e-commerce on a shoestring

The basics of marketing apply to e-commerce as well as the basics of business.

1    Think about what your customer may want from your ‘shop’ and how they would like to get it.
2    Is e-commerce likely to work for your enterprise?
3    Test and experiment so you can get your first mistakes out of the way.
4    Try E-bay and Amazon as routes to market and to see how it should be done.
5    Use a hosted service that does e-commerce, stock control, billing and marketing.
6    Ensure you control and create your content. A blog may be free but might be invaluable
7    Understand exactly how you will get paid and what the fees are. PayPal is great but remember they take a slice of the whole order including VAT
8    Think and learn about web-marketing as it is one of the most cost effective marketing tools available. The main cost is your time and the results can be measured easily.
9    It’s not about traffic and clicks but it is about customers and profit.
10    Automate as much as possible. Order acknowledgment, sending invoices, credits and after sales service.
11    Once you have a customer, what can you do to keep them buying from you or an affilliate?
12    Develop a dialogue as a trusted supplier with your customers – listen and do what you say you will – always!
13    Concentrate on the core business and your relationship with your customers
14    If you are going to grow very fast then consider outsourcing non core activities early

Email marketing basics

The holy grail of email marketing are ‘opt in’ email contacts but you must give a clear way to opt out when you email them. So wherever possible engage in a dialogue and get consent to email again.

1.    Start with the result you want and focus on it. What is it you want? but more importantly what’s in it for the recipient of your email?
2.    What is the call to action and does it support the objective of the email?
3.    Subject line or heading will get the right attention or the delete button.
4.    Check your email works! Check a whole range of different email readers and get every possible part of the email tested and then do it again just in case.
5.    Focus the message to the recipient. If possible make it personal but always make it relevant. The temptation to send or ‘blast’ the same message to all is cheap and tempting but the results will not be as good as a specific, personal and relevant message.
6.    ‘Deliver your email successfully’ may seem obvious but there are many services that get blocked without you knowing so be sure you use a reputable broadcast service. Don’t be tempted just to BCC because it’s cheap. That’s the message your customers will get – you’re cheap and don’t value them or their time.
7.    Testing is easy and important. So think; test, wait, refine and then test again.
8.    Links can be tracked so use links and track them so you can see what your customers are looking at. Analyse, think, refine and then try again.
9.    Don’t freak people out by contacting them immediately saying ‘hey – you just looked at my email. What do you want to buy?’ Engage in a dialogue if possible by asking questions or route people effectively to be able to buy. Try sending a follow up email some hours later or a specific special offer that’s relevant.