How Can I Market My Online Business?

I am in the process of opening a bakery called Gabby's Bake Shop. We do not have a physical storefront for walk-in service. Instead, we havea websitewith an integrated shopping cart. We also have a Facebook page, but can't seem to generate sales on our site nor page "likes" on Facebook. Do you have any marketing advice?

Building "likes" on a fan page takes a bit of strategy with targeted advertising through Facebook pay-per-click. The nice thing about Facebook's advertising platform is that you can get relatively targeted as to who sees your ad.

You can also go to your network on Facebook and ask for others to help you spread the word. Remember that fan pages need to be active, so post relevant information about the industry and what you're doing that's different. Don't be afraid of posting too often. It's been found that active pages get more interaction. Make sure you find others that can help contribute to your page.

When you've figured out who your perfect target is, you can design an ad that will find those specific Facebook people and begin to get their attention with the right copy in the ad. You might consider budgeting out what you're willing to spend daily and watch as the impressions play out and the clicks begin to take viewers to your fan page.

Be sure you have something of value to visitors on your fan page, or they will see a sales page not a fan page. Fan pages are more marketing than sales -- unless you are a noted brand. Even then most of them are using their pages for branding anyway. They intend to interact with Facebook users on their fan pages and get them to a retail site for selling. It is about engaging and interacting and being relevant as well as unique.

In your case, having a virtual bakery is interesting. You have no physical location but can service the order in a unique way. You may wish to focus on that as your unique selling point. You may also want to consider having something like a live web chat to interact with visitors who may be interested in ordering.

You have an opportunity there to brand yourself as something different, and that could get people back to your fan page and start raving as fans usually do. This will get you more traffic for 'likes' and then more traffic to your site for purchases -- or at least for a chance to sell them on your concept.

For your main site, you might want to consider doing pay-per-click with Google, Bing and Yahoo!, as they will get you normal traffic and can help enhance search engine optimization for your site.

Remember, your brand is going to need something unique. I believe you have that in being virtual. Build on that and you will get the traction you're looking for.

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