Increase Online Sales in Simple and Easy Ways

You have this wonderful new product. In fact, it’s far better than anything on the market at present. As you are manufacturing it in-house, you can also afford to sell it at a really great rate. However, you are just not getting sales. Your competitor, on the other hand, has a far more expensive, but substandard product, and he is laughing all the way to the bank. His products are flying off the shelves even though they are not comparable in quality and cost to your merchandise.

Why Is This Happening?

The business website Entrepreneur states that this scenario affects probably 90 percent of business owners online and it is due to a very simple reason. Low product awareness. Customers do not know about your product and they are not aware of its benefits. As a result, they buy products from your competitor who is probably using every online advertising avenue available to capture the market. But before you start gnashing your teeth, you should know that this tactic works both ways. You too, can cut into his market and increase your online sales by utilizing the free online tools available for all website owners. A few of the lesser-known but pretty well-kept ‘how to sell a product online‘ promotional tools include the following:

Look For Bloggers Who Post Reviews

You know you have a good product but you need to get that information on to the net. The best way to do this is by getting a popular blogger to review your product for free. You’ll be surprised at how many bloggers are willing to do this for free. For example, if you make baby food, stay-at-home mommy bloggers are an ideal market. Pop an email over and send your product to the blogger for a review. You will get a reply mail and a link to the review. A word of caution: bloggers value their freedom and if you have a crappy product don’t expect an earth-shatteringly positive review.

Make Videos

YouTube is the second-largest internet search engine and it has a very faithful backing. In fact, Google lists videos at the top of every search page and gives them prominence over written content. Creating a fun or interesting video can really help your product break into the market and create a niche for itself. Of course, it will help if you promote your video through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It’s not unusual for funny videos to go viral and become internet sensations overnight. Viral videos may not bring in immediate sales but they do create an image and brand-consciousness that can be very valuable. Another way to add videos to your website would be to host webinars, training videos, video interviews of customers using your product or to ask customers to send in their own personal videos. Transcribe these videos with tools like CastingWords and then post the content on your website. You can also post these same videos on to YouTube and to your company account.

Be Proactive In Content

Content is king on the internet and promoting your through print is always a great idea. A few oldies but goodies are:

1. Press releases almost always work as they reach thousands of readers all over the world and are always checked by Google for the latest news. You can try free and paid PR websites and both are pretty good options.
2. Set up social media platforms and be as vocal as possible regarding your product. Use social media to reach out to local customers located around your office or manufacturing area as they are more likely to drop into your retail store. If you don’t have a retail store, try focusing around your home office area to raise awareness of your product.
3. Set up a blog related to your website to explain the benefits of your website and its products. Invite customers to write testimonials, leave comments or even guest post on your blog and reward them with loyalty points, freebies and coupons.
4. Set up a newsletter that will reach out to existing customers and send them targeted deals that are not offered to other customers or on the website. Loyal customers are happy when they are acknowledged for the hand in your success.
5. Partner with related but non-competitor companies to set up webinars, white papers, online meetings, training programs etc.

The website Constant Contact encourages you to experiment as all publicity is good publicity. Keep a careful eye on your competitor websites as well and note down what they are doing explains the site Searchenginewatch. If you use online tools correctly, there is a very good chance that you will see your business increasing and you will also see your website slowly climbing up Google search page results as well. Of course, you do have to keep a careful eye on the internet as new promotional platforms come up nearly every day.