There are several tried and true methods that you can use to market your
website. Though there can be a lot of competition out there on the
world wide web, if you take the time to market your website ethically,
responsibly, and carefully; you can be one of 500,000 electronics shops
online, yet you will still get your share of business.
Site Bandwidth
Before you consider marketing, you want to make sure that you have the
best ecommerce hosting that you can get. There is nothing more
frustrating for a web surfer, than finding a store that she would like
to shop in, and for the web pages to take such a long time to load that
she has to click away.
When your site is content heavy -- as
most ecommerce sites are -- you have to make sure that your site is
hosted on a platform that can handle the demands of an ecommerce site.
You want to make sure that you work with a company that is actually
hosting ecommerce websites. A lot of companies will take your business,
but you want to make sure that they can truly handle it. Make sure that
you actually see other sites similar to yours hosted on their platforms,
and that these sites are quick to load, and quick to navigate.
Find out how much bandwidth is used for these sites, and how much
traffic they get daily. When you are successful at marketing your online
business, your website will have a lot of traffic. Traffic will slow
any website down, so make sure the bandwidth you select can handle your
graphics, inventory pages, and traffic effectively.
Design
Your site design is of the utmost importance. It must be attractive and
simple; and it also has to appeal to a wide audience of your potential
customers. Even if you are selling women's jewelry, your site should
still be clear and easy to navigate, in case a male shopper is looking
to buy gifts for a significant other.
Check out other sites
that sell similar products; find several styles that you like and
several that you don't like. Identify what you want for your website,
and find a designer that can provide it. Your website should provide the
following: clarity, easy of navigation, ease of reading, multiple
photographs for each product, clear photographs, excellent descriptions,
clearly marked pricing and customer service contact details, clearly
indicated accreditation and agency affiliation logos, (ie. the Better
Business Bureau, Chambers of Commerce, web rings, Trade Associations
etc.), and site security seals indicating SSL methods used.
Social Media Platforms
When it comes to web marketing, you have probably heard a lot of buzz
about social media. Though this is an important way to attract and keep
customers, to do it right takes a lot of maintenance -- SERIOUSLY.
If you are not already a social media fanatic, you should consider
hiring someone to manage your various social media company pages, (i.e.
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc.). It would be this person's job to
update these platforms daily with regular company information; answer
customer questions that come through these platforms; and to extend
invitations and offers to social media users that might be interested in
your services or products.
Hire a Blogger
Hire a
good blogger to maintain 2 blogs for you, and to write helpful articles
that relate to the products or services that you offer.
For
example if you sell educational children's games, then your first blog
should be one that relates directly to your company, its products and
its news. The second blog can address, news in the world of public
education, home schooling, computer software for learning, internet
safety for children, and family fun with board games etc.
The
second blog will provide a typical reader with useful information, and
she will read it often. You can use your second blog to backlink to your
website tactfully and occasionally, but don't be afraid to backlink to
other web resources as well. A blog like this will build up your
credibility as an expert in your field, and build customer trust.
SEO
You will find that most web marketers focus their attention on SEO, but
you should combine SEO with the other tactics mentioned above. In order
to market your website effectively using SEO, you should probably leave
the work to professionals. In addition, you should make sure that the
company you hire uses ethical practices to get you to the top of the
search engines. If they do not, you can be banned from Google for life.
Good, responsible SEO is not cheap. This is why you should consider it
last. You should also consider it last, because you will achieve
natural, ethical, quick and respectable SEO results from your blogs.
When you can afford it, hire a company that has a proven track record of
quality, search engine friendly work before you move forward.
