|
|
|
5 Ways To Get More Out Of Your Favorite Coupon Website
Last year, online shopping generated more than $66 billion
dollars and that number is estimated to increase to
approximately $79 Billion for 2005. As online shopping continues
to grow, it is becoming increasingly important to shop smartly.
There...
If You Don't Like The Weather...Just Wait Ten Minutes
This old saying which addresses the variability of the weather in Montana is also applicable to the volatile market dynamics for an online business. If there is one thing that is certain about the future of online marketing, it is that it will...
Link Building Strategy
Website promotion is essential to promote your e-business. Building a website is not enough for carrying on a successful online business. You have to adopt right link building strategy to promote your website in a search engine friendly manner....
Top Seven Ways to Tune up your Website
re in a recession, and perhaps your business is slightly slower than usual. But it’s always a good time to take stock of what’s working for you, and what needs some attention – including your Web site!
Here are my suggestions for a...
Viral Marketing
What is Viral Marketing? “Viral marketing is word of mouth marketing on the web. In other words it is the “e” term for word of mouth marketing.” Viral marketing was born in 1996. Viral marketing messages receive 5 –15% click through rate. 57%...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Online Marketing: A Busy Person’s Guide
Managing your online business is a full-time job. Unfortunately, most people have other responsibilities that prevent them from devoting all their attention to e-commerce.
If your time is limited, here are five things you must do to keep your revenue flowing:
1. Keep content updated
Nothing signals a neglected business like old content. If you walked into a retail store that had dusty signs and old merchandise you’d turn around and walk out. You would instantly know that the service would be poor and the merchandise unacceptable. A neglected website signals the same things. The only thing your online customer can judge is what they see on the screen. They have no idea you work late into the night improving your product. Make sure to do simple things like updating your copyrights to the current year and removing references to holidays that have passed. Which leads us to our next topic—promotions.
2. Develop frequent promotions
Excite your customers whenever possible. People respond to novelty. Create new promotions as often as you can. Even slight changes make a difference. A discount, a bundle, anything that says “ALL NEW” will catch their eye. If you get into the habit of constantly revising the way your products are merchandised, you will have a much stronger sense of what works. Which leads us to our next topic—testing.
3. Test and revise
In my marketing business, I have seen companies spend hours in meetings deciding what words to use and how to position a product. Often it is based on nothing more than a strongly held position by an aggressive staff member. The arguing continues until the loudest staffer gets his way. This is not the way to make decisions about your website. The only true way to know if something works is to test and revise it. If you are not tracking promotions you are simply devoting time to a hobby. This
is not to say that intuition should be ignored. It should be tried and tested to determine whether your customer sees things the way you think they do. Which leads us to our next topic—feedback.
4. Get feedback from your customers
If you want to know what your customers think you have to ask them. It’s not complicated. I guarantee that sometime in your career you will be shocked by how customers perceive something differently from you. I use the word ‘shocked’ advisedly. Sometimes you will be so close to a product that the obvious benefit or flaw escapes you completely. This is not a good experience, but it will encourage you to see how your customers view your offers. Which leads us to our next topic—buying.
5. Make buying easy
Your main goal for your website is to get people to buy something. You have a service or a product that needs to be purchased. Is it easy to buy? Do you require lots of extraneous information that you don’t use? Think long and hard about what your buying process should look like. Check out how the largest companies sell their products online. They streamline the process so that people don’t get frustrated and give up along the way. This should be your goal. Don’t feel you need to make the purchase seem ‘important’ by requiring lots of unnecessary steps. Amazon has reaped the benefits of "1-Click" ordering.
If you pay attention to these five areas, you should not feel guilty when you devote your time to other parts of the business. Which leads us to the final conclusion—make it fun! Busy people need fun too.
About the author:
Digital Media Works, Inc.(http://www.DigMediaWorks.com ) is an Internet marketing and design firm. A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond, former AOL Marketing Director, is experienced in building profits.
|
|
|
|
|
|