Each day, more offline retailers and business people make the decision to open an online store. For the offline retailer, an online store can add a welcome infusion of new customers and ongoing business. Many do so well with their retail websites that they choose to go completely online rather than continuing to deal with the expense of maintaining a brick and mortar location. Whether you operate your webstore completely online or in conjunction with a real world location, effective webstore promotion is a necessity for success. These strategies can help you effectively promote webstore sales and increase your sales online.
Start with the Right Framework
It's much easier to do effective webstore promotion if your website structure supports it. There are a number of online store companies that provide ready-to-sell webstore templates, complete with everything you need to post your merchandise and promote your webstore from the very start.
Build Your Webstore on a Community Platform
A few of the better webstore applications provide a social media engine to help you promote your products and generate leads onsite. Being a part of one of these online store networks is similar to locating your brick and mortar store in a mall. You get the benefit of overall site marketing, as well as a billboard on which your products and services can be featured. It's a great way to leverage OPA - other people's advertising.
Combine Webstore Promotion with Social Media Marketing
A webstore platform with integrates social media features makes it easy to build a marketing list for promotions, as well as taking advantage of the site's own social media marketing efforts. A highly popular webstore site, for example, offers "featured product" listings that will get your product ad listed on their main website page as well as on their Facebook wall, and tweeted on their Twitter feed. Coordinating all of these social media networks can be complex and intimidating. The right webstore promotion platform makes it as easy as clicking a few buttons.
Use Video Promotion Tools to Go Viral with Your Webstore Promotion
Customers are far more likely to share their purchases and good words about your webstore if you make it easy for them to do so. Videos are one great - and underutilized - webstore promotion tool. The right webstore platform makes it easy for you to post your promotional videos to YouTube and integrates them directly into your online store with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Stay Connected with Customers
Hooking your customers isn't enough. The real potential for an online store lies in converting one-time buyers into passionate, repeat customers. Create a strategy that keeps you connected with your buyers using email, blogs and social media to keep the lines of communication open.
An online store is a great way to expand your selling options and open new markets for your products and services. Choosing the right webstore platform and marketing strategies can increase your sales with just a little effort on your part. If you haven't added an online store component to your offline business yet, check out the many webstore platforms that offer low-cost trials so you can give it a try. Look for the features above to help you choose the best webstore promotion package for your needs.
Author Resource:
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the world's MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.