Use non-Internet marketing media
This is so important! Do not confine your marketing to the Internet! Advertising, press, flyers – these all should be considered in your Web store marketing plan. If you have existing marketing channels established, then you should use them to promote your Web store. This includes mailing lists, newsletters, and printed catalogs. Your Web store URL should be everywhere. You can't make sales on your Web store if you don't tell customers where to go.
Cooperative marketing
Cooperative marketing is a useful tool for any business. It is especially so with Web stores. Forge partnerships with other Web stores and businesses that offer complimentary services and businesses. Exchanging links and banner advertisements can be very effective, especially if the sites are related. For instance, if you are selling dog leashes, then making partnerships with dog Web sites for URL exchanges could be very lucrative.
Engines
Search engines are a very important part of your Internet marketing plan. They provide a starting point for the wandering Internet user, and can be valuable when they direct customers to your Web store. Make sure to take the time to design your Web store to be optimally placed within search engines. This includes the use of meta tags, image captions, and other Web design techniques. There are many resources for optimizing Web pages for search engines – search around the Internet for them, buy a book from your local book store, or buy a book from an Internet book store. Optionally you may consider other products and services that can automate the Web page optimization process for you. These products and services will also submit your Web store to hundreds of different search engines and Internet indexes and can be very valuable in automating a normally tedious process.
Realize that search engines CANNOT be your only means of Internet marketing. This cannot be stressed enough! There are thousands of different Web sites out there that share something in common with your Web store. Some are competitor Web sites and some are informational. All are competing for search engine ranking with you. Do not rely solely on this ranking as your only Internet marketing means. You are condemning your Web store if you do. You will never be able to give yourself top billing on all the Internet search engines for all the different sets of keywords that describe your Web store. Spend your time mining marketing resources that have better payoffs. |
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