Ok. You found a great product/service to sell, researched your competition, created a business plan, created a brand and logo and built your online store. It's all set!
Week 1: Launch it! Let's wait a few days until the audience knows me...
Week 2: They do not know me, but I'm driving great Social Media content to increase awareness...
Week (4, 5, 6): Not even ONE sell? Hmm...
If you painstaking the process of getting people to buy into your e-commerce site, keep reading and learn how to improve your marketing!
1) "Build it and they will come" only works in the movies. Marketing is a fundamental requirement for the success of any business. Too many people are guilty of thinking that if they start or build the next great brand, everyone will be lining up to use it. WRONG. You need to market and promote your offering. You must put a lot of time and money into market research, strategy, developing a market buzz, etc.
2) Random whim marketing. Statistics have shown that a potential customer has to see your ad an average of seven times before they even notice it. Assuming they are even interested in what you're selling, they have to see the ad another seven times before taking action. While you may not have the budget to run an ad 14 times, the real lesson here is that your marketing materials need to create consistency in several forms: A consistent look and feel, a consistent message, a consistent delivery schedule - so people see your name and message often enough to recognize you.
3) Define the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). You would be able to answer a hidden customer's question: "Why should I do business with you among all the choices I have in your category, which include doing nothing?". Spend your energy figuring out what's different or how you can be different.
4) Being ego-centric. We spend most of the time thinking and talking about what's important to us. It's only natural since we all spend our time dealing with our own life, family, health, and body. But guess what? Your customers are no different. Your clients want to talk about their issues so they can get some resolution and move on. What your clients want to know from your marketing is "What's in it for me?"
5) Too much focusing on features. The worst thing you can do is talk about the technical features of the solution – technical protocols, bandwidth, security, software and hardware specs, etc. To put it another way, don't just tell what it is; tell what it will do for your client. Put the features on a list and ask yourself: Why would someone want this?
6) Missing the target audience. "Who is your target market?" If your answer sounds like "I don't know", "anyone with money" or "anyone who will listen to my pitch" STOP YOUR MARKETING RIGHT NOW! People buy products or services that solve a problem, fill a need or help fulfill a dream. If you try to speak to too broad a market, chances are that you won't be speaking to anyone with any specificity that makes sense.
7) Insanity. Doing the same things over and over and expecting to get different results. You should be tracking your marketing efforts and advertising campaigns, compare results with goals and hear new ideas. If , something did not worked on the previous months won't work on the next ones. Change, test, track, repeat.
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