With less than deep pockets, what can you do? Identify anything you can offer for free. Perhaps it is an eBook. Can you offer free shipping?
You Need Website Traffic
What do you consider to be a good amount of daily visitors? One hundred? One thousand? One-hundred thousand? Whatever target you set, you will want more. This is because only a small fraction of visitors convert to sales. Be patient. Growth is incremental.
To get eyes on your product or service, include a blog on your website. Write about the products you sell, even if article seem redundant. This returns more public search engine results. Also pay attention to top news stories. Promptly figure out a way to include an article that ties in to it. Then post links to it on social media sites.
Giveaway
Give away great products or services for free. This is how many social media platforms begin. After gaining millions of subscribers, they switch to advertising revenue. The challenge, of course is keeping the doors open in the interim.
With less than deep pockets, what can you do? Identify anything you can offer for free. Perhaps it is an eBook. Some online stores use the buy-get-one-free sales model. Can you offer free shipping under specific circumstances? If not on every order, what about the first or second? Offer perks in exchange for subscriptions.
For products with consumer appeal, consider giving samples to social media influencers. These are people with many loyal followers you can post a photo on Instagram or record a video endorsement that translates to a windfall of traffic and potential sales.
For their efforts, influencers expect something in return: free product and/or reciprocal mention on your social media. The product must have desirable qualities or a link exchange (mutual mention) that is likely to net them even more followers.
Make certain that whatever you offer is good quality—even if there is no physical product. People are not attracted to junk, no matter how low the price. With great products, include an option to provide customer ratings or reviews.
There is another caveat to giving away the store. Premium products appeal to customers willing to pay top dollar. Giving them away devalues them. If top-of-the-line iPhones were free with mobile service, who would pay in excess of $1100 for one?
Trying to be the store with the lowest price cannibalizes profit and shuts down most new businesses. For premium products, use quality photos and site design. Offer something else for free.
A more traditional approach is to write a newsworthy press release. After doing so, have it syndicated for exposure. Either avenue you pursue beats idly sitting around waiting for a sale. You may not gain a zillion customers but your numbers should steadily increase.
