Common e-commerce pitfalls

Marketing is all about promoting and selling your goods and services. You need to attract the attention of potential customers to convince them to purchase your products or services, and to turn first-time purchasers into repeat customers.

No matter how good your site is, if people don't know about it they will not visit it. So, you need to consider various marketing strategies.

Develop a marketing plan

• No matter what marketing medium you are using, if you want to attract new and existing customers to your site you must have a solid marketing plan.
• Give people a reason to return to your site, such as news, product launches or promotions.
• Identify the target markets you plan to address and profile each market so you pitch your benefits at the correct level.
• Ensure your marketing budget is realistic and is capable of funding all the activities you plan to undertake.
• You should justify your marketing spend by the levels of sales you expect to generate.

Use the most appropriate marketing techniques

Choose the right tactics:

• Select the most appropriate online and offline marketing techniques for your particular needs.
• Ensure your marketing campaign does not annoy or antagonise the customer. Excessive spam following a purchase is a common complaint among e-commerce shoppers. See email marketing for best practice advice. 

Measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts

Monitor how well your campaigns are doing:

• Measure your success, or otherwise, of your marketing initiative. This can help show what works and what doesn't.
• Use tracking and site analysis tools to tell you more about your site visitors - where they came from, what they did on your site (for example whether they purchased anything and what keywords they used), and where they went when they left.