Whether it is a retail store or an online business, or both, running a business can be hard work. First, you create a whole shop for people to browse through and find something they like. But, if nobody knows what you are selling, they aren’t buying. That’s why promoting a product is so essential to successfully running a business.
There are some highly effective ways to promote a product to increase sales and drive more traffic to your site. You want users to buy what you are selling and keep coming back for more. Here are some ways to promote your products and keep your buyers wanting more and more.
Effective Ideas to Promote a Product
1. Gift Guides
Around holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, you are probably like the average person who goes straight to Google and searches “holiday gift ideas for mom” or best friend or co-worker. Or you search “unique wedding gifts” or “birthday present ideas for dad.” Then it becomes an endless scroll through mountains of gift ideas lists that pop up in the search results.
This is an effective way to get your product included in these gift guides. They are around for almost every industry, type of person, and holiday. Look at the top search results that rank on the first few pages of search engines that people most often use (like Google and Bing) and see if you can be included on these lists. They could, in turn, drive a lot of traffic to your store if people see one of your products and browse the rest of them.
When you are promoting your product, you are promoting your business too. So, you will need to explain why your company and your product should be included. Some ideas include mentioning why your product adds value to the list, highlighting what makes your product unique, and including a brief excerpt about your business and what else you sell.
2. Email Marketing
People check their email every day or almost every day. Most people have their emails sent right to their phones, or they have notifications on their laptops. So when someone gets an email, they know they get an email.
Email is one of the most effective channels for acquiring new customers and bringing old customers back to make more purchases. While channels like search more often take a while to start bringing in organic traffic, email marketing is an excellent example of something that can start working right away.
Using emails and connecting with your customers is a great way to promote your store.
3. Land Your Business in the Press
Getting publicity, whether through social media, TV or local events, is a great way to reach new customers and help a wide variety of people discover your product. But, one thing to keep in mind is that it can be challenging to do.
Mainstream journalists also have a lot of press releases and pitches for stories. So while it is possible to reach out to journalists on television and even in newspapers, you can improve your odds of getting more publicity by reaching out to bloggers instead.
4. Blogger Outreach
One of the hardest parts of starting a business is promoting the product. This is because you don’t have an audience yet, and people won’t know what your business is all about. If you don’t have your own community of people already built up, you may have to pay to drive traffic to your website or look into someone else’s online following that fits your target audience.
Reaching out to bloggers in your niche is a great way to build prestige around your business and products. In addition, this is a great way to get it in front of interested shoppers. Ask bloggers that seem to fit your business needs to feature or review your product. If they have an engaged audience that trusts their opinion and reviews, it could generate traffic to your store and drive sales.
Once you have a more established following and an ideal customer in mind, you can also go back to these bloggers and collaborate with them and possibly do some guest posting on their website. Guest Posts allow you to reach their audience and bring traffic back to your store and products.
5. Blog Post to Promote a Product
Once you have a following, even a small one, blogging is a great way to promote your store. It can drive traffic and promote the lifestyle and use of your products.
Use your blog post to promote your products and increase your audience. When done effectively, blogging can drive search engine traffic and attracts customers. It can also capture the media’s attention, which can help promote your products and store to a broader audience.
6. Instagram
If you love taking photos and can effectively show your products in action, Instagram is a great way to promote your products. Instagram has over 400 million active users, and the visual focus of this highly popular social media site makes it a great focal point for promoting products. Half of those 400 million active users are on Instagram every day. If you follow the right people, use the right hashtags, and connect with the audience that would most likely use your product, any brand would do well.
Even though when people think of Instagram, they think of just photos; there are several ways to use it to promote your store. For example, on top of sharing captivating images of your products, you can also share a stop motion video of one of your products in action or run a contest with your followers. Another great way to promote your product to an even wider audience is to reach out to influential Instagram accounts that fit your niche and ask them to share your product. That is a great way to reach more people and grow your customer base.
7. Facebook
While Facebook has taken a backseat to sites like Instagram and TikTok in recent years, it is still a highly effective way to promote your product and show your audience what your store is all about.
With Facebook Custom Audiences, you can advertise to your website visitors or email subscribers. These ads can be effective because you know more about whom you’re targeting and can change your ad accordingly.
You can also add a Facebook Shop Section to your Facebook page. This makes it easier for people who discover your products on Facebook to buy them. Instead of leaving the Facebook app, they can shop your products right on Facebook. This will drive traffic back to your site in the long run because if they browse the Facebook Shop, they will want to see the whole shop eventually, which leads back to your site.
8. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social media site that many people use to build wish lists or dream lists. Things that they think are unattainable, but one day they will get what is on that list. Due to the nature of Pinterest and the fact that many people click on pins based on the photo, this makes it a great place to promote products. This is especially true for well-designed products that photograph well.
Pins also tend to stick around for a long time. It’s a well-known fact that you can view pins months after they have been first posted. They can come up in people’s recommended home feed based on pins that they have been viewing, or Pinterest users that they follow can share the pins.
You can optimize your pins by posting when more people are online, using the right keywords, and making sure that you use captivating images. While Pinterest is one of the social media platforms that isn’t used as much, it is highly effective in driving traffic.
9. Reddit Advertising
While a large number of businesses don’t use Reddit ads, they may be effective in promoting your business and products. Unfortunately, Reddit is one of the least used advertising networks. Still, it can also be one of the most profitable because the cost is lower, and there is more opportunity to stand out among other competitors.
Advertising on Reddit can be tricky because there is so much content. But, because there is so much content, there is potentially a wide audience available. You can create sponsored posts in Subreddits related to your business. For example, you can use a sponsored post to discuss your product and offer a discount to new users or returning users. The key is to make sure that it blends in with the other posts in the Subreddit.
10. Pop-Up Shops
If your business is solely online and you don’t have a physical retail store, pop-up shops are a great way to promote many products and drive traffic back to your store. There are also opportunities to participate in local markets or fair events, bringing more people to your site.
When featured in a pop-up shop, you can have business cards or flyers that promote your site and encourage people to check out all the products in your store. Pop-up shops generally don’t feature everything that you sell, so when you interact with customers, even ones that may not buy something at the shop, make sure to let them know that you have a wide selection of products available on your website.
Running a pop-up shop or participating in a local market helps you create exclusivity around your most popular products, get you covered in the local media, take advantage of seasonal shopping, and enable you to unload old inventory that you may not want to carry anymore.
The best part of pop-up shops? Customers will be able to look at the physical product and not just a photo, but you also have the ability to talk to your customers. When you have an online-based store, you don’t get that face-to-face interaction with your customers. Having that opportunity to talk face to face will allow you to humanize yourself and not just have people think they are talking to a computer.
11. Run a Contest to Promote a Product
Contests are a highly effective way to get your products and brand in front of many people and generate new customers. Contests are also easy and affordable. When you give away your product, you can ensure that your content gets in front of the right kind of people and potential customers that fit your niche.
Contests can happen on any social media channel and on your website. Or, you can combine them and integrate your social media pages and website. For example, many contests nowadays allow you to share on Facebook and share on Instagram for an extra entry.
One thing that you have to keep in mind is that contests can fail. There are a few mistakes that you should avoid when running a contest. Make sure the platform, timing, messaging, and the steps people take to enter your contest are practical.
12. SEO Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem like a daunting task when you don’t know what it is. But, once you’ve set up your online store and have products ready, the next step is to ensure that customers can see them. SEO is the process of getting your site to rank higher on search engines like Google.
You can optimize your site in several ways and get your site and its corresponding pages to rank higher on Google by choosing short and relevant URLs that say what the product is. You can also ensure that the product’s title, meta, and product description include relevant search keywords.
Keywords are essential because if you want your products to appear higher in Google Ranks, you need to know what potential buyers are searching for. First, you can brainstorm a list of keywords that could be relevant to your product and may rank high in Google Search Engines.
Then you can either use a free tool or a paid tool with more in-depth insights to discover how much search volume those phrases and keywords get each month. This will allow you to choose your top keywords based on the information provided and help you rank higher on Google.
These are some highly effective ways to market your products and drive more traffic and sales to your site. In addition, using social media, contests, and optimizing your content will allow you to showcase your physical product and highlight your business and store.
