Helen M. Overland

Online Marketing Strategies -
Tips to Begin Marketing Online

By: Helen M. Overland


It used to be held true that if you just set up a website, the customers would come. Venture capital would flow from the sky, customers would beat down your garage door, and bandwidth would be your only bottleneck to never ending riches.

Now that the tech industry has taken the proverbial red pill, it is widely recognized that we need more practical strategies to grow our online sales. If you have a website but aren't sure how to start marketing it, this article may help give you some strategies to begin marketing your website online.

1. Make Sure Your Website is Easy to Navigate

Here's the scenario:
You have the most reliable, comfortable, and wonderful cars in your lot. The cars are affordable and you offer a great warranty. A potential customer pulls in and tries to get someone to help them. After a few minutes of waiting for someone to show them around, they begin to wander around on their own. Is that the showroom over there? Maybe. Okay, they've found the showroom. No, these cars are too expensive. They need something a bit more family oriented. Maybe they should head outside. Okay, they're outside. Now, red cars are over here, and blue cars are over there. But where are the 4 door sedans? Okay, they wanted a 4 door sedan, but here's a red minivan. It's not exactly what they want, but they'll look at it anyway. How much is it? Okay, where is the price? Oh, here it is. Hey, that's an amazing price! That's such a good price maybe they should get the minivan. Is there any other information about it? No. Okay, they're trusting people, they want to buy it. Oh thank goodness, here's the sales person. Now they've spent an hour filling out all the paperwork. They can only buy if they use one of these two credit cards. No, they have to live in one of these two countries. No, they can't call for customer help, they have to email. And as it turns out, the price is in a different currency, so with shipping the actual price is almost double...

This isn't the experience you want your customers to have, is it? Yet this is exactly the experience that the poorly designed website provides.

If you want to avoid this unhappy situation, make sure your website has an easy-to-use navigation system that takes customers by the hand and answers their questions when they think of them. Never skip USABILITY TESTING by your actual target demographic. Not only will your customers appreciate it, but your pocket book, and your investors, will, too.

2. Think About Keywords

When customers are looking for your product online, they will usually search for something specific. Some examples of keywords are: "dress tie", "floor lamps", or "ergonomic keyboards". They won't be searching for "Welcome to Larry's Lamps", which may be the text that appears at the top of your page, and on Google describing your site. Find out what key phrases people are using to buy your products. Then use those keywords in your site. Search engines are much more likely to associate you with those keywords if you associate yourself with them.

3. Consider hiring an SEO specialist

If your attempt at online marketing is casual, then you may consider learning how to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by yourself. You may have some success. If however, you are seriously pursuing strong growth in your online sales, then consider hiring a professional SEO specialist. This person will:

1. Discover which keywords will be most relevant and successful for you
2. Write copy that emphasizes those keywords
3. Make sure the optimized pages are "search engine friendly"
4. Usually provide some sort of metrics to measure keyword activity

Having your website professionally optimized will not usually result in sudden riches in online sales. But it will lay a strong foundation upon which to grow your online presence. Well executed SEO can be expensive, but it can easily return your investment many times over.

A word of warning: SEO is not widely taught in schools and currently anyone can claim to be an SEO specialist. There can be repercussions to hiring a "specialist" who isn't quite on the ball. It is important to hire a reputable specialist.

4. Get Link Exchanges

A link exchange is one of the easiest ways to increase traffic on your site. A link exchange will do 3 very important things for you:

1. Tell customers you exist and how to find you
2. Tell future business partners you exist and how to find you
3. Tell the search engines you exist, how to find you, and what other people think of you

The advantage to using link exchanges is threefold. Customers visiting a home decor site might be interested in "Larry's Lamps", and visit the site. When a search engine sees that a home decor product site is linking to "Larry's Lamps", it thinks "oh, this site must have something to do with home decor products. In fact, 50 other home decor and lighting sites link there. It must be a good site. I should rank it higher". Finally, a polite request for a link exchange is a great way to approach a potential new business partner in a friendly manner.

A link exchange is also very easy to set up. Simply find sites that have the same audience as you, and contact them to ask for a link. If they say yes, send them your site name and description, and put their link on your site. Be sure to use those keywords in your title and description!

5. Use Quality Pictures

It's amazing how many sites miss this vitally important, absolutely simple point. When was the last time you recall buying something you couldn't see? Don't settle for fuzzy, dark, hard-to-see images on your website. Use pictures taken in good lighting, with proper adjustment, sharpening and optimization. Make sure your pictures look better than your competitors. Not only will this make your products look better to your customers; good pictures will also make a good impression on potential business partners.

6. Use PPC Wisely

Pay-Per-Click advertising can be a great way to increase traffic on your site. But it's return is almost directly correlated with the amount of effort put into it. If you simply choose a keyword or two, such as "lamps" or "lighting", you're going to spend a lot of money for nothing. Sure you'll get customers out of the campaign. But you'll also get people looking for "toy magic lamps", "natural lighting", and "how to avoid buying lamps". It is very important to have some kind of tracking system so that you know how much each keyword is worth to you. If it's not returning sales, stop throwing money at it. It's much better if you can find the key phrases that people are looking for, such as "buy lamps online", or "shop for lamps".

The two Gorillas of PPC marketing are:
Google - AdWords
Yahoo - Overture

7. Viral Marketing

There's nothing better than a word of mouth referral. Why not help your current happy customers refer you to their friends and family? At the very least, offer a "send this page to a friend" link on your site. A few other ideas are:

• Send this product to a friend
• Allow customers to send free branded E-Cards
• Offer a message board
• Offer a free events email reminder service
• Free branded wallpaper

8. Consider an Affiliate Program

An affiliate program simply means that you pay another site to link to you. You can pay by the click, customer, sale, or percentage of sale. Frequently, affiliate partners are paid a percentage of every sale they generate. There are a few ready-made affiliate solutions available if you don't want to spend the time developing your own program.

If you create your own program, you will be in full control of which sites join and link to you. You will have control over how the program works, and will be able to see all the tracking and workings of the program. However, this method has a larger initial cost, and should be considered a long term investment.

If you use a ready-made program, your initial cost will be much lower. The affiliate program will make your site known and available to websites seeking to join affiliate programs. The downside is you may not be in complete control of which sites begin linking to you, and the long term cost will be higher. This method should be considered as a short-term solution, or if you are testing the viability of this method.

9. Use All Your Channels

If you have more than one channel - a store and a catalogue for example - use them all to promote your website. Make sure each has a clear suggestion to visit the website. Remember: the website can take orders 24 hours a day at a relatively low cost.

10. Buying Advertising

Depending on your budget, you may decide to purchase advertising. There are many different ways to do this, and different goals that can be accomplished with each kind. It is very important to try to find sites that have quality, qualified traffic. Spend money advertising where your customers hang out. Remember - the smaller your budget, the more important it is to find targeted pages to advertise on. You can find more information about buying online advertising in my How to Buy Online Advertising article.

11. Offer Value-Added Content

One great way to get traffic to your site is to add content for free. If your business sells bicycles, then offer articles on biking. Make a list of great locations for bike trips, offer articles on bike repair and maintenance, safety tips, and how to buy the right bike. Not only will this low-cost activity attract potential buyers, it will also provide more reasons for the search engines to love your site.


There are many ways to approach online marketing, and these are but a few of them. The important thing to remember is that it takes effort and tenacity to build any business. If you are serious about growing your online sales, it is important to either make the commitment to learning the business of online marketing, or acquire the skills you need for your organization. As in any business, success takes planning, time, and the application of quality skills. SEO Search:    Search the Web with an SEO Focus: