But, getting your product/service to stand out on some of the top online marketplaces can be a daunting task for most business owners. No thanks to the huge competition out there in online business environment. The real reason it's hard to rank high enough in search results for potential customers to find you on the internet. What to do? If you shift your focus to activating local online marketplaces, it can provide you a great opportunity to drive sales. If you focus on local communities, it is possible for you to create a more direct relationship with customers at a lower cost. This direct relationship makes it cheaper for you to reach more local consumers. Instead of spending money on widespread social campaigns trying to reach local consumers, you can locate where they are purchasing online then take your business directly to them. This way, you can make more sales to enhance your ROI.
But, finding consistent ways to drive sales in a crowded online space usually takes a mixture of creativity and concentrated marketing efforts. These here tips can help you out to reach more consumers through local online marketplaces.
Improve Keywords and SEO on your Website
If you effectively use SEO and high-value keywords on your website, it can help to drive sales on local online marketplaces. This is where your dexterity in online marketing comes to bear. Aside individual targeting, you can take advantage of some of the bigger marketplaces that have their own keywords. You must choose relevant keywords that fit both your location and your product/service. This helps your products to be seen when consumers are actively searching for the types of items you sell. If your SEO is effective, you can improve your overall reach without spending much money on marketing and advertising. To find the right keywords or tips to help SEO, sites like SEMrush and Moz can be helpful. For useful SEO guidelines, Google can also be of help.
For better exposure chances, you must make sure your product/service is listed on Google Shopping since Google presently has the lion’s share in global search engine marketing. Listing your product/service on Google Shopping helps to improve your search engine ranking. This leads to more discovery and consequently more sales.
Make your Online Connections Offline Relationships
When customers find you via a local marketplace, it's important to let them know that your business also has a brick-and-mortar space in their area. The best way to do this is via the product description on your website or through direct messages. Presently, online shopping may be growing rapidly but many consumers still prefer traditional retail and real-life shopping experiences. A huge chunk of consumers habitually spend more money in-store than they do online. Therefore, it is good for business if you find customers online and invite them to come to visit your physical store. To drive growth in online marketplaces, it helps to think local.
You can pair the look and feel of your online marketplace with that of your physical retail space. By doing this, you will create a sense of brand trust. You must be aware that brand trust is key for repeat customers. Once your customers are in-store, it opens up a great potential for them to share your business on their own social network accounts and to their friends and relatives. Such actions can provide additional social proof and open your business to an additional group of new customers. Good for business no doubt!
Generously Use Emotional Graphics/Images on your Website
Naturally, humans are inherently visual. They are also hugely emotional too. Marketers factor in these traits when marketing with graphics/images. So, the care you place in selecting compelling graphics/images to showcase your product/service has a huge impact on consumers and their buy decisions. Because local marketplaces are usually filled with marketers trying to sell items consumers may not really want, the photos and layout used to showcase the products can always make the difference in consumer decisions. Therefore, using high-quality images that trigger an emotional response helps to give consumers additional trust in the seller. It makes them more likely to buy.
For best results, you must make sure your images don’t look too polished. If they do, people may perceive images as ads and pay less attention to them. What to do! For maximum effects, it is advisable to shoot your product images to make them similar to how they’ll be displayed on social media. Try to use techniques such as flat lay photography. But, if it is a service you are marketing, you must try to create an action or lifestyle shot for display. This helps consumers to imagine how your service would fit into their everyday life. It makes more impact as a result.
