June 26, 2009 at 14:28How to promote stores in the regions
Often I observe a picture (according to comments) that many hub users open their online stores or want to open their online store. I also dare to suggest that many Khabrovsk residents do not live in Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg and other Internet-advanced cities where standard methods of promoting online stores are used. Another assumption is that since the ITshnik community, then the future owners of ITshniki shops, who will not know much about marketing matters.
Do not blame me if I made a mistake in the conclusions, but I have the good intention to show the right path, how to start and continue to promote my store in the regions.
Today I participated in an online seminar conducted by OnlineSem . Participation is free, I advise everyone.
I liked the report of Alexey Radkevich from YALstudioon the promotion of sites in the regions. It was useful to me. And since a good topic has already come up, and I have never written about promotion in the regions, it’s worth starting.
An example was given in the Novosibirsk region. I will describe my notes, comment on them and give general recommendations for any region on how to promote your store.
Where to advertise?
It is reliably known that the promotion and advertising of a store in the regions differs from the promotion in the capitals (real for the CIS). This is due to many factors, the main ones: poor development of the main advertising platforms, low level of Internet access in the regions, little experience of ordinary people working with the Internet in the regions.
Most people know, or at least guess, that conducting a seo-promotion for a regional store does not make sense (if your city’s share in requests does not exceed at least 40%). It is expensive, it will have little effect due to the small share of requests (at least the CIS), it is long (results no earlier than in 2-3 months).
To place in the price-aggregators, too, not all succeed. Many do not have IP filtering to enable geo-targeting, like Yandex.Market.
We have to use other methods of promotion, or truncated standard.
I use the following techniques in my work. Alexey’s experience confirmed them and brought fresh ideas:
1. Selection of thematic regional portals.
Regional portals have a large audience, and in terms of geography they are targeted. Of course, not every portal is suitable, but these are the only places where active Internet users gather in the region, which means a certain percentage of target audience for the online store.
2. Selection of thematic regional sites
This is with luck. Aleksey said that almost all major thematic resources in Novosibirsk are almost all in auto topics or real estate. You’ll be lucky if you find a large thematic resource for your product. A small one is also suitable - for fishlessness and cancer - fish.
3. Writing a large amount of content (Alexey's experience)
We need not just content with a list of keywords, but also indicate the region in which the site is located. This allows you to attract and HF + city and a lot of bass. Alexey cited 600-800 queries, most of them are key.
4. Promotion by search does not require large expenditures if it is calculated to affect only your region. Links, to increase the weight of the site, often do not need to buy, because competition in the regions is low. In an extreme case, Alexei cited the following example: you can take free domains, put news engines on them and periodically post news there with links to the store.
Another method suggested by Alexei is to register regional domains, such as sbp.ru, tomsk.ru, dp.ua, od.ua and so on. This will improve the delivery of the site in the search for queries that contain the name of the region.
1. Context. Yandex.Direct allows you to target by region. For Ukraine, where the main search is Google, the situation is more complicated, so you’ll have to use the names of the regions in your keywords.
2. And yet price aggregators , such as Yandex.Market, Mail.ru, Meta.ua, are also targeted. Use targeting sites.
3. Banner and link advertising on regional portals. Of course, banner advertising on the Internet is practically of no use. Nevertheless, there is no other option, and you still need to place a banner, even a trial one, on the portal. Links should be placed in thematic sections of the site. Contact the advertising manager of the portal, let him tell you what he has to offer.
4. Thematic resources.There is nothing to tell. It is necessary to use fully. The only warning is that on such resources the communities very negatively perceive the slightest hints of advertising.
5. Forums and thematically threads and even forum topics. Alternatively, try placing a small banner ad in front of a branch or topic. Another option is to constantly light up and give advice to those in need. When you become familiar, they will ask for advice where to buy, and what you advise. Then advertise.
6. Offline advertising. Alexey shared his experience. Valuable information. Said stretch marks didn't work. But distribution of papers to offices, cars and on the street works very well. He cited statistics, from 10,000, about 1,500 responded. Why such an effect? Because in the regions this is still a novelty and not such a massive spam as in the capital.
First one . If a visitor enters the keyword + city - it is almost 100% customer. The explanation is simple - the fact is that if a client enters a city, then he wants to buy a specific product in a specific city. In order to read the information about the product, you do not need to enter the city in the request.
Second one . Portals and forums need to regularly monitor store reviews. The Internet community in the regions hangs out in the same places, or rather, almost everyone visits the city portal. Naturally, many portal visitors, potential customers, will react to a negative review.
The task of the store management is to take immediate measures to address negative reviews and stimulate positive ones.
Do not blame me if I made a mistake in the conclusions, but I have the good intention to show the right path, how to start and continue to promote my store in the regions.
Today I participated in an online seminar conducted by OnlineSem . Participation is free, I advise everyone.
I liked the report of Alexey Radkevich from YALstudioon the promotion of sites in the regions. It was useful to me. And since a good topic has already come up, and I have never written about promotion in the regions, it’s worth starting.
An example was given in the Novosibirsk region. I will describe my notes, comment on them and give general recommendations for any region on how to promote your store.
Where to advertise?
It is reliably known that the promotion and advertising of a store in the regions differs from the promotion in the capitals (real for the CIS). This is due to many factors, the main ones: poor development of the main advertising platforms, low level of Internet access in the regions, little experience of ordinary people working with the Internet in the regions.
Most people know, or at least guess, that conducting a seo-promotion for a regional store does not make sense (if your city’s share in requests does not exceed at least 40%). It is expensive, it will have little effect due to the small share of requests (at least the CIS), it is long (results no earlier than in 2-3 months).
To place in the price-aggregators, too, not all succeed. Many do not have IP filtering to enable geo-targeting, like Yandex.Market.
We have to use other methods of promotion, or truncated standard.
I use the following techniques in my work. Alexey’s experience confirmed them and brought fresh ideas:
1. Selection of thematic regional portals.
Regional portals have a large audience, and in terms of geography they are targeted. Of course, not every portal is suitable, but these are the only places where active Internet users gather in the region, which means a certain percentage of target audience for the online store.
2. Selection of thematic regional sites
This is with luck. Aleksey said that almost all major thematic resources in Novosibirsk are almost all in auto topics or real estate. You’ll be lucky if you find a large thematic resource for your product. A small one is also suitable - for fishlessness and cancer - fish.
3. Writing a large amount of content (Alexey's experience)
We need not just content with a list of keywords, but also indicate the region in which the site is located. This allows you to attract and HF + city and a lot of bass. Alexey cited 600-800 queries, most of them are key.
4. Promotion by search does not require large expenditures if it is calculated to affect only your region. Links, to increase the weight of the site, often do not need to buy, because competition in the regions is low. In an extreme case, Alexei cited the following example: you can take free domains, put news engines on them and periodically post news there with links to the store.
Another method suggested by Alexei is to register regional domains, such as sbp.ru, tomsk.ru, dp.ua, od.ua and so on. This will improve the delivery of the site in the search for queries that contain the name of the region.
How to advertise?
1. Context. Yandex.Direct allows you to target by region. For Ukraine, where the main search is Google, the situation is more complicated, so you’ll have to use the names of the regions in your keywords.
2. And yet price aggregators , such as Yandex.Market, Mail.ru, Meta.ua, are also targeted. Use targeting sites.
3. Banner and link advertising on regional portals. Of course, banner advertising on the Internet is practically of no use. Nevertheless, there is no other option, and you still need to place a banner, even a trial one, on the portal. Links should be placed in thematic sections of the site. Contact the advertising manager of the portal, let him tell you what he has to offer.
4. Thematic resources.There is nothing to tell. It is necessary to use fully. The only warning is that on such resources the communities very negatively perceive the slightest hints of advertising.
5. Forums and thematically threads and even forum topics. Alternatively, try placing a small banner ad in front of a branch or topic. Another option is to constantly light up and give advice to those in need. When you become familiar, they will ask for advice where to buy, and what you advise. Then advertise.
6. Offline advertising. Alexey shared his experience. Valuable information. Said stretch marks didn't work. But distribution of papers to offices, cars and on the street works very well. He cited statistics, from 10,000, about 1,500 responded. Why such an effect? Because in the regions this is still a novelty and not such a massive spam as in the capital.
Nuances
First one . If a visitor enters the keyword + city - it is almost 100% customer. The explanation is simple - the fact is that if a client enters a city, then he wants to buy a specific product in a specific city. In order to read the information about the product, you do not need to enter the city in the request.
Second one . Portals and forums need to regularly monitor store reviews. The Internet community in the regions hangs out in the same places, or rather, almost everyone visits the city portal. Naturally, many portal visitors, potential customers, will react to a negative review.
The task of the store management is to take immediate measures to address negative reviews and stimulate positive ones.