Before you start an eCommerce store, you need to have a proper strategy in place. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure - and dooming yourself to eCommerce Hell, as Shirley Tan eloquently puts it!

Assuming that you have done your homework on market research and whether or not there is enough demand for your product line, the next step is driving potential customers to your store and then actually turning them into customers!

I've put together an infographic where I talk about strategies that you can implement to market your store. I'm going to talk about the 5 most important ones here:

1. SEO - SEO should form the foundation of your marketing strategy. SEO, or search engine optimization, is what you do to get your website found in Google and other search engines. The best part about SEO is that it is free traffic!

You will have to invest time and maybe even money in the beginning, but the return on your investment is long term and good SEO will send you clicks for a long, long time.

Here are some things you can do to get a good start with your store's SEO:

• Use keyword-rich title tags and descriptions for your product and category pages
• Write informative blog posts on topics related to your products
• Link between your pages through context, not just navigation
• Submit a sitemap to Google and Bing
• Guest post on RELEVANT websites and build links to your store

2. PPC - PPC stands for Pay Per Click advertising. Using PPC, you bid on specific words or phrases that people use to search for your product, and whenever someone searches for those terms, Google(or Bing) shows your advertisement at the top of the results.

PPC is highly targeted and an instant way of driving traffic to your store, but it can also be a money pit if you don't do it correctly. Drew Sanocki has written a phenomenal post on how eCommerce stores should properly utilize PPC advertising so that they don't just save money, but also MAKE money.

To get started with PPC, all you need is a Google account and a credit card. If you haven't ever used Google Adwords before, do a quick search for "adwords coupon code" to get $75-100 in free clicks on your new account.

3. Social Media - Social media is a very powerful driver of brand awareness and provides an excellent platform for interacting with your customers and getting to know them.

4. Email Marketing - Email marketing was, is, and will be the highest ROI(return on investment) marketing that you can ever do for your eCommerce store. If you can get a customer to trust you enough to give you their email address, they will care about what you have to say.

Once you have an email address, there is no limit to the amount of interaction that you can have with someone - you don't want to be spammy, of course. Focus on creating a value-adding relationship where you care about the customer's needs and wants, not just going after their money.

5. Video Marketing - Video marketing is a relatively uncharted territory for most eCommerce retailers, but it represents huge opportunity to develop brand and product awareness. Youtube is owned by Google, and as such, is a GIANT search engine. By making videos related to your products, or by showing how your products solve a particular problem, you are opening doors for people to find you from your videos.

Here is an interesting statistic: since October 2013, I have made 3 videos for my site(which is a
niche business), and put together, they have received over 25,000 views - without a single effort from me for promotion.

Now that you have people coming to your store, here are 5 ways to actually turn them into customers!

1. Good Product Images & Description - In a regular store, you can touch and see a product before you buy it. You can hold it in your hand, turn it around, and examine it in close detail. Online, you can't do anything but see - and that too not in real size. That's why you need to provide as many good images as possible. Make sure they are high quality and visually appealing.

The same way, your descriptions have to be very detailed and very telling - they are your salespeople!

2. Trust Symbols - Why should someone trust your website? How do they know you are the real deal and not a scammer? You need to provide trust symbols like security certificates, social proof, and ways to stand out from the competition if you want people to buy from you. Otherwise they can just go on over to Amazon and get the same thing for less! A very telling study has shown that adding trust symbols significantly increases your conversion rate.

3. Clear Calls To Action - A Call To Action(or CTA) is something that indicates what you want your visitor to do on your website. It could be anything, from an Add To Cart button or an Email Subscribe button. Many stores make the mistake of cluttering up their pages and not making these buttons easy to find.

The easier they are to find, the more your customer's focus falls on them. Amazon, for example, devotes the entire right side of their page to a large section where the only options are ways to add to cart.

4. Contact Information - Providing contact information(and making it easy to find) such as an email address, phone number, live chat, or even a physical mailing address greatly increases your credibility and trustworthiness. It will also help you save a sale if a customer is having issues.

5. Straightforward Checkout - Some stores make their checkout processes way too long. At this point, customers are ready with their credit card in hand, so you have to make sure that the sale happens as fast as possible. Don't have them fill out unnecessary forms, don't ask for irrelevant information. Make it short and sweet and both you and your customers will be happy campers.

If you follow these 5-and-5 steps, you will put yourself on track for success in eCommerce. What are your favorite ways to drive traffic, or what have you seen make the biggest difference in conversion? Share with us in the comments!

Author Bio
This article is by Shabbir Nooruddin.