The Six Figure Mom

3 Ways to Increase Sales for your Online Business

January 07, 2020 Erin E Hooley Season 2 Episode 1
The Six Figure Mom
3 Ways to Increase Sales for your Online Business
Show Notes Transcript

What are the three ways to increase sales for your online business? Join host, Erin E Hooley as she breaks down her 3 core strategies for building two multi million dollar online brands through a constant monitoring and increasing of site traffic, conversion rate and average order value. 

Give your top line sales goals some context as you understand the data and shifts needed to take your business to the next level.

Want more? Connect with Erin on Facebook and Instagram at @erinehooley and at erinehooley.com 

Speaker 1:

We all know that every great thing starts with a goal, so having a goal is the first part, but do you know what to do to make that goal a reality? In today's episode, we're going to break down how to reach that top line sales goal for your e-com business. There are three core ways and we're going to discuss exactly what opportunities exist to make it happen.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the conquering chaos podcast. I'm Aaron E Hooley, executive coach, speaker and serial entrepreneur as well as mother of six and this is the ultimate hangout where I share all the juicy details behind building to multimillion dollar eCommerce businesses, Bailey's blossoms, and Peyton. Bree, if you're looking to launch yourself to the next level and your personal professional growth journey, you're in the right place. Grab a pen and paper because we're about to redefine what success looks like. All right

Speaker 1:

guys, it is a new year and I've got so much great content in store for you. If you've been with me for a while, you know that I am a sucker for all things, goals and growth so you better believe I have blocked out my calendar like a boss to make the most out of Q1 this year. Now I've been doing a lot of coaching these past few months and I've been loving every moment of it. But the fascinating thing is that the problems are the same from the aspiring entrepreneur to the executive team member and CEO goal setting and time blocking. They seem like such primary answers but they truly hold the keys to the kingdom. So this is what I want to stress to you today. I'm going to pack a punch and make it short and sweet because I want to give you the opportunity to define what it is you are trying to accomplish. Now today I'm speaking directly to eCommerce business owners and business builders, but of course these same principles apply despite your industry. So it is very easy to say my goal is a top line dollar figure. But if you can't put context behind what that means, your goal is a fantasy. It is a dream. I'm sorry to break your heart, but that is the truth. If you don't know how to get to your goal, your goal is not a goal. It is a wish. So we're going to put a little context behind this. We're going to break this down a little bit. So let's say if you have an online eCommerce business, there are three ways to increase your top line sales. Number one, you can increase your traffic. The more people come to your website, the more people check out more money. It's pretty easy. Number two, you can increase your conversion rate, meaning instead of a one or 2% conversion rate, meaning one or two people out of a hundred come to your website and check out, you increase it to a three or 4% so that way without any increase in traffic, you're increasing your sales because more people out of every hundred people are checking out. Makes sense. The third way is to increase your average order value. So let's say my average order value is$35 I can increase it to$50 these are the three core ways to increase your top line sales. So number one, define okay, what top line sales dollar figure do I actually want? And then two, what does that mean? What am I doing? Am I tackling the conversion rate? Am I tackling the traffic? Am I tackling the average order value? It's important that you pick one because if you try to attempt all of them simultaneously, you may not be able to strike with the degree of impact to where you're going to see a real difference. We're looking for high impact in one area, master it, and then move on. So you're going to choose one. So for example, if I'm going to choose increase traffic, the first thing I might do is I'm going to look and see, okay, well where is my traffic coming from? Am I maximizing the way that I can utilize those traffic drivers? For example, if it's email, am I sending out one email a week? Could I send out two or three? At what point do people stop listening to me? Have I maximize those efforts to get the greatest potential gains from that channel? If it's Facebook or Instagram, how often am I showing up? Am I being consistent? If I am and I've already tapped out and I'm already putting out two to three posts a day, have I looked at the type of content I'm pushing? Do I know that it's the most relevant? Do I know that it's the most engaging? Can I break down that data to be able to determine that I'm driving forward with the best potential and highest converting content that I have? And that brings me to increased conversions. Now, if somebody comes to your website, similarly as though they are walking down the strip of a mall and we all know when we go shopping at a mall, we don't go into every single store. We look through the window. Now the homepage of your website is your window, so you need to make sure that the content that is smacks people right in the face is the best of the best. Don't put the stuff that you can't figure out how to sell on the front page of your website. Put the stuff that you know people are converting at the highest potential rate possible. That's the stuff you want to showcase at the very top of your website. That is the best that you have. You're going to put that in your window display in hopes to get people to come in and poke around a little bit. Something that small can be the difference between a half a percent or more in conversion rate. Going into a full website audit. Condense that header space, makes sure that you're maximizing the real estate when somebody's on their mobile phone or their or their laptop or computer to make sure that when they're looking, what is the content they're seeing? How much space is it taking up? What does that user experience like? Where are the hiccups in the process? You need to go through the entire process, audit yourself and then ask some trusted friends to audit it as well and give you some hard truths and feedback. Another thing I highly, highly recommended, I cannot stress this enough. If I'm going to put the best of the best on my website. First I'm going to determine what is driving the greatest degree of revenue and profit and if I can determine that a specific category of goods is driving that revenue, then that category of goods, I want to be front and center on the homepage of my site but doesn't just stop there. Then I'm going to go into that category of goods and I'm going to say, okay, what are the best pieces within this category that are driving the revenue that are converting at the highest rate? And then I'm going to take an image of one of those top three items and I'm going to showcase that on the banner that's representing the entire collection. So you see, as you break down this data, as you dive in deep, you can make these easy, simple changes that will make all the difference as to whether they stay or bounce once they come into your store. Now lastly, increase your average order value. If this is your goal, this is a great one as well. You might be looking saying, man, what can I do? Everybody is purchasing$35 I want them to purchase 50 or they're purchasing 50 I want to purchase a hundred whatever your situation may be. First and foremost, consider doing a free shipping at 20% higher than your current average order value and see if that drives people to purchase just a little bit more to get them up over that hump. What does it look like to increase prices a little bit? Can you afford to do that? What is your business model? What does it look like to add complimentary items to the items that they're already purchasing? Bailey's blossoms started out as hair accessories and I realized that it wasn't a very great dollar per hour proposition for me. I was making tons of these stupid little things for three to five bucks and I couldn't, I was barely ever getting a sale more than$20 but it was so labor intensive. So what did I do? I looked for ways that I could add a higher dollar value item to that same purchase to increase the order value and therefore increase the value of my time and my efforts. That's when I started making tutus. That's when we started introducing rompers. That's when we started to morph into a clothing line. It wasn't an overnight thing. I looked at the data, I considered what opportunities were available to me and I took them. So here you see when you sit down and you start to make goals for yourself in this new year, you need to get so granular as to, okay, the goal is great, but how am I getting there? What are the tangible steps I need to do today, this week, this month, this quarter to make it happen and how am I holding myself accountable? If you're not holding yourself accountable to your goals, your goals will ultimately be left to chance and chance is not very friendly. The people who succeed the most are the ones who set clear goals with clear expectations and hold themselves very accountable. One of the wisest things that I have ever done is having somebody who will ask me the tough questions. Having somebody that will say, you know what? No, you shortchanged yourself. You fell flat this month. What are you doing to change it next month? Ask yourself the tough questions and that's when change will start to happen. You guys, this is a fantastic opportunity. Any opportunity we have to be able to take a step back, get up out of the weeds to a 500 foot level to consider what it is we're trying to accomplish. Whether this is a personal goal, a professional goal, regardless of what your goal is, get up above it high enough to be able to see with greater context to be able to put some clear identifiers in place in order for you to truly strike with precision on any goal that you have in your mind's eye.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for joining me today on the conquering chaos podcast. I'd love to know what you thought of this episode. So take a quick screenshot and tag me on social at Ernie Hooli or leave me a review so I can share the love. Thanks again. I hope you're leading, feeling empowered to get out there and conquer some chaos.