Promoting Your Online Store

Once you are ready to start selling online, your main focus should be attracting new customers. In this vast world we call the internet, it is getting harder to be seen and found. Here we'll share some of our favorite practices that are proven to work well in marketing online stores. We all know the high cost of paid advertising and banner ads, but here we will discuss the tools available to you at low if no cost at all! The real value here is to utilize different tools at once, and constantly keeping the momentum going.

Spread your online store around

Wazala comes with a cool viral feature. Inject your online store to multiple sites, blogs, and Facebook all while managing one back end. The more you spread it the better the chances of your online store getting found.

The power of a written word!

Blog, blog and blog some more.

We cannot emphasize enough the value of a business blog. Writing about your products, your store, your experiences and the way your business operates is crucial in todays world. Content rich blogs that are updated regularly have been proven to attract new customers and gain the trust of your audience. SEO plays a crucial role here as well, so make sure to inject your keywords for better chances on getting found by search engines. The key here, is to provide valuable information that relates to your business and your audience. When we state inject keywords, we assume you are doing it tactfully and only where it is needed. Your customer is smart, and they can differentiate between good content and keyword rich content. Keep them involved, and grow a community of readers, commentators and advocates. They will help you spread the word.

Get Reviewed

Getting others to write about you is no simple task, but the positive outcome is enormous! Reach out to your personal network of bloggers and friends to review, mention and write about your store. We are not referring to back links (although these are a plus), but the honest referral of a third party can assert trust that you couldn't gain alone.

Be Social!

Facebook

A Facebook business page can help build your brand into an interactive voice, with the power of sharing as most vital. First create a professional business page, fill out all the details, a half baked page may be your worst enemy. add your Wazala online store to your Facebook business page, then simply invite your friends and network to “Like” the page. Add content regularly, answer queries and offer promotions. Your network will then share with others, browse and buy! The Facebook platforms is also a great way to showcase something visually. Utilize pictures, videos and spread news about your new products. Most important, stay active.

Wazala also has the ability to recommend posts for your facebook, based on actions you take within your store. In the Promote section within your store manager, you can activate this feature and let Wazala remind and guide you to post to Facebook. For more about this feature read this.

Twitter

The 140 character engine may be the most effective tool to spread your brand to the universe. Learn the simple ways of promoting products with hash-tags and keywords, connecting with others like you in the space and share ideas. Businesses are using Twitter not only for promotions, but a tool for support, queries and basic communication with their customers. People expect you to have a Twitter account, its an extension of your brand to the world. Make sure it is a business account and not your personal account, although linking the two with tweets and bios have been shown effective in building trust.  Keep your tweets simple, and down to earth and never allow it to sound automated! People tend to like a more personalized reference on what you are up to compared to dull marketing language. Twitter is also a good tool to keep up with competitors and what they are up to.

Wazala also has the ability to recommend tweets for you to push to Twitter , based on actions you take within your store. In the Promote section within your store manager, you can activate this feature and let Wazala remind and guide you to tweet. For more about this feature read this.

Bookmarking Tools

Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and others are all great tools that allow visitors to bookmark and share your site with others. Adding one or more to your site or blog can go a long way! The power of bookmarking has also been directly linked to positive SEO results!

Social Management Tools

Tools and applications that allow you to better manage your social presence are many. Some of our favorites are HootSuit and TweetDeck. They both allow you to manage your Twitter and Facebook interactions under one backend and keep up with the engagement. The plus? They are both free!

Mail it out

Your Signature
The simplest, but most neglected of all tools is your email signature! Link to your online store, blog, Twitter and Facebook from your signature. With every mail you send out, be it personal or business related you are increasing your chances of being followed.

Email Marketing
Emailing out updates to your subscribers and past customers allows you to stay in touch, announce new products and offer promotional codes to entice them to come back. Be sure not to spam, and mass email without permission, if someone requests to be opted out, then make a top priority to delete their email from your list, and never email someone without their consent. Adding a “sign up to newsletter” on your site, is the most effective way of building your email list.

Email Management Tools
Many email management softwares allow you to manage your email marketing campaigns more efficiently. Most provide analytics that can guide you to better understand your customer behavior by stating the number of emails opened/read, the most clicked links within an email, and provide an opt out option to automate your list management and even link your Facebook Like followers to your list. Our favorites are MailChimp and Campaign Monitor.

Get Listed

Submit your site to Search Engines
Make sure you submit your site to Search Engines. Doing this manually can be daunting, but many companies out there offer to do this for you, given a small fee. This allows you to make sure you will be crawled by search engines, and updated regularly within their systems.

Submit your Blog to Blog Engines
There are many blog search engines out there that offer to list your blog for free. Most will need you to sign up and create a profile, and once you do, you will be listed in their directory. It’s a good way for your blog to receive exposure, as many of these directories are pretty popular. Our favorites are Technorati and BlogCatalog.

Get the numbers

Google Analytics
This powerful tool provides reports for visitors, demographics, referring sites, marketing initiatives and tracking the achievement of ecommerce transactions within your online store. Wazala can be easily  integrated to your Google Analytics account and it can provide feedback on your store analytics all while setting up goal tracking.

Give out Numbers

Discount codes
Getting found, offer good content and interact with others is the first step. Enticing is your next. Offer discount codes and promotional sales on products. With Wazala you can generate coupon codes based on product, category or product sub-total. You can name these coupons with names like “Twitter30%” or “Newsletter” and promote them accordingly to be able to see where your visitors are coming from. Email previous customers with a coupon code to come back, making it personalized is even better!

Drop Prices
Thinking of having a sale? Create an “On Sale” category within your Wazala online store and post your on sale products there and then simply promote the category with links on social networks and newsletters. This will make it easier to update your on sale products and never having to change the link you posted.

Shipping Promotions
Entice your customer with free shipping. This can be done by either stating a minimum order amount or product number. Statistics show that consumers are more likely to buy online if they are not paying extra for getting it shipped. So go ahead and promote your free shipping, even offer expedited shipping for no extra charge.

Add Gifts
People like free stuff. It’s human nature and that is not going to change. Offering to add a little gift, or even surprising your customer with a gift when the parcel arrives is an added plus.

Last but not least keep up the momentum!