How Can Digital Marketing Increase Sales?

Author: Kaitlyn Partington Category: Marketing, Social Media & Digital Date: October 26, 2020

Does your sales team feel as though they are putting in every effort to find new prospects, wondering if there is an easier way? Or, do they think instead of it taking eight months to close a new client, there is a way they could do it in three?

Although it may seem like these challenges are mountains to climb, they aren’t, and there is a solution. It’s called digital marketing. How can digital marketing increase sales? We’re here to help answer that question…

How Can Digital Marketing Increase Sales?

When the word digital marketing comes up in conversation, different channels may come to mind: search engine, social media, email, and of course, the many advertising avenues. When you are thinking about a digital marketing strategy to increase sales, I want you to think lead generation funnel. A lead generation funnel uses multiple marketing channels (like those mentioned above) to reach your audience and encourages them to provide their information so that, in return, they receive something of value. A lead generation tool can include a conference, webinar, guide, checklist, tip sheet, calculator, quiz, just to name a few.

Now that we have started to answer the question, “how can digital marketing increase sales?” and we know that a lead generation funnel can help collect information from your target audience, we now want to answer the question…

How Many Touch Points to Make a Sale?

It takes nine to 13 touch points to make a sale. This is where the lead generation funnel comes in handy. Let’s walk through what a funnel could look like and how digital marketing can help you achieve those touches. Picture this, you are going to present a webinar and market it to your audience. What are the touchpoints that you are going to use? Your strategy could look like this:

1. A social media post on your company page
2. An email invitation
3. A link to a recent blog post that encourages them to register
4. A post about the event in a LinkedIn group
5. An advertisement on Facebook
6. A message generated through LinkedIn Sales Navigator
7. The registration page for the webinar
8. The live broadcast of the webinar
9. An email after the event with a link to the recording
10. An email that provides them with a video and blog post relating to the topic
11. An email asking if they would like to take part in a free strategy session
12. A LinkedIn connection request from the speaker
13. A phone call from a sales representative
14. Something important to note, steps 1 through 12, can be handled by the marketing team. Your sales team just needs to pick up the phone and call these warm leads.

How to Accelerate Sales with the Help of Marketing

At this point we’ve answered the question, how can digital marketing increase sales? What we want to answer now is, how can we use marketing to accelerate sales? Let’s go back to the webinar example, throughout that entire process, your marketing team is making multiple touches to your audience and through those touches, they are reinforcing your expertise. If your marketing team has done it right, they will have used consistent messaging from step one through 13, so that each touch to your audience makes them more and more familiar with your brand. With your marketing team supporting the beginning of the funnel, the person is already much farther along in their customer journey which shortens the sales cycle.

Sales and Marketing Go Hand in Hand

We hope you now have a strong answer to the question, “how can digital marketing increase sales?” As you can see, to drive your business’s success and reach your growth goals, sales and marketing must work hand in hand. There will reach a point where the marketing team has done all they can and it is time to hand off the baton to the sales representatives. Your marketing team should arm your sales team with as much information and data as possible to ensure the transition runs smoothly. They should provide lead information along with statistics about open and click rates so that the sales representatives can determine which leads to prioritize based on their engagement. And, your marketing team should help craft messaging for the sales outreach so that the conversation remains consistent as you pass that baton.

How can digital marketing increase sales for your business?  Still wishing you could shorten the sales cycle and have a digital marketing strategy that supports your sales. We can help. Schedule a complimentary consultation with our team.