Small eCommerce or startup companies with great ideas are usually strapped with a pretty tight budget, and actually having the budget to make an effective marketing campaign come to life can seem like the best Christmas present EVER.

I Always Wanted an Online Marketing Gun!

As I have previously discussed along with almost every breathing marketer today, Inbound Marketing is overtaking Outbound Marketing in a significant way.  Read this great article on Why Inbound Marketing is Critical For Startup Success by Brian Halligan to learn more.  Guy Kawasaki has been (now famously) quoted, “If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing by reading this book (Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs).”

Small eCommerce companies or starups with a great idea need to utilize every tool that they have available, the biggest one being their brain.  Entrepreneurs are generally a smart bunch.  They have dreams that they make into realities.  They are able to envision an idea, and make it come to life.  These people have the brains to take a product that they are passionate about, build a marketplace (website) to feature these products and even sell them to not only their friends and families, but strangers as well (shocking right?!?).   Alot of effort goes into the process of a new or startup business, and without an effective online marketing effort, all of the hard work can be done for naught.  It would be like building an amusement park in the middle of a jungle.

Don't Become an Abonded Amusement Park

There are many reasons why a startup eCommerce store needs Inbound Marketing.

Here are 6 of those many reasons:

1.  More Traffic Means More Sales -

Ok, duh!  More traffic to your website means that you are more likely to have more sales.  But getting this traffic just doesn’t happen overnight.  The days of stuffing your website with keywords and hoping that others will just find your website are over.  The name of the game now is Authoritative Links and how many you got of em.  Inbound Marketing done right can help you achieve the results you want by creating more targeted traffic to your website through the creation of Remakable Content.  More Traffic, Equals More Sales.

2.  Brand Establishment-

Establishing your brand through inbound marketing tactics geared towards social media will give your company name and brand authority.  It may take a few months to get the ball rolling, but Effective Inbound Marketing for Social Media will integrate your store into your customers social media life.  Not everyone will know who the best cake seller in Athens, GA may be now, but with effective Inbound Marketing CareAway Cakes may be the number one destination for all of Athens residents happy occassions.

3.  Online AND Offline Communities -

Creating real and lasting connections with online and offline communities can be a valuable resource for your company.  I have very recently heard from a friend of mine over at PeachtreeSEO that there is a group of about 20 small businesses in my hometown of Peachtree City, GA that get together once a month to discuss online marketing strategies for their companies.  In addition to discussing strategies, they talk about what they are currently doing online and where you can find their local business information on sites like Google Places, Merchant Circle and Yelp!.  Members of the group visit eachothers websites as well as review websites and leave positive comments about their friends business.  It is an effective strategy to grow eachtohers businesses by joining eachothers discussions.  A successful Inbound Marketing campaign can take this offline group of 20 to an online group of well over 200.

4.  See Results of your GSD Attitude -

GSD stands for “Get Stuff Done” and you can read all about how Inbound Marketing is nothing without the GSD attitude on my previous article on Inbound Marketing Done Right.  Creating, Optimizing, Promoting, Converting, and Analyzing is the heart of Inbound Marketing.  A half-hearted attitude with a “I’ll do it later” attitude will not get you very far in inbound marketing, nor in entrepreneurship.  Inbound Marketing goes hand in hand with the spirit of the entrepreneur whom had the vision to launch their eCommerce website selling what they love.  Start to see and reap the benefits of your hard work by engaging in Inbound Marketing.

5.  Get Seen, Not Read -

Did you know that YouTube is the second most used Search Engine behind Google?  YouTube searches were estimated by comScore at 3.7 Billion in March of 2010.  Want some of that action?  Inbound Marketing to the rescue!  Creating video content about your products and industry in a fascinating and remarkable way is a great way to market your products.  Checkout John Lawson of ColderICE and see how a shinning example of Inbound Marketing in action with his YouTube Channel.

6.  Become Remarkable -

The most beneficial reason for choosing Inbound Marketing for your eCommerce Store is the ability to become Remarkable.  Remarkable Content is content that others remark upon.  Content that Joe consumes and shares with Shirley who shares with her brother Jesse who shares with his dogs Pete and Repeat (my brother Jesse actually had dogs named Pete and Repeat) gets shared ALOT.  Remarkable content has the ability to spread to the masses and create significant traffic and sales for your company.  Get the idea?  The more Inbound Marketing strategies you undertake (creating remarkable content), the more remarkable and successful your business will become!

If you are a eCommerce Store, especially a relatively new one, that has seen a bit of success and have not started Inbound Marketing, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!