| Merchant News From TIAS.com 10-19-08 |
Merchant News From TIAS.com 10-19-08
In This Issue:
1. Some Free marketing tools for your TIAS shop
2. If you're buying Google ads this season
3. Getting ready for Holiday shoppers
4. Customer support
----------------------------
1. Some free marketing tools for your TIAS shop.
With money being tight for everyone right now, how can you market your online business without breaking the bank? BigNews.biz just posted a new series of online tutorials about how to get the word out about your Web store. These tutorials include: 1. How to write articles to drive customers to your business, 2. How to find and post to blogs and forums to drive traffic, 3. How to create your own blog for your business, 4. How to outsource these tasks to someone else to save time. To view these articles, see http://www.BigNews.biz/blog
-----------
2. If you're buying Google ads this season
We've tested these in the past and they don't work well for us as a marketing tool for the mall, but for individual stores, some of our merchants have reported having good results. The key to using Google ads to sell antiques and collectibles from your store on TIAS is to be as specific as possible with your advertising. As an example, DON'T buy non specific keywords like "antiques" or "collectibles". If you specialize in a specific type of merchandise like Roseville vases it might be worth running a Google ad for Roseville vases. The more specific you can get with your advertising, the more likely you are to see good results. You can even try offering individual items in your Google ads. Just remember, The more specific you are in your ads, the better your chances are of converting that ad into a sale. Also remember to point the ad to a targeted page. Using our Roseville vase example again, when the customer click on the ad, they should end of on the page with the vases, not your home page. If you want to try Google ads for your site, go to: http://adwords.google.com/select/Login . The cost can be as little as a dollar a day.
-----------
3. Getting ready for Holiday shoppers.
This is probably going to be the toughest Holiday shopping season we have seen in several decades. So this year, make it as easy as possible for customers to buy your merchandise. 1. Discount your prices as much as you can now - Many retailers started discounting in September because customers had stopped buying. 2. Clean up your inventory - Refresh old inventory with lower pricing, add new/more photos and updated descriptions. Add new inventory now. 3. When a customer has a question, respond as quickly as possible to show that you are reliable and want their business. 4. Process orders and returns quickly - People talk to other people. If customers have a great time shopping at your TIAS store and share that experience with a friend, this is the best advertising you can get.
-----------
4. Customer support
Last week I mentioned that we were having a real problems with some TIAS merchants communicating with customers. Several of you wrote back that customers were the problem, not the merchant. Emails from merchants were not being returned by customers. In most of the recent cases I've been involved with, if a customers calls TIAS regarding a problem with an order and says they can not reach a merchant, we give them the phone number of the merchant. If you are have a problem reaching a customer via email, you should call them. In most cases, their phone number is included on their order. Email is not reliable for many reasons. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone to communicate with your customers. Email is not as reliable as it once was.
-----------
Questions? Comments? Drop us an email at support@tias.com or give us a call at 1-888-653-7883
|
