Are you wanting to start an online business and make a living selling stuff online? Do you want to build an online shop that creates passive selling for your family? If so, then you should start by learning how to do it efficiently.
Doing so can help you get your hands on SWISS dollars (Sales While I Sleep Soundly). It can be the perfect side hustle or even propel you to become an online entrepreneur with ease.
See below for an in-depth guide on the tips that you should follow for selling items online. It will help you enjoy consistent sales year-round.
1. Build Your SEO Presence
One of the biggest benefits of starting an online business is the potential for passive marketing (marketing that brings the customer to you). If you wish to unlock the potential of passive marketing for your brand, then you’ll need to prioritize search engine optimization (SEO).
To put it simply, SEO is the process of making your online shop look more attractive to search engines (Google being the main one). Once Google takes notice of your site, it will be more likely to push your pages and products to your target market.
But how can you make your site more attractive to search engines? It includes a variety of different tactics such as prioritizing effective keywords, using internal and external links, making your website mobile-friendly, and more.
Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes. They need the products that you sell, they just don’t know how to find you.
Then, they start a search on Google for the answer to their biggest pain point. The results show one of your pages with an informative blog article that helps them answer their question. That’s the power that true search engine optimization can offer your online shop.
2. Understand Your Target Buyer
You’ve already seen us mention the term “target buyer” in this article a few times so far. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, a target buyer is essentially your ideal client. They’re the type of person that needs the products that your online shop sells.
For example, if you sold business ties online, then your ideal client would be men with a career that requires them to dress up each day. They’re anywhere between 25 to 50.
If you’ve never taken the time to think about your target buyers, then you’re already putting a damper on your online store’s potential. Without knowing who your business is targeting, it’s easy to invest in the wrong form of marketing, talk about the wrong topics in your blog, and so forth.
To start, you and your team can huddle together to create buyer personas. These are imaginary avatars that you make up to get a better understanding of your client, where they can be found, and what their biggest pain point is.
Going back to the business tie example for a moment, you might create a buyer persona called “Craig”. Craig is a 25 to 35 year old looking to make an impression in his entry-level job. He primarily uses Instagram and LinkedIn, and has a minimal budget to spend on business clothes.
3. Backlinking is a Must
Think of your online presence as one big spider web, with your website smackdab in the middle of it. The larger your web is, the more clients that it will bring to your site. The smaller it is, the less likely that you are to create a passive marketing strategy.
To extend the size of your web, you need to focus on building a backlink strategy. This refers to the internal links (links to your own site) and external links (links to other sites) that you use.
Most eCommerce owners don’t do enough to expand their backlinking outside their website. You can do this with such clever tactics as:
- Creating guest posts on other blogs that link back to your site
- Creating high-quality content on your site that others will link to in their content
- Form partnerships with other like-minded sites to exchange links
Be sure to visit this page for more tips on how to drive traffic to Shopify store. You’ll be building your website for long-term success!
4. Diversify Your Content
Far too many eCommerce owners make the mistake of only focusing on one type of content, a majority of which is copy-based.
You’ll get many different visitors to your site, all of which prefer a different type of content. For example, some enjoy copy-based content while others enjoy video content.
Make sure you’re putting a healthy mixture of both. It will make your website more enticing to first-time visitors and can help you direct them to the right product.
5. Perfect Your Product Pages
Convincing a customer or prospect to visit one of your product purchasing pages is a big feat already, but you haven’t sealed the deal quite yet.
Your product pages need to convince your customers to buy. Why do they need the product? What problem will it solve? How can it solve that problem?
First, make sure that all of the must-read pointers of the product are mentioned in a bullet point. The customer’s eyes will naturally gravitate to it and read the “why” behind the product.
If you can, you should also create a quick video for each product, that way the customer can see it in use and be convinced to purchase it on the spot.
Use These Tips for Selling Stuff Online
Now that you have seen an in-depth guide listing several tips for selling stuff online, be sure to use this information to your advantage.
Take the time to browse our website for more articles on things to sell online, as well as many other topics that you will find helpful.
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