4 Ways To Market Your Online Store and Increase Sales (How-to Video)

Ways To Market Your Website And Increase Sales

Welcome to this lesson, 4 Ways To Market Your Online Store and Increase Sales. In this lesson, I will introduce you to 4 ways you can market your online store and increase the number of sales you make.

The methods are applicable whether you have your online store hosted on your own website or through auction sites like eBid and eBay or one of the many classified sites as a private or business seller.

It doesn’t matter if you manufacture your own products or market products obtained from wholesalers or drop-shippers the techniques are the same.

Although I’m going to outline 4 ways you can market your online store, that doesn’t mean you have to use all four methods. Email marketing would be best suited to your own hosted website for example. Some methods are easier to implement than others and some carry more financial risk. Just use those method you feel comfortable with and that your budget and time constraints allow.

Email Marketing

• Email marketing is the sending of a commercial message to a group of people using email. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.

Email marketing is hugely effective especially if you have an existing customer base. If you aren’t collecting the email addresses of your customers, start now, but don’t forget to use the double optin system.

Using email marketing, you can showcase new products, offer specials or advertise upcoming sales. If you only have a few customers us a free email marketing solution (autoresponder) such as Mail Chimp, alternatively use a premier email service such as AWeber or GetResponse if you have a larger customer base and require more automation and the ability to create really attractive emails to send to your customers.

There are some rules you need to follow when using email marketing, such as using double optin and always placing an unsubscribe link in each email. Make sure you check these rules out and don’t spam your potential customers, you’ll just get black-listed.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing

• PPC is a business model where a company who places an advertisement on a host website pays a sum of money to the host website when a user clicks on to the advertisement. Note: Payment is for the click, NOT a sale.

With Pay Per Click marketing (PPC), you can target your ads so that only the people who actually want your products will see your ads, in other words these are targeted customers. You only pay for PPC ads, as the name suggests, when someone clicks your ad.

That having been said, before you spend any money on PPC, do your due diligence and research the topic carefully. If you don’t know what you are doing, you could end up losing a lot of money.

You can run PPC ads through companies such Google or Facebook. How much it will cost you depends on how competitive your niche is.

Blog and Forum Marketing

• Blog and forum marketing is a powerful way of letting people know about your product, service or website. It is very cost effective and free except for your time. It is quite simple to use and anyone can use it to market their products.

The idea is to find blogs or forums that are related to the products you sell, or the demographic you sell your products to. For example, if you sell pet products, you would target blogs and forms related to pets whose readers could use the products you sell. Simply get involved with the community by leaving helpful comments and tips. Don’t just promote your products all the time, it doesn’t work.

Never spam a blog or a forum, it gives a bad impression and you’ll just be ignored by readers and may even get banned by the forum administrator. To generate sales make sure you take the time to provide helpful or insightful advice.

Tip: Make the most of your forum signature and link back to your website.

Tip: Promote using the 80/20 rule – make informative and entertaining posts 80% of the time and promotional ones 20% of the time.

Social Media Marketing

Using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is very much akin to using Blog and Forum Marketing. You can join groups and engage with an audience that is interested in your products. This type of promotion is free. You can used targeted, paid for ads, but as with PPC, do your due diligence and research the cost effectiveness before jumping in.

As with forums, social media marketing, is about informing and entertaining your followers; don’t just promote your products.

Tip: Promote using the 80/20 rule – make informative and entertaining posts 80% of the time and promotional ones 20% of the time.

Conclusion

Here’s a quick recap on the four advertising options we have covered in this lesson:

• Using email marketing, you can showcase new products and advertise sales. Ensure you comply with email marketing laws.
• Using Pay Per Click marketing is a very targeted option that can drive qualified buyers to your website. Research the topic and costs before you start.
• Blog or Forum marketing is free but time consuming. Find places potential customers hang out and become part of the community. Use your forum signature to link back to your website.
• With Social Media Marketing you need to create a following and keep them engaged by informing and entertaining them.
• Promote using the 80/20 rule – make informative and entertaining posts 80% of the time and promotional ones 20% of the time.