Friday, October 19, 2012

Branding Strategies On The Internet

By Keith Crandall


If you have products to sell, you want to make sure people buy them. On the Internet, that can be done easily by getting started with Internet marketing. Internet marketing can promote your products and get people to buy them, if you use the right techniques and have knowledge about why you are applying them. Here are some ways to make sure your Internet marketing strategies are a success.

Social media marketing is something you cannot afford to neglect if you are selling products online. Social networks are incredibly popular and provide you with great marketing opportunities if you know how to use these sites smartly.

Social media sites are the perfect place to advertise your business and find new customers. Everyone belongs to a social media site in this day and age, and consumers are using these sites at an increased frequency to find the products and services they will use, even when those products and services are local. Start a Facebook page and encourage your current customers to "like" you. Offer special discounts and giveaways exclusively to your social media customers. This is a great way to get consumers familiar with your current products or services and to expose them to new ones too.

Interact with your audience as much as possible. Give people several options to contact you and be available and helpful with everyone. Create a blog, a message board or a group on your customers' favorite social network so that your customers have a place where they can share their own content, have access to quality articles, pictures or videos they will find interesting and make new friends. Do not befriend your customers; you should remain professional and remember you need to convince these people to buy your products. Creating online communities and staying in touch with your customers is the best way to develop a good branding strategy.

Use pictures and videos to demonstrate your products. Filming your videos in public places and asking passer-byes to participate could be a great way to let people know about your site. Update your site with new content regularly and write articles on topics related to your products. You should also add more reviews of your products and advertise discounts, sales and contests. Get people to come back to your site by creating ways for them to stay in touch with you. Social networks and email lists are the most effective ways of attracting the attention of your target audience.

Once you start getting a few customers it is important to listen to anything you have to say. Repeat business is extremely valuable, and even better, a satisfied customer can turn into multiple customers through word-of-mouth promotion. If a customer lets you know about an issue, or even just wants to ask a question about your product, then it is in your best interest to help them. The internet is a brutal place, and staying silent will only ruin your reputation with potential customers.

In order to save time and money in generating and posting new coupons, consider having a basic coupon for a more expensive service or product that you leave up on your website and that can be used for a single order or a specific number of orders.

Have a sense of integrity. That means that it is not a good idea to be spammy. Don't collect contacts just to spam them with your product links. Not only is that incredibly rude, but put yourself in their place; how often do you respond to someone who spams you?

Invest in social media. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are the homes to millions of potential consumers. Facebook currently has nearly one billion members globally! Your company needs to be positioned on social networks. Learn about the social networks out there, and choose which ones you will invest time in. Don't try to do them all, as you can easily burn out.

Advertising your small business on the Internet can take some time, but it is worth it. You could boost your sales by shipping products and reminding your customers about your business.




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