How to Market a Product Online Using 13 Proven Tips

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How to market a product online using 13 proven tips is a complete guide that will help anyone who is trying to market a product online. 

You’ve done the hard work in coming up with a great new product. Also, you are off to a great start on the road to making it available for sale on your website or at various locations around town. Yet, staying in the game doesn’t guarantee success. 

You need to market your product or service online effectively if you want to keep your business booming. 

No one wants to waste his or her money and effort on a product that nobody finds or uses, right? Today I will discuss how you can do just that.

1. Build your market first

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Before you even think of selling a product, make sure it’s something that people want to buy. 

You can start this process by interacting with clients online and getting their comments on what they like and don’t like. Your market is your target audience

Consider the following:  

  • Who are your customers? 
  • How many are there? 
  • What are their needs and wants? 
  • Why do they buy from you, instead of another seller online? 

Your market needs to be built before you can expect that your product will sell. It may take time to build your market, but as you continue to market your products and gain sales in the process, your market will begin to grow organically.

Always concentrate on building your market before you start to productize. You can’t effectively sell a product until you’ve first created a need for it. 

With this in mind, have you discovered a gap in the market that inspires you to create your own product?

Learn more: how to build a brand online

2. Know your competition

know-your-competition

Who are your competitors? This is a very important part of your research, as you need to know how they have positioned their product in relation to similar products in the marketplace. This will determine the strategy you opt for. 

What price point/value proposition do they use to attract their customers? Look at the top 5 or top 10 products in your niche and try to learn how they handle certain problems. Then research how they position themselves on their sales page or website. Do they compare themselves with their competition or not? 

Are there any negative things that are mentioned about the product on any of these sites? When you know your competition, it will be easier to come up with a unique selling proposition for your product or service

One of the best ways to do this is to consult their marketing materials and their social media platforms. This way you will know how they are advertising, where they are advertising, and how they are going about it. This marketing approach works for anything from eCommerce to dropshipping goods. 

 3. Leverage social media

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By providing something of value for free to your users, you can leverage social media marketing to build an audience that will market your product on its own. Consider the following:

Create useful video tutorials on YouTube

YouTube is a treasure trove of valuable video content. If you are trying to market a product online, leverage this resource by creating video tutorials on how to get the most out of the product. 

YouTube is the second most visited search engine in the world. It is, no doubt, a powerful online marketing tool because of its extensive reach, popularity among Gen Y, and super-easy content creation process. 

This complements your efforts using social media while allowing you to tap into the vast user base of YouTube.

Use Instagram influencers

One of the most reliable and cost-effective ways to obtain feedback about your product is to use Instagram influencers. These are people who have established a large online following on the photo-sharing network. 

They specialize in posting pictures of products and engaging with their followers on Instagram, so they’re accustomed to helping companies promote their products. There are several websites that let you search for potential influencers. 

Learn more: how to make money on Instagram

Facebook custom audiences

Facebook is one of the most efficient online marketing platforms. If you haven’t already, create a Facebook business page. Take pictures of each product you sell in your store and write a description for each one. 

Create content that enlightens and motivates people to buy your products. Facebook allows you to create custom audiences based on the actions of your existing customers. You can learn what content or products your customers are interested in. This information can also be used to attract new customers.

4. Use affiliate marketing 

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Affiliate marketing can be a good way to market a product if it fits the niche. Affiliates typically offer a small commission for referring customers and sales to their merchant’s sites. Besides, affiliate programs are profitable and can help you gain a large online presence. 

There are plenty of affiliate programs out there for virtually any online product. But, you’ll want to choose one that has quality content related to the product being promoted. The reason affiliate marketing work so well is because the person signing up through your site is actually looking for an answer to their question about your products.

Not every affiliate program is profitable, but there are many that will ensure a positive return for your site.

6. Optimize your website for SEO

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SEO stands for search engine optimization. We all know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world today, but other search engines like Bing and Yahoo exist as well. By optimizing your website for SEO, you are increasing its likelihood of being found in search engines. 

Your goal is to have your website appear on the first page of a search engine result page. You optimize a website by carefully choosing its name, content, keywords, and more. 

To do this, you need to place thousands of keywords on your website that match the words people are using to search for information on the internet. 

Using appropriate keywords in your web pages enables the top search engines to be able to find your website. 

In addition, engagement with online communities and frequent updates of content can help build links that increase the number of people that come to your website. An online product marketing strategy should include a component that optimizes your website for SEO.

7. Use referral marketing 

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Referral marketing is a way of acquiring new customers by using existing customers to convert friends and relatives into valuable customers. This can be done by giving the existing customer a commission if the referral decides to convert to the new product. 

Also, referral marketing is a way to leverage your existing communities to create additional revenue opportunities. It’s an awesome way to introduce a product or service to new markets you haven’t been able to penetrate. 

You can promote your business exponential rate by leveraging the power of your audience and incentivizing them to share your product with their community.

Referrals are important to the success of any business. Whether you run a multibillion-dollar corporation or a startup, referrals are one of the most efficient ways to expand your customer base. Referrals are also one of the most cost-effective ways to market your product.

8. Use crowdfunding campaigns

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Crowdfunding is a way to raise money for a new business or product, without the need to go through a bank. Here’s how it works: Individuals and businesses create a profile on the website. 

They set a fundraising goal and deadline and share that with the site’s community of potential investors, who get to know the person behind the product. Crowdfunding platforms have become really popular over the last few years. 

These sites help individuals raise money for their projects by creating videos and building an online community around their projects (which is what makes it a great opportunity to market a product online). 

Don’t worry about your lack of technical experience; most sites have step-by-step guidance to help you create a strategy, build an online presence, launch a campaign, and communicate with your backers constantly.

Also, crowdfunding lets you pre-sell a product to get customers involved. They vote with their dollars during the launch, and then if they love the product, they eventually start buying it regularly.

9. Conduct giveaway contests

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Hosting a giveaway contest for your customers and followers will allow you to promote your brand/ products by engaging with your audience through an interactive activity like a contest. 

You can also build the contest around multiple products, thus getting more people involved. Basically, you attract new visitors to your website by giving them a freebie for participating in the contest. 

You can conduct contests in different ways, such as conducting a trivia contest where you ask and answer questions from fans of your product page on Facebook or Instagram. If they answer all your questions correctly, they become eligible for one of the giveaways.

10. Collaborate with popular bloggers in your niche

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When you’re looking for an edge, you have to get creative. A great way to get some attention for your product or business is to partner with established bloggers in your niche. 

At some point, you will need to collaborate with bloggers in your niche if you want to increase your website traffic and make money online. You can turn them into a channel for getting traffic back to your website, and create a win-win scenario where they get some free publicity too.  

Whatever your business, you can’t escape the fact that blogging is a superb way to market yourself and your products online. This will give you the opportunity to connect with your customers 24 hours as they get to know about your products and services even when you are sleeping. 

Popular bloggers are always in demand and can have their own social media followers who will also be interested in reading about your products or services.

Learn more: how to find your niche

11. Use strong visuals

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There is nothing more powerful than a strong visual to capture someone’s attention. What you see is what you get! Use solid, attractive, detailed images of your product on your website and online store. The more attractive the visual, the better. 

Images grab the attention of potential customers and allow them to visualize using your product. Strong visuals can be the difference between having your product go viral or not. 

Be sure to select images that have a strong visual impact. Images such as your product in the wild, fun group shots, and photos that show what your product is capable of should be used alongside your main image.

12. Tell a true story about your product

tell a true story about your product

Using true stories to market your products can be much more effective than what people normally see in ads. A true story is something that resonates with people because it reflects real life, and most of the time it’s based on a problem many have experienced. 

One of the best ways to show your audience what your product is all about – and build trust in your brand – is by telling a true story about your product. It’s an authentic way to speak directly to your customers and share behind-the-scenes details about how you created, grew, and maintain your business. 

True stories are powerful. They engage us on an emotional level and are often shared socially. When telling a true story about your product, ask yourself “How is this relevant to my market?”. Try to relate it to something that matters to your audience.

13. Build the right relationships

It is all about who you know. It’s not just a cliche, it is a fact. To get any business off the ground especially online marketing you need to build relationships with the right people. 

You can start this process by making friends and adding like-minded people to your social media sites, buying products from them that relate to yours, or commenting on their blogs and feedback sites.

It will take time and dedication to build the right relationships within your field, but these connections are extremely valuable. You never know what opportunity will arise from a connection, and the longevity of a relationship will carry you through more than a few campaigns. 

Prove yourself early on so that people can refer others to you with confidence. Think of your customers as flesh and blood people, not just a distant statistic. Once you’ve got their trust, you can position yourself to ask for the sale. 

FAQs

How do I create a bigger market for a product?

A bigger market for a product is created by making it easily available and affordable to a large number of people. There are various methods of increasing the market for a product. 

One is to build a website and make sure it ranks highly in search engines by following proven SEO methods. Another is to create and market a unique product category like an online coaching webcam business. 

Another way to do this is by having a large network of suppliers who are ready to cater to the demand from customers.

How do I educate customers about my product?

The best ways to educate your customers about your product are to 

  • focus on what the benefit or the use of your product is, and
  • sell the benefits of your product rather than the features. 

Your target customer is going to want to know what they will get out of using or owning your product. Focusing on the benefits you can provide them will give them a reason for making a purchase from you.

How can I sell to someone that doesn’t want my product?

There is a possibility that your lead has determined that the product is outside their interest. At this point, it is important to identify why your lead feels this way. 

One of the most common reasons is that they felt there was too much risk to make a purchase because they are uninformed about your product. Prior to making a purchase people want to know exactly what they are buying and be confident that they can trust that source. 

I recommend giving them more information about the benefits of the product and how it will benefit them personally.

The bottom line

Online marketing is a delicate issue that requires careful analysis of the audience and a clear understanding of the product.

Besides, we all know that marketing your product online these days is critical, but so can be the challenge. To this end, I’ve put together 13 proven tips that I believe are vital to successful product marketing online no matter what field (or niche) you’re in. 

Whether you’re looking to build a brand from scratch or looking to make an existing business online a successful one, these tips are well worth taking note of and implementing if you haven’t already.

Hopefully, they’ll help you get a strong mental picture and focus your time effectively so that you can get results. Marketing isn’t difficult, but it’s easy to waste lots of time on ineffective strategies. 

With enough trial and error, however, you should be able to find what works for you, too. Good luck!