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[T569]The Limited Online Store

by Janice Jenkins, Jan

Print catalogs are great for instant reminders and users can read it time and again. Your product's visibility is made available for weeks and months depending on the durability of your catalogs.

But combine your print catalogs with the wide reach of the internet and you'll have a very powerful marketing campaign strategy to be sure. A tangible reminder plus a 24/7 online store can work well to provide your business with a complementary marketing tool.

As the old adage goes, two heads are better than one, surely two marketing strategies are better than one. Both your catalog printing project and your online store can be combined to work for a common goal: to reach as many audiences as possible to promote your products and services.

Each marketing channel has its strengths and weaknesses. Although catalogs can be constant reminders for months and even years, the products and information that you read from them are limited to what the space can provide in their pages. If you want to get more answers to queries, more often the catalogs may not always provide you with that. What you see is basically what you get.

With its limited space, your catalog printing pieces may not have all your products and services listed especially if your business deals with a wider range of listing. Your chances of reaching out to as many clients would be limited to only those who have a need for your listed items.

With your online store, you'd be able to set up a site where you can put everything you have. However, not everyone in the planet has access to the internet so you also won't be able to reach everyone with your online store.

It is therefore very important that both medium promote each to the prospective viewer. The catalogs can have a space where you may insert the website's address so the client can go there for more information. Likewise, your online store can also promote your print catalogs by providing target clients the method to ask for a print catalog.

Your catalog printing pieces should work side by side with your online store. They should complement each other. When utilized effectively, both marketing tool can be a strong method to convince your prospective clients to try out your products and services.

Choosing promotional items to publicize your online store may seem like a challenge, but you'll find it's no more difficult than choosing promotional items for any other purpose. Your biggest constraint in choosing promotional items for an online store is method of delivery, since many people have concerns about giving out personal information to websites that they don't know. Giving away promotional items can actually help you to break through that caution. People are much more likely to trust someone who has given them something for nothing ? as long as the value is reasonable.
There are many ways to reach prospective customers with promotional items for online stores and web sites. Here are a few ideas for promoting your store with promotional items.
Promotion One: Increase traffic to your online
store with offline promotional items.
Targeted mass mail campaigns are one excellent way to get the word out about your online store or business. One restaurant that takes online orders for takeaway food placed an order for refrigerator magnets in the shape and style of their pizza delivery boxes, printed with their web site address and their telephone number, and mailed them out to every student at the local uni. The magnets were an especially good idea, since they kept the URL and telephone exchange close to hand at all times. Their online orders tripled.
Promotion Two: Increase sales from your online
store with preselected promotional items.
Online stores are really very little different than brick and mortar stores. Promise a free gift with every purchase from your web site ? and publicize the offer with banner ads and notices at social networking sites.
Be sure to choose promotional items that make sense with your products. If you sell software, for instance, you might choose mouse mats and computer mouse sets as incentives for your customers. If you sell jewelry online, the promotional items that you offer might include jewelry cleaning kits (in a pouch embroidered with the web site name, of course) or roll bags for carrying jewelry while traveling.
Promotion Three: Informational promotional
items are always welcome.
Keep in mind that on the internet, information is king. While most promotional ?paper? items are brochures and catalogs, you can also design informational brochures about the products and services you sell. You might consider, for example, a professionally designed brochure on the proper care for precious gems if your store deals in jewelry, or a free booklet about sports and trading cards if your web site is for collectors of sports memorabilia.
Promotion Four: Promotional Items Make Great Thank You Items.
Don't forget your existing customers when you're creating your promotional marketing plan. Promotional items like mouse mats, pens, coffee mugs and more make great thank you items that you can include with an order. There are some natural go-togethers, of course. A coffee roaster's web site might include a free coffee mug printed with the site name with a subscription order, for example.
Whatever your web site sells, there's bound to be promotional items that will make ideal promotional items. All it takes is a little bit of imagination and creativity to put it all together.

Article Source : Sales And Marketing Training

About Author

Both Janice Jenkins & Gareth are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Janice Jenkins has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Cards, Brochures and Marketing. . Janice Jenkins's top article generates over 550000 views. to your Favourites.

Gareth has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, About Branding and Writing. Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's leading online and. Gareth's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.