Promoting Your eCommerce Web Site
by Becky Dean, Usborne Director

#1 - Make Sure You Have Personalized Your Site:

Everyone has an About Your Consultant page with your UBAH web site that needs to be personalized.  Go to your Website Admin link on your my ubah page, then click on Customize Website.  You can also choose not to show your bio page by just unselecting the Show Bio Page box.

We also recommend....

     Selecting Your Start Page to be - Show Main Page (vs. landing intro screen)
     Disabling the rolling books flash object. (it's old technology)
     Disabling the Look at These Great Specials flash object. (again, it's dated looking)

#2 - Start Collecting Email Addresses:

At all your booth events and parties, use a raffle slip that has a spot for people to write in their email addresses with "(to be updated on monthly money-saving specials - may cancel at any time)" written underneath that line. Thus, when they write their email address down they are giving you permission to email them the monthly customer specials and the consultant kit special, too! ;-)

#3 - Start an Email Mailing List with the Collected Email Addresses:

Now that you have email addresses you can start a database or mailing list of your customers, hostesses and booth contacts. You can use what the Home Office already has for your web site to "store" and keep your email addresses updated. Go to the Web Site Admin. link at the top-right of your consultant page. There you will see that the HO keeps track of all your web site sales and your customers. Your customers are the ones that have entered the $50 in FREE books drawing and/or have placed an order on your web site. So when you are collecting email addresses just enter them into your $50 in FREE books drawing and you will have their info. recorded on your HO web site for your future use.  I recommend using the inTouch mailing list option to set-up a list to easily email all your customers at once.

#4 - Point Links in Your Email Mailings to the Customer Specials:

When you are doing your email mailings include direct links to the customer specials or specific titles you are talking about.  You can do this easily by copying the shortcut to the page you want your customers to go directly to.  Then go to:  www.tinyurl.com to make that long URL address into a short URL address to send within your email mailings.  (otherwise the long URL splits in the email and it is not a clickable/direct link)

If you put direct links in your emails they will be much more effective because people can just click on the link to see that particular book/series/special. If you make it easy to browse you will make it easy to buy and increase your web site sales!!  There are fantastic customer specials and website specials that you can regularly let your customers know about. 

An important note: Make sure your links work!!! ALWAYS test your links to make sure they are pointing to where you want them to and to make sure you did not make a typing error!!!

#5 - Utilize the Home Office Marketing Emails

Find the UBAH Marketing Emails under the Business Forms/Tools link at your Consultants Only website. Then send them out to your customers very easily by using the Home Office inTouch mailing list program. UBAH Marketing Email Example:

#6 - Buy a Domain Name:

In this way you can choose a name that is easily remembered for people to check out your web site. Quite frankly, unless someone is actually looking at your business card, they most likely will not type in www.ubah.com/E0699.

However, if you have a website name for example of:
www.UsborneWorld.com or www.UsborneKids.com, it will be remembered more easily.  
Then people can be browsing your website if they are bored at work. ;-)

We recommend buying a domain name from 1and1 Hosting as they provide domain names at a very reasonable prices!

 #7 - Promote your Domain Name and/or Web Site

Just buying a domain name and having a web site will not automatically bring customers to you. You need to find them and promote your web site.

Put a signature line on ALL your outgoing mail that has your web site address/domain name.

Put your web site on ALL your literature you hand out to people.

Put your web site on your business cards.

Have magnetic business cards with your domain name on them.

Put your web site in your Christmas card. :) You are able to put a picture on your web site under the Consultant Bio page so that is a great way to get friends/relatives to visit if you put your Christmas family picture on your Usborne web site. It’s a great promo for your business.

Put direct links in emails to your website.

Put your web site on your booth banners.

Make a sign to display at all your parties/booths with your web site. (effective IF you have an easily remembered domain name)

Make up stickers with your web site on to put on catalogs, the backs of books, in your address labels, etc...

Cover the Home Office info on the back of the catalogs with a duck sticker so they will go to YOUR website instead!

Put your domain name on the vehicle you drive.

Put your domain name on your name tag instead of your "title".

Put an ad in the paper with your web site listed.

Submit FREE business press releases to your local paper with your website listed!