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Introduction: Turn-Key E-Commerce The E-Commerce Revolution; Why E-Commerce Is Better; Advantages to Both Real-World and Virtual Businesses Step 1: Defining Your Business Understanding Your Market; Identifying Your Products; Business Image Development; Brand Messaging Step 2: Making Genuine Connections Tapping into Emotions; Mind Triggers; Building Trust; Engaging Your Intended Audience Step 3: Building an Effective Website Branding Discovery; Design Style; Social Sharing; Product Reviews; Product Packaging; Images that Connect; Payment Systems; Advanced Features Step 4: Identifying the Best Marketplace Marketplace Differences; Best Opportunities; Getting Your Products to Stand Out; Choosing the Best Market for Your Products or Services Step 5: Dropshipping Dropshipping Defined; Advantages and Disadvantages; Selecting a Reputable Partner; Product Niches; Affiliate Marketing; Best Practices for Effective Dropshipping Step 6: Social Marketing Social Media Strategies; The Power of the Blog; Social Media Influencers; Social Remarketing Step 7: Online Ads Facebook Ads; Google AdWords; Keyword Success Strategies; Creating Attention-Getting Ads; Banner Ads; Seasonality and Holidays; Banner Design; Video Promotions; Quantifying Success Step 8: Content Marketing eBooks; E-Mail Blasts; Sales Letters; Landing Pages; Contests and Giveaways; Press Releases; Video Marketing; Integrating Your Online Marketing Step 9: Customer Service Priorities 1-800 Numbers; Live Chat; Encouraging Feedback; Product Reviews; Rewards and Recognition; Coupons and Discounts; Building Your Business’s Reputation Step 10: Partnering with Lytron Experienced Professionals; Proven Track Record of Success; One Call Does It All; Let Lytron Work for Your Business’s Success; Next Steps
TURN-KEY E-COMMERCE Look around and you will see that there is a revolution going on right now. Unlike revolutions from centuries or even decades in the past, this one doesn’t involve toppling governments, changing society’s sexual mores, or updating its industrial processes. Instead, today’s revolution has to do with the way businesses operate.
The traditional business model that has existed for the past 100 years or so involved people driving to stores, purchasing the products or services they want, then returning to their homes to consume them. But that is becoming obsolete. Thanks to recent and rapid technological advances in digital storage, the proliferation of affordable mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, and near-universal access to the Internet via WiFi, just about anybody can order practically anything and have it delivered to their doorstep within 24 hours or less. This newfound convenience is changing every aspect of business, from the supply chain to retail. You can see both online and in the real world. Anchor stores at shopping malls are going out of business. Shoppers are becoming reluctant to leave their homes and drive more than short distance even to buy groceries. People today spend more time looking down at their devices than they do looking up at the world around them. For better or for worse, our world has changed. And this offers both risks and opportunities for business owners everywhere.
THE E-COMMERCE REVOLUTION The rise of e-commerce has changed the face of business. Corporations that didn’t exist two decades ago – like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix -- are now among the biggest and most successful business models on the planet. Entrepreneurs who are 04
adept at identifying and exploiting changes on the horizon can earn millions, or even billions practically overnight. Apple -- which led the charge in digital innovation and the development of cool, must-have products – recently became the first company in the history of the world to be valued at more than $1 trillion. A few weeks later, Amazon joined this super exclusive club. More are sure to follow.There has never been a more volatile or exciting time to be in business. Even new entrepreneurs and small business owners have the opportunity to succeed beyond their wildest dreams. All that is required is a little knowledge about how the e-commerce world works, a website and social media accounts, and top-quality products or services and your business could be next on the list of trillion-dollar companies.
WHY E-COMMERCE IS BETTER The biggest reason e-commerce has jettisoned to become the first choice of consumers today is convenience. People can literally push a button or speak into their mobile device and have what they want delivered almost instantaneously. There’s no question that e-commerce has made life easier for consumers. But e-commerce is better for businesses, too. Now there is little reason to invest huge sums of capital in things like physical stores, a large labor force, or even an inventory of products themselves. Instead, it’s possible to be successful running an e-commerce business out of your own home selling products or services created by somebody else without ever having to interact face-to-face with another person. 05
ADVANTAGES TO BOTH REAL-WORLD AND VIRTUAL BUSINESSES If you own an existing business, e-commerce can make it better, faster, and more profitable. If you want to start a non-traditional business that exists only in the virtual world of the ethernet, it’s possible to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Plenty of people have done it already and the opportunities are bottomless. In short, there has never been a more exciting or explosive time for businesses than right now. In Turn-Key E-Commerce, you will learn the basics of creating, launching, and running your own web-based business successfully and profitably. Whether you are new to the game or an experienced business owner seeking to dip your toe into an infinite pool of prospective online customers, this helpful guide is where you journey begins.
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STEP
1
DEFINING YOUR BUSINESS
While opportunities abound in e-commerce revolution, some basic rules of business still remain: You need to offer top-quality products or services. You need to be smart about the way you invest both your financial capital and your time. And most importantly, you need to attract as many customers as possible. Finally, to truly successful, once they get through your virtual front door, it’s absolutely essential that you keep them coming back again and again and buying more and more products from you rather than your competitors.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR MARKET If you are lucky enough to already have a successful brick-and-mortar business and are simply seeking to expand into e-commerce, you probably already have a pretty good understanding of the types of products or services you offer, as well as what your customers want and need. But if you are starting a new e-commerce business, the first step is understanding the market where you will be entering. Under the old business model, this might require getting into your car and visiting the stores of your direct competition, a process that could be both time-consuming and costly. But in the virtual business community, all you need to do is search Google or another search engine and find the most successful businesses working in the niche you want to enter
IDENTIFYING YOUR PRODUCTS Next is determining what it is you want to offer. It could be physical products you manufacture yourself, skills you have that are unique and valuable, or even somebody else’s products or services that you can market and offer to other people at a profit to yourself. As you will soon see, what you offer is not always as important as how you do it. While it’s critical to your long-term success that you chose products or services that are high quality and reliable, the real key to profitability is building a positive, likable business image that engages customers on an genuinely emotional level. 08
BUSINESS IMAGE DEVELOPMENT There are lots of ways to create a positive, irresistible business image that people will always want to embrace: • Have a catchy domain name • Create an attractive and memorable logo that can represent your business across all channels • Offer high-quality images and photos that accurately represent the products and services you offer • Make a brand video that establishes your credibility These steps will all help develop your business image. But the most important thing is to create a brand message that will help attract and retain customers.
BRAND MESSAGING In many ways, your brand can be more important than the actual products or services you offer. If your brand is trustworthy, reliable, and clearly defined, customers will return to buy from you again and again. Once you establish integrity and trust, the key to brand message is making genuine emotional connections with your customers 09
STEP
2
MAKING GENUINE
CONNECTIONS People can buy products anywhere. So why do they choose a particular brand or a specific business? Price and convenience play a big role. But a more important reason is that they feel like they have a genuine connection with the product or business. Think about it from your own perspective. Do you drive a particular brand of car such as Ford, Chevy, or Subaru? Is it because their cars are the cheapest or because their dealership is closest to your home? Probably not. Instead, it’s more likely that your family always owned that brand or car or that the car dealership made you feel welcome and appreciated. These elements are universal. When you create genuine connections with people, there are emotional loyalty bonds that aren’t easily broken. And it keeps people coming back to your e-commerce business again and again
TAPPING INTO EMOTIONS When people buy something, what they really are paying for is an emotional experience. Whether it’s a roll of toilet paper or a particular share of stock on the NY Stock Exchange, or a ticket to a theme park, people want to feel specific qualities like comfort, security, or happiness. This is a key element when building your e-commerce website, establishing your professional reputation, and promoting your products and services online or in the real world. If you can find a way to give people a positive emotional connection with your business, you can make a customer for life.
MIND TRIGGERS So how can this be accomplished? Through a psychological device known as mind triggers. These are conscious or subconscious cues that tap into people’s emotions. They can be found in things like images, drawings, photos, music, or even background colors or design techniques. Mind triggers suggest that people to feel specific emotions. These can be anything from love and warmth to anger and discomfort. The objective of the e-commerce website, promotional videos, product image is to build positive, genuine, and lasting trust bonds between the prospective or existing customer and the business. Effective mind triggers not only build trust and confidence, but also evoke a purchase mindset. 11
BUILDING TRUST Trust bonds are what tie people to brands. They are why you tend to be loyal to a particular type of car, a specific brand of toothpaste, or your favorite grocery store. Once you use mind triggers to tap into people’s emotions to create trust bonds, these can create a lasting relationship that keeps customers coming back again and again to your business.
ENGAGING YOUR INTENDED AUDIENCE So the goal of the successful e-commerce entrepreneur – whether it is an established brick-and-mortar business or a newcomer seeking to create a foothold in the lucrative online business community – is clear: To identify mind triggers that create indelible trust bonds upon which they can build a lasting, profitable, and successful business. 12
STEP
3
BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE To offer products or services online requires a virtual space that people can land on from their smartphones, laptops, tablets, or other devices. An effective website puts forth a positive brand image that nurtures trust bonds that serve as the foundation for sustained, lasting relationship between buyer and seller. Website design is both a science and an art. It’s a rapidly growing field of knowledge that gets more sophisticated every day as businesses and organizations discover what works and what doesn’t for their particular brand. While services like GoDaddy, HostGator and many others offer one-stop shopping for domain names, server space, and even prefabricated web pages, for the successful e-commerce entrepreneur these should serve only as the starting point, not the final website.
BRANDING DISCOVERY ding.
Every decision about website design needs to be made through the filter of bran-
From the colors to the photos to the written content, the purpose of the website is to build trust bonds between the viewer and the brand. Once these are established, everything else flows from that trust relationship.
DESIGN STYLE Take a look at the websites of direct competitors within your niche and you likely will find a wide variety of designs and styles, from traditional to highly artistic. The right one for your business is the one that best succeeds in achieving the primary objective: Getting customers to like and trust your business.
SOCIAL SHARING One of the biggest advantages of e-commerce over traditional business is that customers can instantly recommend the products and services they like to their family and friends. The opportunity to “go viral� is one of the most compelling reasons to get into e-commerce in the first place. 14
So regardless of your branding, your design, or your products, your website has to make it as easy as possible for people to share your brand with their social network.
PRODUCT REVIEWS Buttons that enable sharing are critical. But so is the ability for loyal customers to review your products and services. Product reviews are like free advertising only better because they allow real people to offer genuine testimonials that are steeped in positive emotions and trust.
PRODUCT PACKAGING Under the traditional business paradigm, product packaging was central to the success of the enterprise. Size, color, shape, images, lettering, and more contributed to the consumer’s decision whether to pick the product up or leave it on the shelf. In e-commerce, the website serves the same purpose. If the design is effective, the page visitor will take the desired action: Clicking through to another page, buying the product, requesting additional information, sharing the website with their social media
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STEP
4
THE BEST MARKETPLACE IDENTIFYING
There’s only one Internet. But there are a lot of places online where you can do business. Many e-commerce entrepreneurs choose to join an established network, like Amazon or eBay, to promote their e-commerce offerings. Others will create their own virtual store where customers can peruse through pages of offerings. Still others will use a combination of the two or integrate real-world brick-and-mortar businesses with online platforms. There isn’t one right answer for everybody. The best marketplace for you is going to depend on a lot of different factors. Let’s look at some of them.
MARKETPLACE DIFFERENCES There are enormous benefits to using an established platform such as Amazon, Kindle, or eBay. The biggest is that everything you need to successfully promote your e-commerce business already exists. You can simply plug in and start making money on the first day. The downside, however, is that you likely will pay a huge cost or give a big share of the profits to somebody else for this convenience. The reason Amazon recently became only the second company ever to cross the $1 trillion threshold was because it takes a part of every sale from all the smaller companies that use its highly effective platform. While building your own website comes with a lot more startup costs, as well as more risks, at least you get to keep all the money – or at least a much bigger chunk of it than you would if you were to rely on an established platform owned by somebody else.
BEST OPPORTUNITIES So how can you tell which method works best for your e-commerce business? It helps to have a trusted, experienced web designer and content provider giving you sound business advice. The first decade of the Internet had a history of costly trial-and-error. Thousands of businesses – indeed entire industries – have come and gone because very smart people didn’t have the knowledge or experience to make the best choices. Right now, the timing couldn’t be better for entering the e-commerce marketplace. Other people already have made the biggest mistakes. What’s left is an innovative, revo17
lutionary new market platform with unlimited growth potential for the right business owner who has a great idea.
GETTING YOUR PRODUCTS TO STAND OUT The only thing that’s lacking is partnering with an established, reliable web design company that has the skills and experience to get your products or services to stand out in a marketplace crowded with competitors. Consumers who go online to find what they are looking for often usually don’t already have loyalty to a brand or company. Yet they have the potential to enter trust relationships that can yield long-term business and repeat purchases when they connect with the right company.
CHOOSING THE BEST MARKET FOR YOUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES According to a recent study, 3 out of 4 Google users never make it past the first page of any search. And why would they? Google’s search engine algorithm is so sophisticated that it almost always gives users exactly what they are looking for on the very first try. If you design your web page to give Google what it’s looking for, it’s almost impossible not to open the portal to millions of potential customers. The key is knowing what to include and where to put it to get your page ranked first – or at least on the front page – when people type the keywords that best describe what they are looking for into Google’s search engine. 18
STEP
5 We have been describing websites that represent an online version of a brick-and-mortar business, or at least an e-commerce business that has actual products or services it wants to promote directly to prospective customers via the Internet. But there’s another option that deserves consideration for any e-commerce entrepreneur: Dropshipping.
DROPSHIPPING DEFINED Dropshipping is a term most people may not know yet they may actually interact with dropshipping businesses every time they go online. Essentially, dropshipping is when you offer somebody else’s products or services on your website as your own. For example, you may own an e-commerce business that specializes in unique arts and crafts but you don’t actually make any of them personally, or even purchase them wholesale. Instead, you simply own the virtual store in which artisans’ work is displayed and where customers can land to find the specific products they are looking for. Once they make a purchase through your web page, the producer of the product – whoever that may be – handles the fulfillment: Sending out the product through the mail. They may use their own packaging or, in some cases, make a deal with you to provide your packaging or branding so that it looks as though the buyer is receiving their purchase from your e-commerce business even though you act only as the intermediary.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES One of the biggest drop shippers in the world is Amazon. While the e-retailer has huge warehouses where they hold billions of dollars in inventory for direct delivery to customers, Amazon also serves as the middleman for millions of other providers simply facilitating the matching of buyers with sellers. No wonder their model is so successful! In e-commerce, the objective is to model your success after something that already works. Amazon has proven that dropshipping is not only viable, but highly profitable in web business. 20
SELECTING A REPUTABLE PARTNER Perhaps the only downside of dropshipping is that the burden of finding providers is on the e-commerce site owner. But once you find reliable, high-quality products or services and strike a deal with the wholesaler or dropshipping partner, it’s possible to make unlimited profits without having to anything other than setting up the website, turning it on, and watching the money flow into your bank account.
PRODUCT NICHES Theoretically, you can be a dropship provider of anything. But some product niches tend to do better than others and are easier to administer. These are called “evergreen” niches because like the popular landscaping tree they almost always thrive regardless of the climate or weather conditions:
•Weight Loss
•Spiritual Development/Horoscope
•Dog Obedience
•Relationships/Dating
•Making Money/Getting Out of Debt
•Life Problems
•Personal Development/Workout Goals
•Food/Cooking
Working in these product niches can be profitable, but because they are widely known
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as evergreen niches, competition can be high. Still, all you need is for your website to have a better design and more appeal to Google than the competition and the profit potential is unlimited.
AFFILIATE MARKETING Affiliate marketing is related to dropshipping but slightly different. With affiliate marketing, you promote products and services offered by others on your website, blog, social media pages, or elsewhere. When people click the links that you provide and make an actual purchase, you earn a commission. How big that commission is depends on the product and the deal you make with the product provider. In some instances, it can be as a little as 2% to 3% while in others it can be up to 50% or higher of the actual purchase price.
BEST PRACTICES FOR EFFECTIVE DROPSHIPPING tors:
Dropshipping is a highly attractive business model. But it depends on two key fac1 Making a great deal with a top-quality provider 2 - Knowing how to effectively promote the products or services
Once you negotiate a dropshipping deal that is beneficial to both the product provider and the e-commerce entrepreneur, partnering with a web design company that can showcase these offerings and get your listings in the front page of the keywords most people type into Google can result in a sustained revenue stream that requires very little, if any, additional adjustments. 22
STEP
6
SOCIAL MARKETING Social media is one of those things that didn’t exist 20 years ago but today is one of the biggest and most powerful marketing tools in business. It harnesses the connections people have along with the push-button convenience of sharing preferences and opinions online. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others are used by billions of people daily and are as close as the nearest smartphone, tablet, or other device, exponentially increasing the power of one of the most reliable and trustworthy promotional tools: Word of mouth.
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES Every successful e-commerce business has a social media strategy that exploits this new, powerful marketing opportunity. Most integrate social networks, blogs, social media influencers, social remarketing, and other strategies to promote products and services, build brand recognition, and expand customer base. Perhaps the biggest benefit of any social media strategy is that offers an e-commerce business a 24-hour national – or even global – customer base. Because texts, emails, blogs, Facebook posts, and other online postings aren’t limited by geography or boundaries, customers can find e-commerce businesses from anywhere and at any time of the day or night.
THE POWER OF THE BLOG Social media has also democratized the spread of information, offering an instant global platform to anybody with access to the Internet to share their thoughts, ideas, or preferences. In just the past several years, blogging has grown to become a popular way for practically anybody to connect with other people in a meaningful, immediate, and emotional way. 24
E-commerce businesses should include blogging as an integral part of any social marketing strategy. Blogs are a highly effective for sharing information, building trust, and indirectly or directly promoting products or services.
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS Even more recent than the growth in popularity of blogging is the emergence of social influencers. These are people with millions of followers who follow their every post on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Some are celebrities while others are social media personalities who suddenly enjoy influence over the products and services people want and need. When a popular social media influencer recommends your e-commerce business, the effects can be immediate and dramatic. While getting the attention of a popular blogger, YouTube star, or other social influencer can take a lot of work, the results can be real dollars and cents.
SOCIAL REMARKETING Another powerful 21st Century promotional tool is social remarketing. This is when you use information about the websites people visit or their online postings to market directly to their preferences. Social remarketing can be highly sophisticated, with big online companies using algorithms to sort through thousands of clicks and data per second to zero in on specific products tailored to the individual’s psychological predispositions. But any sized e-commerce business can use the principles of social remarketing to their advantage. For example, if customers download a free e-book on any subject in exchange for giving you their email address, you can then send them a series of emails promoting your products or services related to the subject of that eBook. 25
STEP
7
ONLINE ADS FACEBOOK ADS
GOOGLE ADWORDS
While many bemoan Facebook as fading in popularity – especially among younger web users – it’s still one of the biggest and most powerful social media platforms on the planet.
Google has always been an innovator in wading through tons of information to get directly to what people are looking for. And their popular AdWords service is no different. Already the most popular search engine on the Internet, Google allows e-commerce businesses to connect directly with highly motivated customers. While the service is relatively expensive, if used properly it’s almost impossible not to make sales and earn huge profits.
Facebook also hosts one of the most sophisticated and targeted marketing platforms available anywhere, allowing marketers to specifically aim their ads at users who are already predisposed to buy their products or services.
KEYWORD SUCCESS STRATEGIES Keywords aren’t a platform. Instead they are a frame of mind. Finding the best keywords that specifically describe your e-commerce business’s offerings is an art and a science. The trick is to find the exact wording people who want and need your products are using to search online. Once these are identified, you can tailor your online marketing campaigns to those specific keywords for maximum value. Creating Attention-Getting Ads Most people still respond to visual stimuli more than any other kind. When you create eye-catching ads that make emotional connections with prospective customers, it’s money in the bank. Once created, the web offers multiple streaming video platforms for posting your ads, including YouTube, Facebook Video, Amazon, and more. Banner Ads Banner ads may not be as influential as they were a decade or so ago, but they still have value because they usually can be purchased for very little money while getting your brand in front of a lot of eyeballs online.
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SEASONALITY AND HOLIDAYS One of the most effective strategies for selling customers multiple products or the same products at different times of the year is seasonality and holidays. Offering products or services that are related to a time of year or annual events like Christmas, the Fourth of July, or the customer’s birthday resonate emotionally with your intended audience and can keep them engaged with your e-commerce business long after their first interaction.
VIDEO PROMOTIONS Like blogs, creating a series of videos that provide useful information that people can use in their everyday life is an effective way to nurture trust bonds. Many e-commerce business owners have discovered the value of having their own YouTube channel or other video outlets where they can keep customers coming back again and again. Once created, video also can be linked to nearly every other social platform, including social media accounts, email swipes, blogs, and more.
QUANTIFYING SUCCESS Perhaps the biggest benefit of social marketing is that it allows e-commerce business owners to measure their value. Most social advertising platforms include highly sophisticated reporting tools that instantly show the value of different strategies. This helps you spend your money only on those avenues that yield the best results.
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STEP
8
CONTENT MARKETING Content marketing is a broad term that describes a lot of different things that e-commerce businesses can do to attract and retain customers. But they all boil down to the same thing: Giving people what they need so you can sell them what you want.
The best content marketing generates not only new customers, but loyal and emotionally engaged customers who are passionate about your business and willing to share their thoughts with other people. Here are some of the most popular and effective content marketing platforms and strategies that can generate the high profits and an ever-expanding customer base.
EBOOKS In the Internet Age, creating and publishing a book has never been easier. An author no longer needs the backing of a big publishing house or a huge budget to self-publish their work. Instead, anybody with a keyboard and a great idea can be a successful author online. E-books can be used to promote your products, your services, or your e-commerce business. But they also can be used as a free giveaway to lure prospective customers into engaging with you online, such as providing you with their email address.
EMAIL BLASTS Once you have somebody’s email, you then have a direct route into their inbox to promote your business and its offerings. Generating a series of emails that builds trust while engaging people on an emotional level is a tried and true marketing strategy that has brought success to thousands of e-commerce businesses.
SALES LETTERS Another successful strategy is the sales letter. These are almost like an online version of direct mail. They let your highlight the benefits of your e-commerce products or services in an immediate and engaging way and are especially effective for getting people to make a buy decision if they are on the fence.
LANDING PAGES A landing page is a website where you offer people something of perceived value 30
in exchange for engagement with your e-commerce business. It might be a free eBook, a webinar, a free informational video, or something else that give people information, entertainment, or anything they can use to make their life better or happier. In exchange, you get a sales lead such as an email, their phone number, or their social media information.
CONTESTS AND GIVEAWAYS People love contests and giveaways because it taps into their emotional need to feel lucky or privileged. E-commerce businesses can offer prizes or free giveaways to build their customer base while making genuine and lasting trust bonds with prospective customers.
VIDEO MARKETING Video is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to make emotional connections with people. Today, there have never been so many ways to use streaming media to promote your products and services online directly to the smartphones and other devices that people carry with them 24-hours per day.
INTEGRATING YOUR ONLINE MARKETING Successful e-commerce businesses don’t choose one or two of these content marketing strategies. They choose most or all of them at the same time. One of the benefits of the Digital Revolution is that the web makes it easy to launch marketing drives on multiple channels simultaneously. This makes it easy to exponentially increase your customer base globally practically overnight.
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STEP
9
CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGIES One of the fastest-growing ways for e-commerce businesses to expand their engagement with customers is through heightened customer service. This goes beyond simply being responsive and open when there is a complaint. Instead, it includes a myriad of customer service options and strategies designed to continuously engage customers to build loyalty.
Providing a memorable customer service experience is one of the easiest ways for any business to build customer loyalty. This time-tested tradition extends to digital marketing. Here are some of the most effective ways to provide customer service that can transform casual customers into raving fans of your e-commerce business.
1-800-NUMBERS The worst enemy of any e-commerce business is an unhappy customer. That’s because thanks to social media platforms, somebody who is displeased can instantly spread toxicity about your business to an unlimited number of other people. Offering a 1-800 number where customers can instantly resolve any issue can defuse this potential timebomb while giving your e-commerce an opportunity to engage personally with your client base.
LIVE CHAT Live chat is one of the fastest growing customer service platforms for e-commerce businesses. By placing a “Live Chat” box on your website where customers can immediately interact one-on-one with your business creates a priceless opportunity to build unbreakable loyalty bonds while resolving problems and responding to inquiries. Live chat also can be “pushed” to your smartphone or laptop so that you can always monitor incoming messages wherever you go.
ENCOURAGING FEEDBACK E-commerce businesses need to invite customers to give their honest feedback any chance they get. Not only does this help you to improve your offerings, but it also gives you the ability to get testimonials from cooperative customers you can use in your promotional materials or marketing.
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PRODUCT REVIEWS Product reviews are another highly sophisticated platform that can attract new customers and build brand loyalty. Web users are highly influenced by social recommendations like product reviews on social media platforms and places like Amazon or eBay. Rewards and Recognition Loyalty programs, rewards cards, and recognizing customers on their birthdays or for achievements is a highly effective way to build trust bonds with customers. Creating, launching, and maintaining them can be automated.
COUPONS AND DISCOUNTS As the owner of your e-commerce business, you can set your price point anywhere you like. When you set it slightly higher and offer discounts or couponing, customers think they are getting value while you still get your targeted profits. Coupons and discounts also can be used to clear out surplus inventory, create short term boosts in sales, or quickly expand your customer base.
BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS’S REPUTATION These strategies -- including providing outstanding customer service experiences, content marketing, and social media marketing – are all aimed at the same target: Establishing your brand and building your e-commerce business’s reputation to engage customers on an emotional level to create long-lasting trust bonds. Achieve this and you can write your own ticket. 34
STEP
10
PARTNERING WITH LYTRON Nobody said running a successful e-commerce business would be easy. If anybody could do it, everybody would be millionaires. But the truth is that while successful e-commerce businesses all have the same goal – build a brand to create loyal customer base – achieving this objective can be difficult and complicated. It takes a lot of knowledge, expe- rience, and persistence. Most people lose their motivation to succeed or become distracted by something else before achieving their goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Going through the trial and error of setting up your first e-commerce business or creating an online portal for your existing brick and mortar busi- ness doesn’t have to be an ordeal. Not when you have Lytron Design in your corner.
EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS At Lytron Design, we’ve already helped dozens of existing businesses engage new customers in the online realm. We’ve also worked with hundreds of e-commerce entrepreneurs, helping them set up, launch, and maintain their own successful online businesses quickly and effectively. While there may be value in figuring out the intricacies of online marketing on your own, most e-commerce business owners have neither the time nor the money to go through the trial and error process. And with Lytron Design by your side, you don’t have to.
PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS Lytron Design offers measurable results for every dollar spent on your online marketing. We can show you the most effective ways to spend your marketing budget to get the results you want, including increased sales, higher profits, and most importantly a loyal and emotionally engaged expanded customer base. We have helped hundreds of e-commerce business owners transform their ideas into results. And we can help you, too!
ONE CALL DOES IT ALL Our experienced, professional content marketers can launch the online platforms that work best for you, including blog creation, video marketing, eBooks, social media strategies, sales letters, email blasts, and much, much more. We can help you design an effective website, set up your customer service platforms, design and implement your rewards and recognition programs, help you choose and 36
create the most effective online advertising, and even help you find the best dropshipping partners. Let Lytron Work for Your Business’s Success At Lytron, we know we can help you define your business, make genuine connections with new and existing customers, and identify the best marketplaces for your specific products and services because we already have done it successful for clients throughout the US and beyond. Let our trusted professionals put their skills and experience to work for your new or existing e-commerce business so that you can see the results you want right away. The digital revolution is here to stay. Don’t be a bystander. Lytron Design’s team of experienced professionals has the knowledge and skills to get you in the game right away, without wasting time trying to navigate the complexities of online marketing on your own.
NEXT STEPS So what are you waiting for? If you want to create an effective e-commerce business that engages customers on an emotional level to create genuine trust bonds for long-term sales relationships, if you want to create an online version of your existing real-world business, or even if you simply want to improve the online marketing platforms you already have running so they get more results and a better return on your investment, Lytron Design can help. Visit our website to learn more about how Lytron Design can help take your business into the 21st Century and beyond. 37
Sales: 1.800.932.3370 I Support: 561.449.8242 Fax: 561-332-1868
Florida office: 1200 N Federal Hwy Suite 200 Boca Raton, FL 33432