MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS
You have done the hard work of getting your ecommerce website up and running. Take a deep breath because you have done the hard part. The next part of the process revolves around marketing that business.
Marketing is a term used to describe the process of telling others about your business. Free and paid for marketing is necessarily in almost every business because it provides others with a way to find out whom you are and what you have to offer them. If you do not stand up and scream who you are, no one will find you.
The good news is that Yahoo! Store does a lot of that for you and with you. In this chapter, we are going to look at the ways that Yahoo! Store excels in providing its members with the ability to communicate their message to the world.
One of the first, and potentially one of the most important, first steps for a business is to get into the search engines. Here is how a search engine works:
Your job is to show the search engine the real importance of your website so that when someone with your keyword or topic visits that search engine, he or she will get a search engine results page that includes a link to your site. Most people who are shopping online will do this type of search for products they are hoping to buy. The better job you do of showing the value you add to the masses, the more likely it is that your website link will show up on that results page.
So, how does Yahoo! Store help you with this process? The first thing that the company does is to provide you with automatic submission of yoru site to Yahoo! Search and to Google. As the two largest and most powerful search engines, there is little doubt that you need to be listed in these services. This process only alerts Google and Yahoo! Search to your website. It does not favor the results any. It simply means that the website will be indexed.
Free Search Engine Marketing
Free search engine marketing is designed to provide your business with some basic resources to get it online. The submission to the two search engines is a part of this service offered by Yahoo! Store.
In addition to this, the company also provides you with a free basic listing in Yahoo! Local Search. If you have ever done a search online and have come across local listings for stores near you, that is what Yahoo! Local Search is. This is an important feature for anyone who is getting their business online but wants to draw people in to their actual storefront as well.
For example, perhaps you are an auto parts store. While you want to sell some of your products through the Internet, you are still operating a local store. When a person wants to buy a brake pad for their car, they may search for "brake pad New York City." In doing that, they are looking specifically for a local company. If you are operating in that city, your link will come up in the local search. This is a very handy service.
In addition to this, you can pay a fee and have a feature listing within Yahoo! Local Search. This feature is simply a higher ranking in the search engine rankings within the local search feature. Those that have a featured listing are listed before those that do not. Simply, you are likely the place that customers will call first if you are listed first.
Search Engine Pages
Another of the free search engine marketing tools offered by Yahoo! Store is the aid they provide to you in creating search engine friendly pages. By this, the company is talking about building in search engine optimization and creating pages based on good linking structure. A variety of these factors will help you to improve your overall ranking in the search engines.
If you do not have any experience with search engine optimization, it is a good idea to take some time to learn about it. It will help you incredibly throughout the building of your online business.
They Will Teach You
Here is another reason why you should love this company and the service that it provides to you. They provide you with what is called Sales and Marketing Education Center. This is a free service provided to you that allows you to learn the ins and outs of search engine optimization. You will learn things like:
This all inclusive training and informational guide is something you will come back to repeatedly to learn more. However, it only provides you with information about Yahoo! Store. You should still explore other methods of search engine optimization before you move on to other methods of marketing your business.
These free services are well worth the investment alone, if you do invest in the Yahoo! Store plans. Keep in mind, though, that paid marketing can also be highly helpful.
Sometimes, you do have to pay for marketing when it comes to online marketing. Just like paying a company to create the sign over your actual building in your community, you need to pay others online to get your message out and to attract visitors to you.
Yahoo! Store encourages this, and they should. The fact is, paid search engine marketing resources can definitely help you to improve the way your store functions and improve the overall results you get. To get you started, the company does offer some nice bonuses.
The first is Yahoo! Search Marketing. The company provides you with a $100 credit, unless you already have a current Yahoo! Search Marketing advertiser account. These fee funds are designed to allow you to choose specific keywords to rank with and then to be listed on those search engine results pages at a high level.
Paid marketing like this may place your ad on other pages or it may increase your page ranking in the search engine results pages. The bottom line is that this product does provide you with the ability to get into the face of your customers.
In addition to providing you with a credit for Yahoo! Search Marketing, the company also provides you with a $50 Google AdWords credit. This works in the same way, but is designed specifically for Google instead. This too is not available to those who are current Google Advertisers.
Do you need these services? In most cases, they are a nice add on bonus and will definitely help you to get noticed. Take advantage of the free services and then decide if you want to add more later on.
In addition, you have access to the Yahoo! Keyword Generator. This tool is an excellent one to help you with choosing the right keywords to add to your website as well as to help you with choosing keywords for Yahoo!
Search Marketing and Google AdWords.
This generator tool allows you to download the list of keywords that you learn about, URLs and the product names as well, and then you can simply cut and paste that information into the paid search marketing campaigns. It is that easy to use this tool.
As an ecommerce business, you need to get your website in front of other people. Specifically you are looking for those people who are interested in buying what you have to offer. This is why it is important to get listings on important shopping portals, including Yahoo! Shopping.
As mentioned earlier, creating your Yahoo! Store does not automatically get you listed in the Yahoo! Shopping network. Rather, you will need to list your products with this and other sites yourself. The most popular of these includes:
These sites allow you to get your products listed on them. These are some of the most popular shopping destinations associated with the Internet.
People go to these sites to get what they need.
Other marketing tools offered by the company, of which you should take advantage of, include the following:
This may sound simplistic, but it is one of the signature marketing tools you can use when you open your Yahoo! Store. You get to announce your store to family, friends and others with a professional email that will automatically match your store's design. You can add a coupon to entice visitors and feature products in the email.
Email marketing allows you to promote your products to your customers after they have signed up at your site to receive emails from you. Yahoo! Store does give you a tool to do this with called Campaigner. You get this feature for a low price on a monthly basis.
Newsletter marketing allows you to send periodic emails to customers regarding the products you are selling, sales or other information to get the customer back to the site. You do this through email. It is also a part of the Campaigner product line and well worth the investment.
Of course, you do have the ability to promote your business online and offline on your own. You can pay for banner ads, distribute business cards, use word of mouth advertising and even market your online business in your offline store. However, the features offered here are some of the most important for online success.