The title of today’s article is both a promise of what you’re about to read and a question we at unosoft have heard many times.
As an entrepreneur you run into many costs. You already know it’s impossible to to open and grow a business without investing money, effort and other resources. Anyone who promises you otherwise is a liar.
But you can find ways to lower these costs, as long as you have a well thought-out plan and find the right alternative methods of promoting your business.
Some of them are free to use or do and only require an investment of time on your part. It also matters to be persistent, to keep going with the small results until the big ones appear.
So let’s look at 50 marketing ideas and sales techniques you can use at low cost so you get more: profit, customers, conversions and traffic.
Again, each of the ideas below takes time to start bringing results, so patience and perseverance are the cornerstones if you’re going to use them.
Tip! Create and unleash your own strategy for increasing sales and profits at unosoft SUMMIT & eCommerce Fest.
Book tickets and enjoy bonuses worth 4,500 lei which can be the foundation of the super content you’ll find at SUMMIT.
Contents: 50 ideas for selling more, at lower cost
- Regular blog post.
- Write evergreen articles that you update occasionally. They are a continuous source of traffic.
- Join a Facebook group or create one to form a community.
- Ask for recommendations.
- Make Facebook live.
- Populate your Pinterest Business account and make boards, especially for interesting articles.
- Open a YouTube channel.
- Comment on other social media pages.
- Upload blog articles to Reddit / Medium.
- Leave relevant comments on other blogs.
- Give your consent to be a case study.
- Answer questions on relevant channels.
- Create a free lead magnet product (ebook, guide).
- Create and implement multiple email sequences.
- Grow your email base and send regular newsletters to your subscribers.
- Promote a limited time offer.
- Write a guest post.
- Do interviews with specialists or influencers in your niche or offer to be interviewed.
- Create an article with information gathered from multiple sources.
- Start making content on TikTok.
- Start a podcast.
- Create and use online stickers and gifs.
- Host a free webinar or course.
- Request reviews.
- Organize a contest / giveaway.
- Participate in an event in your industry.
- Be a speaker at such an event.
- Organize an event for your industry.
- Occasionally complete and update your Google My Business profile.
- Activate Schema.org and use structured data
- Complete meta tags in the site, using formulas
- Create an infographic based on research or with interesting universal data.
- Optimize your images for Google Images Search.
- Collaborate with another one-off business per campaign.
- Creates and publishes short videos on reels and YouTube Shorts.
- Organize a challenge (maybe even a course) over a period of time.
- Do inexpensive customer loyalty actions.
- Invest in some more advanced copywriting skills for headlines.
- Create product packages and put them on sale.
- Sell and upsell through messages.
- Use SMS Marketing specifically for existing customers.
- Invite customers to promote you in a trackable way [coduri discount].
- Get UGC and incorporate it into your strategy.
- Reuse old content, in another form.
- Contact your old customers by phone.
- You appear in the local press.
- Keep an eye on and sign up on sites where your business name appears (reviews, discounts, etc.).
- Segment your offers by audience/stage
- Offer a massive discount for a star product, then upsell
- Offer pre-order bonuses
1. Write regularly on the company blog.
One of the basic techniques in promotion is creating and promoting content. A blog helps you enormously both on the SEO side, but also because it provides the necessary basis for advertisements, posts, newsletters and so on.
Of course, not everyone is good at writing the first time. Talent is cultivated through repetition, but also by applying classic copywriting and storytelling formulas that help as a guide.
You can try your hand at populating your blog on your own, or you can hire someone at some point. It’s important to have a goal for every article you post.
You can also invest time in creating and editing the article so that you only post once every 2 weeks, say. Once you accumulate experience, you can increase the frequency of posting.
Another piece of good news? From the unosoft platform you can create a embedded blog for free, at no extra cost and equipped with advanced tools that help monetize articles by displaying products in their body.
Read also: Mega Guide – Blogging and Selling Online: +250 Blog Ideas and Tips for Beginners
2. Write evergreen articles that you update occasionally. They are a continuous source of traffic.
A special type of articles you can create on your company blog are articles with evergreen information. No matter when they are accessed, the content will be useful and accurate – as long as you update them, if necessary.
For example, you can write evergreen articles about how to place an order on your site, the pros and cons of choosing a particular type of product you sell, how to use a product category on your site, buyer’s guide, how to make sure they have a great experience when ordering on your site, etc.
Or you can create evergreen seasonal articles with tips for organizing, shopping and arranging for Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, summer season, etc.
You should update these annually if you bring new products to the site that are suitable for each season.
3. Join a Facebook group or create a community.
A community with interests and needs that you can meet as a provider of the solution you are looking for can help you enormously to find profitable customers.
You can create one in the form of a Facebook group or forum where people can interact.
This is the best way to have control over your community, but also to form a funnel strategy to attract leads and customers.
The community also helps strengthen your brand, as people perceive you as a help they can rely on – whether it’s for information, to discover hidden opportunities, or for the simple fact that they have unique discounts they can’t find elsewhere.
Come join our group!
4. Ask for recommendations.
Just as testimonials from satisfied customers reach you in greater volume if you ask for them, you need to take the initiative and invite your customers to recommend you further.
You can implement an automated system via Email Bot, so that at a certain period after ordering you can send a discount code that your satisfied customers can promote further on their social media accounts, share it with friends, post it wherever they want.
Automatically you can create a small army of influencers, and word of mouth goes a long way.
5. Do Facebook live.
A Facebook live session such as a trivia, useful information or interview will help you on the branding side or even lead generation, if you have a landing page ready, either with a sign-up form or product offer.
In general, it works well for B2B, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spice up your strategy a bit, even if you sell B2C.
Before you open a live or even a Facebook Live series, think through your strategy, set your goals and make sure you have the triggers ready during and after it’s done.
6. Populate your Pinterest Business account and make boards, especially for interesting articles.
A lot of people say that Pinterest doesn’t really work for businesses in Romania. But the truth is that there is no formula that works the same for everyone.
If you have a business that makes a visual impact, you can find a community here that is interested in accessing your work, clicking on images to learn more information and getting to your site. And this traffic, even if smaller, can bring you a lot of value and profit.
For example, a fellow craft enthusiast learned about a particular brand of textile dyes through an infographic created by an online store in Romania. And, eventually, she bought the products she needed from that store.
The same can happen to your store.
7. Open a YouTube channel.
YouTube has been the top channel in Romania for a long time, so it would be a shame not to take advantage of its potential.
Open a channel, customize it, use hashtags and shorts, add catchy names and descriptions for each video you post and, over time, through regular postings, you’ll be able to build up a loyal following.
There are plenty of tips & tricks that work and can give you ideas for content creation.
Focus on giving your audience what they are interested in and don’t be afraid of adblockers to push organic videos with ads. Promotion works.
8. Comment on other social media pages.
You’ve probably seen a certain pattern to viral posts on social media, especially Facebook.
Many brands use the momentum and try to come up with clever comments in response to the situation – comments that are read by the majority of those who interact with the post, and get reactions.
So jump on that bandwagon too. If it fits the situation and you can come up with a witty response, comment with your business page on other pages, within viral posts.
And that means always being careful not to intervene when the tide goes out (unless you’re Internet Explorer… or CFR Calatori).
Strike while the iron’s hot.
9. Upload blog articles to Reddit / Medium.
Posted content can be reused in a variety of ways – which we discuss in tip #44.
But the first thing you can do after you post on the company blog would be to take exactly the same content and repost it on content dispersal platforms, such as Reddit or Medium.
There are large communities on these, including in English, that can access your content directly (or, if possible, post some of it, then more details at the link access).
These might be people who don’t otherwise know about you or have different search habits – they ask questions within the communities they are interested in, they don’t always search directly on Google.
10. Leave relevant comments on other blogs.
Linking comments on other blogs is seen as the wrong SEO technique, by inserting a link even where it doesn’t belong. But I don’t mean leaving comments like “Well done for the article, I was just reading about [insert subject] on the website https://www.unosoft.net/blog/vinde-mai-mult-costuri-mai-mici/ blah blah”.
But simply fill in all the fields when you make an account on Disqus or in the comment form.
The moment you engage in comments, give relevant answers or useful information, your company name which is linked to, possibly the link to the homepage, can bring traffic to your store.
11. Agree to be a case study.
I don’t know why entrepreneurs shy away from coming out and presenting their businesses.
Although a case study is seen as a marketing tool for the company that creates it, it is at the same time an opportunity for the company on which it is based.
Most of the time you get a link to your website directly from the case study content. Then your company name appears there – extra mention on Google.
Thirdly, it can be a positive result to your company’s search, a proof that you have improved your website or a certain strategy to ensure a better customer experience.
Even big retailers accept to be mentioned with a logo or in case studies. So stop hiding your work, make it as visible as possible and get involved so that the material only benefits you.
12. Answer questions on relevant channels.
This is a continuation of the advice related to community and blog comments. Actively look for places to provide information and answers, along with mentioning your company.
It may be social media channels that you don’t have an active account on, but just a presence there. Or you can participate in certain online events, where you can leave useful comments and interact with other participants.
13. Create a free product as a lead magnet (ebook, guide).
It’s classic advice, generally followed by B2B sellers, but your funnel as a B2C seller can also start with a free lead magnet or massively discounted offer.
Use your blog or a landing page with a data capture form. Initially you offer them a freebie (content in the blog post, downloadable guide, access to a closed video]or an extraordinarily discounted product [90% reducere, de ex.].
After the person has given you their email address or placed an order, you automatically add them to a sequence of emails and messages in which you upsell them with various variations, give them more useful content, cross-sell them, etc.
The key is to initially get contact details, and then persevere until you get to the sale.
14. Create and implement multiple email sequences.
You’ve probably seen in a lot of online shops the popup triggered at the entrance, promising a discount of x% or x lei on your first order, if you subscribe to the newsletter.
And the point is that this trigger works, people sign up.
The problem is that too few companies then take advantage of this little contact date. It boils down to sending a double opt-in confirmation email or, at best, a welcome email with the discount code.
Well, you can do a bit more, to differentiate yourself, but also to control first order, second order and so on.
Think of different email sequences for different scenarios. For example:
- Man subscribes to newsletter > Send welcome email with discount code > If he didn’t buy because he wasn’t ready, send him a selection of low priced products the next day > Mail with timer > Mail upsell variants
- The man placed an order > Confirmation mail > Checkin mail + tips on how to use the product > Review request mail > Cross-sell recommendation mail
Read also: 3 follow-up email sequences your business needs
15. Grow your email address base and send regular newsletters to your subscribers.
Exactly, one of the least expensive ways to market is to use email marketing. The tool that still has the highest conversion rate, besides word of mouth.
What we’re telling you is from personal experience: focus your resources on growing your email base and, very importantly, segment and update your base constantly.
Contact intent changes over time, so you should make sure they are still relevant to your base by triaging campaigns. Don’t invest resources in people who will never buy from you.
Also, keep your base’s attention constantly with newsletters in which you publish useful content, relevant offers and interesting news.
16. Promote a limited time offer.
It’s important what your offer contains, but equally vital is how you make it.
Insufficiency is one of the six principles of persuasion with direct impact on sales. When your offer is limited, it will seem more appealing and will trigger desire from potential consumers.
Small time limits work very well, especially if the product is not too expensive.
For more expensive products, take into account that it takes a longer time to make the buying decision, so the time limit should be longer.
17. Write a guest post.
Like a case study, guest posting on relevant or partner sites will get you a link to your site, as well as the desperation of content representative of your business.
Usually, the guest post is distributed on the social media accounts of the site in question and sent to the newsletter. Even if you don’t get a lot of clicks to your site, it’s important to be visible and mention your brand in as many places as possible.
The more familiar people are with your business name, the more they will trust you. And trust leads more easily to buying.
18. Do interviews with specialists or influencers in your niche or offer to be interviewed.
When you interview people with a certain image in the market, you lend them some of your authority and access an additional audience that you would otherwise find difficult or expensive to reach.
Of course you can start small, with niche specialists or micro-influencers who are willing to partner with you to get the benefit of audience sharing.
Whatever form the initial interview is conducted in, then turn it into other formats. For example, if you’ve done a video or live interview, then transcribe it into a blog post. And if you’re the interviewee, get involved in distributing the interview.
Basically, you’ve just got yourself some free, authoritative content that you can use in your strategy to get something from your audience.
19. Create an article with information gathered from multiple sources.
You may have seen such summaries on various bloggers or in newsletters.
You can create a summary article with information and links to various sites: from partners, to major content creators, public institutions, statistics companies, customer sites or brand ambassadors etc.
Such articles have the potential to bring you public distribution and thanks from those mentioned in the content. Therefore, you can have access to their audience.
20. Start making content on TikTok.
The network catches on with the increasing consumption of short videos.
No matter what type of products you sell, you can take advantage of the opportunities TikTok can create as long as you focus on the results of your products and your way of doing business, not technicalities.
The important thing is to align your content with what your audience wants from this platform and publish often.
See the video for useful information about promoting your business on TikTok:
21. Start a podcast.
Normally, I wouldn’t recommend starting a podcast just for the sake of it. It takes time and a well-thought-out strategy if you want to end up with a recurring mass of listeners who also care about what you tell them.
But you may have a talent on this side of creating audio content.
So if that’s your case and you’re willing to invest time and money in initial equipment, yes, you can start a podcast and gradually grow it.
22. Create and use online stickers and gifs.
There are various platforms where you can upload or create gifs, stickers, memes, avatars, custom emoji, etc.
via GIPHY
Not only is this content different and you can incorporate it into your communications to personalize your messages, but you can often create accounts on those platforms with links to places you control – your website or social media profiles.
Examples: Giphy, Tenor, Bitmoji, Syntesia, IMGflip meme generator etc.
23. Host a free webinar or course.
Although many marketers predict its demise, the webinar continues to function as a technique for preparing leads to buy. Maximum results are achieved by B2B companies, but you can use this type of content in B2C as well.
For example, you can create online courses for using the products you sell – accessible for free or premium, with the Online courses in unosoft.
Likewise, you can hold a live webinar, such as a presentation, workshop or Q&A, at the end of which you make an offer for multiple product bundles in your store.
24. Ask for reviews.
Gain the trust of potential customers by posting social proof: testimonials, ratings, pictures and photos from other satisfied customers, recommendations from authoritative people in your niche, etc.
All this content can be obtained if you create a procedure to ask for reviews at every interaction with existing customers. As I showed you above, you can set up an email bot with an invitation at a certain time after the order to ask for customer feedback.
You can also create an NPS campaign with a form and surveys to find out how your customers and followers rate you.
Use the content you get on your website, especially in landing pages and decision areas (checkout, for example), social media posts, newsletters, ads, etc.
25. Organize a contest / giveaway.
A giveaway or a contest that does not require a high level of involvement from the audience is one of the most effective techniques to attract traffic.
The important thing is to have a goal for each such action: either you want to increase the number of followers on social media, or you want to increase the email address base (and then people have to sign up on your website to participate), or you want to increase orders.
For example, you can do a prize draw on orders placed in a certain period, with attractive prizes or even random free orders.
26. Participate in an event in your industry.
Events in your industry are opportunities to interact with the community, learn new information, techniques and tools, or even find a mentor to help you grow your business.
That’s why you should make the most of them. Be active, chat with other participants, ask questions to the speakers and get involved in the games created by the organisers.
There is always something to be gained by doing this – and one of the smallest gains would be a prize consisting of useful materials for you as a participant.
27. Be a speaker at such an event.
To strengthen your company’s brand and your public image, if given the opportunity, be a speaker at an event in your industry.
Take advantage of almost free promotion – because your name and your company’s name is mentioned on registration pages, in press releases, in postings made by event organizers. Materials that you can also distribute on your company’s channels, so you can take advantage of the momentum.
And all these mentions can be further dissipated by other speakers.
You automatically widen your audience, and can attract the attention of potential customers who will actively seek you out, and even buy. In addition, in your presentation at the event, you can mention more about your business, increasing interest in it and the products you sell.
28. Organize an event for your industry.
In the same vein, when you organize an event for your industry and invite all kinds of partners or speakers on stage, you increase your authority and visibility. And you get free promotion from them, maybe even with a link to your website.
This advice is not for everyone. If you are just starting out in business and your name is not yet known, you will find it difficult to have credibility as an event organiser or to attract well-known names to make your event attractive.
Also, doing a big, large event is super expensive.
But you can do micro-events, like fairs, open days, charity matches, online webinar series, etc. Find your niche, don’t bet on organizing mega events right away.
29. Complete and update your Google My Business profile occasionally.
It’s free and an extremely versatile tool for branding & SEO. So make sure you complete your Google My Business profile correctly and maintain it continuously.
That means occasionally adding new content about your company and products, encouraging and responding with dignity to reviews and questions, and encouraging people to check it out.
When searching for your company name on Google, it should be the first thing people see. That’s why it’s so important to contain current information with the potential to answer their questions and draw them to the site to learn more.
Yes, even if you sell nationally!
30. Activate Schema.org and use structured data
If you sell online with unosoft, you have access to Schema.org in unosoft Apps. All you need to do is activate it, fill in your custom data, and it will automatically act on your website.
It’s exactly that simple.
You see, Schema Markup is a piece of code that you place on your website to help search engine spiders return relevant results to users.
Basically, Schema.org structures the data in such a way that bots can correctly understand the site, the content, the pages, the structure of the site itself.
Once the application is activated, the platform will automatically retrieve the data needed to enrich your results, and you’ll attract the most relevant traffic and be displayed in search engines for relevant searches.
31. Fill in meta tags on your site, using formulas
I refer to the meta title and meta description of your website pages. These pieces of text in code signal to search engine robots what the topics and keywords of each page are – what the content inside is and does.
Meta titles are even a factor taken into account by Google’s algorithms when ranking your site. So, completing meta tags is an action that can bring more traffic to your site.
When done properly, they can help you sort traffic, lower your bounce rate, and bring qualified people to buy from your site.
Examples of formulas for meta tags:
✅ Meta title:
[$name] | Shop Online [$categoryName] / [$beneficiu]
✅ Example:
Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation | +Cadou
✅ Meta description:
Buy now [cuvânt cheie], perfect for [rezultat dorit / tip de utilizator]. [beneficiu principal] + [caracteristică diferențiatoare]. [Diferențiator magazin]!
✅ Example:
Buy Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place foundation now for flawless / 24-hour skin. Natural-looking, poreless effect +Coupon guaranteed
32. Create an infographic based on research or with interesting universal data.
Infographics are an attractive type of content on the surface of the sales pitch. In other words, they are a tool for attracting and qualifying traffic to your store.
Generally, people find it expensive and complicated to make an infographic. But you don’t necessarily have to hire a graphic designer to build you a completely new material. You can use existing templates with Canva, for example, or another visual creation tool.
The important thing is to present new data, case studies you or your market have done (with sources, if applicable) or information about your business and products, such as curiosities.
Besides the link building potential and interesting content for your newsletter, blog and website, the infographic can be chunked and posted in a carousel format or series of social media posts.
Read also: How could I create content that sells
33. Optimize your images for Google Images Search.
Many people buy with their eyes, since online we can’t use our other senses much. So we recommend that you take great care with how the images used on your site look and optimise them to be better indexed.
Did you know that Google Images Search has an impact on the buying decision process?
In niches such as home & deco, fashion, jewellery, decoration, etc., people are using images more to select the site that is best suited to give them what they are looking for. That’s why Shopping Ads works so well.
Make sure you have a relevant name for the images uploaded to the site, and Alt-Text filled in.
Fortunately, if the image name is a custom one – keywords in the name – and you sell with unosoft, the platform takes the alt-text automatically from the name.
Read also: Best practices for Product images in your online store: size & layout
34. Collaborate with another one-off business per campaign.
When you don’t have a large budget available for advertising, an alternative method for increasing potential audience interest is to collaborate with another business on a long-term or one-off basis per campaign.
Generally, it’s businesses with services or products adjacent to your business, with which you are not in direct competition.
For example, if you sell toys or children’s products, you can work with kindergartens, corner shops, playrooms, etc.
Your collaboration can also take many forms: you can create a package of products and services by combining highlights from both companies, you can promote each other in relation to a type of event or occasion in the life of your common audience, you can create larger content together (infographic, case study, video, webinar, etc.).
35. Create and publish short videos on reels and YouTube Shorts.
This year is the year of short video content, on reels, shorts, tiktok and so on. From here, it is picked up and dispersed from one channel to another, as long as it supports video format.
It’s all about consumption habits; the impression that we don’t have much time and the hunger for new information makes us consume short video content. But also be aware that there are certain scenarios for your niche that can make your videos viral.
It’s not enough just to film – it’s also important how you edit the video, if you use subtitles, if you follow a certain trend or challenge, a certain song or sticker, if you approach the subject from a certain point of view, etc.
But it’s not expensive and, through repetition, you can find the formula that works for you. People come to the site through multiple points of contact and buy.
36. Organize a challenge (maybe even course type) over a period of time.
You are probably familiar with the concept of a challenge, usually for 30 days.
Even we’ve done such challenges, most famously on Instagram and SEO, and more recently a 30 action PDF for TikTok.
No matter what products or services you sell, a challenge can help you build a recurring audience, which through repeated returns will gain more and more trust in you. From this point, you can more easily guide them to the right products and convince them to buy.
We recommend that you make a challenge relevant to the niche in which you sell. For example, if you have a fashion website, it doesn’t work to do a challenge on improving eating habits. But if you sell food, organic or vegan products, the topic might work.
So, stay on the niche and focus on the needs and aspirations of your ideal customers. These are the results they should get by following your challenge.
Read also: How to boost your sales when the holiday season is slow
37. Do inexpensive customer loyalty actions.
What relatively inexpensive things can you do for your customers?
- You can handwrite a thank you note/letterto add to the parcel.
- You can add a gift item to your order, one of the less expensive products on your website or a product created specifically for this purpose: a badge, bookmark, small decoration, sticker, etc.
- You can give them loyalty points – if you have the minimum unosoft Pro membership, loyalty points are included in it, and all you have to do is activate them.
- You can implement post order email sequence, to send them helpful content at a certain time after ordering – you can activate them for free with Email Bot.
- You can create a discount code conditional on cart value, to reward them for being part of your community and, at the same time, to increase the value of the cart.
38. Invest in some more advanced copywriting skills for headlines.
Many consider writing a talent. If you don’t have it from a young age, there’s not much chance for you in the future.
But that’s a myth. Because the development of your writing is more a matter of exercise, perseverance and knowledge. When you write every day, it’s clear that you’ll get better and better every day.
This is what you should be guided by, whether you have a talent for writing or not. Take some classes and, better yet, read up on copywriting.
Concentrate on the headline area, because headlines are fundamental for an entrepreneur.
If you have a grasp of what an engaging and impactful headline should look like, the success of your offer pages, the open rate of your emails, the impact of your posts – all of these will increase.
Because headlines make marketing materials get if not fully consumed, at least opened.
39. Create product packages and put them on sale.
You can boost the sales of your regular products on your website by presenting them in a new context.
In other words, the moment you put them together in a package suitable for different occasions or purposes, for example, and at a lower price than they would be if you took them separately, your products become more attractive.
Product bundles on the site can be activated with the unosoft Apps app, available from the Plus subscription.
You can create discounted packages or create a new, individual product by joining multiple products from the site.
In this case, you use Bundle application (premium), and you need to create new images, name and content for the product.
Experiment with the options you have at hand and see which brings you more customers.
40. Sell and upsell through messaging.
You know what might work well for you to increase sales? The follow up part via chat, on or off site.
The policies of communication or social media platforms might not allow you to open the communication yourself, but need the initiative of the potential customer.
That’s why the upsell and post-order recommendations part will work better, or sale + upsell when the customer initiates the conversation.
In general, this strategy works when you run social media ads for relatively low-cost products that can trigger impulse buys.
It’s a good tactic to reach baby boomers and early millennials, who are more easily influenced by such conditions.
41. Use SMS Marketing specifically for existing customers.
There is a one-off cost for each SMS you send to your customers.
But you can find a bulk offer for messages, and if you focus on existing customers for sales purposes, you might have a good ROI.
Also make sure you have your customers’ consent to send them SMS after their order. Add this in the Terms and Conditions, and offer an unsubscribe option in every SMS sent.
Use the available credits for advertising your campaigns and add a special discount code for this audience.
42. Invite customers to promote you in a trackable way [coduri discount].
I have also mentioned this above. Let’s detail it a bit.
Use your brand ambassadors and loyal customers, and turn them into influencers for your business.
In unosoft, through Shopping Cart moduleyou can create individual, personalised discount codes or links to send to each customer, with an invitation to share them with their friends.
Then, in the Reports section of your admin, you can monitor how many orders each discount code brought you.
When you notice that some of your customers are performing better than others, you can send them new codes + benefits to boost their efforts and generate even more orders.
43. Get UGC and incorporate it into your strategy.
UGC or consumer generated content is a powerful social proof for your store, but also additional content that can be indexed by search engines to support your SEO strategy.
That’s why you need to ask for it consistently (with customer consent, of course) and distribute it in a controlled way across your communication and sales channels.
Where we use UGC:
- Paid advertisements – as proof of trust
- Organic Social Media – post + invite others to leave a review
- In product pages
- In a dedicated section of the website with customer testimonials or image gallery
- Embedded in promotional videos
- In newsletters
- In blog articles
44. Reuse old content, in another form.
A blog post can be turned into a video posted on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
A video can be turned into a blog article, cut into chunks on shorts and reel, or turned into audio content for a podcast.
A Facebook post and its comments can be turned into a blog article. For example, we did this with the 40 books for entrepreneurs that you should read too.
Maximize the impact of content already posted by transforming it into another format. This way, you make sure it reaches more people – because the more homes there are, the more consumption habits there are.
Maybe you’ll reach customers interested in this content and more qualified to act… as long as they haven’t previously consumed it because it wasn’t in the right format.
45. Contact your old customers by phone.
Existing customers, and especially loyal ones, will be more willing to answer your phone in the first place.
You can ask them to tell you what they would like from your store, if they want to leave a review or you can upsell them, taking into account the products they originally ordered + tips & tricks.
That call can be made without a prior appointment or by appointment. Try to see what works for you.
It’s more of an investment of time on your part or your team’s part. But if you prepare thoroughly and offer relevant value to your stakeholders, you might make sales that cost you less than PPC, for example.
46. Appear in the local press.
It costs you less to appear in the local press online, either in the news (company news, end of year dates, start of year plans, jobs up for grabs, events organised or sponsor in certain actions), either in advertorials (about your products, with specific link).
The impact is also more focused, because these news stories appear to a relatively repetitive audience – people who follow the local press or are part of communities where the links are posted.
Local mentions also lead to boosting your local SEO rankings.
So make sure your NAP (name, address and phone number of the business) are accurate and consistently used in all local press appearances or other such sites.
Read also: How to make a press kit for your online business
47. Keep track of and sign up to sites where your business name appears (reviews, discounts, etc.).
You’ve probably searched for a store name along with kw at least once. reviews or reviews. Or maybe together with kw discount.
There are various sites and aggregators that gather separate information about your site in order to provide objective data to potential customers. It’s important to be aware of their existence and even keep track of them, if you have the possibility.
For example, you can respond to reviews or comments with thanks or possible options for resolving situations that have arisen.
In the same way, you can send special codes to sites or communities that advertise discounts to boost sales on your site.
48. Segment your offers by audience/stage
When you make an offer with everything for everyone, the chances of getting maximum profit from it are very low.
The message can no longer be specific, but will be shared in such a way as to reach the most general audience who, most likely, are not even aware that you have the solution to their problem.
Because you’re offering them all possible solutions.
Our advice is to segment your offerings according to the audience you want to target, or even the stage they are at.
Existing email marketing or targeting tools in ads platforms are advanced enough so that you can set your messages to display only to the desired segments.
Also, a super specific offer won’t work for a lead who is just making their first contact with your company, when they don’t even know who you are or trust you.
49. Offer a massive discount on a star product, then upsell
It’s a time-honored tactic and it works just as well today, including online. It’s like walking into a store and seeing a cool shirt that you’ll buy at a super good price.
You automatically take it under your arm and are curious if the rest of the products are a bargain as well.
The discount for the star product acts as an attention-hook and, moreover, is meant to whet transactional appetite.
With a little guidance from you – product recommendations, popups, notifications – the customer will be persuaded to see other products, add to cart and buy… especially when you also have a value threshold for free shipping.
50. Offer pre-order bonuses
Your customers will stop focusing on the value they have to pay when they find out that for such a low price, they actually get 2-3 times more.
In an online store with products, when you want to apply this strategy, you make use of gifts-on-demand or extra products when purchasing a bundle of products.
Very importantly, the human should not only see them when they get to the product page, but throughout the decision process – starting from the banner or text that attracted them to the site, and until after checkout.
And that’s the end of the list!
Use your money wisely, understand in depth what your cashflow looks like and find alternative ways to promote yourself – because what others do won’t always work for you.
Test today’s ideas in your strategy – incorporated, not implemented separately – and reinforce your customers’ perception of your business the way you want it to be.
Don’t forget, too, to make the most of the benefits we provide in the unosoft eCommerce platform.
Automatically optimize your costs when you start sell with us: you get subscriptions starting from 7 euros per month, exclusive payment and delivery services, native marketing, sales and automation tools, and a whole team ready to answer your questions.
Good luck with sales!
