How to promote your supermarket online
Many people browse for your supermarket on the Net each day. Are they finding you? If not, then this introductory post is a perfect place to start the Web Marketing effort for your supermarket.
Creating a website for your supermarket is the first activity if you don’t already have one. It may seem like a daunting job if you haven’t created a website before. In reality it’s not that complicated – but the majority of people are too busy and have better things to do with their time (like running their supermarket !). So why not find a couple of websites that you like, and call the developers of those for a quote (the designers name is sometimes displayed at the foot of the web page). Then again, you could outsource the job on a website like Rent a Coder – which will often cost less.
The next step is to install Google Analytics. This will tell you how many visitors your website is receiving, where they’re coming from, and how much time they’re spending on your site. You could also use it to keep track of your ad campaigns, and watch what people are buying on your website. Vital!
The first step for lots of people is to send their website to the relevant category on the Yahoo Directory. Unfortunately this now costs $299 per year, and since it sends very few visitors nowadays (have you tried finding the Yahoo directory on their website) it may not be great value for most firms. Luckily there are also free general directories out there, and it’s usually worth submitting to those. DMOZ is the most popular, but because it’s operated by volunteers it can take a very long time to get in. Make sure you submit your web site to the proper category for the greatest probability of being successful.
supermarket web sites that will publish your details will usually charge you money – but the ones that have reasonable visitor numbers and can send lots of traffic to your site, it could be money well spent. Now and then you even find a free site that deals with your sector – for instance http://www.ClickSupermarkets.co.uk/ for the supermarket sector.
If you have some cash available to bring customers to your new site, then think about Pay Per Click advertising. The best known system is Google Adwords, which will show your advertisements next to the Google search engine results – but there are also various other systems to choose from. You produce your advert, choose which searches you want to appear next to, and how much money you’re willing to pay for each visitor to your site. Your advert can be online within moments and customers will typically start arriving at once.
Now that you’re receiving visitors to your supermarket website – you will be ready for the next job – persuading them to keep coming back – and possibly do business with you. Setting up an email autoresponder series is a superb way to draw prospects back to your site. Simply register with a service like MailChimp, get people to give you their email address on your web site, write a sequence of helpful emails, and send them out on auto-pilot. This will build your good reputation, and potential clients will become familiar with your name.
Advertising your supermarket on the internet is a huge topic – but I am hoping the overview offered in this document has been useful. If it’s prompted you to get started, then that’s excellent – there’s loads more detail available on the internet, so if you make a start right now, you’ll be getting new clients very soon indeed.