Online Shopping 101 – Part 7: Marketing for Success

This Online Shopping 101 Series has outlined the basics of setting up a successful online web store, from shopping carts to web design and security. The final stage when you create online store website functions is to ensure they are marketed properly!

What Are The Ways Of Marketing An Online Store

There are many ways of marketing your online store. You need to decide what returns the most bang for your business’s buck.

• SEO
  SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of getting your website showing up in search results when someone is looking for a product you sell. SEO is a long term strategy as it takes a while to make happen but the results are typically more permanent.
• PPC
  PPC stands for Pay Per Click advertising and is the advertising of your product next to organic search results. You can tailor your advertisments to the keywords a searcher entered (eg Google) or a person’s profile (eg: Facebook). PPC can get faster results but is less permanent and can be expensive if you don’t manage it correctly.
• Email Marketing
  Email marketing is still the most effective form of drumming up sales when it comes to online marketing. There’s a good way and a bad way of doing it though so make you know what you’re doing before you start.
• Blogs
  When it comes to SEO, content is king. The best way to deliver relevant, fresh content to your website is through a blog. You can use your blog entries as your newsletter out as well.
• Social Media
  Social media is a great way to market your online business and connect with customers on a continual basis. Make sure you choose your platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) wisely as it takes a lot of effort to update and maintain.
• Offline Activities
  Of course, you will want to integrate your new website into all of your offline marketing activities as well, like business cards, networking events, signage and print brochures.

What will really make your online store a success is the right combination of these activities. Each marketing mix needs to be individualised for the business – your products, and therefore your customers, are different from all other businesses, as is your budget and values.

Working out the right mix of marketing activities can be confusing and overwhelming. Let us boost your online success with the right marketing package for you.

For updates join us at Google+