Question
We have an established brick and mortar retail store. Part of the business has an e-commerce facing aspect that I feel has tons of potential, but I just can't seem to get any traction. The site is for selling wall art that we produce in house from vintage imagery. Much of it can only be found through us, and we know that people like our products from our in-store sales. I can't seem to get any sales online- even offering free item codes (for testing out our web-order process. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I should mention that after working on it for almost 5 years and spending a good amount of money, I'm hesitant to put much more time or money in a direction without knowing that it's really going to work. We don't have much of a budget. Help?
Answer
Start to grow an email list. You can put a sign up form in your store. Then, offer exclusive sales on your website just for email subscribers.
Sign up for a Mail Chimp or Convert Kit account (they are either free or low cost email providers). Once you have some people on your email list, develop an "email drip" to automate your email marketing to them.
I also recommend investing in online advertising, especially social media advertising and content marketing, but you can start an email list for free to get it going as a first step.
