Your are a consultant for.
Beauty Counter
Consider other in addition Affiliate Offers from other
Cosmetic Companies
You are not mentioned
Create your own website and blog
Put Your Video on Website or Blog
For frequent Blog posting get content from
GOOGLE ALERTS - VIDEO
GET DAILY CONTENT FOR YOUR NICHE - VIDEO 5 MIN
Government
Publications - Cosmetics Another
source of content…free to use.
21
Best Beauty Blogs
Visit Blogs for
Skin Care – Learn How they Get Great Traffic
We’ve
carefully selected these blogs because they are actively working to educate,
inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality
information.
Mobile Marketing - 55% of all online shopping occurred via
mobile devices
Do a Google Search “skin care free
samples” Note the results.
Do a Google Search Forums: Skin Care
- Join and make comments with back
links
25 Ways to Make Your
First Online Sale
Totally, doing all 25
is not necessary. picking 5 or 10 is a great starting point.
1. Send Free Samples
to Influencers
The Internet is packed
with influential bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs, and vloggers from a wide
range of industries and niches.
Many of them have
large followings on social media and loyal audiences on their websites.
Sending a free sample
of your product to such influencers, who are either within your industry or
related to it in some way, gives you an opportunity to let them know you
appreciate their work with a small gift. Also, hopefully, you will get a
mention on one of their sites or platforms.
A useful resource
regarding influencers is KISSmetrics’s definitive guide to influencer
targeting, which tells you everything you need to know about getting your brand
under relevant, important noses.
2. Start Blogging
If you aren’t already
running a blog associated with your store or product, then you’re missing out
on the limitless potential of content marketing.
By producing free,
valuable content, you will create trust in your brand and keep people informed.
Blogging also gives you something to share on social media and helps you rank
in search engines.
A simple yet highly
effective way to get started with content marketing for your business is to
think of all the starting-point queries people have about your products and
industry. Using your blog, you can answer these queries as individual articles.
Additionally, you can
use your blog to offer tips, tutorials, and resources related to your products
and the lifestyle around your products.
If you can create epic
content on a fairly regular basis, you’ll begin to see the power of content
marketing via social media shares, search engines, and so forth. All of this is
covered under KISSmetrics’s guide to content marketing.
3. Build an Email List
Building up an email
list for marketing purposes is absolutely essential.
Having a list of
emails from previous and potential customers means you can get your
information, products, and content into their personal mailboxes. In contrast,
updates made to your Facebook page and Twitter handle will almost never be able
to reach your entire following, due to time zone differences and other factors.
Start building your
email list today by including an email subscription form somewhere noticeable
on your website. Here’s a clever way to convince visitors to sign up for your
list. Instead of simply saying “Join our Newsletter,” offer an incentive or
some type of value for signing up. Skinny Teatox offers the chance to win a
free product every week, so they showcase that offering to encourage people to
join.
.
4. Sponsor an Event
In some cases,
sponsoring an event can work wonders. In other cases, it can be an immense
waste of time and resources. To avoid the latter, you’ll need to do your
research.
First, you should
ensure that you select the right event to sponsor. Search for events where
attendees actually will be interested in your products, and then find out how
many consumers will be in attendance.
Once you get a rough
idea about the different event types and sizes, you can begin sorting them by
cost.
It’s also important to
avoid sending just a small convoy of marketers to simply set up a table and
hand out flyers. If there are potential customers attending, you’ll need to be
more creative than that in order to build relationships.
Demonstrate some of
your most interesting products to tell your story, get people talking, and
provide on-the-spot rewards like coupons and free stickers in return for email
list subscriptions and social media follows.
Here are some tips
from Inc to help you maximize your return when sponsoring an event.
5. Interview Industry
Influencers
Remember the
importance of content marketing I mentioned earlier? Well, interviewing an
industry influencer is a prime example of how to create epic content.
Interviews work
because they are win-win situations. The interviewee gets more exposure, while
the interviewer gets their hands on some hot content for their publication,
which in this case, is your blog.
Make the most of the
interview by asking relevant questions surrounding not only their lives and
careers, but also the industry as a whole. This will ensure that fans of the
influencer get a taste of their personality, while others will value their
expert advice.
A great example of
this is 500px’s interview with Elena Shumilova. As a popular name in the world
of photography, her interview made perfect content for the online photo vendor.
6. Pull a PR Stunt
If you want that first
sale fast, pulling a PR stunt could do the trick.
Much like viral
videos, which are based on the same concept, a PR stunt has the potential to
propel your brand into fame. If executed well, you’ll be swapping conventional
time-consuming brand marketing with instant publicity, gaining you loyal
followers and customers in the process.
Essentially, a PR
stunt consists of doing something unusual, outrageous, hilarious, or remarkable
enough to be worthy of media attention.
If done correctly,
your store could benefit from tons of links from authority news sources, which
is great for both traffic in the short term and SEO in the long term..
7. Experiment with
AdWords
AdWords is Google’s
hugely popular pay-per-click advertising network that allows online retailers
to place advertisements on nearly every Google search results page, YouTube
video, and partner website. Who wouldn’t want to rank in the top three of a
search query that drives sales? Here’s what shows up when you type “Samsung TV”
into Google. Note that the first result is a paid ad from Samsung.
The beauty of AdWords
lies in its speed and massive reach. In as little as a few minutes, you can set
up and launch an advertising campaign which gets your text, image, or even
video ads seen by browsers all over the web.
Using the AdWords
campaign options, you can create targeted ads which are triggered and displayed
alongside Google searches when Internet browsers search for predefined
keywords. Additionally, your ads also will appear on websites and articles
which contain similar keywords.
To get started with
your advertising campaigns, check out The Next Web’s informative Google AdWords
beginner’s guide, where you’ll learn how to build and launch a successful
AdWords campaign.
8. Share the Load with
Affiliate Marketing
Trying to sell your
products alone can be a difficult task, so why not share the load with others?
Affiliate marketing is
when you let other people market your products and send you website traffic. In
return, you pay them a percentage of any sales that originate from their
efforts. Their marketing efforts can be kept track of by giving them unique
hyperlinks (which they can post on their website) containing an ID code at the
end of the link, just for them.
For example, a website
owner may post your affiliate link for a blue sweater that is for sale on your
website. If one of his website visitors clicks the link and then buys the blue
sweater, you’ll have made a sale, and as an affiliate, the website owner will
be entitled to a percentage of that sale.
The success of
affiliate marketing schemes depends greatly on the types of products you sell,
as well as the commission percentage you reward your affiliate partner.
To get started, check
out this explanatory affiliate marketing guide from QuickSprout, which goes
into great detail about the different facts, figures, and methods you’ll need
to know.
9. Sell Wholesale to
Other Retailers
Selling to consumers
is fine, but there’s nothing wrong with selling wholesale to other retailers,
too, especially if the consumers aren’t biting as often as you’d like them to.
One of the main
advantages of selling wholesale is the obvious increase in cash flow. You may
be selling with a finer profit margin, but you’ll be shifting products in
quantity.
Additionally, if
you’re selling your own products, you’re essentially enabling other companies
and resellers to market for you, spreading the word about your merchandise as
they buy it themselves. In other words, selling wholesale could indirectly
boost your consumer sales.
For a crash course on
the basics of selling wholesale, check out Entrepreneur’s guide to starting a
wholesale distribution business.
10. Publish a Press
Release
Lots of new online
stores push out press releases in order to attract media attention, but fail.
It goes without saying
that to get ignored by every single news outlet when distributing a new press
release is demoralizing and often a huge waste of resources.
The secret to getting
noticed is simple. Don’t publish a lousy press release!!!
First of all, make
sure your news actually is news worthy. Don’t expect a massive response unless
you’re giving the public something seriously interesting to read about. Also, a
press release should be presented in a way that is concise and professional,
without being too monotonous.
Copyblogger has pieced
together six ways to write a killer press release, explaining everything from
avoiding jargon to creating a magnetic headline.
11. Pay Attention to
Stats
Reviewing and acting
upon website analytics is paramount. The behavior of every website visitor from
entry to exit helps you understand why you are selling, and more importantly,
why you aren’t.
Your website stats (or
analytics) will show you what your customers are doing on your site, including
which web pages they enter, the time they spend on particular pages, and the
route they take to leave your site. Occasionally, some tools will display
additional information, for instance how frequently a customer visits your
site.
It won’t cost you a
penny, either. Google Analytics is a completely free service, allowing you to
measure your traffic in more ways than you can think of.
After you launch your
online store and while you’re fighting for your first sale, it’s extremely important
to spend time analyzing your traffic in Google Analytics. You never know what
you’re going to learn.
If you need a hand
getting a grip on the world of analytics, Simply Business offers a
comprehensive Google Analytics guide, covering everything you need to know.
12. Run a Survey
Learning about the
common pain points and desires of consumers can help you make all the right
moves going forward.
Consumer surveys are
an ideal tool for obtaining honest feedback. Unlike your friends and family,
consumers have no qualms about hurting your feelings by picking at your web
design or your marketing material.
To run your very own
survey, you can make use of online apps like Survey Monkey and Qualaroo to
create online surveys.
Econsultancy has
picked up on some important practices to be used when conducting e-commerce
consumer surveys, which can help you get the most out of your feedback.
13. Network on Forums
Online discussion
forums are great places to give out industry tips and advice, answer questions,
and acquire a customer or two.
Use Google to search
out some active forums that may directly relate to your niche. When you post,
ensure you aren’t breaking any forum rules when you promote your brand or
products. Get to know the limits and restrictions of the forum, and stick to
them. Using your forum avatar, signature, and profile page to promote your
brand are usually well within the rules.
You may feel the
temptation to post and promote wildly, but keep it professional. No forum will
tolerate constant promotion or posts full of links to your website. Bedsides,
acting in such a way online will damage your brand in the eyes of other forum
users. So, keep it simple by posting just enough for people to notice your
activity, but not enough to constitute spam.
Two popular business
focused forums worth getting active on are Digital Point and Warrior Forum,
both of which have thriving, helpful communities.
14. Set up a Cartel
Sometimes it’s nice to
have some support. A small online cartel could be just the trick.
Find a group of
complementary (but not competitive) retailers and agree to promote and support
each other. It’s a brilliantly simple way to gain traction in a variety of
ways.
For example, if you
run an online clothing store, ideal cartel candidates might include jewelry and
footwear outlets. Essentially, the stores you would partner with are similar
enough to be able to cross-promote and share advice, but not similar enough to
create a conflict of interest.
You can opt for a
completely private setup, keeping things small and tight-knit, or you can
branch out and publicize your online cartel in order to attract more members to
help build a supportive community of online merchants.
Take The ecommerce
Group for example. Operating via a Facebook group, they have over 2,500 members
sharing advice, giving feedback, and providing a helping hand whenever
possible.
15. Build the Right
Relationships
It’s not what you
know, it’s who you know. Building the right relationships, both online and
offline, can act as your portal to success.
No matter what type of
product you sell or which industry you work within, there always are
like-minded businesses out there, and you need to befriend them.
The trick is to build
relationships with others that are closely aligned to your business but not
direct competitors.
For example,
suppliers, blogs, and websites that focus on your industry would be ideal, as
they can help provide you with consumer feedback and offer promotional deals,
without stepping on your digital toes.
To learn more about
how to build a positive relationship with your supplier, All Business offers a
great relationship building tutorial.
16. Offer a Contest or
Giveaway
Everybody loves free
stuff, and if you’re looking to build up some trust while launching your sales
efforts, a contest or giveaway could help you do just that.
Not only can contests
and giveaways help you build valuable inbound links, they also are a great way
to show potential customers that you can be trusted and that your brand means
business.
It’s important to
remember you don’t have to start big. Tease Tea is a new online tea store
running a simple contest on their Facebook page.
This contest costs no
money to run and likely took only a few minutes to put together.
Online services like
ViralSweep and Gleam allow you to run such contests and giveaways online,
helping you to keep things simple and professional without all the added work.
Get started by
checking out Stoked SEO’s brilliant tutorial on how to get a ton of eCommerce
traffic via giveaways.
17. Begin Tweeting on
Twitter
Twitter’s beautiful
simplicity is what makes it one of the most effective ways to engage with your
target market. An excellent method for finding potential customers is to
proactively search for people tweeting questions about your industry and reach
out to them in a helpful way.
The idea is not to
pitch or even mention your products – just be helpful. For example, when Gary
Vaynerchuk was running Wine Library, he would search “Chardonnay” on Twitter
and find people asking related questions. All he did was offer advice; he never
pitched.
As a result, people
would be grateful and naturally look further into who he was, and ultimately
discover his business on their own. This is just one of many Twitter strategies
that can work wonders for your sales figures.
If you need some real
life examples of how to nail Twitter marketing, take a look at the Twitter
profile of online jewelry store Lola Rose, which could teach you a thing or
two.
18. Make Connections
on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the office
block of the Internet. Within it, you’ll find professionals and executives of
all types, boasting about their abilities and connecting with others. It’s an
online resume so to speak.
After you set up your
e-commerce business profile, you can begin doing the same for yourself (if you
haven’t already). You may not make many direct sales through LinkedIn, but
you’ll discover an array of opportunities with other companies, suppliers,
related websites, and more.
LinkedIn Groups also
are a stellar way to engage with other business owners in your industry. There
are vast amounts of public and private groups set up for specific niches,
allowing you to post questions and converse with other members.
To find some relevant
Groups, check out Practical Ecommerce’s top ten LinkedIn Groups for ecommerce.
19. Go Visual with
Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine
When it comes to
representing personality and creativity via social media, the three big visual
platforms do it best.
Pinterest, Instagram,
and most recently Vine, all allow you to take a slightly different approach to
engaging with consumers.
These platforms are
the perfect place to present the creativity and passion that goes into your
business behind the scenes. Snap pictures of your products, take videos of the
manufacturing process, tell a story with images. Always aim for beauty if
possible. People love beauty.
Need some visual
inspiration? Melt Cosmetics is a new brand that already has over 150,000
followers on Instagram.
They are doing a great
job of Instagram marketing, building up a brand image and a following with
their beautiful photographs.
20. Don’t Forget
Facebook
It may not be what it
once was, but make no mistake, Facebook still is a social media powerhouse.
Leverage your personal
Facebook profile and your business page to engage with friends, family, and
acquaintances and to get people talking about your products. Get creative with
status updates and interact on public groups and fan pages relevant to your
niche.
It’s also important to
keep Facebook Ads in mind. Much like with AdWords, you can create targeted
campaigns to attract Likes, make sales, and promote your brand.
A popular blow drying
salon in Toronto
If you’re fresh out of
ideas for your Facebook business page, check out Shopify’s ten ways ecommerce
brands can increase traffic and sales with Facebook.
21. Beat the
Competition on Comparison Shopping Engines
Many, if not all,
consumers like to shop around before making a purchase, and that includes a
visit to comparison shopping engines.
Popular engines
include The Find, Google Shopping, Nextag, and a range of others, all with
thousands of products and stores being simultaneously compared.
To get noticed, you
need to play by the rules of each engine, stay competitive in terms of price,
and play the waiting game while you experiment to find out which engine suits
you the best and gives you the best ROI.
PC Pro has put
together a detailed guide on how to get noticed on Google Shopping, and Shopify
has a list of the 10 most popular comparison shopping engines with a brief
explanation of each one.
22. Create an
Infographic
An infographic is
exactly what the name implies, a graph of information, or a visual
representation of facts and statistics in a form that is easy to digest.
Although they aren’t
entirely easy to create, infographics are gold when it comes to social shares
and search engine traffic.
In fact, according to
UnBounce, which has created an inspiring and detailed guide to marketing with
infographics, people are searching for infographics like you wouldn’t believe,
with Google seeing an 800% increase in such searches in the last two years.
If you aren’t a visual
genius, there’s no need to worry, plenty of firms like Column Five Media offer
infographic creation services, leaving you to focus on content.
23. Design your Store
to Look the Part
First impressions are
everything, and when it comes to selling online, first impressions rely heavily
on web design.
Based entirely on your
website design, visitors need to be able to grasp your brand and products
without too much scrolling or exploring. Furthermore, navigating through your
catalog should be easy, if not enjoyable.
Additionally, making
your store responsive to mobile devices is nothing short of vital. Perhaps more
so than having a website built for standard PCs and Laptops. Internet Retailer
recently reported that 55% of all online shopping occurred via mobile devices
in June 2013 compared with just 45% from desktops and laptops. We’re seeing
similar numbers with our stores at Shopify. So, looking the part on all devices
is an absolute must.
To get some creative
ideas about your own store’s design, have a look at Smashing Magazine’s list of
35 beautiful ecommerce websites and Inspired Magazine’s roundup of 40 stunning
online stores.
24. Hold a Pop-up
Store
Just because your
store began online, it doesn’t mean it has to stay online. A pop-up store could
be just what you need to compliment your online presence.
Unlike traditional
bricks-and-mortar premises, a pop-up store is far less of a financial burden,
thanks to its temporary nature.
Like most kinds of
physical stores, a pop-up store is all about location. You can open a pop-up
store at farmers markets, art fairs, shopping malls, galleries, and any other
place people gather. Just make sure you’re set up in an area that is clearly
visible and where your target market will be wandering.
A pop-up store also
can act as a great offline marketing outpost. You can use your store to hand
out coupons to be used via your online store, and you can collect email
subscriptions and social media followers.
For some ideas on how
to get your pop-up store going, Business Insider has compiled no less than
eighteen creative pop-up store ideas to get you thinking.
25. Document your
Launch on Reddit
Reddit is a socially
powered news and entertainment website where registered users submit content.
Also, and more importantly, Reddit is a place where you can attract a large
number of dedicated followers and customers.
Using the
r/entrepreneur subreddit in particular, you can introduce your brand, gain
feedback from consumers, and learn lessons, while also promoting your own
products.
The process has to be
one of give and take, though. Walk those entrepreneurial redditors through your
journey, take them behind the scenes, detail your mistakes and expose some
personality in order to gain not just customers, but fans, too.
A brilliant example of
using Reddit to promote an online store is what the guys at Beardbrand did. The
beard grooming specialists documented their launch on the r/entrepreneur
subreddit, deriving valuable advice from subscribers and customers, while giving
back to them via regular updates and inside information.
With the right
approach, you will need only a handful of the strategies listed above to make
the first of many sales.
So, what are you
waiting for?
With regard to content
marketing and social media marketing and their illusion of ease – I understand
what you’re saying. I think the best advice to store owners would be to engage
people in their industry and create and share relevant content. If you sell
t-shirts, you should have a blog and social accounts that cover everything that
t-shirt consumers would find interesting.
