There’s nothing like a global crisis to make running a company tougher than it already is.

Even after you’ve pivoted to online, strengthening a business these days will inevitably involve selling more of your product or service. Why? Because sales is the lifeblood of every enterprise.

To help you along the process, here are several highly effective methods to increase sales and grow your business. If done right, each has the potential to boost up sales quickly.

Tactic 1: Promote in online groups and forums

Online groups and forums are great places to engage with customers on a personal level. Why? Because:

• One in five Americans recommend their favourite products in forums.
• Around 33% of marketers choose to promote their brands on forums to reach a bigger audience within a specific niche.

In essence, forums and online groups present a great opportunity to get your products and services out there and in front of your target market. These platforms are also suitable for testing new products and services to see if they resonate with your audience.

So, how can you use forums and online groups to promote what you’re selling? Market them in an existing forum or Facebook group in your niche. Remember, however, to never spam.

If this is the tactic you wish to pursue, go easy on the self-promotion. In these channels, relationships come first and sales come later.

But if you want to increase sales quickly, start by promoting your product/service in existing Facebook buy-and-sell groups. For best results, concentrate on active groups that have the least amount of spam.

How to pick the right groups?

• Do some research. How many members are in the group? How frequently do members post? How much engagements do posts receive?
  
  
• Once you’ve found a suitable group or two, look at what types of posts do best so you can incorporate those features in your own.
  
  
• Read the group’s rules before promoting your product/service. Otherwise, you face the risk of getting banned from the group.

Note that while this tactic can increase sales quickly, it also works well over time. The secret is to build good relationships by engaging with other people’s posts.

Once you’ve found suitable FB groups, monitor your activity through a spreadsheet and focus on what works for you.

Tactic 2: Team up with micro-influencers

As of this writing, Instagram has about 1 billion monthly active users. Plus, according to Hootsuite, 50% of Instagram users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or service. This is huge for ecommerce companies.

To leverage the power of Instagram, partner with micro-influencers, who are users with 1,000 to 100,000 followers in a specific niche. Using micro-influencers is a great option for startups because:

• They have high levels of engagement. Markerly and HelloSociety both found that micro-influencers have better engagement than those with larger followings.
  
  
• They’re more accessible. If you connect with several micro-influencers in your niche, there’s a good chance you’ll hear from them right away. The big influencers, meanwhile, will likely have assistants or managers who you have to get past first.
  
  
• They charge much less. Influence.co found that micro-influencers with 2,000 to 100,000 followers charge between $137 and $258 per post. This is far less than many larger influencers. Some micro-influencers might even be happy to promote your product/service if you give it to them for free – or a discount code they can give their followers.

Your main challenge here is to find the right micro-influencers in your niche. See to it that you research before contacting anyone. Try to find accounts with at least a few thousand followers with high engagement.

If your prospective influencers have promoted products/services before, study how well those posts did. Check the post’s comments as well to see how many people were talking about the product/service.

If an influencer has repeatedly promoted the same brands, that’s a good sign that their promotions are working.

Finally, before contacting an influencer, make sure that your offer is compelling and beneficial to them and their audience. Answer the question: What’s in it for them?

Tactic 3: Use Facebook ads

Because Facebook has 2.8 billion monthly active users, your audience is most likely part of the social network. It certainly helps that most of them check their Facebook page/profile several times per day.

The best part? Facebook has the ability to target your ideal customer. People share so many details of their lives on Facebook so you can create specific advertising campaigns just for them. You can take aim at interests, demographics, and behaviours.

Let’s say you sell running accessories for jogging enthusiasts. You don’t just have to aim at men or women in their 40s who live in the United States. You can be more granular and target the following:

• Men in their mid 40s, married, college-educated, earn a household income of over $75,000, and have a strong interest in half-marathons.
  
  
• Women in their late 30s, married, college-educated, earn a household income of over $75,000, and have a strong interest in half-marathons.

You can specifically target men who like running brands like ASICS, and women who like Nike.

Clearly, using these details to refine your Facebook ads is powerful, but you need to know exactly who your target customer is. This will help you cut through the noise and reach your audience with immediate results.

Just remember to set your campaign objective to Conversions, Store Visits, or Catalogue Sales.

What makes a good Facebook ad?

For your Facebook ads to be effective, make sure they have the following:

• Audience – You need to be specific.
  
  
• Offer – Gary Halbert, considered one of copywriting greats, once said: “Strong copy will not overcome a weak offer, but in many cases, a strong offer will in spite of weak copy written by marketing morons.”
  
  Bottom line – people love to buy but hate being sold to, so try offer something compelling. For instance, “10% off cat-themed” items isn’t bad, but it isn’t as catchy as “Buy a shirt, feed 5 shelter cats for a week.”
  
  For more ideas, look at how your competitors are pitching their products/services, see what’s working, then apply the lessons to your offer.
  
  
• Compelling copy – Copywriting is designed to get people to take some sort of action (e.g. subscribe to your email list, buying your product). Good copywriting focuses on the benefits you provide, not just the features of what you’re selling.
  
  If you’re selling a computer, for instance, instead of talking about its technical specs – say, its 4 terabyte storage – talk about how the user wouldn’t have to worry about running out of space.
  
  
• The image – Consumer Acquisition found that images account for 75% to 90% of Facebook advertising performance. So if you can help it, include a person using your product. Pictures with human faces are 38% more likely to get engagement than pictures with none. Of course, make sure that the model is relatable and looks like your target audience.

Bonus tip: Work with top talent

Another method to increase sales is by hiring high-performing sales and/or ads specialists at the fraction of the cost. Remote Workmate can help with that.

We provide offshore staffing to help you shift from maintaining budgets to actually achieving business growth. We do this by:

• Cutting your employment costs by up to 70%
• Raising your productivity
• Winning back your free time
• Supercharging your bottom line.

But unlike freelancing marketplaces where you do everything yourself, Remote Workmate handles all the heavy lifting for you, including candidate screening, onboarding, and payroll.

You can actually choose from our pool of top candidates right away. Simply click the button below to browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page.