Hopefully, you are using Inbound Marketing tools like a blog, social media and/or Search Engine Placement to attract new visitors to your website.

And, if you are selling products or services using a Shopping Cart, you can use that cart to boost the effectiveness of your Inbound Marketing plan, too. Pretty nifty, huh?

There are hundreds of on-line shopping carts to choose from, ranging in price from free to wicked expensive. But do your homework, and if you want to utilize your cart as a marketing tool, search for carts with lots o’ goodies in them. Certain shopping cart tools, when combined with your existing marketing, can really boost the results of your inbound marketing plan.

“Like what tools, Girl Friday? you may ask. “And how?”

Make sure your Shopping Cart is Search Engine Friendly, and ask if it contains these marketing tools:

1. Product pages that contain space for keyword-specific product descriptions. So, when someone is searching Google for, say, a groovy pair of carpet skates, they’ll be directed to the shopping cart landing page for Carpet Skates, where you’ll have a fabulous, keyword-rich description of just how cool those skates are! As always, keywords are…the key.
2. Some carts can create a feed from your product catalog to product comparison sites like Google Product Search, Shopzilla and PriceGrabber.com. Millions of shoppers use those comparison sites. This is a just another good way to gain some new visitors to your product pages! Is that neat or what?  I KNOW!! Be sure to ask your shopping cart provider if they have this cool tool.
3. Consider an Affiliate Marketing program – some shopping carts have this module; there are also other ways you can set-up and manage affiliates who sell your products for you by sending traffic to your cart, in exchange for a commission. A good way to create a ’sales force’!
4. Tell-A-Friend capability allows a shopper to send an email to a friend to let them know about your products. That friend can then click on a link in the email and wind up in your cart purchasing that product.

Other tools within a cart can augment your marketing plan. Here are some other questions you might ask a shopping cart provider:

1. Does your shopping cart have a list program you can use for creating/sending newsletters or sales promotions?
2. Can you create forms for harvesting new subscribers to your newsletters/email list?
3. Is there an email auto-responder?
4. Is there Ad Tracking software so you see which ads are working for you?

About Shopping Carts:

1. You can purchase and own the software, do-it-yourself, and “bolt” the cart onto your existing website. This option, best for smaller companies or low-sales sites, requires more of a financial investment up front, but may save you money in the long-run. This “ala carte” approach allows you to pick and choose different modules you can add to use as marketing tools. And this is a good way to go if you have staff or can hire someone to set it up for you and teach you to use it. Girl Friday has done this for clients, and can do it for your company, too. Ask us how!
2. There are on-line hosted shopping cart programs that give you a wider range of e-commerce functionality, and offer embedded marketing tools as well. You pay a set-up fee upfront, then a monthly fee and a percentage of sales. This is a good way to go with higher-volume or speciality products that have compliance or shipping issues (like wine and gourmet foods). Most important, you get reliable customer service, 24/7, reporting, transaction processing, and order/inventory management. Girl Friday has researched and set-up this type of shopping cart. Email for more detail!
3. If you are generating over 10 million/year in sales, you’re probably not reading this!( just kidding). A dedicated e-commerce solution may be the best choice for large companies. These carts are custom built for you and require a substantial investment.
4. There are completely free, shareware shopping carts available on-line. These carts have limited technical support (if any), and do not guarantee software updates; they generally do not have marketing tools embedded within the program. Although they are free, consider  the very large investment of your time, or your staff’s time to research, set up and maintain.
5. You can also use Ebay as a marketplace, in which case they take between 10 – 20% of your sale (via PayPal), or a listing sites like Craig’s List, which is free, and can be used to sell one-off items.Girl Friday is not endorsing Ebay (she’s never used it!).

Girl Friday is committed to helping small-to-medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs impact their customer base and sales using Inbound Marketing techniques. You might even say it’s our MISSION! So, contact us today and get going on your marketing plan…positive action will create positive consequences, dontchya know!

Posted in: Fun Marketing