xinghu
29th July 2010, 14:17
HiI thought this might be useful for some people.
If you are finding it difficult generating sales, here are a few tips you might want to consider.
1. Keyword Research
This is probably the most important factor in the online promotion of your website. Thorough keyword research is vital to understand how potential visitors search for your products, finding the most targeted keywords to use and ensuring they're not too competitive. It may be laborious, but keyword research is fundamental to the success of your online marketing and can give you new ideas to develop your site.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you've completed the keyword research, next steps are to ensure that the site is optimized as best as possible. Ensuring all title and meta tags on the site are unique, the page content is optimized as is the internal link structure. This also assumes your site structure and navigation are well designed too! Don't forget about all your social profiles and marketing activities across the web - these can be optimized too.
3. Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
If you're looking for traffic quickly or want to support your SEO, then PPC campaigns are well worth trying out. Don't just use them to find new customers and spread the word about your services, but you can also use these campaigns to test landing pages and find out if certain layouts and text may lead to higher conversions. The conversion tool within Google AdWords will measure conversions from AdWords so you know if it's money well spent. There are loads of possibilities with PPC, so if you're not using it already, then give it a go!
4. Google Tools
Google has a number of free tools which are well worth using given the sheer number of people who use Google every day. For e-commerce sites, Google Products allow you to upload your products enabling them to be found in the product search, which is also drawn into Google's main search results. If you have a physical shop, ensure your business is listed in Google Maps. Finally, optimizing your images can ensure your products are found in image searches - you'd be surprised how many people use image searches!
5. Blog
Do you have a blog on your site? If not, why not? Blogs are a great way of promoting your products and interacting with customers. You don't have to update it every day, but try to keep it updated fairly regularly. This can also attract the search engines to visit your site more often and allows you to be a bit more creative with your site and let your personality shine through in your posts - showing that there is a real person behind the facade of your online shop!
6. Social Media
Social media is huge and isn't only about having a presence on sites such as Twitter & Facebook. Your blog is the hub of your social media activity and alongside the main social networks, your social media activities can include photosharing sites such as Flickr (why not include images of your products or your products being used?) and video sharing sites such as YouTube & Vimeo. If your products lend themselves well to video demonstrations then you should definitely be making the most of the huge numbers of people visiting YouTube every day.
7. Competitor Reviews
Keeping tabs of what your competitors are up to is really important. You need to make sure you keep up with them and if you're doing the same things as them, try to do them better. Regularly review your competitors' marketing activities as well as their product range. It's important to try to keep one step ahead, so don't be afraid to try new things that your competitors aren't doing themselves.
8. Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns need to be one of the most important parts of your online marketing. Most lists contain existing customers and if they've bought from you once, chances are, they may buy from you again. You need to keep in front of your customers so they don't forget about you and buy from a competitor. Email campaigns can be sent out quickly, cheaply and can be fully tracked, so there's no excuse not to be doing regular newsletters.
9. Public Relations & Reputation Management
PR can go a long way in getting your name out there. It's probably the most expensive activity out of the above, but if you have some money, it's well worth finding a PR specialist in your niche who can arrange for product placements in suitable magazines and newspapers. Managing your online reputation is equally important as social media takes hold and you need to be aware of what people say about you and your products.
10. Planning
There is an awful lot you can do when it comes to online marketing and it can be overwhelming, but proper planning and a step by step approach will make life much easier! Don't see the promotion of your website as a chore, but something you can have a bit of fun with too - try and be creative! With proper planning & targeting the right customers, you'll see in increase in sales in no time! So, what can you do today to start increasing leads and sales through your e-commerce website?
Andrew
If you are finding it difficult generating sales, here are a few tips you might want to consider.
1. Keyword Research
This is probably the most important factor in the online promotion of your website. Thorough keyword research is vital to understand how potential visitors search for your products, finding the most targeted keywords to use and ensuring they're not too competitive. It may be laborious, but keyword research is fundamental to the success of your online marketing and can give you new ideas to develop your site.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you've completed the keyword research, next steps are to ensure that the site is optimized as best as possible. Ensuring all title and meta tags on the site are unique, the page content is optimized as is the internal link structure. This also assumes your site structure and navigation are well designed too! Don't forget about all your social profiles and marketing activities across the web - these can be optimized too.
3. Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
If you're looking for traffic quickly or want to support your SEO, then PPC campaigns are well worth trying out. Don't just use them to find new customers and spread the word about your services, but you can also use these campaigns to test landing pages and find out if certain layouts and text may lead to higher conversions. The conversion tool within Google AdWords will measure conversions from AdWords so you know if it's money well spent. There are loads of possibilities with PPC, so if you're not using it already, then give it a go!
4. Google Tools
Google has a number of free tools which are well worth using given the sheer number of people who use Google every day. For e-commerce sites, Google Products allow you to upload your products enabling them to be found in the product search, which is also drawn into Google's main search results. If you have a physical shop, ensure your business is listed in Google Maps. Finally, optimizing your images can ensure your products are found in image searches - you'd be surprised how many people use image searches!
5. Blog
Do you have a blog on your site? If not, why not? Blogs are a great way of promoting your products and interacting with customers. You don't have to update it every day, but try to keep it updated fairly regularly. This can also attract the search engines to visit your site more often and allows you to be a bit more creative with your site and let your personality shine through in your posts - showing that there is a real person behind the facade of your online shop!
6. Social Media
Social media is huge and isn't only about having a presence on sites such as Twitter & Facebook. Your blog is the hub of your social media activity and alongside the main social networks, your social media activities can include photosharing sites such as Flickr (why not include images of your products or your products being used?) and video sharing sites such as YouTube & Vimeo. If your products lend themselves well to video demonstrations then you should definitely be making the most of the huge numbers of people visiting YouTube every day.
7. Competitor Reviews
Keeping tabs of what your competitors are up to is really important. You need to make sure you keep up with them and if you're doing the same things as them, try to do them better. Regularly review your competitors' marketing activities as well as their product range. It's important to try to keep one step ahead, so don't be afraid to try new things that your competitors aren't doing themselves.
8. Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns need to be one of the most important parts of your online marketing. Most lists contain existing customers and if they've bought from you once, chances are, they may buy from you again. You need to keep in front of your customers so they don't forget about you and buy from a competitor. Email campaigns can be sent out quickly, cheaply and can be fully tracked, so there's no excuse not to be doing regular newsletters.
9. Public Relations & Reputation Management
PR can go a long way in getting your name out there. It's probably the most expensive activity out of the above, but if you have some money, it's well worth finding a PR specialist in your niche who can arrange for product placements in suitable magazines and newspapers. Managing your online reputation is equally important as social media takes hold and you need to be aware of what people say about you and your products.
10. Planning
There is an awful lot you can do when it comes to online marketing and it can be overwhelming, but proper planning and a step by step approach will make life much easier! Don't see the promotion of your website as a chore, but something you can have a bit of fun with too - try and be creative! With proper planning & targeting the right customers, you'll see in increase in sales in no time! So, what can you do today to start increasing leads and sales through your e-commerce website?
Andrew