At this point in 2023, the major holiday sales dates are behind us, we’ve readied for our end-of-year push, and planning for 2024 is in full swing. With that in mind, this week on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, Becky is sharing three predictions about the way the industry will shift in the new year, as well as some simple strategies to help your brand stand out and your sales soar. The secret? Stronger connections with customers and content creation that works for them. Listen in to learn more!
Time based notes:
- 2:24 Prediction 1: the shopping experience
- 5:30 Utilize new shopping strategies
- 7:21 Prediction 2: keep things simple
- 8:03 Use short-form video content
- 9:31 Try permission-based marketing
- 12:43 Prediction 3: digital marketing
- 15:06 Develop social selling skills
- 17:27 Build a searchable website
Predictions and Strategies for 2024 Sales Success
At this point in 2023, the major holiday sales dates are behind us, we’ve readied for our end-of-year push, and planning for 2024 is in full swing. Now, working with direct sellers and planning for the new year is one of my most favorite things to do. We spend time together really creating that vision for what we want out of our businesses in 2024; what our business is going to do for us; and how it’s going to help build that lifestyle that we’re working towards achieving. We also talk about the activities that we love doing the most, what we want to say “yes” to more, and what we want to say “no” to more, as well. So, as you’re taking some time this holiday season, reflecting and resetting and gearing up for 2024, I have three predictions about the way the industry will shift in the new year, as well as some simple strategies to help your brand stand out and your sales soar. The secret is building stronger connections with customers and creating content that works for them!
Prediction #1: The shopping experience for your customers matters more than ever before.
Now, this is really something that I feel differentiates the direct sales industry from other types of models. In an affiliate marketing model, you’re not engaging super closely with the person that you’re purchasing from. When you’re shopping on e-commerce or in a brick and mortar, you probably have limited interaction in terms of that service that’s being provided to you as you shop. But, in direct sales, we have over-engineered the shopping experience in many ways. We have created parties and workshops and events where we create memorable shopping experiences for our customers, so they truly get to know us as a direct seller as well as have a lot fun while they’re shopping.
So, moving into 2024, I want to encourage direct sellers to think about that shopping experience that they’re creating for their customer. Long gone are the days where you can just set up a Facebook party and tell people to come and hang out and shop, right? Customers are looking for a bit more value. They want more of an experience that is going to help them learn something, or help them achieve something, or better their lifestyle; or they just want to be entertained and socialize with their friends and family that are invited to that online event. They want a seamless experience that isn’t clunky for them. And, being in direct sales, you really get to hand-hold people through the shopping process. You can give them personal recommendations. You can give them advice on how to take advantage of all of the deals and all of the specials. So, when we’re thinking about 2024, whether you’re engaging in social selling or party planning, I’m going to encourage you to think about what that experience looks like for your customer. Why would they say, “Yes, I want to shop with you,” and how can you differentiate what you’re offering in that shopping experience from any other store out there?
Look back on what worked here in 2023, and let go of those strategies that didn’t work for you. Doing the same old thing year after year is not going to change the results that you’re getting. Be bold and step out there and try new shopping experiences to better serve your customers. If you are in the online party space, a party in a post in a VIP customer shopping group, aligned with some text messaging or personal messaging to really customize that event for each shopper, is going to be a big win for you. Also, get creative, and look at your customers, and see if they are hanging out on social media. If they are, social selling and having a personalized conversation where you can sell in the DMs or PMs or give personal recommendations is going to be a great fit. If they aren’t spending time on social media, thinking about where you can connect with your customers is going to be really important. Something that might be fun to explore is running what I like to call a “scroll and shop.” This is a brand-new toolkit and model that we have put into our Modern Direct Seller Academy, where you create an online shopping experience—like a party would typically happen in a Facebook group—and move it into a landing page or a webpage where customers can experience that scroll and shop at their own pace. Including an RSVP form, so you can have a sideline conversation as your customers are truly scrolling and shopping online, also works really well.
Prediction #2: Keep everything short and sweet.
Now, when I say “everything,” I literally mean everything. We know our customers, our followers, have about seven seconds to give us. Their attention span is shorter than ever. So, when we’re thinking about creating content, keep it short, sweet, to the point, entertaining, engaging, and going to hook in your customers.
For example, experiment with short-form video—Reels or TikToks. For a long time, I resisted short-form video, because I didn’t know if I was going to have a good return on investment when it came to creating that content. But, the beauty of short-form content as we roll into 2024 is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to be throwing a shoe in the air, and having a fancy transition where you swap out a top that you’re wearing, and all kinds of crazy things happening on screen. It literally could be you working at your desk, or you packaging up an order for a customer, or walking through a park, or sipping your coffee in the morning, or preparing your dinner that evening. The content that is getting results is not highly produced content; it’s more quick, snippety tips and short phrases that people can see and follow along with.
I also spent a lot of time this year talking about permission-based marketing, which I predict will rise in popularity in 2024, as well. You’ll see this over on Instagram, often, when people say, “If you’d like to get my freebie, comment the word ‘freebie’ below,” right? People are giving you permission to message them the information that they’re asking for. The same thing applies in your direct sales business. If you’re sending out text messages, it’s asking people, “Hey, how can I best serve you? Is it this, this, or that?” Let them opt in and tell you what they’re most interested in hearing about. Or, for example, if you’re inviting a customer to an event, avoid dumping all of the information on them up front. You might just share in a direct message, “Hey, I have a really fun event coming up on Tuesday. Can I send you more information on it?” You’re letting people raise their hands.
So, flipping the content and flipping in the conversation to truly make it more conversational and have that back-and-forth exchange is going to be what leads you to success in 2024. We also want to keep our text messages, our PMs, and our DMs short and sweet. If it’s a paragraph, it’s too long for a text. Keep it very short, sweet, conversational, and that’s going to get you way more responses and engagement, as well.
Prediction #3: Digital marketing and social selling will be required to stay relevant in 2024.
Earlier this year, we launched a quiz about your direct sales superpower. Many of you have taken that quiz. If you haven’t, you can always go take a peek at it over at ModernDirectSeller.com/Quiz. Now, those quiz results basically give you one of four personas. We have our IRL—or In Real Life—Rockstars. We have our Party Powerhouses, those that are out there, building community, running online parties. We have our Social Selling Sensationalist, those that love social selling and spending a lot of time in the DMs. And then, we also have our Digital Marketing Champs.
In 2024, even if you’re an IRL Rockstar or a Party Powerhouse, my challenge to you is to layer digital marketing and social selling strategies into the work you’re doing. Of course, parties, workshops, events, in-person—all of that is still going to be relevant in 2024. But, we can’t be doing those bigger activities in our business every single day. So, what we’re going to need to do to stay in front of our customers in between these bigger events is to really focus in on social selling and digital marketing. You need to create activity in your business that provides you the opportunity to sell on the daily, and that’s a little bit challenging if you’re running online events or in-person events, because they only happen once a week or once a month.
So, as you’re thinking about 2024, especially if you fall in the In Real Life Rockstar or Party Powerhouse category, think about what kind of digital marketing and social selling skills you need to develop to stay even more engaged with your customers on the regular. This might involve text marketing; you know I’m big fan of Project Broadcast, using text automation, text tools, keyword opt-ins, and delivering content via text.
It might also be email marketing. If you know me at all, you know I like to send a lot of emails. The reason I do that is because we get great results and we get sales when we send emails. And, a question comes up often there, you know, if your company is doing email marketing, “Does it make sense for me to be doing email marketing, too?” Yes, it does. Because, your customers really want to hear from you in your own voice. They want to hear what products you love. They want to hear what sales you’re excited about. They want to hear what events you’re doing. They want to hear your tips, your advice, your expertise in your own voice. So, even if your company has a strong email marketing game, I still want to encourage you to set up your own email marketing, even if it’s one email a month or two emails a month to get started, to reach your customers on a different channel, to really engage with them and stay in front of them on the regular, without the visibility of your content being up to the social media algorithm.
Keep those social conversations in mind, as well. My goal for you is to have one sale every day, at least. How good would that feel? That’s going to happen in the daily conversations that you’re having, whether that’s over text or happening on social media. We have to be asking every day, “Hey, do you want me to place that order for you? Hey, are you up for a reorder? Do you need more? How can I best serve you?”
The last strategy that I want you to think about in terms of digital marketing is setting up your own little corner of the web where you can build your brand under the umbrella of your company and, again, have a place to put things in your own voice. You’re already putting content out on social media. You might already be putting content out via email or text. So, you might as well put it up on a website, as well. The best part of that is that it’s searchable; people have a chance of finding you, and new customers, new leads, will land in your lap, because they’re finding your content online. So, I’m biased over here, but our sister product Oh My, Hi is an incredible option for you to build your brand, really step up your digital marketing skills in 2024, and have another platform to share about your business and your product.
Get access to direct sales training, invites to exclusive virtual events, real time support and coaching, and more by joining the Academy at ModernDirectSellerAcademy.com!
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