What’s the best way to expand your business successfully? Your business has settled, you started with online reputation management services. Your bank manager is happy to see you, so what’s the next step? Invest in a good marketing plan. Now more than ever, savvy entrepreneurs are looking for new ways to market their products and services.

There is a plethora of information on how best to harness technology-based tools and advertising platforms around today. To learn more about successful eCommerce marketing tips, look no further than companies that have had enormous success with online sales – such as Google, Amazon, and eBay. Here are just a few things you can do to improve your company’s online presence:

• • Pay Attention to the Competition – Make sure you’re keeping up with what’s going on in your industry by visiting relevant websites and blogs. Learning what the competition is doing to stay competitive will help you formulate your strategy. You may even discover that some of your competitors are doing both right and wrong things that you can take advantage of.

• • Research Successful Business Models – If you’re not sure where to start with developing an online marketing plan, check out which companies are currently making waves in the industry – especially those who are similar to yours. Try cutting out newspaper or magazine clippings about brands you admire or would like to emulate, then place them on a board dedicated to your company’s future. Look for patterns among their successes and failures that you could put into practice for yourself.

• • Build Customer Personas – Knowing who makes up your target market is pivotal for marketing your business. To truly understand who’s willing to pay for your product or service, you need to know exactly what they’re looking for – and what sorts of ads or search criteria they engage with. By building customer personas, you can begin to craft the perfect message that will appeal directly to them.

• • Establish KPIs – This is short for key performance indicators. Think of these as the metrics you’ll use to measure progress in your eCommerce marketing strategy; examples might be website traffic, conversion rates, or the number of newsletter subscribers. Google has maximized results from their AdWords campaigns by using specific cost-per-click (CPC) goals based on industry averages. Once you identify which aspects are essential to your company, you can use them as benchmarks to improve or maintain.

• • Start Blogging – You don’t have to be a professional writer to contribute content for your blog; all you need is desire and conviction. The more visible, purposeful, and engaging your blog posts are, the more likely people will be to read them and share them with others – thus improving traffic and visibility of your website. As an active blogger, make sure that you get feedback from customers about what they like (and what they don’t), then incorporate these insights into future posts.

Best Practices

With millions of websites online today, it can feel challenging to get noticed by consumers looking for the products and services you offer. Keeping up with industry trends, developing customer personas, and tracking key metrics are just a few online marketing best practices that could help you get ahead of the curve in your business.