Ways to promote your website

Now, what?

Once you’re up and running, it’s time to start driving traffic to your store and making sales. Whether you’re still trying to get your first sale, or you’ve been at a while, it’s always good to find more ways to promote your business.

If you’re looking to promote a product, read this list to find a strategy that you can use in your business. Once you do, click on the link to get step-by-step instructions on how to execute it.

1. Gift Guides

What do you do when you’re struggling to find a good gift idea? If you’re like most people, you Google “holiday gift ideas for coworkers” or “unique birthday presents”. Then you scroll through the piles of gift guides that pop up in the search results.

Why not get your own product included in these gift guides? They exist for just about every industry, type of person, and holiday you can think of. Look for the ones that rank on the first few pages in Google and reach out to see if you can be included. They could drive a lot of traffic back to your store.

2. Email Marketing

Email is the second most effective customer acquisition channel, behind organic search. And while ranking in search engines and getting organic traffic can take a while, email starts to work right away. That’s why you should be using email to promote your store.

There’s no need to spend all your time writing and sending emails. Make it easy on yourself by setting up a collection of automated email campaigns designed to help you make more sales. There are many options such as emailing new subscribers and offering them an incentive to shop, or emailing visitors who abandoned their cart and reminding them to finish their purchase.

3. Start An Affiliate Program

If you’re struggling to make sales and you don’t have the cash to hire sales or marketing help, consider adding an affiliate program to your store. You can get other people to promote your product for a commission. You’ll only have to pay them if they make a sale.

Affiliate programs typically work by creating a custom URL for each person promoting your products. They can share this link on social media, in a blog post reviewing your product, or even in a YouTube video where they’re showing it off. Through the custom links, you’ll be able to track who is driving sales for you so you can compensate them.

4. Land Your Business in the Press

Getting publicity is a great way to reach new customers and help more people discover your product. It’s also notoriously difficult to do. Mainstream journalists are inundated with press releases and pitches for stories. Improve your odds by targeting bloggers instead.

Instead of sending bloggers press releases, reach out with a personal email and ask if you can send them a sample. You can target bloggers in your industry, product-focused websites, and even social media influencers.

5. Go Live With Periscope

While Periscope is a very young social media network, it has demonstrated marketing potential. Many businesses are already promoting themselves with this live-streaming tool. Early adopters often do really well over the long-term on social media, so it’s worth it to dive in now, rather than waiting until it gets big.

There are many ways you can use Periscope to promote a product. In particular, you can use Periscope to offer a demo of your product, answer questions through a Q&A, and even take your customers behind the scenes to show them what’s special about the way you do things.

6. Pinterest

Pinterest is the place to be if you want to buy or sell products online. 93% of active pinners say they use Pinterest to plan purchases. Not surprisingly, many people use Pinterest to build wish lists. This makes it a great place to promote products—especially well-designed products that photograph well.