These five online resources will help you understand your target audience and create a profitable, customer-focused store.

Are you offering your customers the right products? Should you emphasize free shipping?  Should you increase your selection of colors?  MAYBE, but how can you be sure?

Some store owners make decisions based on their instincts. This works great if their customers think exactly like the store owner, but if you really want to understand your audience you need to do market research.

These online resources can provide you with the marketing data and the methods to help you find out what exactly your customers want.

(more…)

Every online business person should have at least a basic understanding of search engine optimization.

Even if you plan on hiring a firm to guide your company’s SEO efforts, knowing the fundamentals will keep you from wasting money on a less-than-scrupulous SEO consultant.

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz recently wrote a great blog entry titled 6 Ways to Learn SEO to help you get started.

He lists several resources, focusing on online guides, published books, conferences, online classes, and places to practice what you’ve learned.

How did you get your start with SEO?  What resources would you recommend?  Share your favorites in the comments below.

Last time we showed you how data feeds (RSS and XML) can help drive customers to your store.

This time around we’re going to be a little more traditional and show you how two different types of email can make customers notice you.

The first, newsletters, shares news about your industry and useful tips. The second, email marketing, is one of the most cost effective ways to entice customers to purchase.
(more…)

We know that persuasion works. We’ve all been talked into doing something that we weren’t sure about only a moment ago. Let’s take what we’ve learned in ‘real life’ and apply the four most common persuasion techniques to web design.

Reciprocity – that nagging feeling that once you’ve been given something, you’re obligated to give something back. This tactic is used with free gifts all the time – give away a freebee and a customer becomes more likely to return the ‘favor’ with their business and/or trust. Think about swapping a freebee for something as simple as an email address – it’s free and both parties benefit! (more…)

In our last installment on email marketing, we covered the advantages of email marketing and how to capture email addresses from visitors to your website.

Now that you are collecting email addresses from your customers, it is time to develop a plan to use them.

There are many types of email campaigns that can be implemented. Some, such as limited time offers and notices of special events, are designed to quickly drive traffic to your site. The goal with these campaigns is to increase sales over the short term. (more…)

When you walk through the mall, think about the sights, sounds, and smells that greet you as you pass by a store.

What makes you want to go in and look around?  That awesome pair of shoes displayed so nicely in the window or a gigantic, red “50% Off” sign?  What turns you off?  Loud music or merchandise piled everywhere without any organization?

Many of the lessons learned in physical stores can be applied online too.

Walk through this checklist of five brick-and-mortar inspired tips and see how your online store measures up.

1. Keep Things Neat and Clean

(more…)