Sales strategies are constantly changing, where what works today may not work tomorrow. And if you use inefficient and outdated sales strategies, your company will suffer greatly in terms of revenue—all that marketing effort will go to waste and you’ll lose out on the sales you need to hit crucial targets. 

 

 

Moreover, bad strategies in the B2C space mean your brand name will suffer in the eyes of its target consumers, which takes years to fix. Nobody has the reason or resources for that.

 

 

That’s why businesses need to keep up with the times and know what sales strategies work in the current business climate. 

 

 

Let’s look at the best and worst B2C sales strategies for 2022.

 

 

The Best B2C Sales Strategies 2022

 

Here are some of the most effective B2C sales strategies your marketing team should focus on in 2022. Harnessing the power of social media, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and podcasts will help you draw closer to the customers, generate more leads, and close more sales.

 

 

1. Social Media

 

Social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok remain among the best ways to reach your customers directly. On these platforms, you can connect with the audience, build relationships, and generate leads that seamlessly convert to sales.

 

 

Creating and sharing content on social media not only promotes your offering, but also improves your SEO, where a large portion, 68% of users, say that the platform helps them interact with brands they love, and half of them (51%) expect brands to personalize their ads according to their online activity.

 

 

Behavior-based personalization works well for B2C businesses because customers already expect them. Marketers should then focus on social engagement metrics like the number of comments, shares, and likes on each post to determine how effective their content is, build the brand, and push its campaigns.

 

 

Still, social media selling can be a bit of a double-edged sword.

 

 

If you’re not careful, you could alienate your audience or come across as too sales-y. Remember that the goal is to tailor the ads to the customers—not to force them into something they never showed interest in.

 

 

2. Paid Advertising

 

Paid advertising can be an excellent way to reach new customers, especially if you’re targeting a specific audience. You can use platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads to create targeted campaigns that speak directly to your ideal customer.

 

 

When done right, paid advertising can effectively generate leads and sales. However, it can also be costly, so you need to ensure that you get a positive return on investment (ROI). Moreover, brands who want to use pay-per-click (PPC) this year will need to consider the phase-out of third-party cookies soon, limiting targeting options and increasing costs.

 

 

To get the most out of your paid advertising campaigns, track your results carefully and adjust your campaigns accordingly. Always test different ad formats and strategies to see what works best for your business. You can consider contextual marketing, maximizing first-party data, AI-driven methods, IP-based personalization, and using the new Google Analytics to make data-driven decisions.

 

 

3. Influencer Marketing

 

Influencer marketing is one of the most popular B2C sales strategies today, and for good reason. It’s an extremely effective way to “put a face” to your brand, reach new audiences, and promote your brand via someone who aligns with your brand goals.

 

 

With influencer marketing, you partner with social media influencers who have a large following in your target market. They promote your products or services to their followers which can lead to a significant increase in sales. After all, they’re called influencers for a reason—they influence the pool of potential customers you can only hope to achieve through traditional ads.

 

 

Influencer marketing is also expected to increase to 72.5% in 2022, compared to 67.9% a year ago. This predicted growth is largely due to people following trends and recommendations from the people they look up to—friends, family, and influencers.

 

 

However, influencer marketing can get expensive, so ensure that you’re working with the right ones who’ll deliver results. 

 

 

4. Podcasts

 

Over 55% of all Americans have listened to a podcast and there are 16 million people who identify themselves as “avid podcast fans”.

 

 

Podcasts are a great way to connect with potential customers on a personal level. They offer an intimate look into the lives of the hosts and their guests, which can make listeners feel like they’re part of a community. In fact, that feeling of connection is one of the main reasons people listen to podcasts.

 

 

Podcasts still aren’t as popular as videos in B2C marketing campaigns, but the brands who used them confirmed their effectiveness. Only 19.1% of marketers have used podcasts in their strategies, but 37.4% said it was “very effective” and they saw impressive results.

 

 

5. Email Marketing

 

Email volume increased by 94% from 2020 to 2021, and experts are saying that it’ll happen again. Marketers should focus on having accurate segmenting and personalized offers to communicate with customers via this tried-and-tested channel. We’ve seen firsthand how well email marketing works for our clients, too. So trust us when we say: It’s not going away any time soon.

 

 

These are just some of the many B2C sales strategies you can try this year. The important thing is to experiment and find what works best for your brand. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so don’t be afraid to mix things up until you find the perfect formula for your business.

 

 

The Worst B2C Sales Strategies 2022

 

Now that we’ve gone over some of the best B2C sales strategies, it’s time to talk about the ones you should avoid. These are the B2C strategies that either don’t work anymore—or never really did in the first place.

 

 

1. Social Media Live Streams

 

Social media live streaming, especially on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, has become increasingly popular in recent years. But this doesn’t mean that it’s an effective B2C sales strategy.

 

 

The main reason why social media live streams are ineffective is that they’re often unfocused and all over the place. There’s no clear objective or call-to-action, so viewers have no idea what they’re supposed to do after watching the stream. Customers see the brand’s live stream, but then they pop out as fast as they came in, and you’re left with the illusion of personalization and connection with prospects.

 

 

Or, even worse, they scroll past your live stream event without another thought.

 

 

If you want to provide content that shows how your brand addresses customer pain points, consider other “streams” that allow follow-up interactions and conversations. For example, you can have a webinar through Zoom for valuable feedback from your participants and create engagement that you won’t have with Facebook lives.

 

 

2. Snapchat

 

Many brands use Snapchat to promote their products. But the reality is that most Snapchat users are on the platform to stay updated with the latest news and interact with their friends. Even if they’re there to discover new products and shop around, are they your target market? 

 

 

Hootsuite reports that Snapchat users are 60% more likely to purchase on impulse. So if your product isn’t one that people usually buy on impulse, it won’t be appealing to Snapchat users.

 

 

Plus, the average attention span on Snapchat is just 8 seconds. So you have to make a very strong impression in a very short amount of time, which is not an easy feat. Snapchat Ads also only takes around 10 seconds, where you’d have to engage with the viewer in a split second as they browse through stories.

 

 

3. Pinterest

 

We love Pinterest for shopping, browsing outfit pegs, finding inspiration for interior design, discovering new crochet patterns, and more. But, similar to Snapchat, nobody is looking to shop on the platform. Pinterest users are on the platform to browse, they’re not there to purchase new products.

 

 

Plus, Pinterest is one of the worst offenders for Dark Social. According to an analysis by Hootsuite, “92% of social sharing happens on dark social—private channels like direct messages, email, and apps.” This means that if people do want to purchase a product they’ve seen on Pinterest, they’re likely to just go to the brand’s website directly instead of using Pinterest as a middleman.

 

 

This doesn’t mean you should avoid using Pinterest altogether. Just don’t rely on it as your primary sales platform. Use it more as a way to drive traffic back to your website where you can then convert leads into customers.

 

 

Focus on B2C Sales Strategies That Bring in Actual Sales

 

There are a lot of different B2C sales strategies that brands can use to drive sales this 2022. However, not all of them are effective—not all of them are good enough to hit your sales targets. 

 

 

As the sales or marketing team, you have to carefully choose the strategies that allow you to drive customers through the sales funnel, target them when they are ripe for conversion, and generate brand interest to collect more leads. Only then will you be spending good money that brings in actual sales.

 

 

Do you need more help? Our team has the experience and expertise to help your brand reach target audiences and generate sales. Get in touch today.