Ecommerce Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses

Everyone who uses the Internet or generates revenue from an ecommerce business learned that cyberspace does not operate the same as the real world does. Attracting business on the net follows the rules of Celebrity PR more than the rules of business. There are several strategies that can generate revenue including:

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. SEO Optimization
3. Blog Marketing
4. AdSense
5. Link Exchanges
6. Social Bookmarking
7. Sponsorship Advertisements
8. Article/ Content Marketing

Each of these tools can be used individually, or in combination, to find a way to market a particular product or a service. Small business marketing on the net does not require the money spent by brick-and-mortar businesses, but it does require some strategies used by Public Relations agents.

A good knowledge of web marketing can make any of these tools work for them. But, true success will not be reached until the business owner stops looking at their company and their product, and focuses on the customer.

A webmaster can put a blog and a forum on their site, and fail. Another webmaster can use a basic static site with a few downloadable e-courses or PowerPoint presentation, can generate massive wealth.

Take a look at the search engines. Myspace and Facebook drive more traffic than Yahoo and MSN. In fact, Google is starting to worry about web2.0 because it is taking control of the net, damaging their revenues. When one person leads another person to a product or website, the search engines lose their power - and that is what is happening.

That is why many ecommerce sites have turned away from SEO and are turning to Myspace. But, this is not the solution for everyone. The marketing aspect of attracting clients is something that marketing procedures needs to cover. It is not a matter of being able to cover a large target market, but reaching the right market. Ecommerce business owners need to stop thinking in terms of millions of hits, and start thinking in terms of high conversion rates.

Many ecommerce business owners jump on the bandwagon building hundreds of links into their site. Each one costs the business owner money and, or time, but each will not attract the right target market - those ready to buy.

The internet has three levels, entertainment, education, exchange.

Entertainment

The first group are interested in entertainment. They want to have fun, meet people, and replace their television time with socializing on the internet. To reach these groups a website needs to hit places like http://youtube.com and find amateur movie makers. Buying a few dozen videos, and letting members upload their own videos, can make the difference.

Education

One of the main reasons why people 'hit the net' is to solve a problem. Once the problem is solved they leave. These people have no interest in buying a product. In fact, they will probably tolerate their problem instead of spending money on a solution.

Exchange

These web surfers are ready to buy. They usually buy a product that is mentioned in their forum, friend's list, or is bookmarked. If they have not saved some information on a product, they will buy from the first site they hit.

If an ecommerce business is flagging, then look at it and ask whether it is designed to do all three. If it is only designed to do one - it will fail.