How to Promote Your Online Shop

The first thing to do once your online shop goes live is to tell everyone you know.  Not just your business contacts or prospective customers, but EVERYBODY- family and friends included.  You never know where your next client is coming from so it really makes sense to spread the word as widely as possible.  How you choose to let people know is up to you, but you might consider any of the following:  

Send an email. If your website includes the ImmediaNews email marketing system, this is the best way to let your contacts know about your new website.  You’ll have a pre-designed template to which you can simply type in your text, add pictures and links and so on.  If you’re selling products or services through your site you might wish to consider offering some kind of introductory discount or special offer (and you can track the results using the Visitor Tracking system). 

We’ve covered email marketing in more detail recently, but for now let’s be clear that this is one of the most effective ways to spread the word about your website – and to continue letting people know about your business as it moves forward.

Networking.  There are plenty of networking opportunities out there, ranging from informal local events through to highly organised networking organisations that meet on a weekly basis.  Whichever way you decided to approach it, there’s no doubt that networking is a proven way to spread the word about your business. 

Business cards / Flyers / Postcards.  When you’re out and about, make sure you always carry some form of promotional material which contains your website address and other contact details.  At the very least, always carry a stock of business cards.  If you have  flyers or postcards printed to advertise your business, consider including a discount voucher code.  This can be set up easily through the ‘Marketing’ section of your Immediasite website control panel – and of course you can track the effectiveness of the promotion in the control panel too.  

Social Media Sites.  We’ll cover this in more detail in future newsletters, but for now let’s make the point that social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are increasingly popular as a means of spreading the word about you and your business. Although a fairly recent phenomenon, social media has become widely adopted and is being used more and more by businesses of all sizes.  It’s worth noting that membership of social media sites is free, making it a sensible choice for start-up businesses on a limited budget.

Optimise your Webpages.  Following a few simple rules should give your site the best chance of being picked up by the major search engines. The first thing a search engine looks for is the header to your page.  So it makes sense to use headings which correspond to the search terms your target customers may be looking for.  For example, a page title such as ‘Immediasite Ltd - web designers in Berkshire'  will work better than ‘Our websites are the best’ because no one is likely to type ‘our websites are the best’ into their search engine.

'Keywords’ are the words and phrases your potential clients will be typing into their search engines when looking for your kind of business.   So it makes sense to incorporate as many keywords as possible into the content of your pages.  Naturally if you want to attract customers to your site, it pays to know what search terms they are typically using.   The Immediasite system allows you to add page titles, specific keywords and search terms, and a description to every page of your site (by clicking its 'Page Info' button).