Strategies to Boost your Online Sales

There is really no deep secret about increasing sales through the Internet. You drive traffic by creating more sales leads. When these newbie shoppers show up, you engage them and convert their interest into a transaction.

But all that is much easier said than done. Here are specific ways to build sales momentum and to make your online store crackle and then pop.

 Seek out Strategic Partners

Question: What's the online retail equivalent of "location, location, location?"

Answer: Links to your site in all the right places. You want to create awareness of your wares among customers. So the first step is to truly define your target buyer.

 Thoroughly research your customer's profile and preferences. Next, develop come-hither offerings, teasers, interactive ads and must-read content for as many appropriate sites as you can manage and afford. "Small businesses can develop relevant content for other sites that drives traffic on a very low-cost basis," says Andrew Restivo, founder of GourmetFoodMall.com, a New Orleans-based online shopping mall for more than 150 specialty food companies. In considering sites as partners or affiliates, don't forget professional organizations and associations, especially when you market services or business products.

 Try trading or paying for links with other small or  midsize e-commerce marketers. But before making customers may never even make it to your home page," says Michelle Jackson, spokesperson for Range Online Media, a Fort Worth, Texas, search marketing company. Also, consider easy ways to get to the shopping cart and reliable site-wide product search functionality. When a shopper arrives with product specifics already in mind, you do not want to make that buyer work or wait.

Cross-promote like Crazy

Do not make your online store a stand-alone orphan; make it work with other sales channels. Successful sellers have figured out that the Web is just one sales channel, like mail-order catalogs, phone orders or face-to-face contact. Everything must work together. That means customers being able to research one of your products online, buying it by phone, and picking it up at the offline store. If you only sell online, you must make sure your branded URL is seen far and wide. That includes using it in every e-mail signature of every employee you have. Print the store URL on all brochures, catalogs, packing material, shipping boxes, shopping bags, delivery trucks, posters and postcard notices. If you attend trade shows or conferences, make sure your booth signage and promotional material also have a big, bold printed URL stamped on them. Don't miss an opportunity. Also, register variants and misspellings of your domain name so customers who get it wrong will find you anyway. For instance, a company named "Baskets R Us" should also register "Baskets Are Us." Think about it: For a few hundred dollars in registration fees, you might net one return customer who buys thousands of dollars worth of wares over time.

 Keep it Personal

Customers will feel more valued and comfortable about buying online if you establish a bond. The more you're in touch and display a personal tone, the more your customer will relax.

Be Specific (and Honest) About Your Product Offerings

“The more detail you include, the better. People like to know the histories of what you're selling and who you are," advises Lynne Dralle, an eBay Power Seller who has sold thousands of items at online auctions. "Always describe exactly what the buyer is getting. Be honest," she says. When selling her collectibles, Dralle mentions any chips or flaws, but she also tells stories, like how her Aunt Mary brought an item over from England. High-quality photographs of products also
are a must. If you don't have a digital camera, consider investing in one so you can upload images to your PC.

Set Delivery Policies that Work for Your Business Model

The great debate about whether free shipping boosts online sales is finally fading into individual solutions. While you still find advocates pro and con, it's now boiling down to a matter of your product pricing. "Free shipping costs can kill you if you can't include them in the price of the product," says GourmetFoodMall.com's Restivo, whose company regularly surveys online consumers on such issues. But if you jack up your price to accommodate free shipping on commodity items that only sell at the lowest price possible, you lose. In those cases, customers expect to pay a reasonable amount for shipping, Restivo says. On the other hand, high shipping prices are a big detriment to sales of perishable or premium products, presumably because it's easy to forgo those items when they don't feel like a "bargain." Restivo's tip: Rely on second-day-air shipping. Costs are much cheaper than overnight and customers are satisfied.

Spruce up Your Site and Service

The goal is to get customers to return and to spread the word among friends and family that your online shop is worth a visit. So do everything you can to make the experience fast, fun and fabulously better than your competitors. Explain all your policies, upfront. Promise 100% money-back guarantees with no strings attached. Offer free samples. Quickly respond to every query or comment. Invest in a live chat function so that customers can get answers to product questions immediately. Create reasons to return to your site with a loyalty club or contests or email games and discounts. Make connections with customers and don't let go. One last point: Don't forget that having well-written content and product descriptions are important – because you want the search engines to find you. Learn how to optimize your site for search engines.

CONCLUSION

1. Indeed there are several strategies being adopted in internet marketing. Thus, there is no one strategy that could be all encompassing but basic the rule remain that the goals must be well spelt out and the market and the audience. Well identified A true test of any strategies will be how effective and efficient the strategy is capturing business as well as positioning the organization to compete better in the global market.

SUMMARY

1. It is pertinent to explore strategies and techniques that you can use on the Internet that will enhance and support your business's overall marketing objectives. The strategies includes learning how to conduct banner promotions, generate targeted online traffic, positioning your content, and over all brand awareness. 
2. Having a Internet marketing strategy gives you a measurable and definitive way to target your market and position your business so that those looking for what you have to offer are finding you easily.
3. There are proven methods and tactics that you can use online to increase your conversion rate and get that prospect to become a customer or client. If you haven't taken time to plan your Internet Marketing Strategy you have made a costly mistake that could be draining to your business and costing you customers.
4. There is more marketing hype published on the Internet in one day than P.T. Barnum generated in his lifetime. Like a worm swallowing its tail, the Internet marketing beast feeds mostly on itself. The vast majority of what appears on the Internet about marketing is designed to help you market products and services sold and delivered exclusively on the Internet. 
5. Before the Internet, small business owners like yourself were usually limited to a local market -resorting to expensive advertising and brochures, direct mail, cold-calling, networking at the local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary
6. Networking is one of the most effective ways to find clients for any consulting or professional services business. But if you limit your networking to only what you can do in person, you'll be missing out on a huge number of possibilities. 
7. There's really no deep secret about increasing sales through the Internet. You drive traffic by creating more sales leads. When these newbie shoppers show up, you engage them and convert their interest into a transaction