Even the most profitable businesses need good Marketing strategies to gain more customers. And with so many players in the same market, you need to stand out among others. How will you do that?

By marketing your store right!

Here are 8 easy tips that will get you ecommerce success –

1. The right ecommerce platform

The platform where you set up your online store is the foundation that helps maintain a strong structure. No short cuts there. Select what is practical, flexible, financially- viable and is dependable when traffic increases.

The right platform acts as a knowledgeable technology partner for the sellers. It gives you several features to choose from as per your requirement. The availability of good payment options is equally important. You can get a step by step guide to starting selling office supplies with the help of a good online platform here.

2. A good design

An essential start is to design your store well. It creates the first impression on the customers and builds a professional and trustworthy image for your brand. Good website design is so important that it takes 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your website, according to johnkramer’sblog.

The same blog says that 38% of the people will stop engaging with the website if the content doesn’t look pretty on that page.

3. Product content

Product content shares the same space as SEO in the field of online marketing. High-quality product content plays an extremely important role in the customer’s decision to buy the product. Let’s take a look at the statistics to understand the impact of the product description on the conversions. Openspace.com says that –

• 98% of the shoppers have been dissuaded from completing the purchase because of incomplete or incorrect content.
• 50% of the shoppers return the items they purchased because it didn’t match the product description.

It is quite a big number to ignore for any online store. VARStreet provides free rich product content with every subscription in integration with Etilize, the industry leaders in rich content for IT and office supplies.

4. Use quality images

Choose eye-catching, good quality images to attract customers to your products. There is no substitute for good quality product images in ecommerce. While shopping online, images are the connection between the seller and buyer as there is no other way to examine the product. In short, images make or break the deals for online sellers.

Pay attention to,

• High Resolution
• Color and light effects
• Multiple images from different angles and dimensions
• Clean background
• Cropped to let the product cover most of the frame.

5. Social media marketing

Take advantage of all the Social Media platforms to create visibility for your products. Office supplies are used by school and college students, people working in offices, having businesses and households. Connect easily but wisely with your prospective customers.

• Engage more followers
• Make your posts interesting
• Share attractive pictures of your products
• Share positive client experiences
• Post useful and informative blogs
• Run campaigns
• Use hashtags
• Respond to comments

Please note that people use social media platforms ‘every day more than once’. Calculate your chances of creating an impression on these people about your product accordingly. When it is social media, marketing has no limits.

Australia’s leading supplier of office products, Officeworks, has a very strong social media presence. A very good example of how good content and pictures can get so many followers on different social media platforms.

6. Search engine optimization

Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO, brings organic traffic to your website. It is a slow and steady process that helps you win the race. Invest time in SEO and gradually you will see your website ranking on Google’s first page. A well-analyzed SEO marketing strategy will do a keyword search that brings people who are searching for those products to your website.

It is important to note that the website content and labeling of product pictures also contribute to the website ranking high in search results. This brings us back to the importance of point no.2

So, if someone tries to search “how to buy office supplies online” using Google, Bing or Yahoo, SEO helps in pushing your website name in the top search results. This is what you want.

7. Target and retarget

Pick up the right market segment for marketing. Households, schools, corporates, small businesses, government offices, etc. form an expansive market to sell office supplies. Target these prospective customers using the right social media groups and forums. Target and retarget.

If people go through your website, looking for items they wanted and leave without buying, retarget them. Remind them of what they left. Use pop-ups, email marketing, and retargeting ads to draw their attention back to your website.

Statistics say customers who see retargeting ads are 70% more likely to convert on your website. Grab this opportunity of marketing your brand to the customers who are already familiar with it. Amazon, Staples, Office Depot, are to name a few big brands who use retargeting ads to convert more customers.

8. Automation

Be smart. Invest in automation.

Now that we have established the importance of marketing, let’s understand the logistics of the same. There are innumerable platforms you need to market on, and it is difficult to do it all yourself, especially once your business starts to scale.

Automation is the keyword for digital marketing these days. A good choice of automated software will cover multi-channel marketing and will save your time, energy and resources.

Office supplies, like any other commodity that sells online, need good marketing.

What you need is a strong base in the form of a good platform, impressive content, and pictures.

Proceed ahead with search engine optimization, social media marketing, retargeting ads. Select an efficient automation software to help you with multi-channel marketing.

Not to forget that everyone in the business is doing what is mentioned above. The question is how and how often can ‘you’ do it?

As Jonathan Ive, the chief design officer of Apple once said,

“It is easy to be different but very difficult to be better”

Be persistent in your marketing efforts to be better than others. Doing and redoing it will bring the best out of your strategies.

Remember? Slow and steady wins the race.

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