Once the traffic graphs start leveling off, can brands sell more products without investing in new marketing campaigns?

 

Yes and no. It’s digital marketing after all, you didn’t expect an easy answer, did you?

 

Page one organic listing space is shrinking, website visitors rarely buy on their first website visit, paid advertising is becoming more competitive and expensive, the PR and branding landscape is changing, and “always selling” on social media is falling short of expectations. With all of these digital marketing curveballs, how can your brand rise above the competition and sell more?

 

Interactive Experiences

 

We recommend offering interactive experiences to your website visitors. Before you panic, it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Your website already has interactive content, but now it’s time to turn up the volume.

 

Drive new sales with interactive content by exploring and implementing these interactive experiences on your website:

 

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Gamify

 

One of our favorite ways to help brands reach their goals is to customize interactive content in the form of a game, contest or a challenge for their website visitors.

 

[bctt tweet=”Drive sales by implementing these interactive experiences on your website” username=”fifthtribe”]

 

In our company’s history (10+ years), we spent a lot of time designing and testing content that sells — only to discover that the future of e-commerce principles can apply to most businesses.

 

Our design and launch of the Easter Challenge for Regency Furniture illustrates the power of gamification, even for a regional furniture store.

 

 

Since most website visitors aren’t going to share contact information while they are “just browsing” for furniture, the seasonal game encourages website visitors to share information in hopes of winning free furniture or a significant discount. Even better, the game re-engages existing customers, giving them a reason to come back to the site and check for games and giveaways in the future.

 

Add a Search Bar

 

When your website attracts a new visitor, preventing them from hitting the “back” button is critical.

 

If a new or returning visitor clicks on your landing page, where do they go if they can’t find what they need? While your efforts for rockstar navigation and categories are commendable, don’t forget about the Search Bar option.

 

 

If you are ahead of the curve and already have a search bar on your website, use our search bar checklist to ensure this interactive feature helps you sell more:

• Place the search bar in the same area on every page.
• Make the search bar a different color than your logo or site colors, so it stands out.
• Add an autocomplete feature to the search bar.
• Collect and track site search terms in Google Analytics.

 

Once website visitors begin using the search bar to find the exact product or service they are after, your team can use the data in Google Analytics to create ads and “featured product” listings for the most popular search items.

 

Add a Form/Contact Button to Every Page

 

Simplistic, clean design is all the rage right now. With the latest reports on the average attention span, clean design without a prominent call to action will not improve conversion rates.

 

 

Invite visitors to interact with your brand on every page, or in some cases, more than once on a page. If a form will take away from design or mobile display features, customize call-to-action buttons and don’t let another visitor escape! If a form disappears from the view once the website visitor start scrolling, add another CTA right before the footer.

 

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Showcase Philanthropy and Invite Visitors to Participate

 

Philanthropy and business go hand-in-hand, and sometimes philanthropy exists as a stand-alone initiative. Tasked with launching a challenge for the Vatican, we wanted to capture as much participation as possible.

 

We presented the challenge as a Yes or Not Yet option, steering visitors toward the Yes option with wording and images.

 

 

Even if you’re not the Vatican, your brand probably supports a charity or local connection that you can leverage to drive audience participation.

 

Encourage Social Interaction

 

Encouraging engagement with your brand on social channels will help your brand build trust with potential customers or clients. One of the pillars of digital marketing is using technology to enhance human interaction, and nothing could be truer when it comes to social media marketing.

 

Customers like social media, especially when your brand answers questions they didn’t even know they had. By adding simple ShareThis options to your content, website visitors are more likely to interact with your brand and help share your messaging.

 

The Social Media Examiner recommends additional social media posting tips, and website tools that encourage sharing like Social Pug and Click to Tweet.

 

[bctt tweet=”Customers like social media, especially when you answer questions they didn’t know they had” username=”fifthtribe”]

 

While social media doesn’t automatically deliver direct sales, it will help your brand build up trust with potential customers, laying a solid foundation of breadcrumbs for the customer to come back and buy from your brand when they are ready.

 

Target Past Customers with Interactive Experiences

 

Past customers are a goldmine for their ability to buy from you again and refer new business to your website.

 

When you add interactive content in the form of a game, a contest, or a challenge, target past customers through and email newsletter and social media. Invite them to participate, and encourage them to tell their friends.

 

Invoke a Sense of Community

 

There are multiple ways to create a sense of community for your website visitors and customers, ensuring they come back and buy from you in the future.

• Give visitors and customers the ability to get help with your product or service without leaving your website. You can embed customer service on your website with a tool like Zendesk or offer a chat option with a service like Olark. These options allow you to capture potential customer email addresses and sell to them in the future.
• Forums can help nonprofits and social impact agencies connect with their target audience by serving as forum moderators. The MCVET website offers a forum with a welcome message, a FAQ section, a suggestion box, a lost and found section, and discussion forums for members. This type of forum not only invites those who can use their services, but it also attracts those who can support MCVET events and give donations.
• Use the power of MeetUp to make local connections. Anyone can start and sponsor a MeetUp group, and your website can feature MeetUp events on a blog post, event calendar, or event landing page. MeetUps attract niche targets within a geographic location, and new members will sign up to the group even if an event isn’t active or listed.

 

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Conclusion

 

Regardless of your industry — Government, Nonprofit, Ecommerce, or Small Business — digital marketing conversions and sales need to keep growing. As the digital marketplace evolves and becomes even more competitive, make sure your website evolves with it.

 

Begin with the addition of interactive experiences as part of your digital strategy, then measure and test results, and implement interactive content to    grow your target audience and drive interactions, sales or conversions with every new campaign.