Guest post courtesy of Jessica Kane, Rakuten Super Logistics
Having a strong online presence is critical to the success of an ecommerce business. Without it, the business is much more likely to fail. The tried and true ways of making your site visible involve networking, word of mouth and a good reputation. Doing this may take time, but can be fairly easy and inexpensive.
Use Social Media
There is a social media site for nearly every interest that you can think of. The most popular sites are the ones you would probably see the most success. An account with Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are the easiest ways to market to thousands, even millions of people in a short time period for little to no cost. You can build a fanbase for your site, market your product and interact with current and potential customers. Maintaining a social media account is free and does not require several hours of work everyday. One post or tweet with quality content and the correct keywords or hashtags can expose your site or product to thousands of people. Social media advertisers have the ability to pay for advertising on several social media sites. A video at https://www.quicksprout.com/university/how-to-market-your-ecommerce-site-on-social-media/ gives more details on how you can use social media to market your site.
Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising is fairly simple way of marketing that can yield great results. A publisher or website displays your advertisement and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Publishers like Google Adwords and Bing place your ad in top search engine results for specific keywords. Social media sites give advertisers the ability to adjust settings so their ads will be shown to their target demographic. This can be an expensive, but effective way of having your eCommerce site noticed.
Have Your Product or Services Reviewed
One of the best ways of improving your business’s presence both on and offline is to build a reputation for a quality product or service. Have people write reviews about your products. Many shoppers use product reviews to help them decided what to buy. Amazon, Yelp and bloggers can have a lot of influence over shopping decisions. You could offer free products in exchange for honest reviews. A positive, well-written review can be exactly what is needed to sway a customer into visiting your site and making a purchase.
Create a Blog
Having a standalone website will display what products or services you are selling. Having a blog will give your site visitors more intimate information about your brand that your About Us page may not provide. A blog keeps customers updated changes with your site, as well as provides them with the ability to leave comments and questions. Your site visitors can follow along with your blog and feel more connected to your brand. You can also provide promotions and other information in your blog that will be valuable to your visitors.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
One of the most important things you can do to both improve and maintain your eCommerce site’s popularity is to make sure it is optimized for search engines, meaning engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing can find and rank your site so that people will find it when they search for specific terms. The more reputable engines use very specific algorithms to determine where a site ranks in their search engines. If your site has the appropriate keywords and quality content, then you increase the likelihood of it appearing on the first few pages of search results.
There are several more ways of improving online presence. These will give you the best results and increase your fanbase.
Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who has worked in eCommerce for the last five years. She currently writes for Rakuten Super Logistics and recommends them for all your order fulfillment needs now available at many fulfillment centers.
