Promoting and Maintaining an Ecommerce Website
You’ve built a beautiful ecommerce website and its working ok, so now comes the hard part. How will you continue to promote and maintain the site to keep customers coming back and ordering more?
Your ecommerce site will have many layers to it. Promotion of your brand should be the number one focus, in an effort to build brand loyalty. As you design or redesign your company’s ecommerce site, consider asking yourself this question: “What do I want customers to remember about buying from our company?” Then consider the most important factors of capturing attention and moving customers to the shopping cart.
Most customers want a site that:
- is easy to navigate and easy to put products in the shopping cart
- is working properly with no broken or bad links
- has an easy payment process with proof that it is secure
- offers discounts and incentives for repeat business, as well as special products or related products for comparisons
- provides the opportunity to reorder quickly and easily, without hassle
- allows you to try new products or services before buying
Promoting:
Once the site is up and running the way you want (and your visitors need), then it’s time to begin promotion of the site.
Your products and services should be promoted in variety of ways to ensure you are reaching your target audiences. Before you jump into marketing initiatives, be sure to take the necessary time and steps to understand how your audience wants to be communicated to and where they are hanging out online for making the most impact.
Maintaining:
On average, companies are updating their ecommerce websites on a daily basis. This may include updating product information, uploading new products or simply adding valuable educational content to a site (many times via a blog). How often are you updating yours? Are you keeping up with the competition – or are you ahead of them?
When a website is updated, it’s a great opportunity to communicate updates, special product offers, discounts, and sale items. This is when newsletter, email blast or social media updates come into play. By spreading the information across the web, you are guaranteeing that more sales opportunities will be identified. Also, when sending this information, be sure to segment the audience if needed to ensure the message is targeted to the individuals who will purchase the products pertaining to them.