Business Marketing & Finance Resources

Having a virtual store or online store gives us the ability to count millions of potential customers, but if nobody knows about our business or not there are sufficient reasons to buy our products, it is unlikely that someone else does.

So to succeed with an online store, not enough to have a good design or sell good products, but we must also ensure a good visitor traffic to our store, and encourage consumers to buy our products. And the way to achieve this is through promotion.

Then see what the main ways to promote an online store:

SEO

Generally, most of the visits to a shop, comes from search engines (especially Google), so that the main way of promoting an online store is to provide a good position in search results these search engines.

Having a high ranking on search results not only gives us the possibility to have more visitor traffic to our store, but appearing at the top of search engines on consumers generates a greater sense of confidence.

Search engine positioning a virtual store or any other web page may take some time, and depends on several factors, including the main ones are external links pointing to the website, and proper use of keywords.

The more external links are located in quality web sites, pointing to our online store, the better our position in search engines. One way to get these links is by submitting articles to sites that post and allow us to put under each article a link to our store.

The other way to achieve a good positioning is making good use of keywords, for example, if our store is found every time someone on the search engines type in the words “Peruvian handicrafts, we must ensure that these words are repeated during all our websites, for example, in titles in texts and, if possible, even in the domain name.

But we must always ensure they are placed in a natural way and does not appear to have been artificially placed to affect search results, it could be penalized by search engines, and instead to increase our position, we could get to decide decrease.

Online advertising

Online advertising is advertising on the internet, which basically consists of placing graphics or text ads on other sites, such as for periodic payments, we can place banner ads on sites related to the theme of our business that offer such opportunity.

An effective way to advertise online is through Google Adwords program, which allows us to put our ad on different sites related to the theme of our business, paying for the clicks that visitors make in our listing.

Another form of advertising is writing articles related to our products (for example, advice on the proper use of it) on sites that allow us to do so, and under each article, we put a little blurb proficient in our online store (avoid also include a link to it).

Offline advertising

Although our online store can be based exclusively on the Internet, we should not dismiss the opportunity to make offline advertising (advertising off-grid).

For example, we could advertise in traditional media such as television, radio and written press, although there are several other lower-cost alternatives such as small posters advertising or posters, distribution of flyers, creating business cards, yellow pages ad , clothing apparel advertising, etc.

Email marketing

Another way to promote our online shop is making use of email marketing, for example, by having an email newsletter or by sending emails to our major customers where they do know, for example, the launch of our new products or promotions.

Sales Promotions

Another way to promote our online shop is using sales promotions such as special offers, discounts, coupons, gifts, sweepstakes, contests, etc.

For example, we give away a free product by purchasing a different product, or send an email to our core customers by offering a discount coupon which can be redeemed when purchasing one of our products.

Good presentation of the product

A good presentation of the product implies that each of our products displayed in our store count on a good image (not too small and that clearly shows the product), an attractive description (which highlight the main features or benefits of the product) and have a good variety of products (have a good stock of products which, in turn, will be constantly updated.)

Promote products on other websites

Another way to promote our online shop is promoting our products on websites such as marketplaces or auction sites such as Mercadolibre or eBay, which allow us to display and sell our products as well as the opportunity to promote our online store, and that Equally, achieving increased visitor traffic to it.

Here are some key ways to attract new customers to a going concern:

Increase advertising

Increase advertising is to increase the exposure of our advertising message, for example, can increase the frequency or the times when our ad goes live, increase the size or duration of it, increasing the number of media or advertising channels to use, etc.

To increase publicity is not necessary that we have to make a major investment, in addition to traditional forms, there are many other forms of advertising at low cost, for example, advertise online, make use of newsletters, flyers, placing posters, etc.

Change advertising

Perhaps our business has a lot of publicity, but it is not as effective due, for example, perhaps we are not using the right advertising media and the message is not reaching our target audience properly, or perhaps the message is not enough attractive.

So, with respect to advertising, we must look not only quantity but also quality. We know choosing the right advertising media or channels, according to the preferences, customs and habits of our target audience, and are able to design an attractive message, catchy, interesting and persuasive for it.

Increase sales promotions

Another way to attract new customers to a business is to increase sales promotions, for example, provide new offerings, offer more coupons, raffles, give small gifts, etc..

But to increase sales promotions, we must ensure that consumers know about them and how to achieve this is to increase advertising and sales promotion highlighted in the advertisement, of no use sales promotions to create good if few people become aware of them.

Making the business more attractive to consumers passing through the area

Another way to attract customers to a business, especially for businesses located in commercial zones is to make the business more attractive for the consumer who travels by foot or vehicle in the area.

We can, for example, decorate or paint the front or the front of the premises, ensure that from the outside it appears a good lighting and distribution of the elements that are within the premises, to provide an attractive showcase to show our best products, put up posters with main offers or promotions, etc…

Do we recommend

And finally, one of the most effective ways to attract new customers to our business, is to make our loyal customers recommend us to other consumers.

And how to achieve this is to try to offer a high quality product that meets needs, tastes and preferences, which exceeded expectations, and is accompanied by excellent customer care or service.