Your web shop is online. The product descriptions are written, the design is good, the photos are bang on target.
You wait ...
... and nothing happens.
No website visitors. No contact requests. No sales.
How is this possible? Simple: no one knows your web shop exists. Except maybe your colleagues, family and friends. If no one knows about it, how are they going to make their way there?
What your web shop needs is publicity. Here are four exceptional ways of generating it.
Anyone looking for a product is likely to start the search with Google. Type in a search term, hit the Enter key and just like that, Google whips up search results.
The websites that appear at the top of these search results are the ones found most quickly. But how do you become one of them? The answer is SEO: Search Engine Optimisation.
With SEO, you optimise a webpage for a search term. You do this—among other ways—by using the search term in the right places in your text. If you do it well, there’s a greater chance your webpage will appear at the top of the Google search results.
Exactly how you tackle SEO falls outside the limits of this blog. But don’t worry, the internet is full of articles on the subject. Articles you’ll probably find because they’re SEO optimised.
If you search for something on Google, a part of your search results come from websites that are SEO optimised. Another part —often the top three search results—are there because the related companies have paid for the privilege.
This is called SEA: Search Engine Advertising. The benefit of these Google ads? In a snap of your fingers, you catapult your web shop to the top of the Google search results. Without needing to do any ‘SEO optimising’.
But watch out: just because someone clicks on your website, it doesn’t mean they’ll stay there. Does your web shop look shabby and out-dated? Does it load slowly? Are your texts illogical? Because your visitors will immediately click away to go somewhere better. Keep investing in your website.
By ‘blogging’, we mean writing blog posts that you publish on your website. Preferably with some regularity. Fill them with useful information.
Suppose, for example, that you have a web shop selling fresh fruit. You could write blogs that explore:
The benefit of all that blogging is that you come across as an expert. As a thought leader. And if someone thinks that you’re the specialist in a specific product group, they’ll come to you when they buy products from that product group.
You don’t need to do anything more than that.
Which channels? This depends on your target group. Where is it most likely to be found? Because that’s the place where you need to present your ads. And if we say ‘present your ads’, we really mean ‘share useful information’. Just like you’ve shared in the blogs.
What should you talk about? The problems and questions your target group face. Immediately show the added value of your products. What you’re best not doing: trying to fill every post with slimy commercial talk.
Also an option: advertising on social media. The additional benefit here is that you can use your advertisements to target people who are most likely to be interested in your products.
Would you like to sell more from your web shop? Make sure that it does more than just exist. Generate attention via SEO, SEA, blogs and social media posts. And make your web shop top of mind.