Advertising makes trade go round – the secrets of e-commerce

Over recent years, the electronic form of trading has been gaining many enthusiasts. It is no wonder as, after all, an online store makes it possible for almost anyone to start their own business at a reduced cost. However, trade would not work if it were not for customers, therefore winning potential consumers is essential. To encourage them to shop in an online store, business owners can use free methods as well as their paid counterparts. Depending on how creatively we approach the issue of advertising, we can gain many new orders.

It is predicted that by the end of 2019 the number of potential users of online commerce will increase to 2 billion people. At the same time, more than half of consumers admit that when looking at a product in a brick-and-mortar store, they compare its price with the products available on the Internet. Price, 24/7 availability, ease of purchase and a broad choice are the strengths that attract people to e-commerce stores. However, the farther we go, the bigger the requirements for product quality. Obviously, the cost still plays an important role, however, especially young internet users more and more often pay attention to the originality and durability of the purchase. Using several useful portals and tools, we can expand the reach of our offering and thus win new orders and loyal customers.

START FROM BUILDING RELATIONS

On the Internet, users are more likely to establish a bond with a specific person than with a brand. Therefore, by building our advertising around a given personality that turns out to be convincing and simply worth being liked by potential consumers, we can gain many loyal customers. If we do not feel strong enough to build such relationships, let us remember to focus primarily on professionalism. When we start building communication with customers, we should mainly focus on social media channels as it is usually from these sources that users will get opinions about products, ask us questions about our offering and check current promotions. Equally important as the content is the aesthetic layout of the fanpage, i.e. the background photo, the avatar, photos of events as well as any other graphics pasted into posts. For that purpose, we can use the services of professional graphic designers but we can also create basic and nice content ourselves using software which is available on the web. If we run a business offering accessories, fashion or simply products whose presentation may be attractive to the customer, media such as Instagram will definitely be a good showcase of our activities.

Many online stores generate favourable results because they keep a company blog. Depending on the type of products and business profile, the blog should be directly connected with the offering, at the same time suggesting articles unobtrusively. For example, if we run a store with accessories for children, the articles may include advice on how to correctly choose a stroller, car seat or a cot, while a pet store may focus on tips on raising a puppy or teaching them commands. By creating content which is useful to users we improve the reach of our website and, while searching for an article on our site, a potential customer may also decide to buy related products. The company blog should be linked to the store’s website and if such an option is not available by default, we can use tools such as WordPress.

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

We can generate the best and long-term results thanks to favourable website positioning in Google search results. For that to happen, we will have to learn the secrets of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In the beginning, we can get better results by using advertising campaigns: with the help of Google AdSense we can reach the first group of customers and additionally expand the scope of our offering by promoting specific posts on social media such as Facebook. However, let us remember that these are paid options, therefore we should be carefully prepared to release the content into the world.

When preparing an advertisement for an e-commerce business, we can take many paths. Apart from the aforementioned ones, we can also post our offer in price comparison services, YouTube or industry forums. Many types of communication take a lot of time, therefore along with the development of our business, it may turn out that we need another person to help us. However, the number of available options allows us to choose the perfect form of advertising for our type of business.

Guest article

Author: Katarzyna Zgorzelska, in consultation with TEB Education