| E-commerce sites spend a lot of time and money attracting potential customers to their site. Yet, once there, they cease to market to them. That's where internal marketing tactics come into play. Here are some to consider: First-time visitor page Create a page where you can direct first-time visitors from your home page (see Figures 13.1 and 13.2). This simple page can be a powerful marketing tool that gives you an opportunity to restate your unique selling position and tell why a visitor should by from you, offer a small set of frequently asked questions on why visitors should buy from you company, and then a special offer to first-time buyers, such as free shipping or a special discount. Figure 13.1. CouponSurfer.com offers a link on its home page for first-time visitors.  Figure 13.2. A "first-time visitor" page gives instructions on how to use the website and coupons.  Online surveys and polls If done right, online surveys and polls can be useful tools for acquiring leads from visitors to your Yahoo! store to market to later. Create a poll with an intriguing question. Visitors might answer the question to see how their opinion compares with others. In the process, they can share some of their interests with you so you can further target potential customers. For example, if you sell fashion clothing, you might ask, "Who will The Bachelor eliminate this week from the show?," because you think that people interested in fashion might watch The Bachelor TV show. You then can connect the poll to a survey that asks what category of fashion clothing on your site they feel would make the female contestants more desirable to the bachelor. This would give you a window into their fashion preferences. Referrals One of the best ways to acquire a visitor's attention and provide an objective third-party review of your business, product or service is the referral. Just doing a good job servicing a customer is not enough to generate a referral: You need to ask. The best time is just after the customer has received the ordered product or service. Don't wait a week or so to ask in a follow-up email how customers rate your company and if they would allow you to use them as a referral or a testimonial on your website. Do this immediately. And don't worry about rejection. If you ask every customer to respond to your email request, you will gather enough referrals and testimonials for your use. If necessary, even offer an incentive to reply to your email survey, such as free shipping on their next order, a discount coupon, or even a free sample. Additional marketing materials Use the space in the product boxes to include materials such as a catalog or information on special offers.
Now that you've learned how to attract prospects and customers to your Yahoo! store using some of the basic marketing tools, it's time to learn how to use the most popular way to attract visitors to your Yahoo! store: Internet search engines and directories. |
