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Five Steps to Successful Online Selling
by Kate Smalley
Published on this site: April 12th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Each year, Internet users purchase billions of dollars worth
of products and services online, according to Web researcher
eMarketer. Is your business getting its share of the pie?
You can capitalize on the power of the Internet, if you follow
these four important steps to successful online selling.
- Build a site with good design and content
Create a Website with a design that's attractive, well-organized
and easy to navigate. This will make it easier and faster
for site visitors to find their way around - and shop for
your products or services.
And remember: Pictures tell; words sell. So your site also
must offer content that makes site visitors want to stick
around. You should present clear, simple and useful information.so
people will want to buy from you.
- Get ecommerce-ready
Obviously, you need to accept credit cards, checks and
other forms of payments online. This will allow you business
to tap into a vast marketplace where millions of consumers
spend billions of dollars each year. Plus, you'll be able
to make more, larger and impulse sales, as well as enjoy
improved cash flow, enhanced credibility and a competitive
edge.
You need four key ingredients to successfully ring up
online sales:
- A merchant account for business owners.
- Shopping cart software that allows customers to collect
and pay for items from your online store.
- A payment gateway to processes your customers' credit
cards and communicate between the merchant's Website,
the bank holding the merchant account, and the bank
holding the financial records of the customer.
- A secure Website that is communicating with a payment
gateway that, in turn, is communicating with a banking
computer system.
- Submit your site to major search engines
Once your site is equipped to sell online, it's critical
to submit your Web address to search engines. Eight out
of 10 people surfing the Web use search engines or search
directories to navigate their way around online, according
to the eMarketing Association. And 54 percent of experienced
online shoppers primarily rely on a search engine when trying
to find a product to purchase online, says Jupiter Communications.
At the very least, you should submit your site to top U.S.
search tools like Yahoo, Google, the Open Directory, MSN,
Overture and Ask Jeeves.
- Use email to stimulate online sales
Email is used by 96 percent of Internet users, making
it the ideal tool to advertise your Website. You can use
email marketing to send electronic newsletters, letters,
announcements, promotions, sales and customer support.
An email marketing campaign is easier, cheaper and faster
to implement than a traditional direct mail promotion. Plus,
the response rate of the typical email campaign easily outpaces
that of conventional mailings. Email click-through rates
can exceed 20 percent, while conventional direct mail campaign
responses are 2 percent, at best.
- Unleash the power of auto responders to boost online
sales
Auto responders let you automatically reply to incoming
email requests, so you can instantly respond to the needs
of existing and potential customers. They can be your most
powerful weapon for boosting online sales.
Here's why: Sixty percent of a site's visitors who
eventually end up buying a product or service don't do so
on their first visit, says Auto responder Review.com. And
in fact, 80 percent of all sales are made on the fifth through
twelfth contact with a prospect, according to the National
Sales Executive Association.
So if you don't use an auto responder or some other way to
follow up with potential customers, you can miss out on up
to 80 percent of your potential online sales.
Kate Smalley - Connecticut Secretary Freelance Transcription
Services
http://www.connecticutsecretary.com
[email protected]
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