Providing
free fundraising solutions for organizations worldwide
Marketing Your Web-store
You can have the best website in the world
but if nobody knows it exists then it will not do you any good. That is why the
marketing of your new web-store is the most important part of making it
successful.
There are a number of ways for you to market
your web-store, some of them will take no effort at all, while others will
require a little effort. We will address the various means of marketing
available to you one by one below.
1 Linking your
web-store to your main website
If your organization already has a website
then the first thing you should do is place a link on your website that directs
your visitors to your web-store. This can be a text link, an image link or a
banner link.
It is important that you create a link that
opens in a new window so you do not lose a visitor to your web-store; by
opening a new window your main website will remain displayed to your
visitor when they have finished browsing and close your web-store window.
If you need help with the code please email
us.
We have provided a number of image links for
your convenience. You can view them here. As you will see, we can also create
personalized links specifically for your organization, free of charge of
course.
2
Communicate your web-store in email and conventional
newsletters
If you are like most non-profit
organizations, you will have a regular newsletter, probably delivered via email.
If it is delivered electronically you can include an active hyper link that will
allow your readers to click straight through to your store.
Make sure the content in your newsletter
covers the main attributes of your web-store. For example:
We are pleased to announce that our new
Photo Gifts Web-store is now up and running. With more than 30,000 products to
choose from we are confident that there is something for everyone. It is a great
place to find unusual gifts and better still, you can even upload your own
favorite pictures and put them on any of over 300 different items. Its perfect
to create your own unique and personalized products of your kids, pets,
cars or anything else you treasure. Check it out, we think you will have
fun! You can find it at http://www.nonprofitorgshops.com/ourwebstore
3
Communicate your web-store on business cards and
flyers
Next time you get business cards printed be
sure to have your web-store address printed on them.
Create some flyers and give them to
your members and supporters to pass out around friends and family. Try to make
the flyers colorful and make sure they cover the main attributes of your
web-store, as in your newsletters.
4 Put a
link to your web-store in your email signature.
This will work better if you include a strap
line. Something like:
Visit our Photo Gifts Webstore at
Have fun uploading your favorite pictures & creating your own personalized
products
5 Do you
have a good working relationship with the media?
If you do this can
create some significant revenue for you.
Many non-profit organizations have great
relationships with the local media, particularly the larger ones like United Way
and the Red Cross. As we all know, it is not unusual to see representatives from
these types of organizations on the local evening news, talking about fund
raising initiatives among other things. If you can get a short spot on the
local news to talk about your web-store and its exciting features you will
find it reaps handsome dividends.
Give the local newspapers a press
release covering the lauch of your new web-store, you will find this works
well too. Its also worth asking if they will give you a free advertorial, at
worst all they can say is no.
6 Email
a friend link
We have included an "email a friend link" at
the top of each section page in your web-store. We have found that this is
a good way of spreading the word about your store. You will find this link will
generate sales from far away places.
7 Search
Engines
When you set up your store we guided
you through what information to provide the search engines with in your key
words and meta tags. You can also achieve a higher ranking with the search
engines by being in our store directory. If you have not already done so we
strongly recommend that you complete your Store
Registration
so we can
include your store in the directory.
