16 January 2009
OK, so you took the time to build a great eCommerce website... Now you are able to sell online and it is time to switch gears and focus on marketing and advertising your website. Some important things to consider...

ECommerce Marketing 101 by Earth Skater

OK, so you took the time to build a great eCommerce website...

Now you are able to sell online and it is time to switch gears and focus on marketing and advertising your website.

Some important things to consider:

* Do you want to and/or have the budget to advertise online ( the direct approach )
* Do you want to focus on marketing your website the free way ( the conservative but certainly not easy way )
* ... Or both advertise and market ( the less conservative and/or more direct approach )
* And how will you spread your budget over marketing and/or advertising online

Advertising Online

Advertising online may mean joining Google AdWords, Yahoo, or other search engine Pay Per Click (PPC) program.

You will notice the following characteristics of most PPC programs:

* You set the maximum monthly spend ( monthly budget )
* You set the maximum you are willing to pay per click to your website URL (cost per click / CPC)
* You create your own advertisements according to the search engine guidelines ( campaigns / ads)
* You create the keywords / search phrases you want to come up for ( on the search engine )
* Expect to compete for top placement on your keywords with costs varying by market
* Cost per click (CPC) can range from $0.50 per click or lower to $2.00 per click or upwards of $15 per click by market and competition for the keywords you are bidding on

Marketing Online

Marketing Online can mean optimizing your website home page, product pages, and any other pages meta-tags; most importantly the title and description tags. Marketing your website online can also mean submitting your Google sitemap or Yahoo sitemap, submitting your product feed to Google Base, submitting your website link with good title and description on directory website and other websites you have a business synergy / related but not directly competing for sales. Creating articles which are new pages of your website which in turn become links available on the search engines is a great way to market online.

Always keep focused on your core
strengths and what you do best which is running and knowing your own business.

If you do not already know or have not yet tried to market your business online; start today because it is necessary to grow your business online and offline.

Invest in the help to market and advertise your business online. Don't fall for scams that prey on small business owners with products promising great results. Always try to pay monthly and do not commit to a long contract if possible.