How Digital Marketing Can Build Customer Relationships that Lead to More Sales

The internet changed how people buy. With mobile phones, everyone can research anything at any time, and as a result, buyers push back on sales efforts until they are ready to buy.

With more than 70% of today’s buyers—including your current customers—conducting research online before making an offline purchase, creating a digital presence that effectively boosts sales is critical for companies of any size. One way to keep customers engaged and buying long after the original purchase is to create a personal connection.

Create Content that Warms Customer Hearts

Whether it is done formally or informally, you and your sales team have collected a lot of information about your customers. In addition to collecting the basic demographic information and buying habits, you also understand their common frustrations, pain points and goals, as well as their objections to your product and service. Use this more personal information to build a more effective website and create more engaging social media posts.

At his former company, serial entrepreneur, marketing expert and co-founder of WebProfits.agency Sujan Patel conducted a basic audit of conversations customers had with front-line employees. Patel and his staff learned that a large percentage of their customers were first-time business owners and first-time managers. Based on this information, they sent customers a book about managing employees with a Post-it Note to a particular chapter that read, We think this chapter could be useful to you. Patel says this created an emotional connection.

From the beginning of time, people bought things from other people. Patel says that using a tactic similar to sending a marked book can bring back a personal connection through a fairly impersonal media — the internet. Post relevant articles to your company’s social media accounts or write educational articles that address issues exclusive to your customers.

The same approach should be taken with your website content. “Your website should be all about the problems you solve for your customers,” says Donald Seckler, founder of digital marketing agency Peak Inbound Marketing. “That’s the first thing people will search for—an answer to a problem.”

Patel advises small businesses to make 80% of their content about the customer and only 20% about the services or products. Using your digital marketing platforms to tell customer success stories, offer tips for using your product or service effectively or report on trends that impact your customers will keep you top of mind and position the customers’ relationship with your business as an asset.

Use Email to Support Your Strategy

Having effective copy is a great start; but you have to make it easy for your customers to find it. To lead your customers back to your website after they have completed a purchase, email is a proven, effective tool. “In this age of Snapchat and modern websites with video backgrounds, email doesn’t get the glory it deserves,” says Seckler. “But email is the workhorse.”

By delivering the strategic content you develop directly into their inboxes, email can be used to nurture your customers and warm them up to new or upgraded products or services until they tell you they are ready to buy. It also means you don’t waste time chasing leads that will never turn into business.

Warmed Hearts to Warm Leads

By answering prospects’ questions and helping them with education, you can nurture your relationship with your customers and build trust. When they are ready to be sold, your business will be the first one they call. That is why using strategic calls-to-action (CTAs) on every webpage will help turn customers into repeat or long-term business. CTAs should offer compelling copy and have a stand-out design. An example of an effective CTA on an accountant’s website could be “Are You Paying Too Much In Taxes? Meet John Smith, CPA.”

The simplest details can be the most effective. Make sure all of your contact information—phone number, email and address—is easy to find on every page of your website. Don’t assume your customers always have your contact information at their fingertips. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to reach you as soon as they are ready to buy.