The Internet age is a golden age for many reasons. Things have become pretty easy to do with the coming of the digital economy. Commerce, too, has had its fair share. E-commerce is now the buzzword in the mouth of virtually everyone.
But like any other skill, there is an art to making online sales. You can sell things online in diverse ways. In this piece, you will discover that selling involves free and low-cost paid marketing methods. Moreover, you will also know how you can make sales when you drive traffic and a checklist of several others when making sales online.
How to Market a Product for Free
To start with, let's look at how you can market your product online for free. You must learn how because cutting costs is something you need to put on the front burner. Here are several free marketing ways that you should definitely use:
· Social Media Marketing
You may take to social media – fix in ads on your Facebook page, build up networks on LinkedIn, or have a channel on Twitter.
· Blogging
You can also start working on a blog and employ SEO on the website of your company.
· YouTube Channel
Video marketing enables interesting content to go viral. If you are good at it, set up a YouTube channel and start communicating with your audience and customers.
· Press Release
Whenever something great and newsworthy comes out with your business that generates media attention, it's probably the best free marketing.
· Competitions
Run giveaways via competitions on any social media or website channels that you use. This is a great way to attract attention to your business and products.
Low-Cost Paid Marketing Strategies for Your Online Store
Dropshippers mainly rely on paid advertising to make sales, because it allows you to target specific audiences with your products and drive traffic to your listings instantly. Combine several free and paid marketing strategies to get a higher chance of success.
You can start by running advertising campaigns on the platforms that your customers use the most often, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
· Facebook Ads
· Instagram Ads
· Google Ads
What if you don't have so many funds to run ads? Don't worry! There is a wide stream of low-cost marketing methods you can take to that won't blow your purse. Indeed, you should aspire to the best performances when it comes to advertising products. In any case, you need to understand that using low-cost marketing techniques is a good, budget-friendly, and reliable medium.
Knowing how to approach each of these marketing strategies may prove similar as much as they are different. For your online store to thrive, you need to know how to employ some of these low-cost paid marketing strategies. You can use any two or three of these strategies below.
· Produce Instructional Videos
· Publish Great Content
· Secure Adverts Promo Credit
· StumbleUpon Paid Ads
· Industry Partnerships
How to Improve Sales: Problem Diagnosis and Solution
The best way to sell things online usually is to know how to improve your sales. We have diagnosed certain problems you may encounter while trying to sell online. Luckily for you, we have also proffered possible solutions to them. Navigate your website like a new visitor while moving on the following questions:
1. Does your visual branding appear professional?
You need to make sure you have a professional logo? You should attempt to lay down a viable brand identity with enduring fonts and colors. Your audience should also be able to read your text easily.
2. Do you have easy-to-use main navigation menus?
Generally, users use your navigation menus to go from the homepage, product page, and hopefully, to the checkout page. Both the header and footer navigation menus allow customers to quickly find out the common elements. Typically, a header navigation menu includes diverse product categories, featured collections; while from a footer navigation menu, you can find About Us, Contact Us, FAQ, etc.
Additionally, you'd better move non-essential pages to footer navigation, such as Returns and Replacements, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and so on.
3. Is there a compelling call-to-action on your homepage?
Having the perfect call-to-action buttons can lead and direct your customers from the homepage to the checkout page. Remember, your call-to-action text should be a great line of the copy present on a clickable button.
4. Does your web content address your target audience?
This is another important component of a great homepage – the content. The text must persuade and direct your visitors to do business with you. Do you know what top online sellers always do? They keep their homepage content minimal, to-the-point, and creatively effective. Would you too?
5. Does your site appear mobile-friendly?
Most e-commerce site traffic now arrives in suitable usage for mobile devices. You can always load your homepage on your phone to make sure the look is great and that it functions optimally on each one.
6. Does your business appear trustworthy?
It's difficult to build customer trust with zero sales. However, converting visitors to customers is essential. Make sure that your website lets every visitor feel secure. Here are several ways in which you can achieve the goal:
1) Respond to customers with 24/7 live chat
2) Build relationships with social media
3) Try to feature user-generated content
4) Incorporate your story and mission on the "About Us" page
7. Are your products being added to the cart?
Find out the conversion rate is to look at how many of the website visitors are adding products to the shopping cart. If the conversion rate is low, you should try at least the following ways:
·Offer more photos to attract them
·Make your "Add to Cart" button more prominent
·Better locate your "Add to Cart" button
·Improve the readability of your product pages by proper formatting
8. Are the payment options or prices preventing them from checking out?
If your conversion rate drops significantly in the purchasing journey, you should identify the problem and consider the following measures:
·Adjust your pricing and shipping costs to make them more attractive
·Set a free shipping threshold to encourage more purchases
·Provide more shipping methods whose costs vary within a wider range
·Add more payment options, like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
·Simplify the checkout process as possible as you can
9. How about the shopping cart abandonment rate?
You attempt to bring back customers to complete their purchase instead of overlooking the abandoned carts. If you have any trouble with the shopping cart abandonment rate, consider the following ways to reduce it:
·Recapture your customers' attention by sending customized abandoned cart emails
·Offer a discount in your abandoned cart emails for the recovery of lost sales
·Send a series of abandoned cart emails through automation settings
·Add a "Buy Now" button to allow customers to finish the payment immediately by skipping the checkout
10. Are you using anyway to remarket your website?
Not all visitors are ready to place an order with you upon their first visit. Their decision-making depends on your product and price. What's more, they might need to go back and forth several times, as well as further consider the options.
In fact, remarketing is a unique form of advertising, which display ads to visitors by attracting them with products viewed by them. In most cases, remarketing is to send a discount code or a coupon to visitors who abandoned their carts; or retarget them with paid ads.
4 Ultimate Tips to Be a Good Seller
Yea, here are a few tips you can learn about to be a great seller. Knowing how to sell things online demands knowing how to use the online marketplace. So, you should arm yourself with the tips to sell online effectively.
1. Provide excellent customer service
Customers are to be treasured, as such interaction with each of your customers should be warm and professional. Ensure to understand their needs and provide detailed responses to their questions. Without your customers, the business will not exist.
2. Offer fast shipping
The waiting time to have their order is pivotal to having a happy customer. Buyers usually would want to have their orders shipped to them as fast as the next day. In cases when your products are shipped from China and fast shipping won't be the case, inform your buyers and make the waiting period worth it by a reduced price.
Amid the coronavirus spread, you should keep as little stock as possible and work with dropshipping suppliers like SaleYee.com with overseas warehouses to ensure fast delivery to improve the capital turnover.
3. Keep improving
The E-com world is large, dynamic, and isn't static. To stay in business and keep generating revenue, you must get well acquainted with the E-com world and be swift and flexible to move along with the changing trend. You should not stop at selling; you should offer additional service to your buyers and it could come at no cost to them. Also, avoid being complacent. With all these, you have higher chances of being ahead of your competitors.
4. Enjoy the ride
Develop a liking for what you do. It's your business and you are not stuck at a 9-5 job you do not like. Be thankful to have the business that gives you the freedom of doing a full-time job for you. With this mindset, it is never a tussle for you, is simply you doing your business and having fun.
A Checklist for Selling Online
As you set up your business, you can consider this checklist to keep everything in shape before you go live. Following these checklists is a perfect way to sell online:
· Have you secured all the licenses you require to manage your biz in your industry niche?
· Did you make sure your online store possesses all the expedient security to secure the information of your customers
· Did you select a design model that suits your brand?
· Have you set up a definite category structure for your items?
· Have you added all the products you want to make available while you launch?
· Did you post your returns, shipping, and privacy policies on your site?
· Did you set up, at least, a payment selection?
· Did you set up your accurate tax rates?
· Did you make known your shipping methods
· Did you post the contact info of your business on your website with a means to serve your customer's service needs?
Conclusion
Selling things online helps a lot especially for a beginner, as it involves little risks. However, the success of your business largely depends on you. You can successfully sell things online if you take to the effective guides we have provided here.
