frusketing.com|Frustrations of Internet Marketing

The initial e-mail requested some advice on Online Marketing for the business.

“I have reached out to a few of the online marketing Gurus I know of and have asked them for specific suggestions related to your business - I gave them a brief description of what you mentioned and I’m waiting for their responses to forward them to you - In the mean time this is what I have thought of for your Holiday Internet Marketing Campaign…you may have thought of or already done this but wanted to suggest them to make sure these tips are in your hands. 

I also noticed your recent mailer with the Holiday Season marketing initiative - a good way to boost sales online is to encourage everyone who is a subscriber to forward the e-mail on to all friends and family members.

One of the main marketing initiatives you need to focus on are PPC (Pay Per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - I’ve added/attached a PPC TUTORIAL guide that you can use to help you understand the concept and how it works - I’m not sure if you are already using this method but it’s a great method of boosting sales if used properly…not only for the Holiday season but all year round. 

This is what I could put together for you right now from the “Work” office - but when I get home tonight I’ll make sure to review this and send the tips the marketing contacts sent me along with anything else I may think of… 

ONLINE MARKETING SUGGESTIONS
Enrolling your website as a retailer/merchant on www.cybermonday.com is a great idea.

You can read about them and they help boost sales for many companies due to the amount of online traffic they receive…I’m not sure of the specifics but it’s worth looking into. Last year more than 300,000 people visited the site on Cyber Monday…. which was this past Monday, it’s similar to “BLACK FRIDAY” but in the online world - they have great traffic throughout the year and especially from Halloween to the Holiday season ahead.

As you may know Ebay is not only an Auction site but an Online Store as well make sure that you create an E-bay Store account for your products. - Ebay has millions of users and it’s a good way to direct some of their traffic to your business all year round but especially during the holiday season ahead.

Add your products to “GOOGLE’S” product search database - It’s a free inclusion service and itdoesn’t hurt since Google is such a powerful search engine I’m sure there may be some customers waiting for you via this option…

http://www.google.com/base/help/sellongoogle.html

A Great way to drive traffic to any website is to enhance your “SEO” search engine ranking - this is kind of your web designers role - the more links out there pointing to your site the higher your ranking will be - but in order to rank high for certain keywords that you want to target those links pointing to your site have to be keyword specific - for instance think of a word that would describe your product: “Leather Band Gold Bracelet Holiday Sale” - make sure you’re out there in the Blogs making valuable comments and leaving that link behind, visit forums related to Fashion and Jewelry and add your input to any discussions and leave your website link with the Keyword in the signature so that anyone who reads your entry will have easy access to your site - this drives traffic by having the people on those sites visit your site and will also increase your ranking in the search engines for natural traffic related to that keyword…make sure if you visit forums to add valuable content so the owners don’t categorize you and or your site as a spammer site - I think some PR agencies do this as well so make sure that they can do this for you if its something they offer as well.

Exposure will create sales, so another method of exposure would be to have someone write an article about your product and have them post it on their blogs, or to any major Article Directory they can find - these articles are normally distributed across the web and in no time there will be thousands of links to your site…

Have a few friends or customers write Testimonials about your product and their experience with your business in regards to customer relations etc…then make sure you make this available to all visitors on your site.

GENERAL MARKETING SUGGESTIONS
Create a Product Bundle - Develop a “Gift Packet” bundle, which will include two or three of your “Rock Your Religion” pieces that may complement each other. Of course you know that the cost of the packet would cost less than if they purchased these two individually or separately, sometimes this deal peaks the interest of the prospective customers visiting your site. 

Just as you did with the “Save the Music” campaign - I suggest you offer to donate a percentage of all sales in December to your favorite charity and publicize it with a press release to the media and make sure all your subscribers and visitors get this message. 

I would personally suggest that on all your sales receipts/invoice copies that go out to your customers you include a note encouraging your customers to visit your site frequently and informing them of any holiday promotions or anything else you want to convey to them.”