This guest post was written by Tom Walker
Selling on the internet is neither automatic nor a guaranteed success. Although thousands of businesses of all sizes have made a success of it, many more have tried and failed. What’s the difference? More often than not, ecommerce sites are most successful when a successful marketing campaign is consistently in place. If people don’t know about you, they’re not going to be able to come and shop – it’s as simple as that. And even if you do have a marketing campaign in place there’s little to stop customers who bought from you in the past from not returning because your competitors’ marketing efforts are getting their attention. Here are 7 essential tips for ecommerce marketing that will help you develop the online business you deserve.
1. Product feeds: One of the best ways to get the word out about your products is through the use of Google Marketplace (formerly Google Base). This free service allows businesses to either upload an XML file or submit a live feed that displays all your products, pricing and images in Google’s search results. This way, every time a Google user looks for something you have, you have a chance to make the sale. Sure, not everyone will click through to your site, but at least you’re getting your products out there to compete for clicks.
2. Customer reviews: Make sure your site has an easy to use interface where customers can create reviews of the products you sell. Their, opinions and experiences can be shared and that can be very helpful information to your future shoppers. Besides providing content that enhances the value of your site to visitors, customer-provided reviews boost your search engine standings since the search engines like to see a steady stream of new content.
3. Be SEO conscious: It’s well known that both the structure and content of a website can affect the way it is viewed by Google and the other search engines. Therefore, SEO is a constant effort of evaluation and correction. Make sure you have relevant keywords and phrases so that people searching for products like yours can find you. Also, simple on-site optimization techniques such as creating internal linking, using header tags and having relevant metadata can make or break an ecommerce site.
4. Make your policies easy to find: One of the biggest reasons for customers abandoning their shopping is the unavailability of vital information. Customers want to know about shipping costs, processing times, payment methods, return policies, contact information and privacy. In sort, everything that you’d like to see when shopping should be part of your Web site. You can even make the transparency and accessibility of your store’s information one of your marketing points.
5. Encourage repeat customers: As with regular businesses, the majority of the marketing dollars are spent attracting new customers. Once someone becomes a customer, it’s a lot cheaper and more effective to get them to come back than it is to get another new customer. That’s why you should send out regular newsletters that have company and product news and special offers for returning customers. This helps you establish a customer base rather than trying to rely on one time customers for your livelihood.
6. Use social media sites: You might be weary of hearing about Facebook and Twitter, but if that’s where your customers are, that’s where you need to be. Social media presents great opportunities for people to learn about your products and follow your store inside the Web site where they spend much of their time. Some stores have even made it easy to buy their products directly from their Facebook presence, so customers don’t even have to leave Facebook to shop.
7. Get others on board: Every store should have money budgeted for marketing, so why not use some of that money to get other people marketing for you? By setting up an affiliate program, you pay other people for delivering clicks to your site and sales from your store. Some Internet users make their living but doing nothing else than directing traffic to their affiliates. This is a great way to boost sales and get constant, high quality traffic to your site.
This guest post was written by Tom Walker, a blogger who works with an online supplier of HP 300 inks and refills as well as other supplies. He is a regular contributor to their blog where he writes about advertising and design.
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April 5th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
It’s amazing to see how many people think success on the internet comes instantly just because it’s on the internet. The fact is that just like any other business, it takes time and it takes MARKETING!! You hit this one spot on…and great tips too!
Stephen´s last blog ..Four Important Way to Build Your Network
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April 5th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Another tip is to get inside the mind of your buyers and use this consumer psychology to your advantage.
Like did you know that when face with a budget product, a standard price product and premium price product, the consumer is most likely to go for the standard price one even over the cheaper one. This is because they like to feel like they are getting both quality (in terms of not going for the cheapest option) and value for money (in terms of not going for the expensive one).
Also, giving too many options can actually cause a kind of buyer paralysis as they simply cannot chose between the numerous options if there is too little differentiation.
I’d advise you read Yes! 50 Secrets From the Science Of Persuasion for more ideas along with some info on NLP selling.
Bernie@One Meal A Day Diet´s last blog ..The One Meal A Day Diet
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April 6th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Marketing budget is really important beside social media
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April 6th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Tom,
I wasn’t aware of Google Marketplace. I’ll have to check that out.
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..A Conversation That I Will Remember For the Rest of My Life
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April 6th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Nice post. You have listed some great guidelines.
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April 7th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Nice to see you allowing guest posts and this one is a little different from most posts on e-commerce. Thank you.
Nicole Price´s last blog ..Expecting a Tax Refund? Make it Count!
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April 7th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Under “Encourage Repeat Customers”, would you reward them for their repeat custom say with a discount on fresh purchases? If not, why not?
Nicole Price´s last blog ..Expecting a Tax Refund? Make it Count!
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April 7th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Nice article Tom. Like point #4 and #5.
Agent Deepak@Blogging. Marketing & Success´s last blog ..The Secrets of Success – Desire
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April 13th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Nice tips.
SEO is really important. Even with a weak marketing campaign a first page google spot gets eyeballs on your products.
Another piece of advice: practice these tips daily. Effective marketing is a game in persistence.
Ryan´s last blog ..Don’t Share Your Money Problems with Me, I Don’t Want Them
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Local Internet Marketing (7 comments) Reply:
April 29th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Good point… if you’re at least getting some traffic, you can always run split tests and improve your marketing over time.
Local Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Why Have A Blog: Easy Analytics
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April 15th, 2010 at 4:26 am
I like tips number 1 and number 3.
this will bring your products in front of your customers while they do organic search. and we know these organic searches really converts.
very nice tips indeed. keep them coming!
Wealth Creation´s last blog ..Hello world!
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April 16th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Its well written and i think that..
Today business all over the world is getting wide and internet has become the main source of spreading their wings worldwide and gaining profits through these marketing fundas…
Prav´s last blog ..GOOGLE ADSENSE IS IT IMPORTANT?
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April 16th, 2010 at 11:12 am
This is a really helpful post to start using social media marketing to promote your products. Point 1 is the most important, go where your customers are. Thanks for the great points
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April 16th, 2010 at 11:14 am
This is great. We are definitely seeing the integration of social media and e commerce as an inevitability. I feel like number four (not pushing products and promotions) is one of the best things a company can do to be successful.
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April 22nd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Nice tips, i will build a e-commerce website soon and your informations are very useful, thanks!
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April 28th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
With the new announcements from Facebook, I think we all need to combine numbers two and six. Adding the universal ‘Like’ buttons and integrating friend features is such an amazing opportunity from so many angles. I don’t see how any Ecommerce sites are going to be able to ignore this.
Local Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Why Have A Blog: Easy Analytics
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May 9th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Fantastic, tried and true ideas.
Too many eCommerce websites don’t utilize repeat customers. Companies spend large chunks of money to acquire customers but then they never follow up to keep them.
The problem is that customer retention is much cheaper and pays off in the long run compared to endlessly acquiring new customers.
Murlu´s last blog ..Minimal Lifestyle For The Online Entrepreneur
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May 12th, 2010 at 2:39 am
Nice tips.SEO is really important. Even with a weak marketing campaign a first page google spot gets eyeballs on your products. That is what i am trying to aim at right now
Jason´s last blog ..Get an Apple iPad For FREE!
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May 27th, 2010 at 8:41 am
I believe we are already doing items 2 – 6 on our website. Number 7 is close to impossible for the moment. I am exploring item #1.
Thanks for this universitykid!
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June 13th, 2010 at 3:34 am
Great post.
For me, one of the biggest things in my mind is “sticking with it”
If your first, second, or third site doesn’t make you what you wanted, you cant give up. You also cant just have a large investment and expect that because you have lots of money you’ll be a success. The big problem with that is experience is priceless, and paying someone to do the work for you can also cause the problem of investment:profit, or ROI. Spending to much doesnt always mean you’ll make more, you need to find a balance
Free Club Penguin´s last blog ..Free Club Penguin Membership
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June 18th, 2010 at 11:31 am
This is a really helpful post to start using social media marketing to promote your products. Point 1 is the most important, go where your customers are. Thanks for the great points
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June 24th, 2010 at 1:12 am
For me number 2 is the most important, we must be concern about the customers.
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July 14th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
My biggest thing right now would be to create an email list–I have yet to use an autoresponder, don’t even know how, but need to find out. anyone got any suggestions for an autoresponder that’s reliable and affordable? Maybe that could be another post here??
Lisa Loves 50cc Mopeds For Sale´s last blog ..50CC Mopeds For Sale
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August 8th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I think SEO, Social Marketing and testimonials are some of the most important point to do successful business nowadays. Social marketing and testimonials build credibility of business and SEO brings new customers. If you do your job well, repeating customers number is growing and respectively business is growing.
Jackson´s last blog ..Carpet Cleaning Louisville KY Website Officially Launched!
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August 8th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
The article is awesome. I appreciate the author. I want to add that we provide a customized, one-on-one relationship to support sales professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners or managers who also sell their product or service. Whether you want to improve your skills, time management or productivity, exceed goals or reduce stress, coaching will help you realize your potential and impact your professional and personal life in a positive way.
Sales coaching´s last blog ..Identifying Behavioral Styles
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August 10th, 2010 at 8:35 am
In my opinion best way to learn Ecommerce marketing is to learn from old business school old timers.
John@Funny signs´s last blog ..Ne-Yo – Beautiful Monster
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August 24th, 2010 at 6:11 am
Great article Top – Cheers for the tips
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August 26th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
social media is important today,using social media marketing to promote your products
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