Retail is a competitive business and standing out from competitors can be tough. If you specialise in a really popular area of retail such as fashion, you will find it even more difficult to stand out. So how can you keep your company afloat and market yourself on the internet?
Using search engine optimisation tools is an obvious way to advertise your business. If you stock a particularly well known brand such as Hugo Boss or Armani, use these as keywords to drive traffic to your site.
Starting an SEO blog can also be a great way to advertise your site and is one of the most effective SEO tools because it achieves multiple things in one, such as getting fresh content onto your site regularly, targeting long tail keywords and offering useful info and advice to users. Try to keep it updated as often as possible and write about current events and issues affecting your industry for example. For a fashion store, you may want to do a blog on London Fashion Week for example and then use it as a way to introduce trends currently for sale in your store. You could even write about a celebrity who has been seen in a similar style dress that you are selling in store. All online retailers can advertise new stock arrivals, promotions and sales in this way also.
When uploading pictures on the site, try to include a brief caption under the image or a descriptive passage alongside it. This is another opportunity to add in keywords and drive more traffic to the site. Although keywords are important as search engine optimization tools, try not to go overboard. Using the same keyword more than three or four times can be just as ineffective as not using it as all as it will confuse the search engine and ultimately lower the SERPS listings for the website. You may think about focusing on one particular keyword for each page of the site. A fashion store may use trend driven keywords such as ‘maxi dresses’ or ‘boho chic’ to help drive up their rankings.
When a customer clicks on a particular product you could also have a ‘other customers bought’ or ‘recommended’ section where other products are displayed. This will keep users on your site. Likewise with the emergence of social media marketing you should create Facebook page where ‘fans’ can keep up to date with company news and promotions. It is also a clever way for you to see how your marketing campaign is being received by the public. If you are not getting a lot of interest for instance, you can make a decision to upload another interesting status update. In addition, you can use sites like Twitter to make important announcements such as upcoming sales and promotions.
Links are also very important in online retailing and you may even think about having an option where customers can link or ‘share’ a particular product with their friends on Facebook to discuss it. This is an excellent marketing tool and requires minimal effort from you. You may also think about trying to localise your business by linking it to other businesses in the area. If a customer then types the name of your local area into the search engine, your business should appear in the search engine result pages
Originally posted on September 30, 2010 @ 2:02 am
