Are you looking for the right strategy to promote your online store to get your first sales? Or you wish to increase sales and don’t know what channel to choose? Read my article, I will describe in detail all the existing channels of promotion for 2020
An online store by itself does not generate sales ; you need to work hard and promote it.
What channels can be considered?
- marketplaces;
- email marketing
- content marketing;
- social networks - Social Media Marketing (SMM);
- different types of content marketing (advertising for bloggers, on YouTube, special projects, etc.).
SEM
SEM is the paid search engine advertising (SEM). Using this sales channel, you can quickly (5-7 days or more) configure ads and immediately attract targeted visitors to the store. It is important to start promotion not with general keywords, but with more specific ones. General keywords can give drive traffic to the site, but at the same time they have high competition, the price and low conversion. Narrow queries have low competition, the cost of user transition to the site and high conversion. One of the advantages of such advertising is appearing on the top of search results quite fast.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO);
To appear in the top results of Google, you need to work on the following parameters
- high speed site loading;
- the correct order process;
- easy navigation;
- mobile version
- content and keywords
- usability
- lack of duplicate pages on the site;
- the correct URLs;
- lack of internal technical errors;
- the presence of micro markup on the pages;
- link building
- site presence in directories
The whole focus of site promotion should be directed to visual aspect of your products, high quality content with attractive product information and description.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a powerful sales tool that is being actively developed today. Its useful functions are an automation of all routine work, using additional communication channels in conjunction.
How does an email marketing automation work?
For automation purposes, you use predefined algorithms for automatic actions: import data about subscribers, contacts segmentation, and creation and sending the necessary messages.
Trigger messages are automatic individual emails, sms or web-push messages that are triggered by a specific event (subscription to newsletter, abandoned chart) or condition (the client has not made purchases for 3 months).
How to build a subscriber base?
Organize your contact through the subscription forms on the site. It is better to use different forms on different pages of the site - a widget on the main page, static forms in the body of articles, a pop-up window for users who leave the site.
What triggers exist?
You can configure a large number of different triggers, for example
- “Post purchase” series - collect a review, offer popular products.
- “Remind” series for those who have not shopped for 1/3/6/12 months - we try to return customers with attractive offers and discounts.
- “Loyalty” series for VIP-clients - we form a feeling of special care, provide a higher level of service.
SMM
Advertising and promotion through social networks. Here the most important points are sales and attracting the target audience.
Sales can be stimulated through
Targeted ads - ads that are customized to a specific segment of the audience.
Retargeting is an ad to return the audience who has already viewed your product. This tool requires the implementation of special code on a site called Pixel.
Such advertising works with completely prepared account on the social network, otherwise you risk losing your budget, the client will pay attention to the advertisement, but will not subscribe to a low-quality account.
Marketplace
Creating a store page on marketplaces is a good way to increase sales quickly. Depending on the chosen marketplace, the sales commission may vary. You should also consider the geography of your target audience, because there are marketplaces for Asia, Europe, Russia and the USA.
Content marketing
Content marketing, first of all, is aimed at providing visitors with quality useful information, assistance in choosing and using a product, and secondly, in sales. It is not aggressive and not intrusive.
Advantages of content marketing to attract customers:
- brand awareness;
- creating and increasing demand for goods that are new in the market;
- safe increase in SEO;
- help in collecting subscribers for Email and SMM channels;
- interaction with the target audience;
This was an overview of the most basic strategies for promoting an online store. Do you have an online store? How do you plan to organize its promotion? Feel free to share it in the comments below! I would be glad to answer your questions or to introduce your project to my team at Astorts Group to be evaluated.
Alessandro Rocco Pietrocola is an entrepreneur and investor based in London and operating mainly in Europe, Asia and Oceania with main focus on UK, Baltic Countries, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Middle East and New Zealand as area of interest! At the moment is the CEO of Astorts Group. He is an UK FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) Approved Person and is has great experience as director of regulated companies. He uses to dedicate part of his life to inspire others and help them achieve the most out of their life. Since he was 20, he had successfully founded and managed several companies operating in the field of management consulting, wealth management and fintech. He loves travelling, he is a cigars lover, an amateur golfer and a dapper man.
