SILKFAIR Blog – September 2010

If you have a web store, it’s essential to promote it both offline and online. Offline marketing means carrying out the conventional methods used by traditional brick and mortar companies, such as distributing press releases and requesting media coverage. Online marketing may be new to some, and it includes processes such as listing your website on search engines and creating backlinks.

Sometimes, there will be an overlap in your offline and online promotions. For example, your products or services might be featured in a magazine as well as its website. In this case, you get to reach both offline and online audiences.

So what can you promote to drive more traffic to your site? There are four basic elements that you can use to acquire free media coverage for your online store.

1. Your products or services.

2. Events, e.g. a product launch or sale.

3. Your store.

4. Yourself. As the store owner, you have a unique perspective on the industry and might know something that is worth talking about.

Promotion gains publicity, which in turn achieves sales. Having an understanding of this process can help you determine what types of promotion efforts you must carry out. Publicity is what happens when a third party, e.g. a website or a newspaper, features your business. This gives you an opportunity to receive explicit or implicit endorsement from a source that people trust, thereby building your brand’s reputation and generating new leads for you.

Publicity can strengthen your relationship with existing customers as well. A good review can represent you as an expert in your field, making your clients trust you more.

Now how do you acquire publicity? First, draw up a list of websites and/or publications that you’d like to be featured in, then come up with some ideas that will get their attention. Say for example you sell printers and ink cartridges. If you send out a press release that says you have certain brands of printers in stock, you will be ignored.

But if that press release contained information about a contest wherein the winner gets ten years’ supply of ink cartridges, then you are more likely to receive a response because the topic is more interesting. Remember to be professional and don’t spam people’s inboxes with irrelevant information. If you annoy them, they will probably block you sooner or later.

Also see to it that your website can be easily found online. If potential customers read about you in an article and they are interested in your products or services, they will search for you on the internet.

What’s nice is at Silkfair we do this work for you.  You still can and we encourage you to do your own publicity and partnered what we provide – it gives you and your customer shop the online presence that gets noticed!

A lot of people dream about making money online, but most of them fail to do so because they hold one or more misconceptions about internet marketing. This article will take a look at six of the most common online marketing myths and debunk them, so that you can avoid making these mistakes.

Myth #1: It’s Easy

While it is relatively easier to run an online business than a brick and mortar company, it’s still no walk in the park. Yes, there’s practically no overhead involved and you don’t need to hire a sales staff, but this high tech, modern venture still calls for good old fashioned patience and hard work.

Myth #2: It’s Free

The startup and maintenance costs of an internet marketing business are low, but not free. You need to set up a domain, maintain an internet connection, and invest in training. While it isn’t as expensive as opening a gift shop, for example, you will still incur costs. Remember, you can’t sell anything for free – it takes money to make money.

Myth #3: Anyone Can Do It

Anyone can do it, if they bother to learn about internet marketing at all. Unless you’re willing to put in the necessary time and effort to get your online business off the ground, you’ll never earn even a single cent. If you’re serious about making money online, read up on it, then put together an action plan.

Myth #4: You Can Get Rich Quick

As mentioned before, internet marketing success does not happen overnight. It takes a lot of time and perseverance. Don’t believe scammers who tell you that you can get rich now and make everything sound so easy. Instead, focus your efforts on building your business.

Myth #5: You Can’t Make Big Money Online

In contrast, some people are skeptical about online businesses. After all, is it really possible to make money on the internet? The answer is yes, but only if you take it seriously. Just like any other venture, you need to come up with sound business and financial plans.

Seasoned internet marketers actually spend a lot on promotions. The people who make big money online won’t tell you this, but they do invest in advertising and other resources.

Myth #6: It’s Too Late to Start

The thoughts “there are already too many competitors” or “I’m just not technologically inclined” may have crossed your mind. Some online marketers would want you to think that, since it means that they will have less people to compete with. But the truth is that it’s never too late to get into internet marketing. The number of people who go and shop online is rising steadily, and the internet is definitely here to stay.

Here are Silkfair we not only debunk the myths  - we ensure that you won’t have to deal with them especially the work that goes into Myths #1 and #2.  It’s not free – we make it inexpensive and we do all the hard work to make sure your online shop is on a well trafficked street.

Resist Price Competition

Resist it, if this is your sole strategy. It's true that prices may come down as competition grows fiercer for the consumers that still have money during this tough recession. However, if your sole reason to reduce prices is to get more customers, this strategy is doom to failure. For one, it's not just a matter of people having less money to spend, it's also a question of getting the best value for their money. If you don't take the time to create a product strategy that embraces a holistic approach to marketing in bad times, you'll end up doing what everyone else is doing – lowering prices. And, then whoever can withstand the loss of profit the most will end up winning more of the market share, but at a very dear price. That just simply isn't a good strategy to build a business that can survive a recession and go on to generate long-term growth.

Remain Price Competitive

Don't overlook the lowering of prices in your niche, however, don't play the oneupmanship game that only leads to drastic cuts in your market. This type of strategy works short-term, but eventually it eats up too much profit and it trains your customers to hold on to their dollars until the next round of price cuts. If, however, you do offer some discounts and programs for loyal buyers, instead of just everyone who might drop by your online store, you train your customers to buy more and still get a good deal. So, if you really do want to compete on price, do so in a way that generates buying behavior, and not across the board for anyone that wants to freeload off your hard work.

Create A Perception Of High Value

Another way to compete on price, but not offer lower prices, is to heighten the perception of value for your products. Your products may cost more, but they are also worth more, and therefore deserving of a higher price. The way to do this is to offer more to your customers than they expect to receive for the price.

Always seek to offer much, much, more than what your customer expects and they will continue to buy, regardless of the fact that you cost more than your competitor. Instead, they will look at you as the deal, and the others as the cheap version of the real thing. On line, the same thing can be done by including extra products in value packages that appeal to a price-conscious consumer. Just remember, that it isn't really the price tag that is usually the main objection a buyer has towards purchasing a product, it's more about the value they receive for the money they spent. So, make sure that they get more than their money's worth.

The e-commerce industry heavily revolves around money: making them and finding ways how to make more of them. And because this also involves customers handing over their financial information online, not everyone’s very comfortable with doing it.  However, there’s a low-cost way to help convert more traffic into sales through the use of secure server certificates or SSL.

What is SSL?

SSL is your key to e-commerce security because it is all about encryption.  It encrypts confidential information such as credit card numbers and other personally identifiable information.  SSL prevents people from stealing your customer’s information for malicious intent. You will know that a site is secure if the web address begins with “https.” The certificate, on the other hand, contains the information about the owner of the website and the domain.

What are the advantages of using SSL?

By using SSL, you reassure your customers that you can be trusted with their information.  It is recommended that you display it on your site prominently, like on the top of the landing page.  The e-commerce business is built on trust and customers are likelier to purchase items from a secure site.  This is a great way to show your customers that you care about the security of their information.

How to choose an SSL certificate vendor?

There are six things that you may want to look into before buying a certificate for your website.  First would be the reputation and credibility of the provider.  Check how long they’ve been in the business and the number of customers using their service. Next, find out if it is embedded on all of the popular browsers.  Also, make sure that the root is owned by the provider and not chained to another person’s root. Another thing you may want to look into is the ease of using it.  Is it easy to install? Renew? Reinstall? Is the certificate easy to acquire? Finally, check who does the vetting or background check.  Is it the provider or a third-party reseller?

The VeriSign and Thawte logos are the most common logos related to SSL certificates.  Because of its popularity, whenever a customer sees this since posted on an e-commerce site, they have fewer hesitations to type in their credit card number or billing address.  Owners of legitimate e-commerce business sites know that they have nothing to hide.  By using SSL certificates, they help build an honest and trusting relationship with their customers.  With the increasing number of phishing scams and fraud, gaining a customer’s trust must be one of your primary priorities.  An SSL certificate will definitely help promote the security and integrity of your site.

At Silkfair We Use VeriSign

An already trusted and tested SSL Certificate is one of the benefits you receive as a Silkfair Market Booth or Custom Store owner.  We’ve already done the work for you!

It is just one of the hidden elements of security, sales and success that we provide our Store Owners.