We have all heard about the success stories of internet businesses like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other huge sites, but do you know what they all have in common? They started as small, basic business ventures and used internet marketing to propel their name and status. And believe it or not, they all took a simple approach to marketing, an approach that we will discuss here.
Use prizes, giveaways and drawings to increase traffic. People love something for free. Use this to your advantage by offering a prize as an incentive for them to go to your website, sign up for your mailing list and be entered in a drawing. This not only gets you traffic, but also builds up a mailing list for future use.
When email marketing, test both HTML and text versions of your email message. While you might think that the graphics possible in HTML would offer higher open rates, oftentimes it is the exact opposite. Text-based emails can be a surprisingly strong tool in your arsenal. They are less likely to be marked as spam and they typically feel more authentic to the reader.
Be basic and specific. Remember your visitor base includes a wide array of people, with different amounts of knowledge of your products. Use laymen’s terms to describe things, but also include the individual specifications for those more advanced. Catering to all of your readers will likely increase sales from all sides of the spectrum.
Pull out all the stops for influential people. Try to link up with well known bloggers and websites. These powerful allies can send many a visitor in your direction, enabling you to increase traffic and productivity. Keep an eye out for these great resources, and take advantage of any friendships that may develop.
Make your URLs readable. No one is interested in clicking on a link that is described with a bunch of numbers. Take a few extra seconds to replace those numbers with descriptive words, and not only will your customers be more likely to click, but search engines will be more likely to link to it as well.
Make your site as easy as possible for readers to find what they are looking for. If they have to dig and sift through useless information they are likely to back right out and never return. Try to add a site map to your site that will quickly show the reader where to go to find what they are looking for.
One simple, efficient way to market your business or product online is to make use of free online directories. By signing up for a directory listing, you will greatly increase your chances of being found by people searching the web for the services you provide. Hopefully, as the number of visitors to your website rises, so too will the amount of paying customers.
Customer feedback is a valuable internet marketing resource. Make it easy for your customers, and potential customers, to leave feedback wherever and however they want. Your website should have prominent feedback forms available before, during and after the purchase process. You should also make a more general feedback form available from your main page.
If you are unsure about advertising a product you should try it first. This way you will be able to leave a legitimate review of the product and let the consumer know how you really feel about it. This is the best way to ensure your customers will return in the future.
If you are marketing your brand to online users, you can bet that they are tech-savvy and are concerned with finding and obtaining only the latest and greatest that e-commerce has to offer. Increase your search relevance by emphasizing words and phrases like “new”, “just released”, and “be the first to”. These will catch the readers’ eye and draw him or her into your website.
A key element of your internet marketing strategy, should include communicating the specific performance and level of quality that prospective consumers can expect to enjoy when using your product or service. Your target market should not have to guess what your product does or how quickly it can do it. Use detailed metrics, like “10 days or less,” “50 percent more” or “100 dollars less than our competitor”, for example.
One tip that may not seem that important is the fact that you should give users clear instructions on how to place an order. Some users end up not making purchases because they find the process to be too complicated. Also make sure to let them know to click the order button just once since doing that more than once can cause some issues with double orders.
Forget about selling sometimes. Interact with your customers based on what they want and what they need. If you focus on your desire to sell, you will alienate visitors to your site as well as customers. Focus on building a relationship with the people who buy your products and they will reward you with purchases.
An important tip regarding Internet marketing is to include freebies with products that you ship out to customers such as candy or pens. This is important because not only will your customer appreciate the free gift, but you can also include your website and other contact information on them as a way to continually advertise.
There is not question that doing any type of internet marketing without analytics is not going to work in your favor. You need to be able to analyze what is going on in terms of the sales of your business. You can see which items are getting a lot of attention, though not getting a lot of sales, and fix this to increase your productivity.
While you might not be the next Mark Zuckerberg, you can be a flourishing businessperson making a healthy income, setting your own hours and taking orders from no one. Use these tips to get started and to get the ball rolling. With some effort, things will snowball, and your business will thrive.
