Product Reviews: One of the most common marketing tools that website owners use in order to gain the trust of a potential customer and hence increase the chance of a sale – is displaying, and having the ability to leave, product reviews. As a marketing tool - a well written, credible review can be extremely effective.
Customer Surveys: Customer surveys show your customer that you do care about them and is one of the essential marketing tools that a website owner should have in his (or her) toolkit. Getting the feedback that a well constructed customer survey provides allows you to tailor your products and services to suit the consumer – making you more attractive than your competition.
Coupons/Vouchers: Coupons and Vouchers are a great way to circulate discounts and special offers because they usually can be transferred or given from person to person or friend to friend. A widely used marketing tool provided through many top websites. The initial recipient of your coupon or voucher may not be looking to purchase your product - but they probably know someone who is.
Gift Certificates: Gift certificates are probably the least subtle of web marketing tools, but arguably, the most effective. They are perfect for sites that have repeat business and go along way to ensure that your customer returns or even better – introduces ‘fresh blood’ in the form of a relative or friend. One you have a gift certificate … you just have to spend it, right?
Contests: The use of contests as website marketing tools is a fairly recent phenomenon and originated from the social marketing scenes – namely Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. They are now becoming very popular on larger e-commerce websites as owners realise that a good contest can invoke that winning instinct, present in a lot of us.
Reward/Loyalty Systems: A sharing and caring approach to ones customers is always a nice thing to see and the use of a reward or loyalty system is a great website marketing tool to deploy, especially on websites that have repeat business. Effective use of a reward based system hooks your customer in for the long haul, requiring loyalty from them and reward by you.
Datafeed Integration: Whether you are selling products and services through the likes of Google and Amazon or wanting to export your latest company information to other news portals - datafeed integration is an essential marketing tool. It means that you can keep these remote sites updated at the click of a button or even automatically – excellent for off-site marketing and remote selling.
Videos/Slideshows: There is no better medium for advertising than the visual arena. They say a picture paints a thousand words and its true – colourful slideshows and informative videos are two crucial website marketing tools that no website owner should be without. Not only are these eye-catching, but video content will likely have a positive impact on your Search Rankings too.
Sales/Promotions: Having the ability to promote an item to a dedicated Sales or Promotions page at the click of a button is a must – you do not want to have to copy/cut/past and re-layout data. Sales and Promotions pages are very useful website marketing tools in that they allow you to deal with seasonal trade fluctuations and support up-selling or cross-selling campaigns.
Free Gifts: Everybody loves to receive a free gift and the ability to provide them for your customers is a web marketing tool that every self-respecting website owner should have in their tool kit. Offering a free gift as a sweetener is common practice on large websites and will leave your customers wanting more … hopefully.
Featured Products/Articles: Introducing a new range or highlighting new information should be easy – and is, providing you have a Featured or Specials page built-in. These basic website marketing tools give you additional organisational capabilities allowing you to bring your new products (or articles in some cases) together, allowing your customers to easily find them.
Best Sellers: One of many website marketing tools that are designed to instil confidence is the Best Sellers page and your website should have something along these lines. If a thousand other customers have purchased this product – it has to be good, right? Some owners prefer a stand alone Best Sellers page whereas others prefer a listing on the product page itself – both variations work well.
Feedback forms: A slightly different approach to a survey which actively canvasses a response - the Feedback Form is used as a marketing tool to show the customer that you are ’real’ and have opened up an avenue for them to have their say – very important when trying to gain a customers trust. Feedback Forms are widely used and generally used as part of a bigger marketing strategy.
Bookmarking: People use their ‘favourites list or bookmarks list to return to websites quickly – that is a fact. If you can get on their list of preferred places, you’ll always be visible and in their mind – that’s why ‘Bookmarking’ as a web marketing tool works. Placing a button or link on your website that allows them to easily bookmark your website is a good strategy.
Tell-A-Friend: Never miss an opportunity, your customer may not want your product themselves or maybe requires someone else’s approval – either way, providing the means to quickly contact another and show them your information is one way of keeping the sale alive. Most websites have a Tell-a-Friend function – this is one website marketing tool that is a definite 'must have'.
Up/Cross Selling: Simply look at the masters – Amazon, and you will see how they up-sell and cross-sell their products with devastating effect. Up-Selling and Cross-Selling website marketing tools can easily double the revenue from a single customer and if you have an e-commerce site – you need that capability. These tools come in various formats, get it right, and you can be a winner!
Live Chat: Being able to follow your visitors from page to page and provide timely assistance when your monitoring shows them to be lost or in trouble can be an invaluable website marketing tool but it can also spook your customer, so be warned – Live Chat is a double-edged sword. When using Live Chat, be unobtrusive and only solicit the customer if they are about to leave empty handed.
Article Submissions: Allowing your visitors to contribute with website content is beneficial in a lot of scenarios depending on the type of website that you have. Utilising marketing tools that provide for article submissions from your customers can save you a lot of time and help towards making your site successful – most Search Engines like this content.
News Letters: You have a thousand customers in your database, how do you let them know that you have a new, exciting product being launched? Via your monthly News Letters of course. This is probably the most popular of website marketing tools being used by businesses today because any self-respecting company will tell you that a former customer can easily become your new customer.
Banner Advertising: You should be able to create new banners and display them all over your website easily and without fuss because this marketing tool can make you a lot of money. Banner advertising not only supports your own content by highlighting products and articles – it can be used as a source of income by promoting other peoples products too … ensure you have this capability.