Marketing Not Converting To Sales?





I have 50K likes on Facebook page, and I run Facebook Ads and I'm getting lot of traffic on my website, but no sales! Sounds familiar?


Let's break it down.


Marketing helps your business in reaching out to customers. Once you have reached them, now it's up to Sales to seal the deal.


There are many ways to reach out to your customers. Some of them are cheap (FB Ads), some expensive (TV Ads), some even free (community events, word of mouth etc.). Some are fast (social media) and some are slow (direct mail). Some are efficient (targeted Ads) and some are not (broadcasts).


What matters the most is not the method of reaching to the customer, but reaching the "right customer". Of course, you have defined your target customer segment, a certain age group, income levels, education level, geography, and so on. One of the most important factors is to understand the "readiness to buy" level of your customer.


Your customer desperately needs a better hairstyle, BUT, is she aware of her need (means she is actually looking for a stylist), or not (she thinks her hairstyle rocks, while it really doesn't!). You can already tell the right customer by now.


Once you have reached the right customer, now the real job starts. Sales. Just because your customer is ready to buy, does not mean she will buy from you. Let's break down the fundamental 3 factors (among so many others) that are crucial to make a sale.


The right customer (with established capability and motivation to buy), needs 3 things to make up her mind - great solution/product, great pricing (not cheaper or expensive pricing, great pricing) and finally great credibility.


Try selling Rolex watches for $150 and customers will think it's a fake. Try selling Rolex watches on craigslist and customers will think it's a scam. Most likely, a customer interested in buying a Rolex watch will buy from a credible store (online or brick-mortar) at a good Christmas promotional pricing.


That leaves upcoming small businesses with the question, how do I convert my traffic to sales?


Of course, your product quality matches up to or exceeds the competition. Let's not dilute it's value by offering it for too cheap or too expensive. Everything right, product, pricing, promotion, the final nail in sealing the deal is credibility. Focus on establishing the credibility of your business. For online businesses, secure & reliable websites, community and customer reviews, consistent messaging, are just a few tips to establish credibility, or if you get lucky a celebrity endorsement works too.


(The topic of Credibility probably warrants its own blog, so I'll write another one later!)


Get your Sales strategy right, before you spend lots of dollars on advertising to attract traffic to your business. Who would you rather be, the FB page with 50K likes, but 10 sales or 1K likes, but 100 sales?


Good luck, real small businesses, I’m rooting for you.