marketing and advertising.

I never thought of that.

Absolutely! And I did. Would you mind my asking what your store sells? If you'd rather keep that information private, I completely understand, and we can have this talk via PM.

Hi darbok,

Marketing and advertising is a passion of mine, so I have a few things to say about it in relation to eCommerce.

According to Wikipedia: "Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for selling that product or service." I would liken that to describing modern warfare as a fight between two groups of people.

That definition only scratches the surface of what marketing is in today's world of business. Communicating value to customers is just one component of marketing, there is so much more than just communicating value to a customer. It is one of the most challenging aspects of running a business.

If you look up "advertising" in Wikipedia, you see their definition of advertising is very similar to how they define "marketing", as if the authors were unaware of the differences. Many people have difficulty recognizing distinctions within the world of marketing, they just see the whole thing as selling.

If you approach marketing and advertising with such an oversimplified understanding, you will be slaughtered, financially speaking. It would be like showing up to battle a modern army with just your fist as a weapon. Don't get me wrong, with special training, advanced tactics and strategies, a single unarmed man could do massive damage to a modern army. And that is what modern marketing truly is, a set of strategies and tactics, far more advanced than implied by the simple definition found in Wikipedia.

Marketing is:

• Research
• Strategizing
• Planning
• Preparation
• Communication
• Testing
• Measuring
• Adapting

Any definition that does not include all of the above is an incomplete definition of marketing. And there is a whole lot of detail that goes into each of those categories, marketing is a very complex craft.

Advertising is a subset of marketing, and it works best when applied as part of a well devised marketing plan. Unless you are competing in some obscure niche, you are likely to encounter competitors that are already applying advanced marketing strategies. You must up your game to compete successfully.

I urge you not take marketing and advertising as a supplemental part of your eCommerce business, but instead to make it the central focus of all your efforts. Marketing drives demand, demand drives sales, and the primary purpose for an eCommerce website is to serve that demand. Without marketing and advertising there is little demand and no need for an eCommerce website.

The technical challenges of an eCommerce store are significant. however they are just details. Without a solid foundation in marketing, you will have little understanding of the true technical needs for your web store. Your marketing needs are what drive the design and application of your web store technology. If you are not prepared to master the art & science of marketing then partner with someone who will, else get out now.

If you're intent is to become a truly successful eCommerce business, then you should start thinking of building a team of specialists. Sure, you could do everything yourself, but there is an advantage to specializing in one discipline. If you are a great programmer, then do that part and leave the marketing to other members of your team. Think about it this way, if you spent most of your time focused on marketing you couldn't be nearly as good of a programmer, or IT person.

Specializing is the key. Specialization also happens to be a key principle in marketing strategy.