How to Market your ECommerce Website

Marketing your website

Well you have your website all set up, now where are all the customers. There is a saying "If your build it they will come", well that only works in the movies. The customers are not going to come unless they know you are there. So let’s talk about how to get the word out.

Search Engines

First thing to do is let the search engines know where you are by submitting your url to them. Then they will send there little internet spider or bot to index your site. There are literally thousands of search engines out there. Here are a few to get you started.

Google search engine is probably the most used search engine. http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

MSN is another well known search engine.
http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

Yahoo is probably the second most used of the big three.
http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

DMOZ is the one many have never heard about, because very few use it for searches. DMOZ or Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory on the Web. The thing about getting listed on it is that lots of other search engines world wide, get their information from DMOZ. I have found my site on search engines, that I never submitted to, by being listed with them.
http://dmoz.org/

Here is a site that submits to a number of search engines for you at one time.
http://www.submitexpress.com

Product Feed

Most Ecommerce shopping carts should have a way to down load a product feed. This product feed should be uploaded to Google Base using the data feed or bulk upload file. This feed will stay active for 30 days. I recommend uploading a feed every 2 weeks. That makes updates if you have changed any products. That way you will not forget and let it expire. That has happened to me and my traffic and sales dropped. Also when I uploaded again after it expired, it seemed to take a few days for my products to work back up in the search and start getting hits.
http://www.google.com/base

RSS Feeds

You should have a RSS product feed for your site. This feed can be submitted to different sites also. Here are a few places.
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/my/cgi_rss_submission
http://publisher.yahoo.com/submit.php
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
http://auctionrssfeed.com/index.php

Shopping Directories

Shopping directories are another way to promote, so add your store information to as many as you can.

Blog

Search engines love content. Start a blog about what you know. I sell herb plants, so on my blog I discuss all about herbs and how to grow them. You can also use links in your text pointing back to you website, for people to get more information or buy you products.

Newsletter

I want my customers to come back. One way I try to do this is through a newsletter. Visitors to my site can sign up for a newsletter. I send it out monthly with information on gardening, new items I have added and information on any sales or coupon offers. I also include a note that if they have friends who would be interested in the information to please forward it to them. Always include a link for the person to unsubscribe if they want.

Email List
If you have a customer email list from other places you have sold in the past email them with the information on your new website. Whenever sending any email correspondence make sure all your emails have a working link to your store in your signature. When you do this make sure not to spam, send them 1 email not 10.

Forums

Join forums and have a working store link in your signature, if it is allowed. This is especially good if the forum is in a related field. I found that many good gardening sites not only had forums but product areas where I could submit the information about my website.

Free Classified Ads

There are many places on the internet where you can place free classified ads to advertise your store and products.

Groups

Many people use Yahoo groups, MSN groups and Google groups to promote their sites. If you do this I suggest using a different email address because you will be getting their promotions also.

Content

Many people set up their site and just list their products and that is it. Do not do this. Have content related to your products, this will bring visitors and keep them interested.

I sell plants so I have information on gardening, growing herbs, butterfly gardening, recipes, tips and articles. I get a lot of search results with people asking things like, 'How to grow thyme'?

I try to add to and update the content on my site regularly to keep the visitors and the search engines happy and coming back.

Articles

My daughter and I write articles for our website and newsletter. I also submit these articles to online article directories. These are places where you submit your article. Other websites and newsletters can use your article with credit given to you and a link back to your site. Here are a few;
http://www.buzzle.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/about.html
http://www.articleclick.com/

Links

Exchanging links with other websites, to get back links to your site, helps with your search engine page rank. The best sites to exchange with are sites in the same field.

A well promoted website will draw customers to your site and make all your efforts worthwhile.