There are a large number of very good reasons to have an online store for your business. The first is that there is a lot less cost; you’re not paying for a lease, for electricity, water, and the same number of employees you would need for a physical store. There’s also the potential for slightly lower marketing costs; it’s easier to get people to click on an enticing link than it is to get them in their car and drive somewhere. You also stay open- and can update- for every minute of every day, with no opportunity for sales lost. Your store hours are longer, and your product can reach a much larger target audience when mailing it to them becomes a possibility. Whether your online store is just part of your company, or is the majority of it, you must maintain a continued level of investment towards it in order to make sure you’re reaping all those benefits. One of the most important ways to do this is to discover strong marketing strategies to draw people in. So what are some of the best strategies to market an online store?
1) Boost Search Engine Ratings How are most people searching for your product going to find you? They are going to use search engines, where they will find not only you (if they are able to find you at all), but also page after page of your competitors and their products. Your product and service can be far superior and far more unique, but it won’t matter if customers can’t even find your page to see how amazing it is. Fortunately, studying SEO (search engine optimization) is available to help raise your priority in the search engines.
There are a lot of strategies when it comes to SEO, and a lot of them are constantly evolving as the algorithms of the search engines change. One huge strategy that simultaneously helps people find your site organically is link building. When your site is linked to another (in a credible way), the search engines take note of that. The engines have gotten smart, however, so don’t spam your link at every opportunity, or it could actually lower your ratings. However, finding people who are willing to link to your site (and you should definitely link to any other sites you own) is a great way to help marketing and SEO rankings at the same time.
Another big SEO technique is to utilize the living daylights out of keywords. Understanding how keywords work can be one of your biggest advantages when it comes to online marketing. Fortunately for all of us, there are a variety of great online tools (both paid and unpaid, depending on your skill set and current needs), to help us select the keywords to use. Keywords are the words and phrases people type into the search bar in search engines, and it’s how people are able to find your site. Lacing your site with keywords is important to help people find you, especially when it comes to your target audience. It’s also important to have a range of different keywords, varying from highly specific to a broader range. If you run a homemade candy business on the coast, for example, you would want to make sure you had “candy” as a keyword, but also “saltwater taffy.” Not only will this help people find you, but someone searching for “homemade saltwater taffy” is a lot further along in the buying cycle than someone searching for “candy,” and is a lot more likely to buy when they find what they want. Those are the customers you want to snag immediately.
2) Set Up (and Consistently Maintain) a Blog Everyone and their mother has a blog in this day and age, and most of them will never be seen by anyone other than their writer. That doesn’t have to be the case for yours, and in fact, a steady blog packed with original, informative content (and some keywords, of course) can be an extremely beneficial aid when it comes to your online marketing. A blog offers a huge opportunity to establish your brand and product in the way that you want it to be seen and remembered. It also allows you to establish yourself as a credible authority in your industry, to both your peers and your clients, both current and prospective. You can also seize the opportunity to advertise any new products or special promotions you have, generating hype within your exact target audience.
The majority of the time, getting people to your blog can be a bit of a challenge. This is where patience needs to come in. Keep updating consistently with unique content to keep people coming back. Not getting discouraged can be difficult, but by updating frequently, you will continue to give people something to come back for again and again.
Don’t forget, you can always guest blog on other sites, and have guest writers appear on yours. This provides an opportunity for link building and capturing the attention of an already established readership within your desired audience.
3) Build Momentum in Social Media Social media has changed our reality. Facebook estimates its daily users at over 480 million people. Think about that for a second. Just their daily users add up to over 480 million people. If you don’t see marketing potential there, then start. Facebook has come a long way from its origins as purely being for college students, and it is joined with highly popular sites like Twitter and Reddit. In terms of simplicity, Facebook and Twitter are the easiest to start with.
Having social media sites for customers and peers to view is crucial for most companies today. It helps with your branding, and it helps you keep customers up to date. Advertising new products, services, and promotions is easily done on social networking, and (bonus!) is easily shared. Users sharing your information and links will help spread the word to all of their friends, extending your network further and quicker than what used to be possible. As with everything, keep your content original and unique to gain interest.
A big tip for success when it comes to social media is to actually interact with people. That is, after all, kind of the point. Not only can this build your brand and spark interest, it can make a huge difference on the customer service front. Post a question, or tag one on to the rest of your post, asking for an opinion of those in your network. Instead of getting a few likes, you could actually get some valuable feedback through their responses. If other users leave a post or tweet on your page, respond back, whether you’re thanking them for kind words or apologizing for something negative and offering a solution. Taking the time to respond, especially when the comment is less than ideal, will help your customer service reputation. It will show that you do care, enough to help your customers even from social media.
Don’t forget about sites like Quora as well. Quora is a question and answer based social networking site that runs off community driven questions and answers. Asking questions can gain you valuable feedback in what customers are looking for and current trends in the market, while answering questions can help build your brand and establish you as an expert in your field. In both cases, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
4) Market via Your E-mail List If someone has left you their e-mail, either at a physical store, through a landing page, or for your newsletter, then use it! Even if they’re not really that interested and were only being polite or they really wanted a discount offered for it, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make them more interested. Put together a newsletter with good quality content to submit to readers every so often, and e-mail them about new products and promotions. Don’t spam them constantly with unimportant mail to avoid being sent straight to the virtual trash bin, and instead take the opportunity to share worthwhile information when appropriate.
5) Submit Your Site to Directories Obviously submitting your site to search engines is important for people being able to find it, but there are other places you can submit it to as well. You can submit your site and business information to different business directories, especially specialized or niche directories that you fit into. This could help customers find your site more easily; not only will you have an increase in traffic, you have the potential for an increase in traffic in a highly targeted audience that you seek.
You also have the opportunity to list your site locally if you do have a physical location established. You can show up on maps, where your business information like hours of operation and your exact location on a map will be listed. While this is more of a general tip and not necessarily so much for the online store, this can be huge in helping people find your business in person.
6) Use An Affiliate Program Marketing is obviously a lot of hard work, consuming a great deal of time, energy, and money. Because of this, affiliate marketing has become extremely popular. Affiliate marketing is a both a cost and time efficient way to get your name and product out there. Essentially, you would pay one or more affiliates for each customer gained or each sale as a direct result of their efforts. This can be tracked easily, and you only pay after you’ve gotten results and for nothing else. There are both specialists and programs that can be selected for your affiliate marketing needs. Because you’re paying only for results, you’re getting your money’s worth, and having someone else (especially if they are highly trained in marketing) do some of the work gives you the chance to focus on other areas of your marketing campaign and your business itself.
7) Host a Promotion Have you noticed how special promotions have been mentioned under a few different sections? It’s because they work. Everyone loves a special deal, whether it’s discounting, a free sample, or a full-on giveaway. Not only can this generate hype around your product and you, getting your product into new hands is always a great thing. You can build a loyal customer who may not only come back to you again and actually spend money, but may refer their friends to you as well. The receivers of free promotions have often taken their experience to sites like Reddit, offering some free and unbiased advertising on behalf of your (hopefully) very satisfied client. Yes, you may miss out on a few dollars upfront, but in the long run, the benefits will easily outweigh the cost if done correctly.
The refer-a-friend promotion is always a great one. Offering a reward for your customers sending referrals to you has proven to be successful time after time. If the customer is happy with you, they are likely to refer you to their friends to begin with, but adding a true incentive will increase those odds even more. People are especially likely to value a trusted source like a friend more than advertisements posted on the Internet, so make sure you use your networks and your clients’ networks.
This idea goes along with a loyalty promotion as well. If your customers have been with you for a certain period of time, or they have spent over a set threshold of money with you, then offering a free sample or a great value can go along way. It can turn casual customers into more loyal ones, who will in turn be more likely to recommend your business more and continue to come back to you despite being swayed by potential competitors.
Getting your name and product out there can be one of the most challenging obstacles to overcome, and allowing someone to try your product free or discounted increases the chance that customers will try something new instead of staying with what they’re used to or going somewhere else.
By Ana Gotter
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