A common problem among many businessmen is that they know the ins and outs of the industry, understand the market and keep proper financial records but underestimate the role of promotion.
Promotion is the way the offer is delivered to the target audience. The promotional campaign is more or less successful if a person, who needs a pellet cutting machine, sees an offer from your store with pellet cuttings machines and buys one.
It can happen through different channels: email, ad on a website, comments from real customers, influencers’ recommendation. There are many ways to advertise online. Some of them are relevant and working. Exactly about these methods, you will find out from this article, namely, you will get an answer to the question:
How to come up with an appealing offer to the right audience at the right time?
While the time might not always be right, there is also the right audience who needs your product exactly at this price but doesn’t know about its existence.
So, we are getting deeper into the jungles of the dropshipping business (if you just joined, check out the previous article about the dropshipping business).
In this article, I will share 7 working strategies on marketing your business online that don’t require any special equipment, knowledge or substantial investments.
7 Ways to Market Your Business Online in 2020
#1 Pay Attention to the Email Marketing
Email marketing is fertile territory for marketing your business online. A couple of supporting facts:
- $32 is an average return on investment in email marketing for every $1 spent
- in 2017, there were 3.7 billion email users – by 2020, this number is supposed to reach 4.3 billion
More than half a billion of the new users prove that email will remain a widely-used channel of communication in 2020
In this case, I’d recommend you start with reviewing your email marketing activity and creating a strategy. Here is a super detailed guideline on how to create one.
Remember that for warming up the interest of your product among people, who are not ready to buy it now, it’s important to give something for free (e.g. some digital info products). This way, Brian Dean boosted conversion rates from 0.54% to 4.28% in a month.
The next step would be to build an email list. Email followers are more devoted and engaged. You can also offer some free perks (checklists, templates, books) for leaving an email.
One more thing to point out is setting up Google My Business Account as it has such pros:
- local business appears in Google Maps and Search
- it’s better for SEO when people are searching for products or services
- when people leave reviews, Google uses this information automatically for displaying in its “3-pack” (free advertising)
Don’t forget to check out if the main GMB listing contains the same information as other listings (primarily NAP).
Whether it’s obvious or not, it’s better to equip an email signature with a catchy and stylish Call to Action Button. For creating one, I’d recommend Sigstr.
To gather more subscribers for your newsletter try Crocoblock widgets. It contains animated boxes, various charts, timers, circle progress, scroll navigation, logos, progress bar, Parallax effect, etc.
With extra tools and services, marketing your business online goes up a level.
#2 Consider Using Marketing Tools, Bundles, and Add-ons
As a businessman, marketer, or freelancer, you know the value of time. In the dropshipping business, every second matters. Thus, if you market your business online on your own, you might not have time to sort out new marketing trends and strategies and test them.
Some talented guys created ready-to-use products exactly for busy people or people with no coding skills. I often use themes and templates to save time but recently I’ve found the Ultimate Digital Marketing Bundle.
It has a bunch of marketing tools for creating a modern website, catchy landing page, effective promotional campaigns. You get access to fonts, animated banners, icons, illustrations, logos. Besides, you get templates for landing pages and newsletters and various mockups. There are awesome templates for flyers and brochures.
#3 Remain actively Present on Social Media
Without a doubt, a large part of the target audience is checking out their Facebook and Instagram feeds right now. Due to the modern mechanisms of analyzing user’s activity on social media, it’s possible to show ads to the target audience. Yes, there are experienced marketers and targeting specialists but even a person without advanced marketing knowledge can set the advertising campaign on social media.
Of course, the social media profile should be appealing because Internet users pay particular attention to visual aesthetics and content.
When I create promotional campaigns on social media, I visit marketplaces with tons of ready-made social media products, including banners, templates for posts, stories, and different tastes.
In a highly competitive time, it’s especially important to be creative when you market your business online.
#4 Collect and Share Reviews
Some people are still cautious about buying online. For a dropshipping store, it’s especially important to have testimonials from real clients. It shows that the business is real, there are satisfied clients and it inspires trust.
When you market your business online and encourage people to leave feedback, make sure that the process is simple and won’t take more than 1 minute to process the comment. For this purpose, choose the reliable testimonials plugins.
It’s also effective if the reviews appear on third-party services. It’s one of the most popular ways to advertise online without substantial investments.
#5 Host Presentations, Seminars, or Webinars
More people are willing to learn. More companies or businessmen are ready to share information. You can tell more about your product. It works in both cases:
- when you are new at the market, it’s a great chance to introduce your product, let people find out about its pros
- when you are well-established and prospering business, people want to know your ins and outs. So, it’s a great chance to show how everything works inside your company.
If you can teach people, try it. “Lunch and Learn” format is gaining popularity now. The conception lies in learning in one hour during lunch.
For a dropshipping business, I’d recommend organizing Q&A sessions. It increases trust and interest in the activity. Building such relationships between you and customers is important to market your business online.
Conclusion
Yes, there are dozens of ways to advertise online but they won’t work if your website is NOT:
- optimized for speed and SEO
- mobile-friendly
- responsive
- user-friendly
- fast
Unique content organized attractively also plays an important role, even in the dropshipping business.
Marketing your business online is not easy but with ready-made products, tools and services, relevant knowledge and fire in your eyes it will get easier!
Disclaimer: I do not have a vested interest in any of the projects mentioned above