Creating an Online Presence

An online presence is crucial for companies who need to reach customers. There are many options when it comes to helping you create an online presence. Most companies will use more than one of them so that they have multiple channels of business revenue. Diversification of revenue streams across channels can minimize the risk of a single channel failing (for whatever reason). There is stability in the establish platforms, but do not exclude new platforms immediately, give them a try and evaluate them for returns you might be surprised.

Should you choose to sell directly to customers an eCommerce platform is where you will need to create your own online store. The level of control you have over the user experience depends on the platform. There are hosted platforms that restrict the layout and only let you brand the store, others give you limited control, and the best option if you are capable is to host your own store to have complete control. You will also be responsible for generating traffic to the site. The top 3 eCommerce platforms at the time of writing as rated by eCommerce-Platforms.com are:

Marketplaces

Putting your products on a marketplace is a good way to start getting customers quickly. This is because these marketplaces already have an established online presence. They have customers buying products today, some of whom are probably searching for products like yours. Here are some marketplaces to get started with.

Amazon – Set up your own store within the top online retailer
Amazon Handmade – Amazon’s competitor to Etsy.
eBay – Once known for auctions, and now a retailer.
Etsy – The largest online marketplace for handmade and vintage items.

Social Networks

There have been many books and videos made about social networking. All businesses benefit from creating and maintaining a company presence on social networks. While there are many social networks, it can be difficult for a small company to manage a presence on them all so look for tools that can help like Hootsuite. Facebook and Twitter are highly trafficked social networks that can give you a stable amount of traffic, Instagram and Pinterest are very photo based – which works well for a product based company, Snapchat can be used as well, but you really need a following first. Remember with social networking that the call to action, the request for the viewer to do something, is very important. If you have no call to action, you will not get the traffic to your site that you desire and have little or no conversion.

Site Content

The content you put on your site is very important, your product descriptions and product photography must be high quality. The high quality will help convert visitors to your website into purchasers of your products. So, produce product descriptions that are accurate and detailed, but are not dry or mechanical. You want to induce a feeling of want or need for the viewer the words you choose can deliver that to the viewer. The product photography should be warm and inviting and show the product not only on a white background, but also in a normal use setting.

Product descriptions

Not everyone will read your product descriptions. However, most people do read them completely, and remember that the search engines use the product description text to index your content. Here are some things to think about when writing your product descriptions.

Know who your ideal customer is. Talk to them in language they would
Talk about the benefits of your products to your
Minimize the use of superlatives and exclamation
Use positive customer reviews and let them brag about
If your product has been professional reviewed or highlighted by a professional publication, be sure to include

Product Photos

While not everyone will read your product descriptions, everyone will look at your product photos. The quality of your photography will have a direct impact on your conversion rates. The better your make your products look in the photos, the more units you will sell.

There is a detailed article from Shopify that explains how to shoot a white background, product photo with minimal equipment and expense, The Ultimate DIY Guide to Beautiful Product Photography –

There are many of photo editing tools available for you. Here are a few the free tools:

Fotor – Cloud based editor. So there is no download – just access it from within your
GIMP – For free software, GIMP has a lot of capabilities. As such, there is quite a bit of a learning curve. It is a download. There are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux
Photoshop Express – Mobile app. Versions for Android, iPhone and Windows.
PicMonkey – Cloud based solution for photo editing.
Pixlr Express – Cloud based solution for photo editing.

While this is by know means the end of the information that is available about this subject, it is a good start to helping you understand what you will need to look at when creating your online presence.