Retail Internet Marketing: A How-To Guide

Regardless of what products your retail business specializes in, you will need a strong internet presence to attract new customers and encourage existing ones. Are you a seller of high-tech goods? Need a website. Think you get a free pass because you deal only with age-old antiques? Surprise! You still need to be active online in order to get and keep customers. With the recent popularity of smart phones, your customers are online now more than ever. Want to make sure your retail internet marketing is up to speed with your competitors? Follow these guidelines to ensure that your retail business succeeds online.

Stay in Touch Please!

Once you snag a customer, you won’t want to lose them for good. Ideally, you will want to ask for your customers’ emails at the point of sale. However, you have to make your offer extremely enticing—people don’t want their already full inbox to be crammed with more “junk.” Explain to them the benefits of signing up for your newsletter and give them a great reason to sign up. For example, perhaps you could offer them a weekly/monthly newsletter with exclusive coupons and 10% of their purchase instantly if they give you their email. Make them an offer they can’t refuse and you’ll have scored a repeat customer!

Be a Social Butterfly!

Most of your customers will have at least one social network that they log on to often. You will want to create a presence on the main social media networks (think Facebook, Twitter, Google+, MySpace) in order to connect with your customers. Once you get a feel for who your ideal buyers are, start analyzing their behaivor. Which networks do they use? And how do they use their accounts? What types of content to they post and share? Ask yourself these questions, and then mimic their behavior to better connect with your followers.

Post Some Content Already!

Having a blog is great for retail internet marketing because it allows you to share your knowledge with your customers. Your products and services are your niche and you are already an authority on that subject. Why not share this with your customers by educating them? Do you have a store that specializes in sports gear? Start a blog and keep your customers up to date about the best sports equipment and trends in sportswear. Any content that is relevant to your ideal buyer will help bring more qualified traffic to your website.

Promote, Promote, Promote!

The internet is a great tool when trying to advertise promotions, special deals or contests. Not only can you post these on your website, but you can amp up the excitement by promoting events and deals on your social media pages. Try to get your customers excited about your brand by starting fun and engaging contests or offering exclusive online promotional codes! If the deal is enticing enough, your followers may even decide to “share” via social media, thus getting you even more views and potentially, more customers!

Go Forth and Go Mobile!

You are going to need a website that is mobile friendly. Imagine this scenario: Your ideal customer is out shopping when they decide that they need to find a product that you happen to specialize in. If you customer searches your business on the internet, and your website is not mobile friendly, they won’t be able to find you and they will take their business elsewhere. Make sure that your mobile website is functional and that your general information and contact details are in clear view!
The way that you market your business online can be just as important as the way you market your businessin the physical world and inside your store. Whether we like it or not, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on the internet and technology. Retail internet marketing can be a great tool when bringing in more customers and getting more business.

Need help? Paveya is here to help you grow. Contact grow@paveya.com or call us at 855.372.8392.