all types of products or services can be sold online, did you know? In the online environment, you can offer everything from consumer goods to consultancy and long-term business partnerships.
This is one of the reasons why we say that the Internet is a blue ocean for sales. After all, there are a huge number of opportunities and possibilities, which depend on two main factors:
- The market the brand is part of;
- The purchasing behavior of the target audience.
Secret #2: How to sell online
Now that you know that you can sell anything online, it’s time to learn how to explore the potential of online sales. With the necessary preparation, it’s easy to close more deals.
Check out what requires your attention!
Get to know your target audience in depth
Imagine that you want to throw a die at a target on the wall. If you can concentrate and aim, you have a better chance of getting the best score. But if you are blindfolded, it will be almost impossible to complete this task, right?
This can also happen with online sales. If you know your target audience well, you will know what their motivations, pain points and preferences are .
As a result, it is possible to personalize communication and make it more effective. However, selling without knowing who your customer is is like throwing a dart with your eyes closed: it is much harder to hit the target!
Master the sales tools
Every activity has the tools and resources needed to achieve its goals, don’t you agree? It’s like a surgeon who needs to have all the necessary instruments to increase the chances of a successful procedure.
When the goal is to know how to sell online, you need to know the sales tools and understand how they can make your management more efficient. In the digital environment, the main resources are:
- E-commerce platforms: they work like a physical store, allowing you to manage inventory, create catalogs, advertise products and receive payments for sales;
- CRM: acronym for Customer Relationship Manager, this is a platform that records relevant information about leads and customers, as well as their interactions with the brand;
- Marketing automation tools: These are used to perform various tasks automatically, such as sending promotional emails or emails after purchases. They become even more powerful when combined with a CRM.
Map the customer purchase journey
The purchase journey represents the path a person takes until they actually become a customer. It is divided into four main stages:
- Learning and discovery: this is when the consumer seeks information to understand or identify a need or difficulty;
- Problem recognition: at this stage, the person understands that they have an issue that needs to be resolved and begins to look for ways to solve it;
- Consideration of the solution: the consumer begins to study and compare the available alternatives, looking for the one that best suits him;
- Purchase intention or decision: the person decides to buy a product or hire a service from a certain company.
By mapping the path that the customer takes, it is possible to understand where each person is and direct opportunities.
Just as a tour guide helps people make the most of their trip, a company can use this journey to make it easier for future customers to find the solution to their needs.
Create a sales funnel
The sales funnel fits into the purchasing journey, serving as its reflection. Although people do not always follow this path in a linear fashion, the funnel can guide you on which strategies to adopt at each moment, increasing the chances of conversion.
The idea is, mainly, to ensure that each interaction between the lead and the brand occurs at the right time — from the initial stages to after the purchase.
Secret #3: Lead generation in online sales
The next secret to online sales is related to lead generation, which are opportunities that show interest in what you have to sell. In other words, they are not just e-commerce visitors, but potential customers.
It all starts with attracting visitors with the Digital Marketing strategies that you will learn about later.
These people are then encouraged to share their contact information. This often happens through forms on landing pages with relevant content or other valuable offers.
From that moment on, the visitor becomes a lead. The information collected is used to nurture these leads with personalized and targeted communications, which include everything from emails to specific offers.
The goal is to move leads progressively through the sales funnel until they reach the bottom when they are ready to buy.
In general, the lead generation process is essential for success in online sales. After all, it is through this that you capture and nurture the interest of potential customers for future sales.
Mastering this generation, therefore, means more than expanding your customer base. It is also a way to build a more robust business that is resistant to market fluctuations, with more opportunities to be worked on.
Secret #4: The phases of online sales
By understanding the buyer’s journey and creating the sales funnel, you’ve come across the different stages of the process leading up to the sale, right? For this flow to work, each stage needs specific strategies and tools, as this will help convert interested parties into customers.
Prospecting
The first phase of the online sales process is prospecting, the objective of which is to identify and attract potential customers — as in lead generation.
In Digital Marketing, this can be done with several strategies, such as SEO, Email Marketing campaigns, use of social media and paid traffic campaigns. The idea is to increase the reach and visibility of the business to increase the chances of closing new deals.
Qualification
In qualification, the focus is on identifying the characteristics of the leads to understand which ones are more prepared (or qualified) to proceed with the purchase and which ones still need to be worked on.
It is common to use criteria such as product need, purchasing power, urgency and decision-making power. This way, you can prioritize leads with the greatest potential to convert into sales.
Negotiation
If the lead is qualified, it moves forward to negotiation. At this point, the lead may receive a proposal from the sales team, taking into account their specific needs and characteristics.
This phase is the time to talk to the potential client about issues such as price, payment terms, deadlines and specifications. It is also essential to have the ability to overcome objections and propose solutions that allow progress to the next phase.
Closing the sale
At the bottom of the funnel, the conversion or closing of the sale occurs. This phase occurs when the lead becomes a customer by purchasing the product or contracting the service.
At this stage, it is essential to make the process easier for the customer, since they have finally decided to buy. In addition to ensuring a simple and safe shopping experience, it is worth reinforcing the benefits of the product or service purchased to solidify the purchase decision.
After-sales
After the closing, there is still the post-sales stage, which is focused on ensuring a positive experience and even customer loyalty. The focus is on creating the conditions to build a lasting relationship with the customer.
This stage is made up of several strategies and tools, such as customer support, requesting feedback, offering additional products or solutions, and loyalty actions.
Greater attention during this period can lead to repurchases and recommendations to other customers, which is essential for the business to grow sustainably.
Secret #5: Where to Make Sales Online
Knowing how to sell online also requires knowing the best channels. Each one has unique characteristics, which may be more or less suitable for the company.
Choosing channels requires evaluating issues such as the type of product or service, the target audience, the available budget and the business objectives. While it makes sense for one company to focus on social media, for another, content production may be much more interesting.
Come with me to discover the main channels available!
Own website or e-commerce
Creating your own online store is an excellent option for those who want maximum control over the process. In addition to taking full care of the brand and sales strategy, this is a way to have control over the Customer Experience.
To have your own website or e-commerce, you need to start by developing a website and then choosing an e-commerce platform. Some of the main options on the market include:
- Shopify;
- Magento;
- WooCommerce.
It is also necessary to define payment, delivery and exchange policies. This way, customers will be able to directly access your commercial store, choose products or services and make the purchase or contract, without intermediaries.
Marketplaces
Another sales channel to consider is the marketplace. It works as a kind of virtual shopping mall, where several smaller stores come together in the same establishment, taking advantage of the flow of customers.
In the digital environment, there are national and international platforms that act as marketplaces, including:
- Amazon;
- eBay;
- AliExpress;
- Free Market.
In these environments, you can sell your products in an environment with a lot of foot traffic. These sites already have an established audience and usually offer a complete structure — which can involve more secure logistics and payments.
On the other hand, you need to be careful because it is common to charge fees and commissions on sales.
Social media
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Pinterest are some of the social networks that now allow you to make direct sales on their interfaces. In other words, with these options, your customer doesn’t even need to leave the social network to decide to buy from your company.
These sales channels are usually ideal for brands that want to build a direct relationship with consumers. After all, they allow you to interact with the public in real-time and more closely.
Social media is also a good choice for businesses that want to harness the power of visual content and social recommendations.
Digital ads
Using ads on online platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads helps increase your brand visibility. With more opportunities coming in, there are more chances of getting conversions into sales.
The various configuration options also help to attract more qualified traffic. These visitors can be directed to an e-commerce site, a promotional landing page or a specific product page, for example.
The fact is that with this strategy, it is easier to segment the target audience. This is done using demographic data, interests, needs, location and other information that increases the effectiveness of the message.
Landing pages
Since I mentioned landing pages, I want to highlight them as a powerful sales channel. These are pages created specifically to convert visitors into leads or even buyers. Interesting, right?
Landing pages are often used in conjunction with digital marketing campaigns, such as email marketing or paid advertising. The focus can be on a specific product or promotion — and the goal, of course, is to maximize conversion.
Email Marketing
Even though it is a more traditional option, Email Marketing is still alive and well and is a great option for online sales. As a sales channel, it allows you to establish direct contact with customers and leads, increasing the reach of your message.
It is also very effective for maintaining relationships with existing customers and nurturing leads throughout the sales funnel. With conversions in mind, you can promote special offers, new products or even exclusive content.
Direct sales via messaging apps
Despite its benefits as a direct sales channel, Email Marketing is not the only option in this regard. There is also the possibility of using messaging applications to make direct sales.
Platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Messenger can be used to sell products directly to customers. This includes sending product catalogs and answering questions, as well as direct negotiation via chat and order processing.
Subscriptions and recurring sales models
Traditional product sales aren’t the only opportunities you can take advantage of online, did you know? Another option is to take advantage of subscription-based or recurring purchase models, such as:
- Subscription clubs;
- SaaS;
- Regular consumption products.
This is a very interesting strategy because it guarantees predictable revenue that favors sustainable growth. In addition, using these models is a great alternative for building long-term relationships with customers.
Secret #6: Digital Marketing Strategies to Sell More
To make the most of online sales channels, it is essential to use good Digital Marketing strategies. With them, it is possible to awaken and capture the interest of customers.
Just like with sales channels, some of them may work for some businesses compared to others. Therefore, you need to carefully evaluate the characteristics of your business, your planning and your audience before choosing.
Let’s take a look at some Digital Marketing strategies that stand out?
How to sell with Content Marketing
To be successful in online sales, one of the tips is to create valuable content that attracts and engages potential customers. One way to do this is to use Content Marketing to create relevant, valuable and useful materials that attract and engage the public.
Using this strategy, you educate your potential customers about the benefits of your products or services. This makes it easier to build trust and authority, making your brand a reference and facilitating the sales process.
How to sell with Inbound Marketing
With the help of relevant content and experiences, Attraction Marketing or Inbound Marketing helps generate leads and win new sales.
You can also use options such as content optimization and social media presence, as you will see. The goal is to spark people’s interest and then convert website or page visitors into loyal buyers.
How to sell with SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies make it easier to find content and products, generating more sales opportunities.
Since SEO can help you better position your business and products, it is a good idea to invest in optimizing your website’s content and structure to stand out in search results.
Furthermore, it is essential to know how to optimize keywords, use meta tags and produce original content to attract qualified traffic. With higher positions, you can increase the visibility of your brand and achieve more sales online.
How to sell on social media
On social media, your company has the chance to interact directly with the public, promote products and attract the public’s attention. Sounds promising, right? And it is!
To generate results, it is essential to know how to use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok to directly engage with the public and boost sales. This is a unique opportunity to create engaging dialogues with the public and motivate people to convert.
How to sell with Online Advertising
Master Online Advertising tools, including Google Ads, Meta Ads and others, to place your products or services in front of a targeted and interested audience.
One of the main positive aspects is that with these tools you can create temporary or permanent campaigns, as well as use different configurations. Take advantage of this opportunity to capture your audience’s interest !
How to sell with Email Marketing
Email Marketing is also a powerful strategy for nurturing leads, converting interested parties into customers, and generating loyalty. Through it, you can educate people so that they can learn more about the problems they have and how your company can help them solve them, for example.
Above all, email marketing allows you to create campaigns that deliver personalized messages. The more you know about your leads and potential customers, the more likely you are to speak in a relevant, effective and persuasive way.
There is also the chance to develop promotional campaigns with attractive and even exclusive offers. In this way, being in your audience’s inbox is a great opportunity to generate sales online.
How to sell with Influencer Marketing
To achieve better results, another strategy involves collaborating with digital influencers. If these professionals are chosen correctly, it is possible to amplify the reach of the brand’s message, generating more opportunities.
To do this, it is essential to know how to choose the right partners, considering elements such as the target audience, credibility with people and reach. The ideal is to work with influencers who reach your ideal audience and who can add to the image of your business.
When creating campaigns, there must be a lot of synergy between your brand and the influencer’s creative style. This is usually one of the recipes for success in generating engagement and sales, going beyond vanity metrics.
Secret #7: What to do after selling online
Although learning how to sell online is all about achieving conversion, this is not the final step. That is why you also need to understand what to do after making sales online.
Taking proper care with these steps helps to strengthen relationships with the public, promotes loyalty, helps to maximize profits and facilitate future sales with less effort.
What to do then? Check out the answer below!
Analyze the results
Evaluating online sales data and indicators allows you to make informed decisions. This information helps you identify which initiatives have been successful, what consumer behavior is like, or what the friction points are in the purchasing process, for example.
A good analysis of the data is therefore crucial to understanding this scenario and being able to act on it. In this sense, it is worth identifying patterns.
This is what happens when you monitor the behavior of leads generated by a specific campaign or channel, for example. This is a way to better segment your audience and know what works best for each party, for example.
For this analysis, it is important to select the right indicators — and this may vary from company to company. In general, it is worth measuring and monitoring results such as:
- Volume of qualified leads generated by Marketing ( MQL ), as they represent how many potential customers have the appropriate profile;
- Revenue generated from sales, helping to identify the average ticket;
- Number of sales made, which serves to identify whether the company has increased its conversion performance, for example;
- MQL to sales conversion rate, as it indicates the success of the integration between Marketing and Sales.
Furthermore, it is worth calculating the return on investment (ROI) of the strategies adopted. This is obtained by the relationship between the profit generated by the initiative and the cost to implement it.
With this calculation, it is easier to understand what has generated a greater impact on online sales. This way, it is possible to prioritize certain approaches in search of better results. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Take care with after-sales service
In addition to evaluating results, it is essential to take care of the customer with quality service. With good after-sales service, it is easier to create a positive and differentiated experience.
Since we are talking about online shopping, this involves everything from ensuring fast and efficient delivery to offering support for questions and problems that may arise after the purchase. The goal is to ensure that the customer does not feel alone after the purchase.
If this after-sales service is carried out properly, it can transform a one-time purchase into a long-term relationship, creating customer loyalty — making all the difference for business growth.
Want to learn more about loyalty in practice? Watch the video below and check out the masterclass “Why retaining customers is the best business”, in partnership with SEBRAE!
Reheat the lead base
Generating new leads isn’t the only way to get sales online. Instead, you can turn to strategies that focus on rekindling your lead base.
Taking this approach makes sense for one reason: most people aren’t ready to buy from your business right away. As a result, the rest of your contacts end up staying in the database.
However, this does not mean that the opportunities were lost. Just as a seed often just needs to be watered to grow again, it is possible to “warm up” these leads again.
To do this, you can make new offers, present valuable content (such as new releases) and offer other incentives. A discount coupon to encourage cold leads can be an opportunity to win new sales without having to attract new people.
Cold leads can also be those captured through active prospecting, through Outbound Marketing. This is what happens when you take the initiative to contact a potential buyer, without them having shown interest before.
Since they don’t necessarily know your company and its solution, warming up these contacts is essential. After all, this increases the chances of them wanting to learn about and even purchase what you have to offer.
And the best part is that this tactic doesn’t just serve to generate more sales. By rekindling your lead base, you also keep your brand relevant to the public, making it more recognizable.
Use upsell and cross-sell strategies
Why stop after the first sale? To engage the customer more and more with your business, it is interesting to adopt upsell and cross-sell strategies.
In practice, upselling happens when you offer a better product or a more complete service to the customer. This is what happens if Apple creates a specific campaign to offer current customers the new iPhone model.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves offering complementary products or services. Still using Apple as an example, this is what happens if the company tries to sell the new iPod to someone who has already purchased the iPhone.
Even though it’s not a giant Silicon Valley company, you can use these options to increase the average order value and improve the Customer Experience. After all, this is a way to add even more value to the person’s initial purchase.
For your company, this is essential to increase profitability without having to attract new customers.
Invest in Customer Success
As you can see, after the sale, your focus needs to be on the customer you’ve acquired, right? To ensure that this is truly effective, you need to implement a Customer Success ( CS) strategy.
The goal is to ensure that customers get the most value from your products or services. To do this, you need to educate the customer on how to best use the solution, provide proactive support, and ensure that they are satisfied with their decision.
At Orgânica, we have a Customer Experience and Success method based on 4 pillars:
- Positive result: relates to the fulfillment of the initial promise;
- Perceived satisfaction: serves to ensure that the customer is aligned and celebrating with you;
- Warm relationship: focuses on always being close to the client, in a healthy relationship with trust and partnership;
- Memorable experience: involves going beyond the ordinary, ensuring something extra for the relationship.
By directing efforts to generate this level of satisfaction, it is possible to promote customer loyalty and drive growth through repurchases and recommendations to others.
A few more secrets to sell more online!
In addition to considering these tips, there are other secrets that make a difference when the goal is to achieve more online sales. After following the previous steps, see what else you can put into practice!
User Experience Optimization
User Experience (UX) consists of the set of perceptions and feelings that a person has when interacting with your business. In the digital environment, UX has to do with the experience that a person has when coming into contact with your product online.
To understand what this means, imagine that you want to buy an item urgently. While doing some research, you come across a blog post with relevant information about the product and where to find it.
Then, you visit the online store of the company that provided this educational content. The website has a nice design, is easy to use and allows you to make a purchase without any hassle.
The product arrives at your address before the expected date. In addition to the item being exactly as described, you also receive an email confirming delivery and offering a discount on your next purchase. Can you see how positive the experience was from start to finish?
To generate more satisfaction, loyalty and sales, therefore, take care to optimize the user experience. Did you know that this concern can also guarantee greater visibility for your website?
When you focus on optimizing your website, making it faster, more functional and more accessible, for example, Google can understand that your address is more useful. UX optimization, therefore, can guarantee higher positions in search pages, more visibility and more visits, which increases sales potential.
Trends and Opportunities
Keeping up with new technologies and trends is crucial to selling more and better. After all, these are issues that also influence consumer behavior and change the way we speak and convince people.
This monitoring is important, especially to identify emerging opportunities in the market. This way, you can anticipate and even stay ahead of the competition.
To understand the importance of staying alert, just imagine that you are in the sea on a surfboard.
If you only see the wave when it’s too close, it’s impossible to surf it, right? Instead, the most important thing is to be able to identify the signs that the perfect opportunity is coming to get on your board and make the most of it.
LGPD and other regulations
When selling online, you need to keep an eye on legal issues, right? One of the points of attention is the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), for example.
It provides rules for the protection of personal data and sensitive customer data. Therefore, it is necessary to have express consent to send that E-mail Marketing campaign to a person, for example.
Other regulations apply. According to the Consumer Protection Code (CDC), the customer has the right to cancel the purchase within 7 days after purchasing or receiving the product. Since there is no need to provide a justification within this period for the return to occur, it is essential to be prepared to comply with this rule.
Overall, you need to comply with regulations to avoid problems such as fines and other sanctions. In addition, this is a way to convey more credibility and security to your audience.
Sell more with Content+Performance!
The key to reaching the right persona and boosting your online sales is creating quality content. And it’s quality content that generates sales!
At Enjoy Minder, we use the exclusive Content+Performance methodology. It is based on the creation of original and valuable content to captivate leads and measure its impact on the purchasing journey.
This methodology stands out precisely because it offers what people are looking for ( content ) and what companies want (performance). By integrating these two perspectives, the result is much more effective and more enriching for customers.
This way, it is possible to guarantee sales predictability, build a valuable dialogue with the public and establish trust and authority.
An empire of content
Imagine being able to connect a company with decades of tradition and more than 300 awards around the world to a 1783% increase in online sales. Can you imagine? Well, this is the success story between Famiglia Valduga and Enjoy Minder.
By applying the Content+Performance methodology, we were able to build a true content empire. The idea was to generate more authority and improve the brand’s organic positioning in searches.
We also add other ingredients to this recipe for success, such as paid media campaigns, website redesign, social media presence and email campaigns.
With this approach, we were able to achieve:
- 58600% increase in audience;
- 20% increase in e-commerce conversion rate;
- Sales increase of 1783%.
Not to mention that we reached the established goals in less than ¼ of the expected time!
In this way, the brand began to have a solid content strategy that served to attract more people and improve the shopping experience. The result came in the form of better performance, solving the previous difficulty of making sales over the Internet.
The ideal partnership to boost your sales!
With these secrets and tips that I have presented, you now know how to sell online more efficiently. To go further, it is also important to have reliable, qualified and specialized partners.
By working with a Digital Marketing agency, such as Enjoy Minder, your success in online sales will be much closer thanks to the use of validated strategies. Your brand will attract the target audience in the best way and will have a greater chance of conversion!
So get in touch with the Enjoy Minder team and find out everything we can do together!
