Spreaducation

Market your shop

Below you will find some tips, tricks and useful links to help you successfully market your shop to your target group.

Good text is easy to find

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Optimize your text

For those new to the acronym SEO, it is short for Search Engine Optimization. SEO techniques are used to optimize your site for search engines. Search engines are portals which guide users through the internet bringing them where they want to go. Making your site readable by these search engines will improve your site’s ranking. This will then increase the amount and the quality of the visitors to your shop.

There are a number of different search engines, each employing their own requirements for an optimized site. Generally, if you follow the basic rules of SEO, the search engines will find your shop for those who are looking for words associated with your shop’s theme. Learn more in our SEO Tutorial.

 

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Add product descriptions

Product descriptions are very important - not only for the search engines to find your shop, but also for the people who want to buy your products.

Google, Yahoo and MSN continually search for new and updated content. They can read and interpret text much better than images - this means, the better your product descriptions are, the better and faster your shop will be found. Be careful, however, with long or complicated text: your customers aren't machines, so optimize your text for both people and search engine crawlers. Concise, well-written text increases customers' trust in your shop which is key for their decision to buy from your store.

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Get people to your shop

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How to generate traffic

Internet traffic is vital for your shop. The math is simple: more traffic = more people in your shop => more awareness => more sales. Knowing where your traffic is coming from is almost as important as the amount of people visiting your shop. Monitoring where your visitors come from helps you improve the channels your customers use to get to your shop. It’s one of the best ways to learn something about your customer base.

Spreadshirt provides the ability to embed Google Analytics in your shop. Use these links to learn more about Google Analytics and why it can help you to manage your shop better.

 

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Keyword advertising

Keyword advertising is displayed by search engines alongside normal search results. It’s a quick way to make it on to the search engine’s results page.

Keywords are essentially a way to buy orders. The price per click depends on the word you are bidding for. The most successful provider is Google Adwords, but the competition among search engines is fierce. Yahoo and Microsoft also offer paid keyword advertising services and are a good option.

 

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Syndicate your content/RSS

The strength in social media is the ability to spread your ideas and your messages. RSS readers and other aggregation tools (like netvibes, igoogle and pageflakes) allow users to gather information which interests them. Those who subscribe to your shop RSS feed will automatically receive a feed with a picture of the newest products, descriptions and the price when you update your shop.

You can also use RSS feeds from your blog to inform your readers about updates to your shop. RSS feeds are not only for your customers, but can also be used to improve your shop. There are numerous widgets which you can integrate into your website or blog which use RSS functions to automatically display content. Browse around for these widgets and take advantage of these time-saving tools.

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Spread the word

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Linking directly to your products/deeplinks

Links are there to better connect your shop and your products. They are a way to shake someone’s hand and invite them somewhere. Yes, linking your shop is important, but we also offer deep links, which lead directly to your product.

Deep links can be modified to lead to products, topics, designs, colors and categories.

 

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Connecting to others

One other way to reach people is with blogs, homepages and social networks. Use these tools to connect to groups of people with similar interests. It is very important to make a good first impression – so approach these networking tools carefully and avoid spam.

Social networks – where customers gather

Look for other people’s blogs, communities and forums which might be interested in your shop and inform them about your products. Below you will find tips which are applicable for all social networking sites. This list from Wikipedia provides a list of the major social sites around the world. This global map tells you which site is popular and where.

  • Blog entries inform about product updates, promotions and tell stories about your shirts
  • Write comments on other profiles and build a network of friends and (potential) customers – Remember: always avoid spamming!
  • Upload pictures of your products and people wearing them into networks
  • Collect friends – try to increase the amount of “friends” in your networks. The more their interests are related to your product, the better
  • Customise your blog or homepage and use it as a springboard into your shop (see deep linking tab)
  • Drop links in your profile to get people in your shop
  • Create and join groups where you can announce product updates, promotions and tell stories. These groups should associate with your niche.

Buzz

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Creating buzz

Creating buzz about your shop is always a good thing. The best part about viral marketing is that it’s free. Here are some ways to do it:

  • E-mail footer – Put your shop link with a simple teaser into your e-mail footer and let your e-mail work for you. This all-time classic goes out with every e-mail you send.
  • Status messages – Put links into your status message in your instant messaging system (like Skype or ICQ) or a social network (like MySpace, Facebook or Twitter).
  • Use your blog or other blogs to start up and continue conversations about topics related to your shop/target group.

Riding the buzz

Sometimes the buzz is already out there and all you need to do is jump on it at the right time. Always keep an ear open for current events and topics which are hot in the news and on the web. Be a little creative with the topic, follow the above marketing tips and you might have caught the right wave at the right time.

Spreadshirt tools

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Customer newsletters

Spreadshirt offers premium shop partners a tool which allows you to send your own newsletters to customers and advertise your shop. An automatic newsletter informs others about your newest products and designs. Or, you can compose a newsletter manually by choosing the content yourself. Learn more in our tutorial.

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