How to Attract Customers to your Website

By Simon  |  14 Feb 2016 10:00:00

Attracting customers to your website is vitally important to make money from an ecommerce website. Many merchants put a lot of effort into the creation of an online store, but then fail to do the steps which will actually get people to go to their online store.

The answer to this is marketing.

Marketing is the name given to the processes you need to put into place to get people to hear about your store.

You need to be doing as many methods of marketing at the same time to ensure that you get a constant flow of customers.

It must be noted though that unless you manage to get something to go viral, the effect of marketing on your business is gradual and accumulative. Therefore for the first few months you might not get many new customers at all, but as time goes on and you put more marketing processes into action, the flow will steadily increase.

Eventually you reach a point where a lot of marketing becomes self-perpetuating. This is because there is one method of marketing which beats all others. This is the "unconnected referral" where an unconnected person recommends your product or service to someone else who is also unconnected. Big corporations often jump start this process by paying (or getting)  "key influencers" to review and recommend their products or services. For example David Beckham wearing Superdry clothes had a huge effect on Superdry as a brand, or Stephen Fry reviewing Apple and other products.

For the small business marketing should use as many of the following activities as possible:

1. SEO - Getting your website pages picked up by search engines when people search for your items on a search engine. This is all done for you when you set up a store with Sellr, however if there are other established merchants in your field then it will be difficult to rank above them.

2. PPC - paying for an ad for your store to appear when people search for your keywords in a search engine. The most popular is Google Adwords. This is great for getting new customers to your website however it is also very expensive in many fields and most adwords campaigns run at a loss.

3. Direct Mail - sending out catalogues and flyers still has a huge effect for many companies and is often the primary method of marketing in some industries.

4. Telesales - Cold and Warm calling can be very effective in getting new customers. The success of a telesales campaign depends on the skill and experience of the telesales agents and the type of product/service you are selling.

5. Joint Ventures - find a company selling a product or service related to yours. For example if you are selling a torch, you could get a battery company to promote your torch to their customers.

6. Advertising - certain types of magazines still sell well and so advertising in magazines can be beneficial. Advertising on a larger scale is also beneficial to increase familiarity in your brand. The idea is that if a prospective customer sees product X everywhere then when they eventually reach a shop where it is sold it will feel familiar to them and they will be more likely to buy the item - or visit your store than a competitor.

7. Guerilla Marketing - this can be hugely effective, particularly in triggering a viral response. Get a group of friends to be a flash mob in a shopping center, spray paint a bus with your logos and drive it around, generally doing free things to attact large amounts of attention.

8. Content Marketing - writing a blog and posting online Vlogs and videos are great ways to get new customers. You are an expert in the items or services you are selling and it's great to share your knowledge. If you were selling plants for example, you could blog and Vlog about types of plants, how to grow plants, famous people who own particular types of plants and anything else. The point is that these blogs will be picked up by search engines and give another avenue for customers to find you. It gets better though, as these prospects will see you as an expert in your field which hugely increases the chances of a sale.

9. Marketplaces - listing your items and services on Marketplaces are a great way to get new customers. Ebay and Amazon are the main marketplaces, however there are others such as etsy and not on the high street are also very popular. The downside is that the costs of selling on a marketplace can be quite high, however when you ship the goods or services you can include information on how the customer can buy from you from your website directly in the future.

10. Referral Strategy - one of the best sources of marketing is your customers and prospects. Offer your customers and website visitors a reward if they introduce someone else to your business.

11. Email Marketing - sending out emails can be very effective because of the low cost. In addition, autoresponders can be hugely effective in increasing conversions. This is where a customer signs up to receive a series of emails from you. e.g. "Enter your first name and email address below and we'll send you a free guide on how to make your Shoes last 2 years longer" (For a shoe shop!) 

The important points are:

People buy from places they feel they can trust and who are knowledgeable about the products and services they are selling.

You need to do as many methods of marketing as you can. Try adding a different one every week.

Finally - it is really important to note that when major brands are launched they normally run at a loss for a long time, pouring money into marketing until they are able to make a profit. In addition, high street brands open stores in every town all at once at huge cost to increase customer familiarity. Small business cannot compete with this. If there are large brands in your field then you need to focus on the areas they are missing, don't try and directly compete with them. If you are selling a niche product or service which becomes mainstream then you need to find a new niche product or service.

Sellr is designed to maximise your sales, has built in blogging, built in marketplace listing features, tracks your website visitors. Has built in email marketing including autoresponders. The key thing though is that our systems are designed to help you sell more, so everything we do is for your benefit.

Sign up now at www.sellr.com