eCommerce guide – Part 4: Marketing your website
It would be great if putting a new website online will result in an immediate boost in new business but sadly this is almost never the case. It takes time to build a site that convinces people to buy your products and achieves decent rankings on search engines that generate traffic to your site.
If you don’t market your website it’s like having a lovely shop in the middle of a wilderness. However good your products, business will be hard without customers. Make the most of the investment in your business by marketing it well, gaining visitors and turning them into customers or clients.
Where to start?
You can make good progress with internet marketing yourself and keep your costs down if you spend time doing the right things and work towards measurable goals. It can be daunting looking at the whole spread of marketing at once, but by doing it one piece at a time you will soon get in a routine. Regular habits, consistency and measurement are key to effective marketing.
Ways to market your ecommerce website
- Blogging/content marketing
- Pay Per Click (PPC) such as Google Adwords or Facebook Ads
- Social media
- Email newsletters
- Affiliate marketing
Measuring what works
It’s important to know what’s working for you so you can focus on that and stop spending time and money on things that don’t. Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are free tools that will help you see how people are using your website. Using conversion tracking ‘pixels’ will help you monitor Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign effectiveness and using customised ‘landing pages’ for each method can help show which campaigns are working best.
Have an overall plan
With so many day to day activities to look after in your small business, a structured plan can help you keep on top of your marketing and make sure you don’t miss any opportunities. A weekly, monthly and seasonal plan can help you stay on top of all the tasks that need doing and allows you to schedule ahead and re-use your content.
Want to read more?
This is an excerpt from our ebook Ecommerce Enlightenment, available now in our online shop.