If you wish to succeed in running your very own ecommerce business, the single biggest thing that you need to know is how to market it effectively.

The number one mistake most businesses make is spending all their efforts on building a site, then thinking about marketing once the site is ready to launch

Otherwise known as the ‘build it and they will come’ strategy. The fact is no-one can afford to build an ecommerce site and wait around for clients to come. If you would like clients to come to your site by the masses, then it’s imperative to:

Create a marketing strategy before building your ecommerce site.

If you are reading this article and are already building an ecommerce business without a developed marketing strategy in place, please, STOP what you are doing now, take a deep breath, maybe take up some Yoga and meditate so you can rethink your approach.

Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. You’re probably running at an incredible pace, multi-tasking like a demon, kicking asses and taking names; but I would bet a coffee (not from one of those chain coffee shops though) that building a marketing strategy is not top on your agenda. It’s probably something you are meaning to get around to – just not soon enough.

But, the fact is unless you have a plan in place, or are working on an ecommerce marketing strategy way before the launch of your ecommerce site, you are destined for either;

• Total catastrophic failure
• Troublesome website launch
• Little or zero sales

You might be thinking: ‘Can’t we can just plug in some Google Ads and do some social media and learn as we go?’

The short answer is: Yes. If you have a killer value proposition, hot lead magnets, tripwires and a ton of other buzzwords I can throw at you that actually make sense when creating an ecommerce strategy. If you have all that in place, then you’re golden and you can probably stop reading now because I have nothing left to teach you my young Padawan (Yes, I just made a Star Wars reference).

But the real answer is No. If you don’t have all that set up, you probably won’t get the results you’re expecting from your ecommerce site.  So what do you need to know to create an effective ecommerce strategy?

Well, there’s three main things to consider:

• Your Brand: Why do you do what you do? What sets you apart from your competitors? Why is your brand/product worth it?
• Your target audience: Who are they? where do they live? What are their interests, social groups, and current favourite brands? What key motivating factors will inspire them to become ambassadors of your brand?
• Your Communication Efforts: How will your target learn about your brand? How do you communicate with them throughout their entire sales journey? How are you going to keep the communication going post purchase?

A good marketing strategy takes a lot longer than you think to develop.

Not only that, Investing the time to find the right advisor and/or marketing partner at the beginning of your journey is not just a basic necessity, it will be the most important aspect to the successful launch of your business and your future as a whole.

Fortune Media can help you optimize your Ecommerce site for the top search engines, we advise on how to market your product overall, by creating an efficient sales funnel and beyond.

The bottom line is if you want to market your Ecommerce site efficiently, you need the right advice and the right partner.

Whether you’re at the very beginning of your journey, starting to build your site or whether you need a fresh pair of ears and eyes on your current business you can talk to us about any of your ecommerce requirements.