Understanding the Holiday Shopper

Modern consumers are trading down, seeking value while also desiring experiences and personal connections. They prefer businesses offering unique, personalized services, and community engagement. This shift opens up numerous opportunities for small enterprises.

Creating a Festive In-Store Experience

Physical stores can become holiday attractions. Creative decorations, themed events, and promotions, coupled with an omnichannel approach combining in-store and online experiences, can attract and retain customers.

Leveraging Online Platforms

A strong online presence is critical. Enhance your digital platforms with festive themes, promotions, and gift guides. Utilize AI and generative AI for personalized marketing and improve online interactions through advanced chatbots.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Social media offers a platform for inspiration and engagement. Utilize platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube to inspire and engage your audience. Collaborative promotions with other businesses can create unique experiences.

Personalization and Customer Service

Personalization is crucial. Use customer data to offer customized experiences and promotions. Exceptional customer service, both in-store and online, is vital to meet high consumer expectations.

Fast Fulfillment and Inventory Management

Consumers expect fast fulfillment options like same-day delivery and curbside pickup, especially among younger demographics. Efficient inventory management and transparent communication about product availability are essential.

Post-Holiday Strategies

Extend holiday strategies beyond December. Post-holiday sales, exchanges, and New Year promotions can drive ongoing traffic and sales. Use this period for collecting feedback and data analysis for future strategies.

Conclusion

The extended 2023 holiday season offers small businesses the chance to adapt and excel. By embracing consumer trends towards value, experiences, and fast fulfillment, and leveraging technology for personalization and efficiency, small businesses can enjoy a successful holiday season.

The Rise of the Online Bonanza

Gone are the days of leisurely strolls down local main streets for Small Business Saturday. In today’s fast-paced, internet-centric world, online small businesses are capturing the day with innovative strategies, creating a virtual shopping frenzy that rivals any physical shopping district.

Flash Sales Frenzy: A New Kind of Rush

Imagine the buzz of a flash sale: hourly deals creating a virtual shopping frenzy. This strategy mirrors in-store doorbusters but in the digital realm, sparking excitement and urgency without the physical lines. It’s about creating an atmosphere of anticipation, with customers ready to snag unbeatable deals.

Virtual Hangouts: Bringing Personalization Online

In a world with limited physical interaction, virtual hangouts have become the new face-to-face. These sessions, from live Q&As to product showcases, build a personal connection with the audience. They add a human element to the digital space, allowing real-time interaction and engagement.

Social Media Blitz: Crafting a Viral Sensation

Social media has become a key battleground for small businesses. Using these platforms, businesses can run contests, share customer stories, and broadcast their unique value propositions, aiming to create compelling content that turns viewers into loyal customers and advocates.

E-Commerce Excellence: Prepping for the Surge

A robust e-commerce platform is crucial for online Small Business Saturday success. This means ensuring the digital storefront can handle increased traffic seamlessly. Technical optimization is vital to prevent crashes, while a smooth, intuitive user journey can effectively turn browsers into buyers.

Email Excitement: Building Anticipation

Email marketing is a potent tool, often underrated. By sending teasers and exclusive previews, small businesses can create a VIP experience for their customers, fostering a sense of exclusivity and anticipation, and nurturing a deeper relationship.

Crafting an Inclusive Digital Experience

As Small Business Saturday evolves, it’s vital for online businesses to ensure their digital spaces are inclusive and accessible to all, including those with disabilities. This commitment to inclusivity broadens the customer base and establishes a responsible presence in the digital marketplace.

The Human Touch in a Digital World

What distinguishes successful online businesses during Small Business Saturday is their ability to infuse the digital experience with a human touch. Personalized interactions, whether through a custom email, a thank-you note, or real-time social media responses, can transform a digital transaction into a memorable shopping experience.

Small Business Saturday: More Than Just a Day

For digital small businesses, Small Business Saturday is an opportunity to showcase their brand, forge lasting customer relationships, and set the tone for the holiday season. It’s a celebration of entrepreneurship and resilience, highlighting the diversity and dynamism of online small businesses.

Conclusion: A Digital Renaissance for Small Businesses

As Small Business Saturday embraces the digital world, it marks a renaissance for small businesses—a shift from traditional to modern, local to global. It’s a testament to the adaptability and creativity of small businesses. In the digital era, the potential for growth and connection is boundless. With the right mix of strategy, technology, and human touch, Small Business Saturday can transcend mere profit, fostering meaningful connections and celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit.

As Small Business Saturday evolves digitally, remember that its core essence remains: celebrating and supporting small business owners’ dreams and efforts, now just a click away.

Preparation: Making a Lasting First Impression

Small Business Saturday is akin to a community’s first date with your business – it’s crucial to make it count. Success starts with ensuring a well-stocked inventory tailored to your clientele. Equally vital is prepping your staff for heightened traffic and customer queries. An informed, responsive team can mean the difference between a missed chance and a sale. And don’t overlook the power of aesthetics: a clean, organized, and festively adorned space invites customers to stay and explore.

Marketing: Crafting a Compelling Message

In our digital era, effective marketing is critical. Use social media to generate excitement about your Small Business Saturday deals. This could range from Instagram stories highlighting new products to Facebook posts about special events. Your aim is to present an irresistible offer. Also, these platforms are perfect for showcasing your business’s personality and values, whether through witty tweets, engaging videos, or eye-catching visuals.

Community Engagement: Stronger Together

Small businesses thrive on community support. Foster this by partnering with nearby businesses for joint promotions, cross-marketing, or community events. Such collaborations benefit all, drawing in customers and introducing them to local shopping options they might have missed. Think of it as the local business community’s Avengers – diverse yet collectively stronger.

Exclusive Offers: The Appeal of Scarcity

Exclusive, limited-time offers for Small Business Saturday can spark excitement and urgency. Think beyond mere discounts – consider special bundles, or unique perks like a complimentary service with purchase or gifts for early birds. These offers should not just lure customers but also enhance their shopping experience, making it memorable and unique.

Storefront Appeal: Your Silent Ambassador

Your storefront is a silent yet potent ambassador, enticing people to venture inside. Invest in eye-catching window displays that reflect your brand’s essence and the festive season’s spirit. Effective lighting, signage, and thematic decorations can transform your storefront into a visual invitation that’s hard to resist. An attractive storefront not only draws attention but also sets expectations for what’s inside.

Conclusion: Beyond a Sales Day

Small Business Saturday is more than a sales spike; it’s a chance for local businesses to showcase their uniqueness, engage with the community, and lay groundwork for sustained growth. By focusing on detailed preparation, strategic marketing, community collaboration, exclusive offers, and a captivating storefront, small businesses can maximize their impact on this pivotal day, turning newcomers into regulars and deepening their community roots.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year, and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.

1. The Client Has Unrealistic Expectations

Sometimes you’ll meet clients with unrealistic expectations — even when those expectations are incompatible with your products and services. They might demand services that you may not be able to deliver. Trying to keep such clients can often damage your relationship with them, encourage them to spread bad word-of-mouth, and hamper your reputation. Identifying such clients in time can prevent that.

– Andrew Munro, AffiliateWP

s2. They’re Unresponsive

The number one way to tell if a client isn’t right for your business is if they are unresponsive. For client-business relationships to work, mutual understanding, communication, and respect are essential. If a client keeps pushing you aside when you need to clarify something for a project you’re working on for them, it may be time to move on at the end of the assignment.

– Daman Jeet Singh, FunnelKit

3. They Complain During Every Step

An obvious sign that a client isn’t a good fit for your business is when they complain about your work every step of the way. I’ve encountered clients who complain because they think they will get a better price or free work. If they are truly unhappy, try to correct the mistake once or twice, and if that doesn’t work, give them a refund. Catering to toxic clients will not help you grow or succeed.

– Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

4. You’re Unable to Meet Their Needs

One should turn down a client whose expectations are hard to meet. They may not be in the wrong in the situation, and they have the right to expect certain things since they will be paying for the solutions offered. However, you should assess whether it will be possible for you to keep up with those expectations considering your current scale of operations or resources available.

– Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

5. They Exhibit a ‘Blame-Oriented’ Mindset

Watch for a “blame-oriented mindset” in your prospecting and sales conversations. Ask a question like, “What solutions or service providers have you tried before to solve this problem, and why didn’t they work?” Observe if the prospect takes any ownership for past failures or solely blames previous providers. Such an attitude is a clear sign of a lack of accountability and collaboration. Turn down such prospects!

– Devesh Dwivedi, Higher Valuation

6. They Constantly Dismiss Your Advice

Picture this: a client who insists on guiding you through uncharted territory while you hold the compass of expertise. When faced with a client who consistently dismisses your professional advice and insists on going against best practices, it’s time to question the compatibility of your collaboration. Remember: You’re the expert for a reason, and your recommendations should be valued.

– Abhijeet Kaldate, Astra WordPress Theme

7. They Aren’t Engaging in the Project

When a client consistently fails to provide the necessary resources, feedback or engagement required for a successful partnership, it’s time to hit pause. A one-sided relationship will leave you feeling like a solo artist in a duet. Seek clients who actively participate, collaborate and invest in the success of the projects you undertake together.

– Adam Preiser, WPCrafter

8. There Is Value or Goal Misalignment

Turn down clients if their values or goals are not aligned with your business. This can lead to conflicts and dissatisfaction and even damage your reputation. Focus on clients who share similar values and goals to maintain your brand’s integrity and benefit from the work you do for them.

– Nic DeAngelo, Saint Investment – Real Estate Funds

9. They’re Always Adding ‘One More Thing’

You can tell a client is not right for your business, especially if you’re a freelancer, if they keep adding “one more thing” to the project. For instance, if you’re a writer and a client asks you to edit some of their other work “as a friend,” it may be time to end the partnership. This situation will lead to you doing tons of work and extra assignments for free, which was not the arrangement. 

– John Turner, SeedProd LLC

Prospecting is the process of searching for new customers, clients, or business opportunities. It involves researching and contacting potential leads, as well as presenting goods or services to potential buyers. Ultimately, the goal is to turn prospecting possibilities into concrete sales.

The numbers prove that prospecting is a worthwhile process. In a study of 488 buyers by the RAIN Group, 82% accepted meetings with salespeople who reached out proactively. This means early connections with potential leads get your foot in the door — and bring you one step closer to making a sale.

Why Prospecting Matters for B2B sales

Successful prospecting is vital to business-to-business sales. To start with, it allows salespeople to identify and nurture potential customers who are well-suited to the product or service that they’re selling. This can remove some guesswork from the selling process, which is a huge advantage.

Prospecting also helps salespeople understand the needs of their target markets. It gives them valuable insight into the buying process, allowing them to better tailor their sales approach and more effectively close deals.

What’s more, new buying preferences have made prospecting even more important than it already was. With more avenues for communication than ever before, businesses demand responsiveness. A recent McKinsey survey of more than 3,500 B2B decision-makers indicates that they expect 24/7 availability across in-person, remote, and self-service engagement modes.

Because prospecting is so important in B2B sales, it’s critical that salespeople adapt to these new preferences. Above all, this means responding to prospecting challenges quickly and decisively.

3 Challenges of Prospecting and How to Solve Them

There are several obstacles that can impede your prospecting efforts. Here are some tactics you can use to overcome three of the most common:

1. Finding qualified leads

The first step of prospecting is also one of its biggest challenges: finding qualified leads. This can be a time-consuming, research-intensive process. It can even be difficult to identify the right type of prospects for your products or services.

This is where your knowledge of your customer base matters. Once you define your ideal customer profile and create a list of leads who most closely match it, you can use targeted marketing tactics such as email campaigns or content marketing to reach them. It’s a tactic that other companies have come to rely on: A recent survey from Content Marketing Institute indicates that 80% of respondents succeeded in creating brand awareness with content marketing.

2. Lack of time

Prospecting takes time and effort. In fact, Crunchbase found that top sellers spend about six hours per week researching prospects. The process pays off, but it may be too time-consuming for some business owners to make use of.

To make the process faster, consider using automation tools. For example, a customer relationship management system or some kind of lead-tracking software might be what you need to speed things up. These solutions streamline the prospecting process and reduce the amount of time you spend researching and contacting leads.

You could also outsource your prospecting. Because outsourcing reduces costs and increases efficiency, it’s a great investment in general. It allows businesses to focus on core responsibilities while third parties handle the tedious tasks of the prospecting process. This reduces overhead costs associated with hiring and training staff and allows businesses to access larger pools of potential customers.

3. Too many leads

A successful prospecting strategy can actually generate too many leads. While this might seem like a good thing, it can quickly become a problem. A mountain of leads can overwhelm salespeople and lead to missed opportunities. Invesp found that, on average, 80% of sales require five follow-up calls to close a deal — far more than an overworked sales team can do for any lead. No one wants to lose out on an opportunity because of a missed call.

Organization is key. Segment leads into different categories and create a specific follow-up plan for each group. This will help with prioritizing efforts and ultimately ensure that no leads are overlooked. Even something simple, such as making a plan for a personalized follow-up, can lead to success: Outreach found that personalized subject lines increase open rates by 22%.

Takeaway

In sales, adapting to market preferences can be a game changer. It’s clear that prospects now want a range of communication options. They know their worth, and they won’t hesitate to walk if they don’t get what they want. This is why anticipating and responding to prospecting challenges is so important. Setbacks don’t have to result in failure — they just take creative solutions.

Global pandemics, trade wars, and geopolitical conflicts pose challenges to the manufacturing industry. A recent survey among manufacturing executives revealed that 44% of respondents consider supply chain risks among their top three concerns.

In response, manufacturing companies plan to regionalize (parts of) their production with a view to increasing their resilience to external shocks — 43% of respondents already have specific relocation plans. European retail chain C&A, for example, intends to produce 800,000 jeans per year in a German factory, and Walmart has committed to spending an additional $350 billion through 2030 on items made, grown, or assembled in the U.S.

However, relocating production to countries with high labor costs is expensive. Companies cannot replicate the labor‐intensive production setups and technology used in countries like India, China, and Vietnam. To be cost-effective reshoring requires investment in automating and digitizing production processes. A number of European bicycle manufacturers, for example, are currently relocating frame production to high‐cost countries using fully automated processes — V Frames in Germany and Triangles in Portugal being cases in point.

But while large‐scale producers can distribute required heavy investments across high volumes, small‐scale producers do not have this luxury. They cannot fully utilize asset‐heavy production processes, leading to high machinery costs relative to their volume. A new production model, Production as a Service (“PaaS”), is emerging as a solution to this problem

A New Production Model

“As-a-service” models decouple utilization of equipment from ownership. They first gained scale in IT, when software providers shifted to a subscription model for their products. Content consumption (for example, Netflix or Spotify) and mobility (such as Care by Volvo and TIER Mobility) are among the most visible applications of the model.

In industrial settings, as-a-service models have already appeared at the level of individual production components. Since 2020, for example, Trumpf and Munich Re have joined forces to offer use of a laser cutting machine as a service. Other instances include ALD Vacuum Technologies (which supplies heat treatment), Kaeser (compressed air), and Rolls Royce (power).

PaaS expands this approach to the scope of an entire factory. The fully realized concept has three elements: flexible production, asset sharing, and financial transformation.

Flexible production.

In a limited number of product categories, factories can make multiple different products on the same manufacturing process — an injection molding producer can produce wine storage boxes and industrial pallets on the same machine using different tools. In most cases, though, products require specific processes which limit the ability to switch production to other, completely different products. But factories can still produce variants of the same product. For example, Porsche has developed the Multi Product Line, a highly flexible body‐in‐white production concept that can produce hang‐on parts for Porsche, but also for other, non‐Porsche brands.

Asset sharing.

By sharing a factory small‐series producers, which do not have sufficient volumes to fully leverage the capacity of highly automated production equipment, can enjoy some of the cost benefits that come from scale. To be sure, sharing facilities with unrelated companies creates compliance, antitrust, and intellectual property risks. Protection mechanisms are needed, like those commonly found at suppliers serving multiple competing customers. For example, critical products must be protected from sight when customers visit the site and sensitive data must be strictly separated.

Financial transformation.

As-a-service models decouple equipment utilization from ownership, as external investors finance and own the production assets. In many cases external investors may be reluctant to assume all the risks associated with the assets, notably underutilization. In many cases some of the risks can be allocated elsewhere — for example, insurance companies can take risks through risk transfer products, such as a technical availability guarantee, or users can provide utilization guarantees.

PaaS factories are not yet fully evolved. However, there are some examples of production facilities that are almost there, notably the Smart Press Shop in Germany.

The Smart Press Shop

Sports car manufacturer Porsche needed access to an updated press shop in order to benefit fully from technological innovations in the production of chassis parts. But press shops require high utilization to distribute investment costs across as many parts as possible. As a small‐series producer, Porsche did not bring enough volumes to fully utilize a new press shop all by itself.

The automaker decided to take an unconventional approach. It established the “Smart Press Shop GmbH & Co. KG” as a 50‐50 joint venture with Schuler, a press manufacturer, supported by additional debt financing provided by a consortium of banks. The Smart Press Shop (SPS) is a highly flexible press shop, specializing in producing small lot sizes efficiently. Many smart features enable flexible production, such as fully automated tool change‐over, a laser blanking line, and many others. The flexible production system in combination with the joint venture structure enables the Smart Press Shop to offer spare capacity to other automakers (even outside the VW Group).

Through the combination of flexible production and sharing, the Smart Press Shop is capable of meeting Porsche’s quality requirements at competitive costs. The SPS has been fully operational since June 2021 in Halle (Saale), Germany, and acts as an independent supplier to the market. As of today, it produces body parts for Porsche Macan and Panamera, Bentley and expects to become a Tier 1 supplier for other OEMs very soon. “We made production-as-a-service tangible in the Smart Press Shop and proof that PaaS can be realized today, even on a larger scale,” says Christian Hoedicke, managing director of the Smart Press Shop.

The Payoff

PaaS yields multiple benefits for all involved parties.

Users.

All asset users can reduce the upfront investment into production and tied‐up capital (turning CapEx to OpEx). The freed‐up capital can then be used for innovation. In addition, small‐scale producers profit from economies of scale through sharing, which enables a factory to operate larger assets.

Producers.

Providing ongoing services yields multiple advantages for asset producers, including recurring, predictable cash flow and more customer touchpoints to strengthen customer relationships. Moreover, customers in a PaaS setting assess a service provider’s performance by evaluating production output, not machine functionality, which can lead to improved customer satisfaction.

Investors.

PaaS creates a new asset class for external investors, with the production equipment providing tangible collateral. External investors would get access to investment opportunities in otherwise non‐investable assets and can diversify their portfolios in light of increasing market uncertainty. Moreover, the risk‐return profile can be tailored to investor expectations through risk‐sharing structures. Market analysis reveals that outside investment in plant and machinery through the PaaS model could potentially amount to $72–98 billion annually, including  $22–26 billion in the U.S., the same again in China, and $5–7 billion in Germany.

More generally, PaaS makes reshoring economically feasible by addressing scale challenges through sharing, which efficiently provides high levels of capacity utilization. This in turn reduces the length of supply chains and associated CO2 emissions. In addition, sharing. Consequently, PaaS contributes to a more sustainable manufacturing industry.

Sales has always had lonely moments. However, when the pandemic sent salespeople home to Zoom, the loneliness became palpable. This is becoming a costly problem.

Many of the changes to the sales profession are no longer temporary. Our clients are reporting that a portion of buyers are permanently working from home. Sales organizations are hiring more remote employees and video calls are the expected norm.

In an agenda-driven video sales call, the social elements (handshakes, shared coffee, etc.) that once humanized the sales interaction have been stripped away. Without these emotionally engaging elements, and without a bullpen of colleagues to buoy their spirits, sales jobs are increasingly becoming transactional and lonely roles.

As one seller put it, “Before, I was busy all the time, and some of it was fun. Now, I’m on Zoom just trying to stay awake. I’m realizing I need more social interactions, but at the end of the day, I’m too exhausted to make the effort.”

Left unaddressed, salesperson loneliness can become a costly problem. Recent research conducted by one of us (Dr. Good) reveals that loneliness goes beyond just a hit to morale — it has begun to impact salesperson behavior with customers, leading to an erosion of revenue, margin, and market reputation. Dr. Good’s data was gathered from two studies that surveyed more than 250 B2B and B2C salespeople from a variety of industries, as well as follow-up qualitative interviews, performance data, and observations of more than a dozen sales teams. Findings revealed that salesperson loneliness is causing three problematic behaviors that ultimately create a cycle of poor performance:

1. Social awkwardness

When social skills aren’t routinely practiced, they deteriorate like any other muscle. Sellers in the studies were frequently observed misreading social signals and misjudging the importance of key details in exchanges with customers. While not surprising — all of us are a little awkward these days — sellers play a particularly heavy price for missing social cues. Buyers are less likely to engage, and the trust required for relationship building doesn’t happen.

Further compounding this problem is the fact that sellers may be coming into a sales interaction moments after having been rejected by a previous customer. Without the buffer of peers in close proximately to help them reset, this could increase the potential for a confidence deficit, contributing to even more initial awkwardness on the next call. An awkward start has a chilling effect on customer engagement and can derail or, at the very least stall, what could have been a successful sales process.

2. Loss of focus on customer needs

Sellers who are overeager for social connection don’t listen deeply during the needs assessment phase of the sales process. The data revealed that these lonely sellers were more likely to forget critical customer information.

In a virtual environment, the visual cues that make each customer distinctive and memorable are often absent. When each customer is just another tiny box on your same computer, in the same room, talking about the same things, they bleed together. This lack of distinction makes what happened (and what the customer said) harder to remember. As one seller told us, “I’m on with 20 customers a day, and every call feels the same.”

We also saw evidence that because they don’t have enough meaningful social connections outside their job, sellers can wind up treating the customer as a confidante, someone they share with, rather than someone whose needs should be the organizing element of the conversation. 

Without a clear understanding of customer-specific needs and goals, sellers are unable to create a compelling or differentiated story about their solution. This impaired memory early in the process winds up hobbling them when they try to close.

3. Conspicuous overspending on customers

Nowhere was the direct cost of salesperson loneliness more readily apparent than their expense account. Dr. Good’s studies showed that salesperson loneliness was directly connected to increased spending on customers. It’s not hard to understand why someone who’s lonely would want to buy their clients gifts and meals, or why they might want to reduce the price to maintain a client friendship. These actions usually generate a warm response from customers, and what lonely person doesn’t want to generate a more positive emotional reaction from the people they spend time with?

However warm it might feel in the moment, this “sweethearting” did not improve salesperson performance in either of the two studies Dr. Good conducted. While buyers may have been grateful, and sellers may have gotten the dopamine high of a positive social interaction, this conspicuous overspending did not create additional revenue. It was a cost with no return on investment.

In the current social-starved environment, many sellers are over-indexing on the old adage, “people buy from people they like.” In an effort to be liked, salespeople have forgotten that the true purpose of sales: to improve life for customers.

How Managers Can Help Lonely Salespeople

As humans, we’re hardwired to seek meaningful connection. The challenge for sellers (and their managers) is two-fold: the shift to virtual created a huge interpersonal void for salespeople whose time had previously been filled with human interaction. Second, when salespeople try to mitigate their loneliness, their coping behaviors play out with customers, which has a direct impact on the organization’s financial health and reputation.

The three above behaviors create a dangerous cycle that erodes competitive differentiation, eats away at the margin, and results in costly turnover in the sales role. With the virtual world of selling unlikely to fully revert, it is crucial that leaders proactively mitigate this problem. Here are eight strategies to break this cycle:

Create situations that encourage non-competing.

When every sales meeting feels like Shark Tank, with coworkers pitted against each other, it reinforces the loneliness. Go beyond the usual sales reporting meetings and give your salespeople regular opportunities to be together without an agenda or contest. Something as simple as a weekly 15-minute “Share your favorite TV binge” huddle gives sellers a way to connect with coworkers rather than thrusting their loneliness on unsuspecting customers.

Activate a sense of shared purpose.

Sales loneliness magnifies when sellers feel that they’re nothing more than a lone wolf quota filler. You can help counter this feeling by regularly reinforcing a sense of higher purpose. Make a practice of discussing how your organization’s solutions make a difference to customers, and how each member of the team contributes. This reminds sellers that their jobs have meaning and that they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Design a structure for peer-to-peer support.

Hold regular peer meetings in which sellers brainstorm together to help improve each other’s skills. For example, you can ask people for their favorite questions to ask during discovery or how to open new conversations without awkwardness. Putting sellers in a situation where they’re sharing best practices creates a support structure they can draw upon during times of challenge and change.

Do some brain training.

Listening skills were the most obvious (and potentially detrimental) thing to decline for reps experiencing loneliness. Reverse this trend by running a quick training drill for your sales team where they practice listening and responding to each other describing personal things like weekend plans or how they’ve arranged their workspace. Improving their listening skills in lower-stakes social settings, where there’s not a deal at risk, will help them do the same in front of customers.

Make sure your sales team is crystal clear on your value proposition.

When a rep has confidence in the value proposition they’re offering to customers, they’re less likely to discount or “sweetheart.” Without this solid base, a rep is more likely to feel like they are risking the personal connection by offering a price that may be perceived as too high or overspend on the customer to mitigate negative feelings.

Set spending guidelines and model appropriate gifts.

When spending guidelines are vague, it diverts attention from the true objective of the sale, which is to improve life for customers. Show your sellers exactly what appropriate and effective spending looks like. Perhaps it’s giving customers a helpful book about an issue they’re facing or providing a coffee gift card for them to use in your meeting. Demonstrate to your team that your solution combined with their own expertise is enough; you don’t need elaborate gifts to make connections.

Encourage your salespeople to schedule small breaks between client calls.

Tell your salespeople, “Give yourself five minutes between calls to review the notes, have a glass of water and remind yourself how we improve life for these customers.” This will increase their confidence in their offering and give them a chance to shake off what may have been an unsuccessful past call.  Grounding themselves in the value of their offering helps them start more strategically and curbs the impulse to overshare.

Encourage friendships outside of work.

Your customers don’t need another friend, but your salespeople probably do. But to have friends, you have to be a friend. Truly caring leaders would be wise to encourage salespeople to seek opportunities to pursue friendship outside of work. While friendship may seem like a touchy-feely topic inappropriate for leadership commentary, the research tells us that a salesperson’s lack of friends can be quite costly. Given the high stakes, it’s a problem worth addressing.

Salespeople are no different than the rest of us. When they’re lonely, they become more awkward, they tend to overshare, and they try to connect in using whatever means they have at their disposal. The above strategies can help mitigate salesperson loneliness, and ensure that your team is approaching customers with calm confidence. 

Amazon’s marketplace is as lucrative as it is crowded.

To profit as a seller, you have to stand out against over two million merchants. But if you do grab buyers’ attention, you’re bound to make sales since so many shoppers flock to Amazon. According to Seller App, a good conversion rate for Amazon sellers is between 10 – 15 percent, depending on the type of products listed.

The key to reaching Amazon shoppers is maximizing your listings’ visibility. There are so many products on the marketplace, and buyers don’t have the time or patience to sift through every single one. Make it easy for buyers to find your products, and you’ll be on track to win greater sales.

To boost your listings’ visibility, we’ll highlight nine key ways to drive external traffic outside of Amazon and internal traffic within the marketplace to your products. Using these strategies will lead buyers to your listings, so they can make their way down your sales funnel and become a customer.

What visibility means for Amazon listings

For products in your own online store, promotion is straightforward. You spread product awareness outside of your store through ads and other marketing efforts to drive traffic back to your listing pages.

Amazon listings are more complicated. They require both external and internal promotion. And with so much competition in the marketplace, sellers have to craft their listings to be highly visible on Amazon’s website, not just outside of it.

External promotion

External promotion for Amazon listing involves using outside channels to drive traffic back to your listing. It allows you to hook shoppers who aren’t already on Amazon to check out your listing.

Here are a few examples of external promotion methods for Amazon listings:

• Social media: Create ads and connect with influencers to spread awareness of your Amazon products and link back to your listings on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• SEO: Include keywords your target buyers are Googling to have them rank high in search engine results.
• Getting backlinks: Find opportunities to link to your Amazon listings — such as publishing blog posts — to increase your items’ visibility and drive external traffic to your products.

With external promotion, you can make your listings stand out to shoppers outside of Amazon and maximize your sales.

Internal promotion

Internal promotion on Amazon helps you get more eyes on your merchandise. The process involves you paying the marketplace to present sponsored ads for your products, which are higher in search results.

Say you’re an Amazon merchant and you want to sell women’s sunglasses. You won’t be the only merchant selling the accessory on the marketplace. As shown below, there are over 20,000 other listings offering “sunglasses for women.”

Sunglasses aren’t an exception — Amazon, across all products, is saturated with merchants. To beat the competition, you have to find ways to increase your product listing’s visibility on the marketplace.

Here are two examples of internally promoting your Amazon products:

1. Win the Buy Box. When sellers share a single listing on Amazon because they all sell the same product, there’s always a Buy Box — the first highlighted price option.

Winning the Buy Box means prime visibility, so it’s a key way of attracting buyers on Amazon. Amazon considers a multitude of factors to pick the Buy Box seller — mainly price, but also others like credibility, seller rating, and shipping type. For Mrs. Jessie’s Quick Curls, the hair product company themselves won the Buy Box. As you can see below, they are the seller boldly listed on the upper righthand corner. Competing sellers are listed on the lower right corner — receiving less attention.

2. Rank high on Amazon product search results. Most buyers won’t move past the first page of search results, so getting a high ranking is a critical way to reach shoppers. You can boost your product rankings on Amazon by applying our promotion tactics below.

According to Amazon Seller Central, the marketplace search engine considers text match, price, availability, selection, and sales history to rank listings. These internal promotion tactics ensure shoppers can easily find your listing in Amazon’s crowded marketplace and make a purchase.

9 ways to promote your Amazon listings

An ideal Amazon promotion plan has a mix of tactics — including internal and external methods. You have to understand both marketplace policies — Buy Box winning and search rankings — to maximize sales. Also, look at ways to drive outside traffic to your listing. In this guide, we’ve outlined nine strategies for driving traffic from inside and outside of Amazon to your listing.

Let’s dive in.

1. Optimize your listings with SEO

Search engine optimization attracts a wide range of buyers to your listing. Both shoppers who are already on Amazon and those who are using other sites can find your listing when you include popular keywords. With these additions, search engines — both Amazon’s and others — determine that your listing is a relevant result and rank it higher.

Two key tools identify the keywords your shoppers are searching for most frequently.

1. Google Keyword Planner: This free tool indicates the monthly search volume of keywords on Google’s search engine. Since Amazon listings can rank on Google, this tool is especially helpful.
2. Scope: This is a keyword tool specifically geared for Amazon. It allows you to track keywords’ monthly volume, ranking position over time, estimated sales, and more.

You can learn more about other SEO tools for finding keywords using this guide.

Once you’ve collected your keywords, place them throughout your listing, such as in the title and description. Detecting these popular keywords, search engines will recognize your listing as a relevant result for your buyers’ searches and rank it higher.

2. Buy Sponsored Product ads

Even with SEO, there’s no guarantee your Amazon listing will be placed higher in search results. The marketplace’s engine considers other factors for ranking — selling history, price, and more — so SEO alone doesn’t necessarily lead to higher rankings.

To gain more control over their listings’ visibility, Amazon sellers can pay for the marketplace to sponsor their products and place them higher in search results.

Sellers only pay when shoppers click on their ad, so the payoff with Amazon promotion is guaranteed. Your listings’ visibility is increased, so shoppers on Amazon can easily find your product and potentially make a purchase.

3. Share listings on social media

The average person spends nearly 2.5 hours per day on social media platforms. Given this popularity, sharing your Amazon listings on social media through your business’ accounts is a powerful way of getting your products in front of more buyers.

Since your followers expect to receive value from your posts, it’s best to avoid creating posts on your account that are basically ads for your listings. Instead, it’s better to share your listing in more subtle ways that are still helpful to your followers.

Here are three ideas:

• Use a social media promo code. Merchants with a Professional Selling account on Amazon can create a promotion link to share through social media about a discount they’re offering. Unlike a traditional ad, sharing a promo code gives users value by helping them save money. For more details on setting up this promo code, check out Amazon’s guide.
• Share content that includes your listing link. Post an informative, helpful blog post or video that includes a link to your Amazon listing on LinkedIn, such as a how-to video or listicle. It’s a great way to indirectly promote your products through social media.
• Host a contest or giveaway. Announce on Facebook or Instagram that any user who posts your Amazon listing in their story will be entered for a chance to win a prize. This reward will motivate users to share your listing and spread the word about your Amazon products.

By creating exciting and relevant content on social, you can promote your Amazon listings in a way that feels natural rather than invasive.

4. Run competitor analyses

For internal visibility on Amazon, your listings need to stay ahead of competitors’ products. In buyers’ searches, your products will fall behind competitors’ items in rankings if you aren’t monitoring how those listings are engaging shoppers.

To keep your listings high in Amazon’s search rankings, here are three factors to monitor in competitors’ listings:

1. Price. You want to keep your listings’ prices at or lower than competitors’. Not only because shoppers are looking for the best deals, but you also want to win the Buy Box if you’re sharing a listing with other sellers. Plus, Amazon highly prioritizes price in choosing the box winner.
2. Images. When Amazon shoppers are browsing through search results, they’re not only looking at price — they’re also checking out images. Visuals can be a very persuasive factor in encouraging purchases, so make sure your listing has higher quality images than competing items.
3. Text. If your listing currently isn’t ranking high for your product keywords, it might be because the listing text isn’t considered relevant by Amazon’s search engine. Analyze the text of the current top-ranking listings for potentially relevant keywords you can include to boost your product.

Finding ways to make your listing outshine competitors on Amazon will increase your product rank in the marketplace’s search results.

5. Partner with influencers

Just like products in an online store, Amazon listings can gain significant traffic through influencer marketing. When prominent individuals in your industry stand behind your product and link to your listing, it sends a message to communities of your key buyers that your listing is worth checking out.

To promote your listing through influencer marketing, start by coming up with a list of key individuals in your sector with a large base of social media followers. Brainstorm this list by considering your own personal network or use an influencer platform like Influence.co.

Once you have a list going, check out this guide to learn about the best ways to reach out to influencers and measure results once they share your Amazon listings.

6. Maintain strong product ratings

First impressions matter when you’re on a marketplace as competitive as Amazon. Buyers are browsing through thousands of products, so they won’t settle for items that seem to be low-quality.

A clear way to give shoppers a positive first impression of your Amazon listings is to maintain high-star ratings. When buyers are browsing through Amazon search results, the star ratings are visible for each product.

Along with the price, these star ratings are a major factor in whether shoppers decide to click on your listings. They can’t see your products in person, so this feedback from other buyers is especially meaningful to shoppers trying to make a purchase.

Here are three tips for maintaining high-star ratings on all of your Amazon listings:

1. Describe your item exactly as it is in your listing. False product details and images may boost sales initially, but ultimately they only hurt your Amazon business. Buyers who receive a product that’s totally different from the listing are bound to leave a low rating in disappointment.
2. Provide excellent customer service. If you don’t handle customer requests properly, such as shipping an item late or not being prompt in completing a return, you’ll upset buyers. Avoid receiving a low product rating by delivering the item as expected and promptly resolving issues.
3. Reach out to disappointed buyers. When a customer leaves a poor rating, reach out to the buyer to see if you can still resolve their issue. If you can fix their problem, they do have the power to edit their review. And if they do, it’ll improve your product’s overall score.

Ratings are a key way for buyers to quickly assess your Amazon products. Make sure your items’ scores stay high to keep buyers interested in your listing.

7. Maintain strong shipping performance

Shipping, at first, might seem totally unrelated to promoting your products. But on Amazon, your shipping performance is a key factor in your listings’ visibility.

Amazon wants to keep shoppers happy, so they discourage poor shipping practices by making shipping a factor in winning the Buy Box and ranking high on Amazon’s search rankings. With consistent shipping issues, you’re less likely to win the Box or to rank high in search.

Instead of hurting your visibility, use these three tips to maintain a strong shipping performance on Amazon:

1. Regularly check your shipping performance metrics. In Amazon Seller Central, you can monitor key shipping performance metrics — like on-time delivery rates — to ensure you’re consistently offering great shipping and pleasing customers.
2. Use Amazon FBA. By signing up for Fulfillment by Amazon, sellers no longer have to worry about providing great shipping as the marketplace handles fulfilling your orders. If there are any complaints about your shipping from buyers, the marketplace will remove the rating since they are responsible for shipping issues.
3. Use inventory management software. Adopting an inventory management program, like GoDaddy Marketplaces, keeps you on track so you can avoid understocking and being unable to complete orders. GoDaddy Marketplaces monitors when your stock is low across channels so you always know when to reorder.

Always provide good shipping, and you’ll increase your potential to rank higher in search results and at winning the Buy Box. With this visibility, Amazon shoppers can easily find your products.

8. Monitor your seller rating

Like shipping performance, your overall seller rating on Amazon also impacts your chances of winning the Buy Box and ranking high in Amazon’s search results.

Punishing low-rated sellers with less visibility is a measure to keep Amazon shoppers happy and sustain the marketplace. It ensures buyers are working with merchants who have a positive record and can provide great service.

To keep your listings visible on Amazon, follow these three tips to maintain a high seller rating:

1. Monitor your seller rating. On Seller Central, you can view the factors that contribute to your overall seller ratings — such as Perfect Order Percentage and Late Response Rate — and determine which ones need to be improved to increase it.
2. Be prompt in customer service. Set a daily reminder to resolve customer issues and respond to customer messages. The quicker you give buyers attention, the more impressed they’ll be with your service.
3. Determine whether negative feedback could be removed. Amazon has clear guidelines for providing feedback. Review this post to determine whether any of your negative feedback from buyers should be removed.

Overall, make an effort to keep your seller rating as high as possible. You’ll help your listings stay visible through the Buy Box and Amazon search results.

9. Launch a Lightning Deal

Beyond convenience, many shoppers come to Amazon for the marketplace’s low prices. With this interest, a primary way of attracting Amazon shoppers to your listing is by launching a Lightning Deal.

Lightning Deals are time-based, marked-down products buyers can find in Amazon’s Today’s Deals section. They draw a lot of attention and sales from Amazon’s shoppers not only because they appreciate discounts but also because their limited time frame motivates buyers to make a purchase.

Sellers have to pay a fee, and Amazon has to approve Lightning Deals before they’re launched.

Here are three of the key guidelines sellers need to meet for their Lightning Deals to be approved:

1. Lightning Deals run for four to twelve hours.
2. Lightning Deals can only run once in a seven-day period.
3. You should have your proposed quantity for the deal available at least seven days before the deal is expected to launch.

To learn more about Lightning Deal guidelines and setting them up, review this guide. With Lightning Deals, more buyers will come across your listings in the Today’s Deals section — driven to purchase within the limited promotion time frame.

Play with promotion to boost Amazon sales

Promoting Amazon products is unlike traditional marketing for a single store where you’re mainly focused on driving external traffic. You also have to find ways to increase your listings’ visibility internally on Amazon. The marketplace is competitive, so you have to find innovative ways to make products stand out against other sellers’ items.

To simplify promotion on Amazon, make the most of the nine key strategies here for boosting your listings’ visibility inside and outside of the marketplace. Experiment with these different methods, and track your results to see which ones lead to greater sales. The more you test these tactics, the better equipped you’ll be to win the attention of Amazon buyers — leading you to stay ahead of competitors.

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For many entrepreneurs, bloggers and ecommerce website owners, buying a domain is an exciting first step to entering the online marketing world. For some people though, it can be an overwhelming time when faced with the question of what to do next: Figure out how to get traffic to your new domain.

Unfortunately, the name alone will not get you much in the form of traffic.

As I’ve joked here on the blog in the past — building a website isn’t like “Field of Dreams.” Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.

In fact, most people will not know your domain name, let alone that you’ve launched a website. Therefore, you’ll have to find a way to get in front of them and make them aware of it.

Having traffic makes it more likely for someone to become a customer or take other actions from your site. But what is the best way to get those critical eyeballs to your new domain?

The good news is there are many methods for how to get traffic quickly, and some are easier than others. If that sounds good to you, keep reading and hopefully, you’ll glean some ideas to get traffic to your new domain name fast!

Why does your domain need traffic?

People buy domains for various reasons, but most do so with the hope of building a website that converts visitors into paying customers. In some instances, a site may get a lot of traffic without much work or effort on the owner’s part. Other sites will find it more challenging and it will require more work to attract people.

Still, getting traffic to a new domain is usually the starting point for any business owner hoping to make money online. Here are some reasons you might want to get traffic to your new domain.

1. Conversion data

Whether you’re just starting or have been doing business for years, you may not have had the chance to get conversion data. Knowing how many people come to your site and how they navigate the pages can help you make future marketing decisions.

2. Offers on your site

Offers are one way of getting money from people visiting your site. Whether you’re offering affiliate products or something else, having a site that people see and ultimately buy from can provide income.

However, it’s important to note that not everyone who comes through your site will buy something. Even if someone doesn’t make a purchase now, they might do so in the future.

3. Raising your domain authority

Getting traffic to a new domain name is helpful because it can help you build up domain authority.

If you find yourself getting more of the right kind of backlinks or social media shares, this could all help with increasing your overall authority on the internet.

You also might see an increase in search engine rankings as a result.

4. Building your brand

Getting traffic to a new domain could also be used to help grow your brand online. People are likely to remember sites they visit regularly. Even if you don’t get direct conversions from the site, getting people there for other reasons could be an effective way of consistently staying top-of-mind with your audience.

How to get traffic to a new domain

Now that you understand the merits of why driving traffic to a new domain is essential, it’s time to talk about how to get traffic quickly. Here are some of them:

1. Buying established domains to build your domain portfolio

When trying to get traffic to a new domain name, some companies may choose to purchase multiple established domains as part of an overall plan to build their portfolio. This includes both purchasing generic keywords and brandable names for later use.

Having a network of domains can allow someone to send traffic to lower authority domains (new ones like your website) from one high-authority domain with the hope of gaining a higher ROI from it. This can be a way for someone without high domain authority to compete with more established websites.

While this method can require time, energy and significant resources, it can sometimes yield the results you’re looking for.

2. Paying for traffic with advertising

Paying for advertising can be a great way to get people to visit your new domain. This can be done through paid ads on social media sites or even more targeted campaigns on search engines like Google Adwords.

Marketing with advertisements is often one of the best ways to quickly generate high volumes of traffic, but it can also be one of the more expensive options. This strategy can be complicated for beginners who may not have the experience or know-how to implement it properly.

3. Linking out to other sites

You often can drive traffic to your new site by getting other people to link to you. You can do this by putting up valuable content on other websites that link to yours.

One of the more popular approaches is known as guest posting, where you contribute an article to another site on a topic related to yours in some way. This can help direct readers to check out your new domain name.

4. Social media reach

Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or another social media site, getting attention on social media platforms can help you promote your domain.

Social media is a great way to generate traffic because it doesn’t require too much effort to get started.

It’s also great for beginners because it’s less expensive than other types of marketing.

Many entrepreneurs I have spoken with feel that paying for advertising on social media will yield the fastest results. Though admittedly, most have said Facebook is dying out in terms of click conversions. Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok are still driving traffic, however.

5. Email advertising

If you have access to an email list (yours or someone else’s), you can use it to promote your domain. Emails featuring links to important pages on your site, like the homepage or a contact page, can help generate interest and bring people to your site.

What do I mean by someone else’s email list? You could guest post for an established blog or website, and if they send the post via email, there is the potential to drive traffic. Another idea is to pay for advertising in their newsletter. A third option is perhaps the riskiest, and that is to buy the list.

You always want to use caution when buying email lists to drive traffic as it could get you blacklisted for spam. Still, it sometimes can work depending on their website’s niche and their introductory email.

6. Influencers and partnerships

In some cases, people who have a big social media following or email list may be willing to partner with you.

Sending free products or a trial of your service and encouraging them to share with their audience is one way to collaborate with others.

This can be a compelling strategy for getting traffic to your new domain.

Of course, it’s worth noting that the higher the level of influence, the more likely it is that you’ll need to pay for access to an influencer’s audience.

7. Guest posting and guest podcasting

I alluded to this in the email advertising tip, but hijacking, er, I mean borrowing other people’s audiences is a great way to get traffic to a new domain name quickly. Writing guest posts on established websites and getting featured as a guest on well-known podcasts will often result in backlinks that can drive people to your website.

The most important thing you can do if this is the method you choose is to deliver maximum value to the audience of the podcast or website you hope to be featured on. The truth is that website owners and podcast hosts know most people are fishing for backlinks, and as a result, they are becoming much pickier about who they feature. Therefore, it’s critical you give a decent pitch and give them more than just a watered-down version of content they are already sharing.

And, the more places you are featured, the more likely you are to get featured somewhere else. Read this post on how to start guest posting for a step-by-step guide to establishing your authority.

Note: Many of these tips can be repurposed for guest podcasting too!

8. Get lucky and go viral

This is the hardest method on the list, but I’ve seen websites crash from the amount of traffic they got from going viral. If you have a funny, scary, gross or otherwise wildly engaging idea for social media or YouTube, it could yield untold amounts of interest in your website.

For this method to work best, you’ll want to add your website link to the bio of all of your social media profiles, YouTube description boxes, about pages, etc. After all, if you go viral and no one knows how to find your domain, all that effort would have been for naught.

9. Organic traffic through SEO

I saved this one for last because although it’s not the fastest way to drive traffic, it’s a tried-and-true method for how to get traffic to a new domain. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything directly and will have the longest staying power.

SEO strategies often take content creation into account, so you will need original written content on your website. This content should be helpful to consumers and past the point of being self-promotional. It should focus on providing value and driving people to take action, such as visiting your FAQ page or contacting you for more information.

As with any marketing strategy, traffic-driving tactics need to be tailored to fit your audience and your niche.

What works for someone else may not work for you, so experimentation is often the best way to know if something will be helpful or not.

Conclusion and next steps

If you have been searching for how to get traffic quickly to your new domain, this post may have burst your bubble. That’s not to say that you can’t get traffic to a new domain name fast. It will take effort, and if speed is the primary goal it might take advertising funds, but it can happen.

Getting traffic to your new domain can be a manageable task if you know the right way to go about doing it. With these tips, you should have no trouble getting people to visit your site — though it may take longer than you would like. Your best bet if you plan to make money online is to focus on the long game and start by putting out really good content.

Try to blend these traffic-driving strategies with your content marketing plan so you can attract the right kind of visitors. And, as I often say on my podcast May your page views be high, and your bounce rate be low!