Tag: Increase

How Can You Increase Your Domain Authority and How Long Does It Take?

So, you’ve been spending time trying to increase domain authority, but you aren’t seeing the success you thought you would by now.

I understand your frustration, since 42% of marketers are looking at a site’s domain authority based on its backlink quality.

It’s no secret that every brand is vying to rank higher than competitors in search results and take that top spot.

Build link equity, but don’t obsess over domain authority. Treating domain authority like a vanity metric will not get you its full benefits.

You can’t fake authority. So, let me help you understand where you can compete.

Sound good? Let’s look at what our research taught us about what it takes to increase domain authority.

What Is Domain Authority and Why Is It Important?

You may have heard this term before, but you still don’t know what it means – you just know it’s important.

Well, you’re correct – it is important, especially in regard to your search engine rank.

Domain authority refers to the quality and quantity of backlinks—links from other reliable websites to your website—that your site has. The link being relevant is key because your score is influenced by it.

When Moz created the domain authority metric, the scoring system was made with the ability to compare websites or monitor the ranking strength of the site as it developed over time.

For some brands, they don’t have to try to be authoritative, it seems.

For instance, Dropbox. It has a high domain authority because of the visual content shared between individuals for personal and business use. This then creates unique domain backlinks aside from total backlinks, boosting domain authority for Dropbox.

Why is all this important?

Despite not being a Google ranking factor, one study found a connection between domain authority and SERP ranking.

The results of this study suggest that domain authority may be a useful metric for calculating the potential volume of organic traffic from Google.

If you want to increase your SEO rankings, think about your strategy to increase your domain authority.

Don’t give up if you don’t start seeing results right away, though.

Establishing authority might take some time.

Why Does Domain Authority Take Time to Build?

As you may have noticed, backlinks are quite important for determining domain authority. Not just that, one of the two most significant ranking variables is the number of backlinks.

Like SEO, the best way to increase domain authority is a slow game – depending on your efforts.

You can optimize your site more effectively when you have a better understanding of the keywords for which you are recognized as an authority.

But, it goes beyond keywords.

The larger your backlink profile, the greater your chances to increase domain authority.

A logarithmic scale is used to determine domain authority. As a result, solo stats won’t always affect the score in the same way. The higher the metric, the greater its impact.

So how does this affect how long it takes to increase domain authority?

The answer is it depends.

I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s never fun explaining how you won’t be hitting those top-ranking spots immediately.

Even with good content and a good strategy, you won’t be in your desired position due to the site being new, having no content history, or a limited backlink profile.

Achieving a high rank is possible – I never said it wasn’t. It will just be a challenge.

So, as you’re playing catch-up, let me clear the air around some myths so you know what to focus on to increase domain authority.

What Our Data Taught Us About How Long It Takes to Increase Domain Authority

These concepts are nice, but it’s important to see how they play out in action. To figure out the truth, my team and I did a breakdown on a few sites’ domain ratings and referring domains to see what factors contributed to their domain growth.

We followed three sites from July 2013 to July 2022 to measure their domain growth. After balancing this data against their referring domains and backlinks, we got insights to find potential correlations that apply to increasing domain authority.

Let’s look at our lessons learned from data insights from Netlify, Digital Ocean, and Linode in the cloud software provider industry.

Netlify: Why Referring Domain Quality Is Important

A screenshot of Netlify's homepage as an example of increased domain authority.

According to tools like Ahrefs, Netlify didn’t start seeing a jump in domain ratings until March of 2015 where they hit 25 with a total of 34 referring domains. Over the course of 2015, Netlify increased their domain authority to an astounding 71 with 201 referring domains.

By 2017, they started with a domain score of 70 with 443 referring domains and ended 2017 with a 78 and 1,531 total referring domains. So, here we saw it took them about a year to increase 8 points. They more than doubled the links going to the website, which shows by the massive gains in domain rating.

In 2018, they increased from 78 to 83 with 3,283 referring domains. Again, just a little more than doubled their link-building efforts.

In the beginning of 2020, they maintained their 83 and rose 3 positions to an 86 with 14,479 referring domains at the end of 2021.

To date, they now sit at 88 for their domain rating with 24,423 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 90% being from sites with a 0-10 URL distribution. With a high domain authority at 88, many sites in that range will want to link to them, but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile.

Only 4% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 88% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on link equity.

One thing to note – the scores of your referring domains, while they are important, are not the end all be all. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

A graphic showcasing year over year increased domain authority for Netlify.

Digital Ocean: The Referring Domain Leader

A screenshot of DigitalOcean's homepage.

From our data pull using Ahrefs, Digital Ocean didn’t see a domain rating score until March 31, 2015 when they reached 12,644 referring domains. Digital Ocean’s starting score was 87 and crept up to 89 at the end of 2015 with 17,878 referring domains.

At the beginning of 2016, and at 18,884 referring domains, Digital Ocean was at 89 for its domain rating. Their domain rating was constant through year-end in 2019.

Digital Ocean was still at 89 in 2017 and gained 25.6K referring domains. It isn’t until halfway through 2018 that we see Digital Ocean gain 1 point and hit the 90 mark with 31,690 referring domains.

Digital Ocean stays at a 90 for all of 2019 and most of 2020. In Sept. 2020, they hit 91 with 57,973 referring domains. Almost doubling their referring domains they had when they hit 90 for domain rating, they closed out 2021 with a 91 and 59.5K referring domains.

At the start of 2020, Digital Ocean dropped down to 90 and dropped to 58.8K for referring domains. This indicates that either Digital Ocean was removed from many pages they were linked on or a site they were linked to is no longer active.

They go back and forth from 91 to 90 and back to 91 a few times over the course of 2021 and end 2021 with 72,344 referring domains.

To date, Digital Ocean has maintained its 91 domain rating with an impressive 86,822 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 71% being from sites with a 0-10. With a high domain authority at 91, many sites in that range will want to link to them but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile. Only 4% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 73% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on link equity.

A table showing increased domain authority from Digital Ocean.

Linode: Evidence On Site Authority

A screenshot of Linode's webpage.

You see a very similar story here with Linode here as well. They did not start having a domain rating of 85 until March 31, 2015, with 6,824 referring domains. Linode ended 2015 with 9,031 referring domains and a domain rating of 85.

Linode started 2016 still at 85. 2016 came to an end, and Linode dropped down to 84 and racked in 9,967 referring domains.

2018 comes and goes and Linode finally hits 85 again late in the year with 11,572 referring domains.

2019 starts at an 85 for domain rating and drops down to 10,915 referring domains. Linode drops to an 84 shortly after and is working to build their referring domains back up. They hit 11,469 referring domains and finally hit an 85 again in early 2019. Their plateau is broken in mid-2019 and they hit an 86 for their domain rating and achieve 14,546 referring domains. By the time 2019 closes out, they land at 86 and 15,957 referring domains.

2020 was fairly constant but Linode sees some changes the following year. 2021 they start off at 86 and slips down to 85 with a year-end of 19,882 referring domains. 2022 starts off by reclaiming 86 for a domain rating and 20,462 referring domains. 2022 to date still stands at 86 and 23,666 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 92% being from sites with a 0 – 10. With a high domain authority at 86, many sites in that range will want to link to them but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile. Only 3% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 77% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on domain authority.

A table showing increased domain authority from Linode.

What Lessons Did We Learn from Data About How to Increase Domain Authority?

Based on the data from these three websites, it takes about 23,000 – 25,000 referring domains to be in the mid to high 80 scores for domain rating.

The amount of referring domains does seem to correlate with the higher domain rating score.

Digital Ocean has more than triple the amount of referring domains than its competitors. They’ve maintained a 91 as their domain rating score with an impressive 86,822 referring domains. Compared to Digital Ocean, Netlify stands at a score of 88 for their domain rating with 24,423 referring domains and Linode at an 86 with 23,666 referring domains.

Of the three, Linode had a much harder time building and maintaining its domain rating score.

They lost referring domains more frequently and did not have the same percentage of referring domains that had a domain rating score of 50 or higher – meaning average or good. While Netlify and Digital Ocean had 4% of their URL distribution come from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher, Linode had 3%.

However, the small difference between Netlify, with 24,423 referring domains and Linode’s 23,666 referring domains, with a 2-point difference can be attributed to Netlify having a higher percentage of referring domains with a domain rating of 50 or higher.

What does this mean?

Having more quality sites passing off their authority to Netlify is what has boosted their domain rating score.

In regards to how much time it takes to grow your domain rating, using Netlify as our example, it takes about 34 referring domains to hit a score of 25. It took Netlify 1 year to grow from a 25 to a 71 with 304 referring domains. Still, for Digital Ocean, it took them one year to grow from an 87 to an 89.

This indicates that the closer you get to a domain rating of 100, the harder and longer it takes to grow your authority.

It is easy to go from 0 –10, but once a site hits the higher domain rating scores, it is harder to improve it year over year.

So, aside from what to do and do well, how can you speed things up?

A chart showing the grand total sum of domain ranking and sum of total referring domains between Netlify, Digital Ocean, and Linode.

Can You Do Anything to Speed Up the Process?

To increase domain authority means being patient through the process.

But there are a few tips that can help get you to your goal faster.

Try starting with a link audit. This process is how you’ll be able to tell which links pointing to your site are legit and not using weak, black-hat SEO techniques.

There are more items to do after that, though. What if I told you there was a tool that let you learn more about your domain score, where the number of backlinks stand currently, and referring domains?

Try out Ubersuggest.

All backlinks are not created equal, but they all have an impact on SEO results because they are links from other websites to yours.

To speed up the process, collect links of high quality. To get started, use the Backlinks feature within Ubersuggest for a free analysis. You will see how backlinks play a role and which websites are linked to your competitors, among other options to speed up an increase in domain authority.

A screenshot of the backlinks feature on Ubbersuggest.

Looking at my site, you can analyze the page authority and domain authority from the source. By taking a look at this information, I can make pivots or double-check anything alarming reports if I see fit.

You can do the same with this tool and see how authoritative your links are.

Common Myths About Domain Authority

Everything about domain authority isn’t always black and white.

However, we can separate some domain authority myths from the facts.

Myth 1: Backlinks really don’t matter that much

This is an interesting one because more links = more traffic leading to better rankings.

Though you will notice even if you have a few quality backlinks, this is better than multiple ineffective ones.

It makes it worth your time when the links are relevant to your niche and known as trusted sources by searchers online.

Myth 2: If a site has a lower domain authority than yours, never get links from them

Domain authority is about all metrics, so getting a link from a page with lower domain authority doesn’t penalize you.

This could be a new site you’re working with. Sites with few links or local links are just fine.

Just because their domain authority is low, don’t worry that they’re going to deliver little to no value or stunt your progress. If they are high-quality sites that also distribute links editorially and connect to other good websites, they are still useful.

Myth 3: Garnering links too quickly could be suspicious

Google zeroes in on spam or spammy-looking links. If they’re triggered by the activity on that page, they’ll take a closer look that could lead them to penalizing the site.

Black hat link building and link buying are among the things that trigger Google that something sketchy is going on.

There’s nothing wrong with speeding up the pace of how many links you gather. After all, it is your goal to increase domain authority, right?

Just make sure the links are coming from good, trusted sites. And never, ever bulk purchase links.

Conclusion

Going at it blind with no plan, trying to increase domain authority could seem challenging.

Though growing your domain authority is possible, it will take time – especially considering the tips you decide to use.

Your rating is affected by a variety of elements, and it may be difficult to evaluate them all.

However, once you understand domain authority, it’s worthwhile to monitor and optimize for it.

You might be able to get a tight grip on your total online presence and website health by including this in your SEO toolkit.

As I mentioned, all metrics count and contribute to your domain authority.

Check your follow or nonfollow links. Notice the audience search intent via keywords using Ubersuggest. Review and revise your content marketing strategy. All these aspects contribute to increasing your domain authority.

The quality of the content you have to share can mean more backlinks, and that material will help grow your domain authority.

It’s easier said than done, but I hope all these insights and data helps you reach your preferred domain authority rank.

If you’ve planned how to increase domain authority, have you been successful? Let us know your methods in the comments.

5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI

Did you know that 17 percent of your customers could walk away from your business after just one bad customer experience? That’s a pretty significant number, especially when you’re trying to grow your business and increase your return on investment (ROI). There’s good news, though: You don’t need to lose these buyers if you prioritize … Continue reading 5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI

5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI

Did you know that 17 percent of your customers could walk away from your business after just one bad customer experience? That’s a pretty significant number, especially when you’re trying to grow your business and increase your return on investment (ROI).

There’s good news, though: You don’t need to lose these buyers if you prioritize the customer experience. Below, I’ll explain what customer experiences are, why they matter, and how you can optimize your customer experience online.

What Are Customer Experiences?

Customer experience (CX) is how customers perceive any interactions they have with your company. It’s the overall impression of your company that customers build as they move through each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Think of it this way. Each time a customer interacts with your brand, even if it’s only a brief interaction, they’re building an impression of what it’s like to do business with you. This impression determines, for example, whether they’ll shop with you again or recommend you to friends.

In other words, positive (or negative) customer experiences can directly impact your bottom line. Got an unhappy customer? They might abandon their cart or never shop with you again. Got a happy customer? They might recommend your services to a family member.

Actions that can shape the customer experience include:

  • calling your help center
  • paying a bill
  • tweeting you with a query

How important is CX, though, in real terms? Very. Let me show you why.

Why Is Customer Experience Important?

For one thing, it’s hard to grow your business without customers. They’re central to everything you do. However, if you’re still not convinced CX matters, here are a few more specific reasons why the online customer experience is so important:

  • Customers are more likely to stay loyal to brands offering great CX. Given that 65 percent of a company’s business often comes from existing customers, delivering a great experience can help you work on that all-important retention rate.
  • When a customer has a great experience, they could leave a review online, which encourages others to try your business. According to ReviewTrackers, more than a third of individuals reading reviews only look at businesses with four or more stars, so great CX can help you boost your visibility.
  • The better the experience, the less likely customers are to abandon your business in favor of competitors. In other words, CX can directly affect your churn rate.

The bottom line? Happy customers are more likely to spend more, stay loyal, and recommend your brand to others. If you’re keen to boost your ROI, it pays to work on customer experience optimization.

What Do Most Businesses Get Wrong About Customer Experience?

Customer experience optimization can be challenging to get right, especially if you approach it all from the wrong angle. To help you avoid making time-consuming (and potentially costly) mistakes, here’s what businesses often get wrong about CX.

Ignoring CX

It sounds obvious, but the biggest mistake businesses make is ignoring CX completely. Why? Because customers care about their experience. In fact, four out of five people would abandon a brand after fewer than three negative experiences

Ignoring CX could damage your customer retention and even limit your ability to attract new business.

Failing to Track Metrics

Even if you do care about customer experience optimization, you’ll never know how you’re doing without tracking your performance. I’m going to touch on the best metrics to track later, but here are some key questions that performance data can help answer.

  • How many customers stop doing business with you?
  • Would customers recommend you to friends or family?
  • How easy is it for customers to resolve issues or queries?

By tracking customer experience metrics, you can optimize CX at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Using Impersonal Communication

It’s not uncommon for businesses to treat customers as a whole unit rather than an online audience made up of multiple individuals. The issue? Well, personal communication matters: Impersonal communication won’t drive growth.

  • According to McKinsey research, 71 percent of customers expect personalized interactions from businesses.
  • What’s more, fast-growing companies see at least 40 percent of their revenue coming from personalized messaging.

If you treat your customers as numbers, they could look elsewhere for the personalized CX they want.

Neglecting to Train Employees

Sure, it’s important to build a user-friendly website and make it easy for buyers to shop with you, but the customer experience starts with your staff. What’s a common mistake companies make, though?

Failing to train their employees in the art of customer service delivery.

Customers come to you looking for a shopping experience. If your staff don’t have the knowledge, experience, or authority to resolve customer issues, then you’ll frustrate your shoppers and they could turn to your competitors instead.

Now you know what not to do, there’s still one question remaining: How do you actually improve CX to boost your revenue? Let’s take a look.

5 Ways to Improve Customer Experiences and Increase Revenue

While there are multiple ways you might drive revenue by optimizing customer experiences, here are my five favorite strategies.

1. Find Out Where You Stand

Before you can perform customer service optimization, you need to know what’s working right now by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs.)

You might already be familiar with tracking KPIs as part of your wider marketing strategy. However, in terms of measuring customer experiences, here are some metrics to track:

  • Churn rate: Your churn rate is how many customers stop using your services, e.g., they cancel their subscription. The higher the churn, the more customers you’re losing.
  • Customer effort: This is how easy people think it is to perform an action, e.g., complete checkout. A low customer effort score means people are dissatisfied.
  • Net promoter score (NPS): This is how likely someone is to recommend your business. The higher the NPS, the more likely it is that they’ll recommend you.
  • Retention rate: Your retention rate is the number of customers you hold onto over a period of time. High retention scores mean greater customer loyalty.

Here are some tips to measure metrics:

  • Measure churn by choosing a set period and dividing the number of customers you lost by the number of customers you started with. The percentage is your churn.
  • Poll customers using surveys and ask them to rate their experience.
  • Ask customers how likely they are to recommend you on a 1-10 scale.
  • Measure customer retention by choosing a set period of time, calculating how many customers you start with, and how many of those customers stay with you.

Not sure where to start with customer surveys? Email them to customers or do what Tim Hortons does and invite people to complete satisfaction surveys online:

An example of using surveys to find out the customer experience with a brand.

2. Improve Your Customer Service

It’s important to note that customer service differs from the customer experience. CX means every interaction a customer has with your brand, while customer service refers to interactions between a customer and employees when there’s a problem.

Unsurprisingly, then, boosting your customer service delivery can have a positive effect on your overall CX. How do you improve customer service, though? Here are some ideas.

  • According to research by Khoros, 77 percent of customers expect customer support teams to share information so they don’t need to repeat themselves. Make sure you properly integrate your customer support processes using, for example, customer relationship management (CRM) software.
  • Use chatbots: The Khoros research shows that 79 percent of customers enjoy chatting to customer service reps through these apps.
  • Identify your most loyal customers. Reward them with exclusive discounts and special offers to encourage new transactions.

Here’s an example of a chatbot from Dropbox. Users can follow the step-by-step instructions or, if the chatbot can’t answer their questions, they can speak to a service representative or try other resources:

An example of using chatbots to improve customer service.

Improve customer service by offering various quick, simple, and effective ways to reach your team.

3. Make Conversions Easier

Zendesk’s research shows that 65 percent of customers are looking for quick, easy transactions. What does this mean?

Well, if you’re an e-commerce store, this means customers want a straightforward checkout experience. Let me give you some tips for speeding up the process.

  • Provide a guest checkout option so there’s no need for someone to create an account to buy something.
  • Offer multiple ways to pay, such as PayPal or mobile wallets like Apple Pay.
  • Make your shipping and delivery costs transparent.
  • Reduce the number of checkout screens where possible.

Are you a service provider? Then you want to ensure your sales process is seamless.

  • Offer a free trial to nurture customers along the sales funnel.
  • Explain your sales process upfront so customers know what to expect.
  • Schedule a sales call so you can get the information you need from customers to solve their problems and resolve any hesitancies.
  • Offer clear packages and transparent pricing structures tailored to various customers’ requirements.

Monday.com, for example, has a very clear pricing structure.

An example of using a clear pricing structure to help make customer conversations easier.

What’s more, it only takes a few steps to get started with a free account so prospects can experience the software before committing to a paid package:

An image of an account creation screen from Monday.com.
Use free accounts to allow customers to use software before committing to purchasing it.

Impress your customers and boost CX by creating a seamless, user-friendly sales experience.

4. Personalize Customer Interactions

Earlier I touched on how personalization goes a long way to help boost customer acquisition and retention. How do you personalize customer interactions, though? Here’s what you can do:

  • Build customer profiles so you know who your ideal customer is. Once you determine your audience base, you can segment your customers into groups to send them relevant marketing materials tailored to their personal preferences.
  • Take an omnichannel approach. According to Zendesk’s research, companies with higher CX scores deliver consistent, reliable experiences across all mediums, from in-store shopping to buying products through a mobile app.
  • Use the data you collect from customers to personalize surveys and try to follow up on survey responses.

Don’t forget the power of email, either. Retarget lapsed customers with personalized incentives, and send loyal customers recommendations based on their shopping history.

5. Empower Your Employees to Take Action

Who do your customers interact with? Your employees. If customers aren’t happy with your employees, there’s a risk they’ll abandon your brand completely.

What’s the answer? Empower your employees. Give them the tools they need to resolve queries, by:

  • Asking employees for their feedback. Do they feel they have the resources necessary to deliver a great service, or are they feeling frustrated?
  • Resolving identified pain points. Maybe you could streamline manual processes by updating your CRM software, or you could improve contact center protocols.
  • Finally, empowering your employee, for example, maybe they could offer a discount to incentivize a new customer.

Customer Experience Case Study: Gymshark

Gymshark, an international fitness brand, excels at employee engagement.

How? Because employees have pretty significant authority to resolve disputes, and they’re very engaged with customers online.

For one thing, they have a dedicated Gymshark Help social media account to answer queries, proactively engage customers, and improve the customer experience.

A tweet from Gymshark's help account assisting a customer.
An example of engaging with customers online.

Their employees are entrusted to offer real solutions, which make customers feel valued at every stage of the buyer’s journey—even after the sale.

Does it pay to give employees freedom over CX delivery? Absolutely: Operating in over 180 countries and still growing, Gymshark knows how delivering great customer experiences can boost ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Experiences

We’ve covered why customer experiences matter and how you might improve your CX, but let me give you some key takeaways.

How do you improve customer experiences?

Learn who your customers are and how they interact with your business. Once you understand the buyer’s journey, you can equip your employees to meet their needs and exceed their expectations.

What are the main components of customer experiences?

Promoting a customer-focused culture, ensuring you’re easy to do business with, measuring customer satisfaction, and delivering on your promises all contribute to the customer experiences that individuals have with your business.

How do you track the customer experience?

Get honest customer feedback and track CX metrics at each stage of the buyer’s journey using tools to measure your churn rate, customer effort score, retention rate, and net promoter score.

What makes a good customer experience?

Great customer experience starts with your staff. Give them the knowledge they need to manage your buyers, and you’re on track to impress your customers.

Conclusion: Improving the Customer Experience Is Crucial to Business Growth

Without customers, you won’t boost your ROI and your company won’t get off the ground, so you need to prioritize customer experiences.

To perform customer experience optimization successfully, help your staff nurture individuals along the buyer’s journey. Monitor key customer experience metrics along the way, and don’t be afraid to ask customers what you’re doing right—and where you’re falling behind.

Need extra help with the online customer experience? Check out my consulting services.

What do you think makes a great CX?

The post 5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI appeared first on #1 SEO FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

The post 5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

5 Ways to Reinvent Customer Experiences That Will Increase Your ROI

Did you know that 17 percent of your customers could walk away from your business after just one bad customer experience? That’s a pretty significant number, especially when you’re trying to grow your business and increase your return on investment (ROI).

There’s good news, though: You don’t need to lose these buyers if you prioritize the customer experience. Below, I’ll explain what customer experiences are, why they matter, and how you can optimize your customer experience online.

What Are Customer Experiences?

Customer experience (CX) is how customers perceive any interactions they have with your company. It’s the overall impression of your company that customers build as they move through each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Think of it this way. Each time a customer interacts with your brand, even if it’s only a brief interaction, they’re building an impression of what it’s like to do business with you. This impression determines, for example, whether they’ll shop with you again or recommend you to friends.

In other words, positive (or negative) customer experiences can directly impact your bottom line. Got an unhappy customer? They might abandon their cart or never shop with you again. Got a happy customer? They might recommend your services to a family member.

Actions that can shape the customer experience include:

  • calling your help center
  • paying a bill
  • tweeting you with a query

How important is CX, though, in real terms? Very. Let me show you why.

Why Is Customer Experience Important?

For one thing, it’s hard to grow your business without customers. They’re central to everything you do. However, if you’re still not convinced CX matters, here are a few more specific reasons why the online customer experience is so important:

  • Customers are more likely to stay loyal to brands offering great CX. Given that 65 percent of a company’s business often comes from existing customers, delivering a great experience can help you work on that all-important retention rate.
  • When a customer has a great experience, they could leave a review online, which encourages others to try your business. According to ReviewTrackers, more than a third of individuals reading reviews only look at businesses with four or more stars, so great CX can help you boost your visibility.
  • The better the experience, the less likely customers are to abandon your business in favor of competitors. In other words, CX can directly affect your churn rate.

The bottom line? Happy customers are more likely to spend more, stay loyal, and recommend your brand to others. If you’re keen to boost your ROI, it pays to work on customer experience optimization.

What Do Most Businesses Get Wrong About Customer Experience?

Customer experience optimization can be challenging to get right, especially if you approach it all from the wrong angle. To help you avoid making time-consuming (and potentially costly) mistakes, here’s what businesses often get wrong about CX.

Ignoring CX

It sounds obvious, but the biggest mistake businesses make is ignoring CX completely. Why? Because customers care about their experience. In fact, four out of five people would abandon a brand after fewer than three negative experiences

Ignoring CX could damage your customer retention and even limit your ability to attract new business.

Failing to Track Metrics

Even if you do care about customer experience optimization, you’ll never know how you’re doing without tracking your performance. I’m going to touch on the best metrics to track later, but here are some key questions that performance data can help answer.

  • How many customers stop doing business with you?
  • Would customers recommend you to friends or family?
  • How easy is it for customers to resolve issues or queries?

By tracking customer experience metrics, you can optimize CX at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Using Impersonal Communication

It’s not uncommon for businesses to treat customers as a whole unit rather than an online audience made up of multiple individuals. The issue? Well, personal communication matters: Impersonal communication won’t drive growth.

  • According to McKinsey research, 71 percent of customers expect personalized interactions from businesses.
  • What’s more, fast-growing companies see at least 40 percent of their revenue coming from personalized messaging.

If you treat your customers as numbers, they could look elsewhere for the personalized CX they want.

Neglecting to Train Employees

Sure, it’s important to build a user-friendly website and make it easy for buyers to shop with you, but the customer experience starts with your staff. What’s a common mistake companies make, though?

Failing to train their employees in the art of customer service delivery.

Customers come to you looking for a shopping experience. If your staff don’t have the knowledge, experience, or authority to resolve customer issues, then you’ll frustrate your shoppers and they could turn to your competitors instead.

Now you know what not to do, there’s still one question remaining: How do you actually improve CX to boost your revenue? Let’s take a look.

5 Ways to Improve Customer Experiences and Increase Revenue

While there are multiple ways you might drive revenue by optimizing customer experiences, here are my five favorite strategies.

1. Find Out Where You Stand

Before you can perform customer service optimization, you need to know what’s working right now by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs.)

You might already be familiar with tracking KPIs as part of your wider marketing strategy. However, in terms of measuring customer experiences, here are some metrics to track:

  • Churn rate: Your churn rate is how many customers stop using your services, e.g., they cancel their subscription. The higher the churn, the more customers you’re losing.
  • Customer effort: This is how easy people think it is to perform an action, e.g., complete checkout. A low customer effort score means people are dissatisfied.
  • Net promoter score (NPS): This is how likely someone is to recommend your business. The higher the NPS, the more likely it is that they’ll recommend you.
  • Retention rate: Your retention rate is the number of customers you hold onto over a period of time. High retention scores mean greater customer loyalty.

Here are some tips to measure metrics:

  • Measure churn by choosing a set period and dividing the number of customers you lost by the number of customers you started with. The percentage is your churn.
  • Poll customers using surveys and ask them to rate their experience.
  • Ask customers how likely they are to recommend you on a 1-10 scale.
  • Measure customer retention by choosing a set period of time, calculating how many customers you start with, and how many of those customers stay with you.

Not sure where to start with customer surveys? Email them to customers or do what Tim Hortons does and invite people to complete satisfaction surveys online:

An example of using surveys to find out the customer experience with a brand.

2. Improve Your Customer Service

It’s important to note that customer service differs from the customer experience. CX means every interaction a customer has with your brand, while customer service refers to interactions between a customer and employees when there’s a problem.

Unsurprisingly, then, boosting your customer service delivery can have a positive effect on your overall CX. How do you improve customer service, though? Here are some ideas.

  • According to research by Khoros, 77 percent of customers expect customer support teams to share information so they don’t need to repeat themselves. Make sure you properly integrate your customer support processes using, for example, customer relationship management (CRM) software.
  • Use chatbots: The Khoros research shows that 79 percent of customers enjoy chatting to customer service reps through these apps.
  • Identify your most loyal customers. Reward them with exclusive discounts and special offers to encourage new transactions.

Here’s an example of a chatbot from Dropbox. Users can follow the step-by-step instructions or, if the chatbot can’t answer their questions, they can speak to a service representative or try other resources:

An image of a chatbot from Dropbox.
An example of using chatbots to improve customer service.

Improve customer service by offering various quick, simple, and effective ways to reach your team.

3. Make Conversions Easier

Zendesk’s research shows that 65 percent of customers are looking for quick, easy transactions. What does this mean?

Well, if you’re an e-commerce store, this means customers want a straightforward checkout experience. Let me give you some tips for speeding up the process.

  • Provide a guest checkout option so there’s no need for someone to create an account to buy something.
  • Offer multiple ways to pay, such as PayPal or mobile wallets like Apple Pay.
  • Make your shipping and delivery costs transparent.
  • Reduce the number of checkout screens where possible.

Are you a service provider? Then you want to ensure your sales process is seamless.

  • Offer a free trial to nurture customers along the sales funnel.
  • Explain your sales process upfront so customers know what to expect.
  • Schedule a sales call so you can get the information you need from customers to solve their problems and resolve any hesitancies.
  • Offer clear packages and transparent pricing structures tailored to various customers’ requirements.

Monday.com, for example, has a very clear pricing structure.

An image of a clear pricing structure from Monday.com.
An example of using a clear pricing structure to help make customer conversations easier.

What’s more, it only takes a few steps to get started with a free account so prospects can experience the software before committing to a paid package:

An image of an account creation screen from Monday.com.
Use free accounts to allow customers to use software before committing to purchasing it.

Impress your customers and boost CX by creating a seamless, user-friendly sales experience.

4. Personalize Customer Interactions

Earlier I touched on how personalization goes a long way to help boost customer acquisition and retention. How do you personalize customer interactions, though? Here’s what you can do:

  • Build customer profiles so you know who your ideal customer is. Once you determine your audience base, you can segment your customers into groups to send them relevant marketing materials tailored to their personal preferences.
  • Take an omnichannel approach. According to Zendesk’s research, companies with higher CX scores deliver consistent, reliable experiences across all mediums, from in-store shopping to buying products through a mobile app.
  • Use the data you collect from customers to personalize surveys and try to follow up on survey responses.

Don’t forget the power of email, either. Retarget lapsed customers with personalized incentives, and send loyal customers recommendations based on their shopping history.

5. Empower Your Employees to Take Action

Who do your customers interact with? Your employees. If customers aren’t happy with your employees, there’s a risk they’ll abandon your brand completely.

What’s the answer? Empower your employees. Give them the tools they need to resolve queries, by:

  • Asking employees for their feedback. Do they feel they have the resources necessary to deliver a great service, or are they feeling frustrated?
  • Resolving identified pain points. Maybe you could streamline manual processes by updating your CRM software, or you could improve contact center protocols.
  • Finally, empowering your employee, for example, maybe they could offer a discount to incentivize a new customer.

Customer Experience Case Study: Gymshark

Gymshark, an international fitness brand, excels at employee engagement.

How? Because employees have pretty significant authority to resolve disputes, and they’re very engaged with customers online.

For one thing, they have a dedicated Gymshark Help social media account to answer queries, proactively engage customers, and improve the customer experience.

A tweet from Gymshark's help account assisting a customer.
An example of engaging with customers online.

Their employees are entrusted to offer real solutions, which make customers feel valued at every stage of the buyer’s journey—even after the sale.

Does it pay to give employees freedom over CX delivery? Absolutely: Operating in over 180 countries and still growing, Gymshark knows how delivering great customer experiences can boost ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Experiences

We’ve covered why customer experiences matter and how you might improve your CX, but let me give you some key takeaways.

How do you improve customer experiences?

Learn who your customers are and how they interact with your business. Once you understand the buyer’s journey, you can equip your employees to meet their needs and exceed their expectations.

What are the main components of customer experiences?

Promoting a customer-focused culture, ensuring you’re easy to do business with, measuring customer satisfaction, and delivering on your promises all contribute to the customer experiences that individuals have with your business.

How do you track the customer experience?

Get honest customer feedback and track CX metrics at each stage of the buyer’s journey using tools to measure your churn rate, customer effort score, retention rate, and net promoter score.

What makes a good customer experience?

Great customer experience starts with your staff. Give them the knowledge they need to manage your buyers, and you’re on track to impress your customers.

Conclusion: Improving the Customer Experience Is Crucial to Business Growth

Without customers, you won’t boost your ROI and your company won’t get off the ground, so you need to prioritize customer experiences.

To perform customer experience optimization successfully, help your staff nurture individuals along the buyer’s journey. Monitor key customer experience metrics along the way, and don’t be afraid to ask customers what you’re doing right—and where you’re falling behind.

Need extra help with the online customer experience? Check out my consulting services.

What do you think makes a great CX?

Houston rabbi on ‘frightening’ Colleyville synagogue hostage situation: ‘We’re going to increase our security’

Rabbi Brian Strauss with Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas discussed the “frightening” hostage situation at another synagogue in his state, noting that he is now going to “reevaluate everything that we do” and increase security at his place of worship.

These Tactical Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips Can Increase Your Revenue 200%

There’s no better time than the Black Friday season to boost your sales. From product launches to store-wide promotions, businesses ramp up their sales and marketing efforts during this time to match the high customer demand. 

Not sure where to start? Black Friday ad campaigns are one of the quickest way to drive revenue.

Do Black Friday Ad Campaigns Make a Difference? 

Don’t dismiss Black Friday as just another e-commerce trend. Shoppers still spend as much as $9 billion on Black Friday deals in a given year. You can leverage this audience interest to improve your revenue by using effective Black Friday ad campaigns. 

Here’s how. 

Top 8 Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips

Follow these simple yet powerful strategies to build successful Black Friday ad campaigns. 

1. Make Your Sales Specials Clear

How would people buy from you if they don’t know what you’re selling? 

If you’re launching a Black Friday ad campaign, make your offers clear. For example, look at this ad by First Hotels. 

black friday ad campaigns example first hotels.

The first word makes it clear what the offer is about. Then, the rest of the ad copy is written in simple language to draw attention to the Black Friday ad. 

Here is another example from the Clash of Clans Twitter account.

Clash of Clans Twitter Black Friday ad campaign

How do you make sure your Black Friday ad campaign makes your offers clear and attractive?

  • Add the words Black Friday in a large, eye-catchy font. 
  • Make it easy to understand with simple ad copy like in the Clash of Clans image.
  • Use striking visuals, animations, and popping elements to draw attention. 

2. Research Which Platforms to Run Campaigns On

The best strategies for creating a Black Friday ad campaign vary from platform to platform. Research the popular ad campaign platforms beforehand to make the most out of your time, money, and efforts. 

This way, you’ll know which platforms work best for your audience and for the type of content you want to post. It’ll also help you tailor your marketing strategies to the unique features offered by the platform. 

For instance, here are some points you need to consider:

  • Do you want your Black Friday ad campaign to be visually engaging? Then use social media platforms like Instagram. This can be great for fashion and food brands. 
  • Do you want to hold the audience’s attention via engaging text? Then use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. This can be great for magazines, SEO services, and other text-focused businesses. 
  • Do you want to create an ad campaign with both text and images? Then use social media platforms like Facebook. This can be great for most industries, from small home-based business owners to worldwide franchise businesses. 

Your marketing (or ad spend) budget should also be a major consideration when deciding which platform you’ll use for your Black Friday ad campaign. 

I recommend comparing the prices of all social media and advertising platforms to see how much money you would need to get similar results on different platforms. 

Not all results are replicable, but this will give you a rough idea of which platform can help you take your dollar the farthest. 

3. Start Early to Benefit More

Don’t wait for the last day to launch your Black Friday ad campaign. Ad campaign fees can be higher during the holiday season, so it’s best to up your marketing game early on. 

Here’s why it helps:

  • You can launch effective ad campaigns before your competition when there’s little to no bidding for similar products and services. 
  • You save money by buying ads when they’re relatively cheaper.
  • You generate audience interest which can boost sales when your offers go live. 

What’s the best way to start early?

First, plan what your Black Friday ads should contain well in advance. Use audience analysis (more on that below) to refine your plan further. 

Second, use words like “upcoming,” “soon,” and “stay tuned” to build excitement and interest. Audience research is essential here too. If you’ve tried A/B testing with your frequent customers before, you’ll have the data to make informed decisions about the word choice and structure. 

Finally, set an early launch date. Start your Black Friday ad campaign a few days before the average business would so you can leverage the lower competition time and attract audience attention. 

Many businesses typically start advertising their Black Friday deals about a week in advance. However, I recommend considering the period around the first week of November to launch your Black Friday ad campaign. 

4. Cash in on Cyber Monday

“BFCM” is a trending term around the Black Friday season. It stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday and refers to the time between the two days when most e-commerce stores offer massive deals. 

Here’s an example of a Black Friday Cyber Monday ad by Pololu.

Pololu Black Friday Cyber Monday ad

This strategy works because the audience is already in a shopping mode during this season, and receiving combined ads can help increase e-commerce interest. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when designing a BFCM ad:

  • Highlight both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in your ad copy. 
  • Keep the ad copy clear. Don’t clutter it with too much content and colors. 
  • Make your offers clear. Are you offering discounts, deals, free trials, etc.?

5. Understand Your Audience 

You can design the best Black Friday ad, but if it isn’t tailored to your audience, it’s not going to be very useful. 

Think about it: You don’t want to show a bicycle ad to someone who only travels by car.

For instance, data shows Millennials spent the most money on Black Friday deals. It might be more effective to market your products and services to this demographic if relevant to your business model.

Here are some tips that will help you understand your audience and craft a compelling ad copy:

  • Get hyper-specific about your target customer. What do they like and dislike? What gets their attention?
  • Create a buyer persona to make sure you’re looking at the complete picture. You can use HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool to do this more effectively. 
  • Get direct customer feedback through surveys and feedback forms. Here’s a simple but effective example from QuickTapSurvey.
Best Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips - Understand Your Audience
  • Experiment with different wording to see what best resonates with your audience. Switch up the pronouns from “you” to “we” and vice versa. You can also try using completely different copy to see what works well, which brings me to the next point:
  • Try A/B testing with graphics, images, and headlines. A/B testing will give you live feedback on whether your strategies are working or not. It’ll also help you pinpoint the areas where your Black Friday ad campaign is lacking and how to improve it. 

6. Target Your Ad Campaigns

Now that you understand your audience, it’s time to make sure your Black Friday ads are targeted to them. 

Social media platforms like Facebook can be helpful for this. For example, Facebook offers a wide selection of targeting and retargeting options so you can truly narrow down the customers you want to reach. 

Best Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips - Target Your Ad Campaigns

Refer to your buyer persona and create specific ad campaigns to appeal to your target buyer. This will ensure you are reaching the right people without wasting a lot of money. 

7. Offer Options to Recover Abandoned Carts

Often people will visit your e-commerce store, browse through your products, maybe add a few to the cart, but leave without buying. Research shows e-commerce brands lose $18 billion in sales revenue each year because of abandoned carts. 

You can offer options to recover abandoned carts. Here’s how:

Understand and Change 

First, start by understanding why people are abandoning the process midway. For example, is it the shipping fees? If so, can you offer discounted or free shipping for Black Friday? 

Offer Better Deals

Sometimes customers want to buy the product, but they want to check out competitor products or simply wait for a discount. As an e-commerce business owner, you can use this to your advantage by offering Black Friday discounts and exclusive deals to such customers. 

For example, look at the abandoned cart recovery email below, shared by TargetBay. 

Best Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips - Offer Options to Recover Abandoned Carts

Emails like this serve three primary purposes:

  • It reminds customers to complete the transaction if they’ve forgotten it while browsing. 
  • It establishes a sense of trust and loyalty because you’re sending targeted offers right into their inbox. 
  • It gives you an edge over competitors who aren’t offering such deals. 

8. Don’t Forget Basic Ad Campaign Optimization

Sometimes, in a quest to create a highly effective ad copy, marketers tend to overlook the basic ad campaign optimization strategies. Don’t be one of them. 

To ensure you get the best results from your Black Friday ad campaign, be mindful of the nitty-gritty details. To make this easier, keep the following checklist handy:

  • Budget: What’s your budget for the Black Friday ad campaign? How can you effectively distribute it across different advertising and social media platforms? 
  • Copy: Is your copy clear and easy to understand? Double and triple-check for spelling and grammar mistakes. 
  • Platform features: Are you using all the relevant marketing features the platform you chose has to offer? For example, are you using the right targeting tools on Facebook? Is your Instagram ad campaign visually appealing? 
  • Platform limits: Be careful about the platform limits like word count, number of characters visible, image display, and page position. This can mess up how your ad is seen if not done right. 

Black Friday Ad Campaign Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Black Friday Ad Campaigns.

Is building a Black Friday marketing plan a good idea?

Yes, Black Friday marketing is essential. E-commerce shoppers collectively spend billions during the Black Friday season, making it one of the most lucrative times to up your marketing game.

How should I pick the keywords I target for my Black Friday tactical ad campaigns?

To pick the right keywords for your Black Friday ad campaign, you can use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and Moz. Studying your audience’s needs and consumption habits can also help you understand which Black Friday ad keywords will and won’t resonate.

When should my Black Friday ad campaign start?

If you want to make the most out of your marketing efforts, I recommend beginning early. Start teasing and promoting your offers at the beginning of November to build curiosity and excitement. Plus, it’s cheaper than starting closer to the event.

What are the top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021?

The top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021 include audience research, using targeting and retargeting techniques, cashing in on the Cyber Monday sales, and offering abandoned cart recovery deals.

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Is building a Black Friday marketing plan a good idea? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

Yes, Black Friday marketing is essential. E-commerce shoppers collectively spend billions during the Black Friday season, making it one of the most lucrative times to up your marketing game.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How should I pick the keywords I target for my Black Friday tactical ad campaigns?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

To pick the right keywords for your Black Friday ad campaign, you can use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and Moz. Studying your audience’s needs and consumption habits can also help you understand which Black Friday ad keywords will and won’t resonate.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “When should my Black Friday ad campaign start?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

If you want to make the most out of your marketing efforts, I recommend beginning early. Start teasing and promoting your offers at the beginning of November to build curiosity and excitement. Plus, it’s cheaper than starting closer to the event.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What are the top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

The top tips for ad campaigns for Black Friday 2021 include audience research, using targeting and retargeting techniques, cashing in on the Cyber Monday sales, and offering abandoned cart recovery deals.

”
}
}
]
}

Tactical Black Friday Ad Campaign Tips Conclusion

Black Friday can be a huge opportunity to attract customer attention, build brand awareness and boost revenue.

It may sound a little intimidating at first, considering the scale of the event, but I hope the tips above help you outline an effective Black Friday ad campaign strategy.

If you’d like to learn more about audience research and ad targeting, check out my guides to find your target audience and powerful ways to improve your Facebook targeting. 

Which strategy would you like to start with to ramp up your Black Friday ad campaign efforts?

How to Increase B2B Sales 150% During a Slow Q4

It’s Q4, and the pressure is on.

You have three months left to hit your sales targets and end the year on a high note.

The only problem?

Your sales pipeline is dry. No one is signing up for your offers, and your forecast looks bleak.

Luckily, not all hope is lost.

I’ve compiled some of my top strategies which will help you increase B2B sales and smash your Q4 targets. Not only have these tips helped grow my agency, but these are tried-and-true methods we use for our clients as well.

Let’s dive in and open the B2B sales flood gates.

10 Ways to Increase B2B Sales

Whether you’re an SME or a massive conglomerate, you can use these strategies to increase your sales and give your Q4 pipeline a kick in the direction.

1. Leverage Social Selling

Still not sold on the buying power of social media? You’re leaving money on the table.

  • Fifty-four percent of social media users research products on different platforms.
  • Seventy-one percent of users will make a purchase based on social media referrals.
  • Seventy-seven percent will choose a brand over a competitor after a positive social media experience.

What is social selling? It’s the process of finding and engaging with your potential customers online. 

Every time you log into Instagram and reply to a DM or share an article on LinkedIn, you’re providing value and social selling. It’s a much softer approach than cold emailing and focuses more on building long-term, authentic relationships than traditional sales techniques.

how to improve b2b sales - social selling

How can you leverage social selling?

  • Position your brand as the go-to industry expert: Use content marketing to answer your prospect’s most pressing questions and lead them down your marketing funnel.
  • Share case studies and testimonials: Social proof is a driving factor for online purchases. Use your results to prove you’re the best and develop a deeper know, like, and trust factor with your audience.
  • Focus on engagement: Instead of spending all your time creating content, focus on building relationships. Reply to all your DMs, jump into conversations in LinkedIn groups, follow your ideal customers, and engage with their content.
  • Talk about your transformation: Businesses and people buy transformations, not features. When talking about your product or service online, focus on the result someone gets from working with you.

2. Support Your Sales Team

If there is one thing that can ruin a potential sale, it’s bad sales rep interactions.

Whether it’s someone dropping the ball and ignoring an email for weeks, or a dumpster fire cold email, it can quickly tank your brand’s rep and Q4 income goals.

How do you prevent a sales mishap?

By training your team.

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Your sales reps need the tools to figure out how to develop a rapport and close the sale.

For a successful Q4, make sure your sales training includes:

  • Scripts for people to fall back on and avoid awkward silences or sounding unsure.
  • How to overcome common objections and communicate your brand’s results.
  • Strategies for finding leads and moving each one along the buyer’s journey.

Remember, the better trained your sales team, the quicker you’ll get to your 150% Q4 sales target.

3. Cash in on the Holidays

The holidays are a gold mine for increasing your B2B sales. With the right strategy in place, you can scoop up some of the disposable income people have during these months.

Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling:

  • Use expiring bonuses: This works well for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Each day, remove one bonus to create a sense of urgency and FOMO (fear of missing out).
  • Increase the price: Start with your lowest price for an offer, and slowly increase it each day.
  • Create an exclusive offer: Put together a new product, service, or package for the holiday season. You can add a sense of urgency by telling your audience it’s only available for the holidays.
  • Offer free shipping or a discount: Cash in on the psychology of free stuff to lure in more sales. Getting something for nothing is a powerful emotional trigger known as the “zero price effect” and it’s extremely hard to resist.

4. Ask Existing Clients for Referrals

Referrals are the backbone of any business.

Why?

It’s the easiest sale you can get.

Unlike a cold pitch where you have to establish trust before someone gives you a yes, referrals are warm leads. The person already trusts your brand and is ready to give you their money because the personal recommendation came from a friend, family member, or colleague.

It’s one of the reasons why influencer marketing is dominating the online space. Brands are paying for the endorsement and trust the content creator has with their audience, which has more sway than a random ad in the newspaper.

How do you get more referrals? Create a referral program.

You reward your biggest fans for doing the hard work for you: finding quality niche-specific leads that usually lead to sales.

How to Increase B2B Sales - Ask Existing Clients for Referrals

5. Don’t Neglect Cold Calling or Emailing

Cold calling (or emailing) is not dead.

It’s very much alive and kicking and one of the best ways to increase B2B sales for Q4.

However, there is a catch.

Cold outreach is only effective if done correctly.

If you’re mass spamming everyone and anyone with no real strategy, you’re not going to see any results.

Why?

No one likes to waft through irrelevant pitches. You’ll earn brownie points by taking the time to identify a problem you can solve and presenting a solution in a format that feels tailored, not mass-produced.

6. Use Paid Ads to Increase Leads

Not using paid ads yet?

With more people online than ever before and 80.76 percent of the global population owning a smartphone, it’s time to dip your feet into this gold mine.

By honing in on the keywords your audience uses to find solutions to the problem you solve, you can increase B2B sales while you sleep.

If that’s not enough to get you opening up a Google AdWords account, this will:

  • PPC ads yield 50 percent more conversions than organic advertising.
  • Google ads can increase brand awareness by 80 percent.
  • Paid ads have a 200 percent ROI rate.

The results are equally impressive on social media. The Content Marketing Institute found B2B paid advertising increased to 83 percent, with LinkedIn ads dominating the pack.

Of all paid distribution channels, paid social media ranked second in producing results, with SEM taking first place.

7. Create a List of Potential Clients

The best strategy for increasing B2B sales? Knowing exactly who you want to target.

Before diving into any of the other tips in this post, get clear on who you want to convert into paying customers.

It’s the foundation of your game plan. Without it, you’re only wishing for a result instead of making it happen.

How do you make a list of potential clients? Answer these questions:

  1. How many employees does your dream client have?
  2. How much does the business make in annual revenue?
  3. What is the niche problem you solve?

The more specific you get here, the better chance you’ll increase your B2B sales during a slow Q4. 

Once you have those answers, you can use tools like LinkedIn or Angelist to find companies that match your dream client description.

How to Increase B2B Sales - Create a List of Potential Clients

8. Develop a Strong Email Marketing Strategy

Almost every couple of years, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter goes down, and influencers, business owners, and users start spiraling. 

It’s a harsh reminder that any of the apps you’ve spent hours on growing a community can vanish with a click of a button.

That’s why it’s crucial you get your followers onto a platform you can control, like email marketing. Not only will you always have access to your list (unless someone unsubscribes), but it’s profitable.

According to OptinMonster, email marketing generates $44 for every $1 spent. That’s a mindblowing 4400 percent ROI, making it one of the best ways to increase B2B sales.

Start your Q4 off strong and warm up your list with a strong email marketing strategy. 

Don’t have a list? Use the next three months to grow one with email opt-ins like:

  • e-books
  • cheatsheets
  • checklists
  • industry reports

9. Prioritize Video Content

Video marketing is here, and it’s disrupting the industry, but what makes it so successful?

After all, isn’t it faster to scan a few lines of a blog post (like you’re doing right now) than sit through an entire 10-minute video?

While videos do require a bigger time commitment, customers still prefer it to text, and it has a plethora of business benefits.

With Instagram trying to compete with TikTok, the platform is working hard to gain market share.

The result? Instagram Reels has high engagement, and the algorithm prioritizes it above photo posts. In fact, Instagram came out and said it’s a video-sharing platform, not a photo-sharing app.

The takeaway: There’s no better time to add videos to your content marketing mix and use it to increase your B2B sales. Start a YouTube channel, develop a Reels strategy, or embed videos on your website.

10. Use Case Studies to Increase B2B Sales

Selling to B2B is a little different from B2C.

For one, there’s usually more than one person involved in the decision process. If you want a resounding yes from everyone involved, you need to show how your product or service delivers value.

One of the most powerful marketing tools you can use to illustrate this is case studies. This piece of content is typically used near the end of the consideration and early decision stage of the buyer’s journey. It can help sway business your way when a prospect is deciding between two possible solutions.

With 81 percent of people trusting friends or family over a business, a case study helps you leverage an outsider’s perspective in your favor. 

Even though you’re creating the content, it’s about how one of your customers achieved a specific result and what someone can expect from working with you.

It’s that all-important social proof we spoke about earlier, and it can go a long way in driving more B2B sales in Q4.

Frequently Asked Questions About Increasing B2B Sales

What is a B2B strategy?

A B2B strategy is a marketing strategy employed by a company that sells products or services to other businesses instead of individuals.

What are the four types of B2B marketing?

There are four types of B2B marketing: producers, resellers, governments, and institutions.

What is the B2B selling process?

The B2B selling process is a business’s steps to market and sell its services or products to another business.

What does B2B mean in sales?

B2B stands for business-to-business. It happens when a business transaction takes place between two companies. For example, one company will buy raw materials from another to make their final product.

{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is a B2B strategy?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

A B2B strategy is a marketing strategy employed by a company that sells products or services to other businesses instead of individuals.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What are the four types of B2B marketing?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

There are four types of B2B marketing: producers, resellers, governments, and institutions.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is the B2B selling process? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

The B2B selling process is a business’s steps to market and sell its services or products to another business.

”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What does B2B mean in sales? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”

B2B stands for business-to-business. It happens when a business transaction takes place between two companies. For example, one company will buy raw materials from another to make their final product.

”
}
}
]
}

Increase B2B Sales Conclusion

While the world of B2B sales has changed a lot over the last 10 years, you have a whole host of new tools at your disposal. Instead of resisting social selling or the rise of video content, embrace it, and use it to increase your B2B sales for Q4.

Remember, the more proactive you are with your strategies, the bigger your competitive edge. Keep experimenting with your sales strategies and stick with the ones which give you the results you want.

Which of these strategies are you going to use to increase B2B sales in Q4?

16 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one.

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans, but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, and insights (and a few external tools) could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

That’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154 percent, as I did.

Before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free).

Some of the hidden tools I’ll share are within Facebook; you just don’t know about them.

Hidden Facebook Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

This one is hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Facebook Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You post something on Facebook as usual.
  2. People comment on your post.
  3. Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.
  4. When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement messenger tool

Say you post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential, such as a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments aren’t just comments anymore; they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

  1. Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.
  2. Create an autoresponder message.
  3. Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.
  4. Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.
Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement comment guard from mobile monkey

Hidden Facebook Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement messenger bot example

Once the person starts the Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. Then, the chatbot takes over to bring them through the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers based on their responses.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of messages. Instead, you can direct those chat from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Facebook strategies messenger bot sequence

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this strategy.

Hidden Facebook Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9 percent open rates in just sixty minutes.

facebook hidden strategies chat blasting

With MobileMonkey, you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

facebook hidden tools chat blaster from mobile monkey

Chat Blaster also has the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

facebook hidden tools segment audience for chat blast

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

example of audience segmentation mobile monkey chat blast hidden facebook tools

Hidden Facebook Tool #5. Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who engage with my Facebook page to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

hidden facebook tools facebook fan ask

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Facebook Tool #6: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

Another strategy is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This allows you to personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the “Community” button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends to Like Your Page.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

invite friends to like your facebook page

Hidden Facebook Tool #7: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

hidden facebook tools rank checker

Boom, you have intel.

rank checker hidden facebook tools

A lot of this data is really helpful.

rank signals back link checker

With so many brands now spending millions of dollars on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Hidden Facebook Tool #8. View Competitor’s Ads

Ever wish you could see exactly what ads your competitors are running? Actually, you can — right in Facebook.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button. (It might be on the right or under the “Details” tab, depending on the device you’re using.)

I to spy on competitors Neil Patel facebook hacks.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

facebook hidden tool access ad library

Tap on “Go to Ad Library.”

If the page is (or has) run ads, you’ll be able to see them here. This means you can see the ads they are running now and see what they have run in the past.

Granted, you don’t have access to insights about how well ads performed, but you can see if they tend to use the same ad copy or types of images and use those strategies for your own page.

Hidden Facebook Tool #9:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

How do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

hidden facebook tools pages to watch

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Facebook Tool #10: Find Where Your Followers Are Coming From

It is important to figure out where your followers are coming from so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights.

facebook hidden tools insights
Then look for “Where your page follows happen.”
facebook hidden tools where your page follows happen

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

  1. Uncategorized Desktop
  2. On Your Page
  3. Search
  4. Page Suggestions
  5. Ads

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Facebook Tool #11: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to improve my targeting is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

Facebook page insights demographics

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Facebook Tool #12: Pull Email Addresses

Building an email list is tough these days. No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

facebook hidden tools ask for email address

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

facebook hidden tool use mobile monkey to ask for email addresses

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Facebook Tool #13: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

facebook hidden tool get phone numbers with mobile monkey

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform

Understandably, people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your website, for instance.

It’s quite a different comfort level when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

All that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

facebook hidden tool ask for phone number

Hidden Facebook Tool #14: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

facebook hidden tool chat widget

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the brand and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Facebook Tool #15: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

Hidden facebook tools conversions

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

facebook hidden tools ad conversions

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before; when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Facebook Tool #16: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

hidden facebook tool drip campaign

Unlike an email drip campaign, which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Facebook Hidden Marketing Tools FAQs

How can I use Facebook as a marketing tool?

You can use Facebook to run ads, create and promote your own Facebook business page, join groups related to your industry and post your promotional content there.

Why is Facebook a great marketing tool?

As of 2021, there are about 2.85 billion Facebook users, meaning you have access to an unbelievably huge audience.

What are some Facebook marketing tools?

Facebook offers content curation, ad builders and campaign building, A/B testing, campaign measurement and reporting, hashtag targeting, and more.

How do I start marketing on Facebook?

If you want to market on Facebook, your first step should be to perform competitor research. Look into how your competition uses it to market their products or services, and figure out what they are doing well, and go from there.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

  • Interactivity and dialogue: Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do buy, read, visit, or watch, you are opening up a conversation.
  • Speed of engagement: Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a Pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?