by Karabo Tlabakoe | Dec 7, 2020 | Internet Marketing, Online Entrepreneurship
If you run an online store selling products, such as tools, jewelry, makeup, gifts, clothing, or any other products, you make more money when you sell more products. Since the objective of any business is to make money, online store owners know that the more products they sell, the more money they can make.
“How can I sell more of my products online?” is one of the most common questions I hear from my clients.
Here are several tips that will help you sell more of your products online and generate more revenue:
Show off the products in the best possible light.
When people buy a product, they want to know what the product looks like. If someone is buying a couch, they want to be able to see if that couch would fit with the rest of their furniture before actually buying it. If someone wants to buy a piece of jewelry, they want to see what the jewelry looks like before buying it.
Therefore, the best way for you to convince your web site visitors that your products are right for them is by showing the products in the best possible light. Have high quality, detailed pictures of your products on your website so that people are convinced that they need your product as soon as they see it.
Make your website easy to use
If someone comes to your website to purchase your products, make sure they can find exactly what they are looking for. Your website should have clear and concise navigation that is exactly the same on every page of the website.
An easy to use navigation ensures that your web site visitors find what they are looking for on your website and purchase it.
Optimize website for search engines.
Another good way to drive more customers to your website and increase your online sales is by optimizing your website for search engines. Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Meta-information includes certain HTML tags (title, heading, emphasized text, keyword and description meta-tags), as well as the internal (links between pages on the same site) and external (links between pages on different sites) link structure of a website.
Optimizing your website helps you improve your search engine rankings and drive more targeted traffic to your website.
Create a blog to promote your business.
A blog is your business diary, in which you share the information about your business, your new products, different ways of using your products and much more. Your blog is an excellent tool to let the world know about your business and your products, to connect with potential customers and promote what you have to offer.
In order to bring the most online traffic and make money with your blog, make sure that your blog consistently and create blog posts that are of interest to your past as well as potential customers. Regular posts that are interesting to read is what will keep your readers coming back and buying from you.
The Internet is a great place to sell your products. When you know how to market your business online, you bring more website traffic, generate targeted leads, get more product sales and make more money.
Continue Reading: Internet Marketing: Expectations VS Reality
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Sep 18, 2020 | Small Business tips
Successful Advertisement can be impacted by many small businesses that don’t get the success they want from advertising due to the availability of very little resources. The results are simply flat due to a lack of good ideas for improvements. Whether the ads are put in a local newspaper or are printed in the famous periodical or posted on a website, the money invested should gain the desired outcome. There are some common mistakes small businesses and professional service providers do when designing and posting the advertisement, which leads to the failure of the advertisement.
Bigger is better is believed in by many
That’s exactly what some of the small firms think when they want to advertise their product. They think bigger and select a medium where they need to invest a lot of money, but do not reach the targeted market. Like if a company specializes in designing diet plans and want to help out people who had disappointing results from their individual diet plans, and the company chooses to advertise a full page in the local paper instead of running an advertisement in a health magazine, obviously not many of the dieters will notice the advertisement and the advertisement doesn’t get the desired attention.
Optimize for impressions
So the point is to come up with the best campaign, which will increase the probability of the ad getting viewed and the right customers trying to buy the product or sign up for the service. Studies and research can be carried out on the market and the targeted audience can be narrowed down. Once getting the list of newspapers, magazines, and magazines meant for the customers in mind, find out how many readers they have and the cost they ask for posting the ad. Special deals are offered by them from time to time and can only be found by watchful eye.
Be Different
It is estimated that everyday people are subjected to around three thousand commercials. That is a huge number and if someone desires to be noticed, he should certainly be different. Not only the services and products sold should be unique in the market, so should be the advertisement. For example, if a business selling mattresses say, “We sell mattresses”, it will not make a statement and will be passed off as any other mattress advertisement. But if they say, “Our mattresses are of the finest quality”, it will make the advertisement stand out in the crowd. Other catch lines are “Are you suffering from back pain? Probably you must try our mattresses “, are more specific, and will catch the fancy of the people who are suffering from back pains for a long time. The advertisement should also focus on the uniqueness of the product and how it is better compared to the competitors’ product.
Focus on the Problem
Focusing on the problems of the customers and giving a solution for them, is what customer demands. A customer does not buy a product; he buys benefits in the form of a product. The real value of the product should be realized and a clear picture of it should be presented to the customer so he will be able to relate with the product. If the advertisement doesn’t specify the solution it can provide, the customers will never know of it. So focusing on the customer’s problem is what some ads miss.
Motivate your customers to take action
The last thing missing in most of the advertisements is the motivation for the customers. If the advertiser has designed the advertisement and the customer had read the advertisement, all efforts and money invested will be wasted if he doesn’t get up and do something about it. It shouldn’t be assumed that the customer knows what to do; instead, the advertisement should influence the mind of the customer and should tell him what to do. A call of action is the final job of the advertisement. It should call for information, or visiting the store, or even visiting the online store. The message should sound confident and clear.
Continue Reading: Let Your Poster Tell A Story
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Aug 29, 2020 | Small Business tips
Your web site’s success will help you attract new customers and ensure the current ones are repeat customers. Do you want to know what it takes to successfully market a web site and generate repeat sales?
It’s simple really.
You must position yourself as a perceived expert. It doesn’t matter what product or service you are selling, this same premise will hold true.
What is a perceived expert, you ask?
Good question.
Gone are the days where you could build a simple company web site, list your products, and send customers to an order page. New web sites are sprouting up like blades of grass and competition is intensely fierce.
The bottom line is this: why should a customer buy from YOU?
A small but growing number of small business owners have discovered the answer to their web site’s success and are kicking your butt. How are they accomplishing this? By positioning themselves as an expert in their industry and using their web site to communicate that fact to potential customers.
How can you become an expert too?
Offer your potential customers an education to compliment the product or service you are selling. You can write it, buy it or license the content you need. Whichever you choose, teaching your customers should be an essential component of your web site and its importance cannot be overstated.
Here are some examples:
If you are selling diamonds or jewelry online, offer articles, tips or even a free guide on “How do I choose the right diamond for me?” or “20 ways to spot fake jewelry.”
If you operate a job search or career database, offer a wealth of guides and tips such as “20 ways to improve your resume,” “what to wear at a job interview,” or “how do I know if a job is right for me.”
If you are selling health-related items like (ie: vitamins, pills, or creams), don’t simply throw up ad copy, a few product images, and an order form. Educate your customers on the benefits of each ingredient and how it can improve their well-being. Take it one step further and provide education on every vitamin and mineral known to man. Just make it fun and easy to read.
Do you get the picture?
How can this help your web site prosper?
People want to buy the best product they can, at the best price, from someone they trust. Given the fact your customers will never see or meet you, this task is accomplished by your web site. By offering them a wealth of expertise related to the products you are selling, you immediately create a foundation to build upon. You are helping them make a more informed decision as to what to purchase while at YOUR web site.
In essence, your web site becomes the salesperson that the customer would normally see in the store or talk to on the phone. Customers always have questions and you have the opportunity to give them the answer and a whole lot more knowledge by becoming a perceived expert in your industry.
If you give your potential customers an education, they will reward you for it. Plus, they will likely tell their friends and family too! This will help you improve your personal brand and enable you to become the authority in your industry
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jul 20, 2020 | Internet Marketing
How to Validate your Niche by Researching your Competition: Digital enterprises or online businesses are not bound by geography or stringent local regulations. This makes it easier to start a business but it doesn’t make running the business any easier. Competition is fierce in almost every niche. Whatever your niche is, you should validate it by researching your competition. Let us explain how you should go about this and also why.
Demand and Supply
The essence of most businesses can be boiled down to one reality, demand, and supply. If there is enough demand then you can cater to the supply. If there isn’t enough demand, then catering to supply doesn’t make any sense. If there is only one diner in a locality, then it is likely to do well. If there are too many diners and not many people to fill up all those places, then most of those enterprises will run out of business.
Likewise, a digital enterprise or any online niche must have enough demand for there to be space to exist. While firms or endeavors can always coexist, the pie gets smaller and there is just less in it for everyone. The hard reality is that if there are enough players in a niche already and some of them have already amassed a massive market share, then penetrating their share or usurping a chunk of it will be a herculean task.
Study your competition to find out how large a market is and if some of your competitors are already catering to the needs of the audience. If you intend to do the same thing in the same niche, then there is little or no possibility for your enterprise to find a foothold, let aside being a roaring success.
A niche within a Niche
It is unlikely that the niche you have planned to target will be completely void of competition. There may be stiff or less competition. If there are players already with humongous market shares and dedicated customers or audiences, then you need to find a niche within a niche. You cannot cater to the same exact niche that your competition is committed to.
For instance, if you are planning to target the niche of food, cuisine, or anything culinary, then you can find some subset that the existing players have not touched upon yet. If that is not possible, then you must figure out what you are best at and use that authority to create a niche within a niche. It is all about the value you can offer to your audience and how you help, change, or enrich their lives.
Continue Reading: Top 5 mistakes online business owners make
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jul 11, 2020 | Small Business tips
Every poster printing is like a book that tells a story. Simplicity is the key to it. A reader would only take a few minutes to look at it, that is why there has to be a few clutters as much as possible. Instead, informative statements and attractive graphics should be included in it. Less detail should be on the poster. Keep in mind that it will be one of the many in the exhibit area so you have to make sure that it will capture the reader’s attention.
The purpose of a poster is basically to present a piece of work in a simple and clear manner. It should effectively present useful information and food for thought. If the details presented in it have been described and illustrated better in a paper, consider making the paper available as a handout at the poster session. Additionally, the use of colors can be very helpful in maximizing both the clarity of images and making it captivating.
There several things you need to know when designing and printing your own poster. First, don’t make the title too large or too small. Consider its distance with the audience. Avoid also from making it too large. If it exceeds the width of the poster consider shortening the title and remember that all caps letters are harder to read. Also, use colors in your posters as it helps to convey additional meaning. But carefully select the colors that you will use. Make sure that the colors draw attention and serve meaningful distinctions.
Remember also to give credit when it is due. Include a short acknowledgment in the poster to recognize everyone who helped you in the process. And most importantly, write simply, plainly, and briefly. Stress out the key pointers and your conclusions on the poster. Do not focus on little stuff. Effectively communicate the big picture.
Do not also assume that the readers would easily understand your poster. So consider adding helpful tutorial sections to the poster such as an Internet address pointing to an important material or anything else that would help teach your readers what they need to know to understand your poster.
You could also use some gimmicks to catch your readers’ attention but make sure that they don’t backfire. And use good judgment in everything that you will include in the poster. So make your posters as interesting as possible but remember not to overdo it.
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