Enterprise UK Blog

Make Your Mark ambassador Samata Angel is a self taught fashion designer and owner of label to the stars, Samata’s Muse. As a fearless entrepreneur she has bags of useful advice. In the third of our series of exclusive articles, Samata shares her top tips on how online marketing and sales can help you weather the economic storm. Have a read….

In the current climate it is essential to always have a few tricks up your sleeve.

There has never been a more perfect time to either start up or increase your presence online and this could be through marketing (using sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or even MySpace) or by selling your products and services online. If you’re not comfortable retailing online consider teaming up with a strategic retailer who can re-sale on your behalf, this is a really effective as it increases your presence online without having to spend lots of money and time.

Regardless of your ability to retail online, your company website should definitely have some key features to make it really exciting and useful. Most website include: a prompt for visitors to sign up to their mailing list or newsletter, an RSS feed button, a forums, blogs and video podcasts, think about adding some of these features if you haven’t already!

Also if you are not already using Twitter (and who isn’t?) now is the best time to jump on the bandwagon! Twitter is a really effective marketing tool as it allows for regular communication between you and your customer. Newsletters and mailing list will target and maintain strong relationships with existing and potential customers and as member of a few mailing lists, the benefits are endless.

Though most people are trying to avoid the high-street to curb impulse buying, online shopping is on the rise. Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to buy all your favourite goodies whilst sitting at you desk and it tends to be a bit cheaper too! In these times every business is seeking to reach as many potential customers as possible and with pundits predicating that by 2011 customers will be spending up to £10,056 per year online now is the best time to sharpen your internet skills.

Another potential money maker will be the rapidly growing business to consumer (B2C) sector. According to research by eMarketer, this market will grow by a least 25 per cent each year and this is especially good news for internet marketers in Britain as the UK is expected to drive the increase forward, along with France and Germany.

I feel that tapping into the strengths of online retailing lies in understanding and knowing your customers. For example, I focus on Womenswear and have found that by targeting customer online, I get to know their habits really well. Companies, such as ASOS.com, who currently provide fully interactive e-shop facilities, have experienced great success in the UK and faster and cheaper internet access is seen as a key driver behind the growth at a time when many on the High Street retailers are seeing demand wane.

It is really crucial to make the most of all the opportunities the internet presents and I strongly advise taking some free online tutorials to get up-to-date on the tools available.

That’s all for now, so until next time…bye!

Samata x

PS: Do you shop online? What are your favourite e-retail shops and why? Let me know here at the blog….

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Samata Angel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.