Why should a business go for Digital Marketing?

Are you just looking to get started in digital marketing and visiting this blog for the first time?
If so your timing could not have been better

In today's featured video Pranshu Khanna does a very thorough analysis of the reasons why a digital marketing strategy is crucial for your business. The video may be a couple of years old but the rationale is as fresh as ever

Highlighting the benefits of digital marketing helps you see the way ahead

5 Steps to Help You Build an eCommerce Store

In need of a reminder of how to get started in E-Commerce?
Susan Friesen gives us a great guide to get going

Let me know how you intend to get going (or how you first got started)


If you have decided to take the plunge and set up a web-based shop, starting an eCommerce business can be a rewarding venture but it can also be a stressful one. Here are 5 steps to starting an online business that will help make the process clearer and less stressful.

Your Guide to Starting an Online Business

Whether COVID-19 pushed you to pivot from a brick-and-mortar store to an online environment, or you’ve decided to take the plunge and set up a web-based shop, starting an eCommerce business can be a rewarding venture.

From 2017 to late 2019, approximately 28.1 million Canadians made purchases online. That’s a lot of people who are landing on webpages and whipping out their wallets if they like what they see. 

But there’s more to the process than buying a domain name and loading your site with products or services. There are technical aspects to navigate and content to consider.

Do you DIY with a website builder or hire a pro? Should you stick to SEO or focus on paid ads too?

As a small business owner, I’ve helped many clients create successful online companies. So I’m sharing this five-step guide to starting an online business with you to make the process clearer and less stressful.



1) Figure out what you want to sell.

If you’ve already got an established store, this might be a breeze. But if you’re just starting an eCommerce business and are focusing on products, you’ll need to think about what you’ll offer, and where you’ll get it from.

The first thing in figuring out what to sell and in what form is to ensure it’s relevant to today’s consumer. COVID-19 has made consumers much more in tune with their spending habits. Ensure there is a consumer first and foremost who is willing to spend their money for the product you aim to sell.

Next define how you want to sell your products. Here are just a few of the options:

Business-to-consumer (B2C): This is the most common business model, with many different approaches. Basically, you sell to the end user, but there may be a third party acting as a middleman (think Amazon).
Direct-to-consumer (D2C): From design and manufacturing to sales and promotions, the company does everything. Dollar Shave Club is a good example of a D2C business who started small and grew using this model.
Subscription service: Books, clothing, organic produce, baby gear...I could go on and on. Nearly every industry out there has harnessed the power of subscription services to deliver cost and time savings to customers on a regular basis.
Dropshipping: Rather than having to stock a warehouse full of products, when you sell a product on your site, you’re essentially purchasing the item from a third party, who ships it directly to the customer.


2) Buy a domain name.

If you already have a business name, this part could be simple. However, you’re not going to get a short and sweet dot com name unless you lay down big bucks. And you don’t want a domain name that runs five words long or is difficult for customers to remember (or spell).

Ideally, you use your company name like we did, with a dot com—or a dot ca if you’re in Canada. There are a lot of other TDLs (Top Level Domains) to consider such as .net, .co and .org but strive to get the revered .com as your primary domain if at all possible.



3) Build an eCommerce store

From incorporating branding into your layout to loading products/services, there are so many things to consider when you’re starting an eCommerce business, including:



Your shopping cart software. Shopping carts can be built with a variety of coding languages including ASP, PHP, JavaScript and HTML. They can be provided by a 3rd party service provider (such as Shopify) or installed in your Wordpress website like WooCommerce to avoid monthly fees.

Choosing the best shopping cart software requires a lot of pros and cons analysis of each choice. Many times the choice depends on your needs, your budget and the desired functionality.
The visuals (copy and images). How your store looks and feels to the shopper has a significant impact on whether they will trust making a purchase from you. Moreover, how each of your products are described along with using professional-looking photos can make or break a sale if not done properly.
Installing a Secured Security Layer (SSL) Certificate. This keeps your website secure and is mandatory in today’s online commerce environment. Even Google will favour your site’s search ranking if it detects an SSL installed.
Your shipping model. If you’re selling physical products, you need to decide how they are going to get into the hands of the purchaser. Are you sending customers items directly? Or are you using a third-party? Will you offer free shipping, or ship internationally? Do you want the shipping automatically calculated on checkout or will it be a flat shipping rate?
Your payment gateway. Are you going to accept only credit cards, or debit cards and PayPal too? Will you use a hosted gateway that takes people off your site to pay, then redirects them back, like our client Ripping Vintage Packs? Or is an integrated payment gateway more your style?
This is where it is so worth it to hire a professional web development company. You won’t have to spend your time Googling “SSL Certificates” or trying to set up shopping cart software. Learn how much cheap SEO and website design really costs you here.



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READ: 3 eCommerce Challenges & Solutions for Tough Times


To call these “tough times” may be a bit of an understatement to you, or perhaps you’ve pivoted your marketing strategy nicely and aren’t negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

There’s no arguing this pandemic has led to increased internet traffic as people work, socialize, and entertain themselves online.

That’s why I’m sharing 3 eCommerce challenges and solutions to help you maintain and even grow as an entrepreneur during this crisis.

Read more here.

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4) Focus on SEO

Did you know that SEO has the highest ROI of any online marketing tactic? Despite this fact, many small business owners build their sites with very little consideration of how the search engines see their content.

SEO means doing keyword research to discover the keywords that your target audience is using to find what they need.

Your SEO strategy will be focused largely on on-page techniques like keyword-rich content and meta tags.

5) Create valuable content

Your customers don’t just want to see pages and pages of products, or a one-liner selling them services. They want you to be a trusted expert who can provide them with everything from useful tips to reassurance that their credit card info is safe.

Content marketing is an ongoing process. If you want to please your target audience and the search engines, you’ll need to be regularly posting articles, blogs and videos that are valuable to your audience.



No matter what your small business model is, you’ll need to keep testing and tweaking after you build an eCommerce store. You’ll want to dive into your data to see your customers’ behaviour, like:

Are they spending time reading your carefully crafted content?
Is there a broken link that’s causing people to abandon their shopping carts before they’re finished buying?
How many of your website visitors are converting into customers?
Of course, there’s a lot more to starting a web-based business than what I’m able to cover here! From promoting your business on social media to creating paid ads to drive traffic, you’ll want to have a marketing strategy in place as you move forward. But this guide to starting an online business will help you lay a solid foundation for a successful eCommerce site.



To your business successFree Reprint Articles,

Susan Friesen

Article source: http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/ecommerce/5-steps-to-help-you-build-an-ecommerce-store.html

How I Started My ONLINE BUSINESS With LESS THAN $100

In a  week when I have featured entry tips into online stores, this video from Lyn Allure sets out some of the basics to get you going
Lyn Allure's video has received many comments from different perspectives.

She takes a very personable approach. How do you feel you could use her framework?

Social Media Marketing for E-commerce Store

When it comes to using social media for your marketing, the choice of platforms can seem endless.
In this November 2019 article AJ Infosoft detail the histories and reach of some familiar big player platforms

• Which platform or combinations of platforms do you use?
• Are you on them all?
• Which are most effective for your business?

Social Media networking is with an end goal to progress web based business that prompts bring helpful results and gives a successful method to draw in light of a legitimate concern for the focused on spectators accessible in web-based social networking.

The most effective method to Use Social Media Marketing for ecommerce

Social media life has totally changed the manner in which that we live in the present society. Has it changed how we impart, yet it has additionally changed the manner in which that we shop. Indeed, online networking based life has assumed a tremendous job in the move toward web based shopping or buy from Ecommerce store. Before the years over, it's normal that cell phones will overwhelm work area in ecommerce Business income.

Today, on the off chance that you are an online dealer or Ecommerce store vendors, you can't stand to be latent via social media networking media. 75% of individuals confess to purchasing something since they saw it via Online networking, and 90% of individuals state that they will go to social media life in the event that they need assistance on a purchasing choice.

How you utilize social media life—which stages, what applications, the post, platform —will rely upon the subtleties of your business. Fortunately, online networking enables you to make an altered battle to contact your group of spectators and get new level of Ecommerce store. Here, we will go into the stages, objectives, and strategies.

Social Media platform

Twitter

At present, there are more than 319 million clients on Twitter, a famous channel for continuous news and discussion. Clients can send and get tweets — 140 - character messages. Twitter has been used as an online networking platform for a wide variety of purposes in many scenarios by different industries.

Pinterest

Propelled in March 2010, Pinterest is generally a newcomer in the social media based life field. User can pin their content from any websites or Ecommerce store. Pinterest announced in September 2015 the ecommerce security of 100 million customers. Independent companies whose intended interest group is for the most part comprised of ladies should put resources into Pinterest as the greater part of its guests are ladies.

Facebook

This is the greatest social online networking system on the Internet, both as far as absolute number of clients and name acknowledgment. Built up on February 4, 2004, Facebook has 15 year figured out how to gather more than 1.59 billion month to month dynamic clients and this consequently makes it probably the best vehicle for interfacing individuals from everywhere throughout the world with your business. You can develop your own ecommerce store on Facebook page and connect it directly with website. It is evaluated that more than 1 million little and medium-sized organizations utilize the stage to promote their business.

Instagram

Instagram is another visual social online networking website that as of now gloats more than 500 million individuals, a considerable lot of which are Millennials. The site, propelled on October 6, 2010, has in excess of 400 million dynamic clients and is claimed by Facebook. Instagram enables clients to presents photographs on their site, with the site's numerous channels In 2012, it turned out to be a piece of the Facebook family when they got it for $1 billion dollars.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn permits its 450 million clients the capacity to interface with different experts and offer substance with their adherents. Established on December 14, 2002, and propelled on May 5, 2003, LinkedIn is hands-down the most famous internet based life webpage for expert systems administration. The site is in 24 Languages and has in excess of 400 million enlisted customers. LinkedIn is extraordinary for individuals hoping to associate with individuals in comparable ventures, organizing with nearby experts and showing business related data and measurements. 

Article source: 
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/ecommerce/social-media-marketing-for-e-commerce-store.html

I tried Amazon FBA for 2 weeks and here's what happened - Amazon FBA Pro...

Getting going with your ecommerce business can be daunting with so many gurus pointing you in different directions, or even the same direction but with different instructions

How many things can you find online where they actually try it out from your perspective?

Following on from other content I'm featuring this week, here is a really interesting review from Cupcake Trainings where they actually try out Amazon FBA in the real world

How to Find Products to Sell on Amazon: The Ultimate Guide

Amazon is one of the most well known companies in the world today.
It is also one of the best places to build your ecommerce business around.
But what about product selection for effective selling?

Dale Harris has investigated this and his article gives some great tips. What do you think?

When was the last time you were scrolling through Amazon looking for something to buy? There are loads of different options and an almost unlimited amount of products selling on this giant global marketplace.

But deciding what are the best items to sell on Amazon can be a nightmare with all this choice.

If you have a business or are looking to earn some extra cash as an Amazon seller, here’s all you need to know about how to find products to sell on Amazon.

1. Know Your Market

The most important aspect of selling online is knowing your market. You need to understand who you are selling to and what products they purchase.

When you understand this you can start to understand your competition and how you can conquer them.

One way in which the market can be divided up and the traditional way it has always been done is by country. An American customer might not necessarily purchase the same products as a British person or an Indian customer. A product that sells well in one of these markets might also not sell at all in another.

However, the rise of the internet and hyper-communication through social media has broken down these barriers to a certain extent. 

If you are selling for the female market – for instance, beauty products – then there are ethical concerns you need to consider about the ingredients that are used in the products and whether they were tested on animals and are vegan-friendly. Some countries also have different regulations on what chemicals are allowed into the products.

2. Sell Great Products Not Cheap Junk

It is easy to think that selling cheap products at low prices is the easiest way to make a quick buck on Amazon. But this couldn’t be further from the case. Customers are savvy and will soon stop purchasing a product if they feel it is inadequate.

Furthermore, most customers use Amazon’s review system to leave reviews of products for future customers.

Instead, you should focus on sourcing or even creating your own great products to sell on Amazon. You should do this even if you have to charge a higher price than your competitors.

Customers are willing to pay a higher price for a product if there is a clear justification or it offers something special and unique. You can easily generate excitement around these products with a clever marketing strategy. 

3. Choose a Product That You Can Market Well

Customers don’t always buy the product based on purely practical considerations. Often people buy a product because they are buying into the vision or the lifestyle that the product represents.

This is often down to clever marketing. The best products are ones that can be marketed well. Often they are simple and it is obvious what they do. 

Apple is a clever example. Ostensibly, their products are laptops, smartwatches and cell phones. But they cleverly marketed these products, suggesting that owning all of these products together is a lifestyle choice.

Those who own them can use them in tandem to have an easier and more fulfilled life, able to be more productive at work as well as in the gym and during exercise routines. Simplicity is the key to Apple’s message even though what they are selling are extremely complex products.

4. Do Some SEO Keyword Research

Another way in which people access products is not always through Amazon itself but through affiliate links and blogs and websites that have been Search Engine Optimized.

If you’re struggling to get your head around this then be sure to hire a company that specializes in amazon seo services might be of use to you.

Using an SEO keyword research tool you can help you see which products and keywords are currently ranking highly on Google. Once you have established what products are popular you can start to see where products that you want to sell might fit in.

Remember though SEO does take time.

Once you know where the products fit in terms of Google and which keywords you want to target you can then start to think about ways of increasing its profile on Google which will then lead to increased traffic to its Amazon page.

You can pay blog owners to include an affiliate link to your product along with the keywords that are likely to boost its ranking on Google and you can also extend this to social media as well, hiring influencers to help you.

How to Find Products to Sell on Amazon? Marketing is Key

The key to selling great products on Amazon is not just product choice but also great marketing. By creating a buzz around your product and ensuring that you are selling a lifestyle or a brand as well as the product you can start to build a loyal client base.

On top of this, you can then start to grow this audience through SEO. By ensuring your product ranks highly on Google you can increase the traffic to your product.

Part of SEO is also reaching out to other brands and websites to see if they can include an affiliate link to one of your products in their own blogs or content. Of they will want a small fee for doing this but it can be rewarding.

Finally, social media influencers can also ensure your product as a strong following on Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest.

If you are interested in learning more about how to find products to sell on Amazon or the best items to sell on Amazon be sure to check out the rest of our site.

Article source: https://www.articlecity.com/blog/how-to-find-products-to-sell-on-amazon-the-ultimate-guide/

What Is Amazon FBA... And How Do I Make Money From It?

Have a look at this descriptive of Amazon FBA and promotion for a free online course by Dan Vas
(FBA is "Fulfilment by Amazon")

• If you are new to ecommerce and  follow Dan's system, keep us posted on how you get along
• If you are already running an online business, do you think you could have done things differently using Dan's methods?

Please feel free to comment here