We have talked about the many benefits of having an eBay Store, but today I want to walk you through using promotion boxes. These are one of the most underutilized features in an eBay Store. They can get buyers to move throughout your store, create excitement for new promotions and get valuable sign-ups for your newsletter.
Setting up promotion boxes is simple:
- Go to Manage My Store in your My eBay page
- Click on Promotion Boxes under Store Design
- Once you are in the Promotion Box section, click the Create New Promotion Box button toward the bottom of this section.
On the first page you will choose what type of promotion box you want. These include:
- Advertise items: Since it's a promotion box, of course you should promote. And this box will do that for you. Anything from "Ending Soon" to "Newly Listed" to your "Items on Sale." One of my favorite features of this promotion box is the slideshow that provides movement on your site.
- Provide links to other parts of your store: This is an easy way, without having your own designer, to customize your promotion boxes. eBay will provide professional graphics to use in these boxes, including "Great Deals," "Clearance Items," "Items on Sale" and "Top Sellers." You can even provide your own images, which allows you to extend the branding of your business.
- Communicate to your buyers: This is your most flexible marketing opportunity. You can customize this box with text or HTML. You could use this box for a newsletter sign-up, to provide additional information about a product or your services, or to announce a link to the grand opening of your second store.
Once you've selected the type of promotion box you want, click "Continue."
If you were to utilize the 300 store categories available, you could have more than 1,000 promotion boxes doing some amazing cross-marketing
On the next page you'll choose where you would like to place your promotion box in your store. There are four main areas that your promotion box can show up on your page: in the top left, the top right, the left navigation upper or the left navigation lower. eBay provides a graphic on this set-up page that shows you where these four areas are in your store. The most important areas are the top left and top right. These will show up "above the fold" in your store. (Above the fold is the area visible to potential buyers when they first open your store's Web site—before they scroll down the page). These two areas can also be combined into one extra-wide box across the top of your page.
Now, here is the very cool part: You can have these promotion boxes promote something different on every single category page you have in your store! This technically means if you were to utilize the 300 store categories available, that you could have more than 1,000 promotion boxes in your eBay Store doing some amazing cross-marketing.
Once you've chosen where to place your promotion boxes, click "Continue."
Decorate your space
The final page is where you'll add the content and color. If you have chosen "Advertise Items," you'll have many options to create your customized box, including how you want your items displayed in the box. You can choose which items will be showcased by selecting "Ending Soon," "Newly Listed," "Items on Sale" and even have items selected manually or automatically.
Next create an enticing title for your promotion box. You will have 20 characters to make a title. By default, the colors used will be your store's colors; however, you can change these to further customize your promotions. Choose a name for your promotion box that will help you keep your boxes straight. This name will not be shown to the buyers.
If you have chosen the option to "Provide links to other parts of your store," you will be given a choice of having a graphic image in your box or a custom link. Pick which professionally created graphic you want to use. If you use your own graphics in this box, they will be resized to fit in that location.
If you mark to have custom links in this box, you can have from four to10 links, depending on the size of the box you choose. eBay can create these links for you from a drop-down menu or you can select your own URL.
Again, make sure you update the colors, if you desire, and name this promotion box.
If you have chosen "Communicate to your buyers," you are given three choices for this box. These options are Shipping and Payment, Newsletter Sign-up and the Custom box.
- Shipping and Payment: This option allows you to type any text into the promotion box. Remember, although this is called Shipping and Payment, you can put any information in the text box that you want.
- Newsletter Sign-up: If you don't have a newsletter sign-up link in your custom designed store theme, then this promotion box is a must for your marketing. eBay will include your Newsletter(s) with a sign-up link. You provide the enticing text to get them to sign up for your newsletter.
- Custom: This box allows you to easily promote anything you want. You don't need to know HTML, because eBay provides a simple to use tool to create whatever you want in this box. But remember, no linking outside of eBay.
Provide a name for this promotion box and click "Save."
You can easily manage your promotion boxes from the main store page. This will allow you to view all of your boxes, edit them, duplicate them (very handy) and even delete them when you change promotions.
Janelle Elms is a best-selling author, inspiring educator and Visionaire of the OSI Rock Stars. You can hear her on wsRadio every Wednesday on Ask Janelle Radio. Learn the success information you need to grow your business at www.osiRockStars.com. For step-by-step training on how to set up an eBay Store for maximum exposure and profit, visit One Percent Coach.
Opinions expressed here may not be shared by Auctiva Corp. and/or its principals.
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