Turn Your Online Business Into a Virtual Storefront

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Turn Your Online Business Into a Virtual Storefront

By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team

Whether your company sells products or services, think of your website as a virtual storefront, meaning that people from all over can travel to your “store” through the web. Maintain your site just like you would a store. To generate sales and return customers, you cannot let your “store” to do the work for you. Just because you have a site that’s up and running, doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax.

An online business needs to open up shop everyday. This includes looking for new methods to reach the people that want what you are selling. For online business marketing, this is where social networking can help. The social web will help you reach people who have an interest in the fields surrounding your products and services. For example if you are selling vitamins, you can join networks of people interested in health, nutrition, fitness, wellness, alternative medicine, holistic diets or any other related group. You can then collect data on potential customers so that you can plan your next marketing campaign or send email blasts and newsletters.

A Work in Progress Gets Better Results

Building a website and an online business are ongoing marketing efforts. Do not expect your business to grow if you merely set up your site, have two articles, a Facebook profile and then leave it. You may get traffic initially, but it will eventually slow or stop, especially if you do not maintain your business!

Viewers come back for fresh material, new content, special offers, etc. If they notice that a site is not updating or recycling old material, they will take note and stop coming back. In order to keep surfers searching, you need to update blogs at least once a week and communicate with your visitors frequently. Discover what makes your products and services stand out from the competition. Choose which networking sites to sign up for, I recommend Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for general and business networks. Post blog articles on top aggregators such as ArticleDashboard and EzineArticles.

Remember that you are building a business and not just another website. Every page matters as well as what you write and how you position and brand your company. Just because your store is online does not mean that it will do the work for you. So do not treat your website like a chore and commit marketing suicide. Maintain your site and you will see direct results.

About the Author: Bob Speyer is an online marketer, social media strategist and co-founder of the Web Success Team. Bob develops effective marketing strategies to help companies increase brand awareness and target more customers for their products and services. His articles are intended to educate as well as inform readers of the latest tools and techniques of online marketing. You can follow Bob on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

3 comments

  1. Louise Rogers
    September 8th, 2010 6:57  / 

    This is a great beginner’s primer on understanding staying still will make your business stay still. If you are one of these people you need to stop packing and shipping the product yourself and spend more time on social media channels. As a small business/store owner for 30 years I was challenged by how to get my website “out there”. I have said this before and I’m sure to the younger people reading this, it’s not necessary to think this way, but imagine that every Twitter comment, every Facebook comment or new fan you’ve attracted, every blog, every connect you have made in the social marketing venues as a brick. Each brick you create is adding to the structure of your business and it’s up to you to make it the size you want it. It’s in your hands to create the business. Start collecting bricks now.
    I sell Trollbeads on http://www.trollbeadsgallery.com. Trollbeads is 30+ yer old Danish interchangeable bead and jewelry line from Denmark.Just introduced to the U.S. a year before I discovered it. My site, Trollbeads Gallery, has been the first web store listed on Google for 3 years, only followed by the U.S. and Danish distributors. I consider that a success that occurred only after I did everything I had in my power to do.I had a brand new product prime for the U.S. market and although it is now a polished brand, then it wasn’t and I wanted to educate the U.S. to want it. While Facebook was just beginning and Twitter was not yet twitting I wrote articles, begged for email addresses and basically understood the learning curve would be going on forever. The best thing I did was start a Trollbeads Gallery Forum on the Ning Network. We now have over 1800 members from 20+ countries and they have downloaded over 9000 photographs. SO here’s one more brick for the building of your on-line presence, create your own “club” in the social marketing world. The members inspire each other to want more and while still small in the jewelry world, Troll is always growing. I created my own audience and we are soon hosting an event to meet each other. Collectors are coming to my store from Australia,England and the Netherlands and from across the U.S. to come to a Trollbeads Fest! 2010 and buy Trollbeads.
    At this point my social marketing effots include http://www.TrollbeadsGalleryForum.Ning.com,Linked IN,Facebook,Twitter, Blog.TrollbeadsGallery.com and I can’t wait to see what is next. Just make sure you think of it as a journey, one in which you are sending a lot of post cards from.

  2. Kennan Clark
    September 8th, 2010 11:44  / 

    Bob, I am about to launch a new internet based sales / customer service tool that I would love to hear your opinion on. If you would like to watch a pre-launch demo video that I threw together then go here:
    https://www.customer-cam.com/demo.php

    Questions? Comments! Thoughts. Welcome…

    If you want me to demo a developmental build for you then let me know as I would be happy to show you it in action. You have my email address…

  3. Margarito
    October 18th, 2013 5:58  / 

    I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing
    this site. I’m hoping to view the same high-grade blog posts from you later on as well.
    In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now
    πŸ˜‰

    my webpage – health [Margarito]

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