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Need advice about my new web presence

by TotalMarketingNoob
2 replies
Hi everyone, I just registered here and am looking for some advice. For many years now I have owned various businesses and I did the standard things everyone else does. I made sure I had a nicely designed website that was listed in directories and in google maps/places etc etc. But I never did get the whole marketing/advertising thing. I'm a total dummy when it comes to this type of thing. Mostly I just relied on word of mouth and that was good enough. But now I want to take this whole thing to the next level.

I have owned a brick and mortar store for a few years now for this particular business in question. Now I have a newly redesigned website and a brand spanking new ecommerce site as well.

My main page (www.mysite.com) is serving as my informational page and I figure I can do whatever I want with it or change it to be whatever I want. I can do a blog or whatever (currently there is no blog). I'm not sure how to market this one above and beyond what I'm already doing. I've got it listed in google maps/places, I've got my facebook page linking to it and vice versa, and it ranks on the first page of google for some of the most important keywords in my local area. Also, it links to my ecommerce page. What would you guy suggest?

Now, my ecommerce site (www.store.mysite.com) is a subdomain off my main page. I made them separate because the ecommerce platform I'm using is extremely limited; it does not let me update or change much of the content. But I'm using it because it's streaming live inventory from multiple distributors and drop-shippers so it's rocking my world, really. I'm totally uncertain how I should market this page. Should I market it separately from my main page? Should I make separate listings for it in google maps/places, facebook, etc? Or should I just market my main page and rely on it directing traffic to my ecommerce page?

To summarize, I would ask, how can I make my site more visible to local and non-local customers? I've only very recently begun to dabble in facebook, and I do have a fan page. Currently, the fan page only advertises my home page. I'm new to the whole facebook marketing stuff and I'm currently studying some of my competitors to see what they do. I don't have a lot of fans at the moment; it's in the triple digits and I get 2-7 new ones per week. Is that too slow?

Do I need to hire an internet marketing specialist or is this simpler than I'm making it?

It sure would be helpful to see how many page views and what type of web traffic my competitors are getting, but their sites are too small to get any accurate data from Alexa and other sites like that. Anyone know a program I can use that is accurate even for small sites?

Thanks everyone; any info is greatly appreciated.
#advice #presence #web
  • Profile picture of the author The Wholesale Hut
    Hi and welcome.

    Do not worry about Alexa too much as not many people really care for it. Although if your site ranks on Alexa and your competitors do not then this should mean that your site gains more traffic than they do.

    I understand why you have separated your main page and store the way you have, however although you have stated it links to your store, you could add some featured products to further encourage visitors to click through. Submit both site maps to google to crawl through but in most cases, just put the link to your main page as a clean URL will help attract visitors. Again, make the store the focal point of the main page as this is what you ultimately want your visitors to see.

    You have mentioned your local area, however I assume with the online store you are looking to expand much further afield? If so, it would probably be better value for you to buy Google Adwords or Facebook Advertising credits rather than hire an internet marketing specialist as in the ling run it will be cheaper.

    Since you have a local physical store you can list your store and website on local free ad sites, keep adding to free directories and this should help build the local interest.

    Adverts in local newspapers could also help depending on the newspapers popularity. Again, if no one reads then there is no real point.

    If you are mainly selling locally then an average of 4 or 5 new fans per week on facebook is not too bad at the moment but this will only grow with word of mouth and advertising. Although Facebook can be a powerful tool, having 1000's of fans does not mean anything if none of them are actually buying from you. Place a prominent like and share button on your website, both main and store for facebook, this again could help the word of mouth to reach more people.

    Along with Adwords and Facebook advertising there are other paid ways of getting exposure such as magazine ads and online banner ads however it all depends on your niche and of course what budget you have for advertising itself.

    All in all, you do not seem to be doing anything wrong at the moment but there are more things you can do, both for free and paid to help drive traffic and customers to your site.

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author archie79
    If you are trying to do some Facebook Marketing, Facebook ads are easy for local marketing. You basically setup an attractive ad image that appeals to your local market, set your demographic to your specific local area (this will focus your group to a very targeted group of people) and this should make your Cost Per Click really cheap. The message on your FB ads can be aimed at just getting a like for your fanpage. Then, if you update your page regularly, you can keep their attention by having your message in their newsfeed. Just be careful to not just do promotional messages. It should be about 1 promo in 5 messages. This might help.
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