How to Start a Wedding Favor Business Online With an Offline Store
Taking a business online can seem like a daunting task, from understanding all of the technical elements that can make or break an online business to competing with the global network of businesses featured on the Internet. Expanding into the online market, however, is also a unique opportunity to reach customers throughout the world and dramatically increase sales volumes. Particularly in a popular and growing industry such as the wedding favor field -- where new customers appear every day and are often willing to spend lavishly on the event -- starting an online business to complement your offline store can be a critical step toward growing the business.
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Things You'll Need
- Computer with Internet access
- Internet domain name hosting
- Internet marketing accounts (Pay-per-click)
- Social media accounts
Instructions
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Setting up a Website
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Select a domain name for your business. Choose a simple name that will be easy for customers to remember and describes your business well. Type in the name into an Internet browser -- in the form "www.yourbusiness.com"--to see if it is already taken. Register the name and pay the appropriate hosting fee if it is not taken or choose a new name or arrange to buy an existing web address if you believe the name is worth the asking price.
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Create an attractive and informative website, either by building it yourself with a template or contracting outside programmers. Include valuable information like contact details and a full product listing so that customers who find your website will understand exactly what you sell and how they can purchase it. In the case of wedding favor business, adjust the decoration and content of the website accordingly to reflect themes like celebration and uniqueness that customers are looking for in wedding favors.
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Create a shopping cart for your website that will allow customers to make online orders. A number of shopping cart applications are available, most with very easy user interfaces and some even including tools that help you manage your orders and inventory through the website to make sure both your web business and offline store are always stocked. Remember to keep the design and decoration consistent in your shopping cart so that customers feel they are in a wedding favor business even while checking out.
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Test the website by showing it to your friends and family and completing several test orders. Ask anyone who sees the website for feedback, especially from people in the market for wedding favors, and make small adjustments to the design and content accordingly.
Search Engine Optimization and Social Media
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Type keywords like "wedding favors," "wedding planning" or "wedding invitations" into a search engine to see where your site ranks on search engine listings. New sites are likely to appear on the last pages of a search engine ranking, but the exercise will give you a good idea of how your page is doing and how likely customers are to find your page.
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Open a free web analytics account to help you track traffic to your site, as well as see how users move through the site and how long they spend looking through the content. Take special notice of how users are reaching your page -- from wedding-related websites, directly or from search engines -- to target your outreach and marketing strategies. Review this account periodically to asses the success of different marketing campaigns and changes to the website.
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Add search engine optimization (SEO) features to your website in order to boost traffic, including keywords as titles or metadiscriptions on each page and SEO-friendly content that repeats the words that users are likely to look for when looking for a wedding favor business. In the case of the wedding favor industry, phrases like "wedding party", "wedding planning", "bridal shower" and "wedding favors" are likely to be the words potential customers are looking for in search engines and should occur throughout your website content and metatags.
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Open a pay-per-click marketing account, allowing you to advertise your site online and draw traffic to your site every time users click on one of your marketing links. Target your online advertising to sites where potential customers are likely to gather, like online bridal publications or wedding caterer listings.
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Open social media marketing accounts on platforms like Twitter or Facebook, allowing you to create networks of frequent customers and make you content available to their networks of friends and followers. Depending on the social network you are using, join groups or conversations about wedding-related subjects, such as groups for young brides and grooms on Facebook or by using wedding-related hashtags on Twitter.
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Tips & Warnings
While many businesses are tempted to spend more money on website design than search engine optimization, SEO is ultimately what will make your business succeed, so consider devoting at least some of your business capital to professionals who can optimize your businesses search engine standing.
Participate in web communities like blogs and social networks to spread the word about your business and increase link traffic.
Many search engines punish unethical attempts to trick search engine algorithms into increasing a site's rating. Be sure you are working within the search engine's terms of use and with professional web marketing contractors.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images
