This week, I have a guest blogger: Helen Fang. Helen is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform.

It is no secret that the popularity of social media sites continues to grow. Smart online
businesses are taking advantage of the ability to sell through social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. Even businesses that do not offer products can still leverage
social media to build brand awareness or increase the number of leads or sale for a
service.

The power of social media is that it enables businesses of all sizes to play on the same
field and compete for the same customers. Anyone who would like to find easy ways to
sell online can do so very easily with the help of an ecommerce website and social media
marketing tools.

If you’re a small business looking to get started, but feel overwhelmed by the number of
options – then look no further. We’ll break it down for you in four easy steps.

1. Create an ecommerce website.

You have two main options: first, you can add a “shopping cart” to your existing website. This enables you to create online transactions. PayPal and Google Checkout are two very easy options. If you don’t have an ecommerce website or if yours currently needs an upgrade, do some research before you commit to buy. There are many ways to get an ecommerce website for free or for very little money. The most important question to ask an ecommerce website provider is if your new website can grow with your business? For example, if you have 10 products now, but hope to grow to 100, will your website be able to handle it? Will you be charged a much higher fee? What other charges could there be (e.g. hosting, bandwidth, images, SSL)?

2. Build a strong social brand by developing your ecommerce friendships online.

To build your social brand online you will need to establish a strong presence. One way to
do this is by developing a following online in the social media sites. Start engaging others
regularly in conversations and work in ways to talk about your business. The number
one mistake that businesses make is to simply “join” a social network versus “creating
a presence” on a social network. Know the strengths of each social media channel and
think about it as a marketing channel. Remember that social media is simply a way to
engage with your customers. You still have to close the sale.

3. Increase your social presence with help from your existing customers.

One great place to start is to leverage your existing user base. Tell your customers via newsletters,
blogs, and on your website that you’re on Facebook or Twitter and give them a reason to
follow you. These are people who are already interested in you and will probably help
you spread the word about your business. Simple offers like free shipping or customer
appreciation coupons really help to drive the message home. Make your customers your
best brand ambassadors.

4. Sell directly to your customers on social media channels.

While Facebook commerce or F-commerce is still relatively unproven, the possibility of selling to 700 million users can’t be ignored. Therefore, after you have started (because social media an ongoing strategy that never stops) steps 1-3, the next thing to think about is getting your Facebook fans to buy from you. By engaging others in conversation, befriending them and sharing with others people will begin to build up a trust in you and your ecommerce business. If you’re wondering about how to sell on Facebook, there are many providers who can help – many that are free.

5. Define your strategy and stick to them.

Too often small businesses want to hop on the “newest” social media channel. Keep in mind that this channel may not work for your business. The best way to succeed in social media is to stay focused on your end objectives and always calculate your return on investment. If you’re spending 10 hours a week on social media, how much is that worth per hour? Would that money have been better spent on paid search or a new web design? These are all things you should continuously evaluate because social media, but its very nature, is social. This can result in a huge time suck and you have a business to run.

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They always say it’s easier to keep a customer and sell to them again than to get a “new” customer. It takes a lot of energy to bring on a new customer, establish trust and make sure everything feels right. What if you feel like your customers could use a little more love? Customers and clients want to feel appreciated and loved. Want to have more devoted customers, take a look at five ways to win them over:

1) Don’t guess

You might think you know what your clients want, but do you really or are you just assuming? Many businesses fail because they are trying to create or meet a demand that really doesn’t exist and hasn’t been tested properly. It’s always better to test out a product or service and get feedback from a small group of people. Take the time to listen to feedback and really hear what people are looking for in a solution. Finding out what their largest problems are and providing a solution for that can be very rewarding and target a better market.

2) Keep in Touch

Don’t be afraid to talk candidly to your clients. Check in on how they are doing, what’s going on in their life and if their problems are being solved. Just pick up the phone and call them out of the blue.

3) Send a Card

Just a simple note let’s people know you care. How many times in the last month have you gotten a hand written note? Exactly, stand out and do it a few times a year with your customers, I bet you’ll be surprised at the results. Even use unique stationary if you can, something funny or touching can really help you show your emotions.

4) Set up a loyalty program

Look at other programs that you’d like to base your program on. Learn what’s working for them and what could be improved on. Read up here for some examples on customer loyalty reward program.

5) Do your Best

To keep customers coming back, ALWAYS promise what you deliver. If a problem pops up, let your customer know and create a plan on how to deal with it.

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Who knew ten years ago that we would be reading books electronically?  Access to E-books sales are increasing. Just late last year, Google opened up their eBookstore that sells e-books that accessible from any web-enabled computer or mobile phone. The next day Amazon announced that they expanded the Kindle for the web to enable anyone with access to a web browser to buy and read full Kindle books without requiring a download or installation of the Kindle reader application.

What if you wanted to sell e-books on your own or other electronic products?

E-junkie.com is one of the major e-commerce provider that specializes in helping bloggers and other sell products online.

Here’s a list why it’s a good option:

1) Affordable – You can sign up for their free 7 day trial, they don’t require billing details or money up front. Their monthly plans start at $5 if you are only selling 10 items or less, so that’s a nice price break.

2) Secure – It’s important that people can’t access your products without purchasing them.

One feature you can use for e-books is the PDF stamping security. Each buyer of an e-book receives a copy stamped with their purchase information and transaction ID so you can identify who is giving away the product without your consent.

3) Easy to Use – they provide code you can copy and paste

Here’s a run down of how E-junkie works:

• Customer clicks to buy/download your product
• E-Junkie sends them to Paypal or another payment processor to pay (skip this step for free products)
• Once they’ve paid they are automatically re-directed to E-Junkie
• Your customer goes to your E-Junkie thank you page where there is a link to download the product
• E-Junkie also sends your customer an email with the download link for their purchase, this link can be set by you to expire after a certain number of hours
• You receive an email from E-Junkie letting them know you have made a sale

You can set it up to have different sales taxes for different states and a shipping and packaging calculator as well! You can also manage inventory and apply discounts based on order quantity or coupon codes.

4) Email Building List – Customers are placed in a “buyers” email group so you can send them newsletters or product information. There is an additional charge to send emails and you can’t  integrate an existing email list into their system so that’s somewhat limiting.

Supported Payment Processors

• PayPal Website Payments
• PayPal Website Payments Pro
• PayPal Payflow Pro
• Google Checkout
• Authorize.NET
• TrialPay
• 2CheckOut
• ClickBank

One more perk:

If you use Wordpress for your website, there is a plugin (WP e-junkie) that allows you to easily copy and paste their code.

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