If you’ve not read our previous 6 blogs on how to sell online… where have you been?!
Check them out HERE and the come back for ‘What Next?’
So, now that you have somewhere to sell your products and the right process in place, you need to work out how to let people know about them! If you don’t, you will have a nice lovely shop nobody knows about! Follow our next steps for eCommerce below.
Contact Current Clients
If you have a client list already, you already have some potential customers!
Give them a shout whether by phone or email and let them know about a new way of ordering. Chances are, given the current situation, they want your products and have been waiting for your physical shop to open again. They are, after all, already customers of yours!
Reaching out to existing customers if often the easiest and quickest way to start making people aware of your website and also bring in some revenue. Don’t forget to ask them to tell their friends while you’re at it, word of mouth is powerful.
TIP: An easy to use platform to send our email newsletters is Mailchimp where you can have an audience of up to 2,000 contacts for free on the basic plan.
Use social media
Facebook is often the easiest place to start so tell all your friends and then get them to tell anyone they can! If you don’t have your own Facebook business page now is a good time to set one up. It is a great resource to start shouting about your business and giving people a place to find useful information.
We know that it can be hard to get people to find your website initially.
So, a useful tip is to invite people to like your Facebook business page. You can do this in a few easy steps. On your business page, there is a Community box on the right hand side that says ‘Invite Friends.’ Invite everyone in your friends list to make a start!
Remember people are currently stuck at home so the use of Facebook is more popular than ever so it’s a good opportunity to reach out to people.
TIP: Get Facebook for Business here
Start a blog
To be a successful online store, you need to stand out from your competitors, and this can often be done by making use of a blog. It can be a place to create useful resources to help your customers and also talk about your business.
People often worry about their first blogs yet it doesn’t have to be scary. Start with things you are passionate and knowledgeable about. Once you have written it, get some friends to read it and ask for some honest feedback.
After that, think about how you can educate people about your products and what they might find interesting. Some useful ideas for blogs can be:
- Describe your most popular product
- Show your products being used
- Answer common questions
- Look at your industry and what you can tell people about
One thing to keep in mind is keep it interesting.
People don’t want to read articles focusing on a selling a product constantly, they want to be engaged and gain some useful information. Educate your customers and give them a reason to come back again, even if they aren’t ready to buy right now!
TIP: Read ‘How to Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide in 2020’ here
Keep It Simple: Start your first blog piece by telling people about who you are and what your business is and where it came from. People buy from people and love to hear about other people’s journeys and who knows that better than you!
What about the rest of your online presence?
Now you have a shop, take a step back.
Have a look at the rest of your online presence and what you can do to improve it. Does your website need some updating? Can you add more information to your social media profiles?
Take advantage of the extra time you have and all those little jobs you put off. Every minute you spend working on your business is moving you forward. It gives you chance to overtake those people who aren’t working to improve their business!
Hopefully this mini-series of articles has given you some useful information and some things to think about.
As we have tried to explain, starting an online shop doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need thinking about properly. Taking some extra time to plan your next steps now can save you a lot of time and effort in the future.
By starting the right way, you can take advantage of the current situation to create your online shop that can grow and expand for years to come!
If you want to find out more about setting up and online store or have some questions, please feel free to get in touch with the team. We will be happy to give you some advice and point you in the right direction.
