IIM-Lucknow Achieves 100% Placement in 3 Days

Lucknow: The Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow on Sunday said it has achieved 100 per cent final placement for its 30th batch of 446 students in a record time of just over three days.

The recruitment drive saw participation from over 160 domestic and international recruiters, a release by the institute said.

The highlight of the placement season was participation of esteemed firms like Alvarez & Marsal, BlackRock, Advisors, MasterCard and o3 Capital which marked the ascent of IIM-Lucknow as a preferred recruitment destination for marketing, finance and consulting roles in the country, it said.

The top four segments based on roles offered were sales and marketing (25 per cent), finance (22 per cent), consulting (21 per cent) and business development including some extremely sought after and niche profiles in the finance domain.

The rest of the offers came from domains such as operations/supply chain, general management (7 per cent), systems/IT (10 per cent), market research, analytics and HR.

Some of the top recruiters across different sectors were Accenture, Aditya Birla Group, Amazon, Avendus, Flipkart, Hindustan Unilever, P&G, TAS and The Boston Consulting Group, the release said.

First time recruiters included Avalon Consulting, BMW Group, Kotak Investments and Tata Sky while international profiles were offered by Equirus Capital and Olam International.

Bharti Airtel Just launched full MNP service in India

Management is the processes of planning, organizing directing motivating and coordinating and controlling of various activities of a firm. Marketing is the process of satisfying the needs and wants of the consumers. Management of marketing activities is Marketing Management. Management Guru Philip Kotler defines marketing as “Marketing Management is the analysis, planning, implementation anc control of programmes designed to bring about the desired exchanges with target audiences for the purpose of personal and mutual gain. It relies heavily on adoption and coordination of the product, price, promotion and place for achieving response”: In other words, a business discipline, which is focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm’s marketing resources and activities, is Marketing Management. Marketing Management focuses upon the psychological and physical factors of Marketing. The Marketing managers are responsible for influencing the level, timing, and composition of customer demand accepted definition of the term. While the psychological factors focus upon discovering the needs and wants of the consumer and the changing patterns of buying behavior, habit etc. the physical factors focus upon fulfilling those needs and demands buy better product design, channel of distribution and other functions. In summary, Marketing in action is marketing Management. Marketing Management has the responsibility of to perform many functions in the field of marketing such as planning, organizing, directing, motivating, coordinating and controlling. All these function aim to achieve the marketing goals. Following is a brief summary of functions of Marketing Marketing Objectives: marketing management determines the marketing objectives. The marketing objectives may be short term or long term and need a clear approach. They have to be in coherence with the aims and objectives of the organization. Planning: After objectively determining the marketing Objectives, the important function of the marketing Management is to plan how to achieve those objectives. This includes sales forecast, marketing programmes formulation, marketing strategies. Organization: A plan once formulated needs implementation. Organizing functions of marketing management involves the collection and coordination of required means to implement a plan and to achieved pre determined objectives. The organization involves structure of marketing organization, duties, responsibilities and powers of various members of the marketing organization. Coordination: Coordination refers to harmonious adjustment of the activities of the marketing organization. It involves coordination among various activities such as sales forecasting, product planning, product development, transportation, warehousing etc. Direction: Direction in marketing management refers to development of new markets, leadership of employees, motivation, inspiration, guiding and supervision of the employees. Control: Control refers to the effectiveness with which a marketing plan is implemented. It involves the determination of standards, evaluation of actual performance, adoption of corrective measures, Staffing: Employment of right and able employees is very crucial to success of a market plan. The market manager coordinates with the Human Resource Manager of an organization to be able to hire the staff with desired capability. Analysis and Evaluation: The marketing management involves the analysis and evaluation of the productivity and performs mace of individual employees. 

4 Mistakes That Costed Rahul Yadav His Job

Finally, Housing.com has confirmed that it has sacked Rahul Yadav and will be announcing their CEO shortly. We saw it coming...we weren't sure how long would the company take to make a decision as tougher as this one, but Rahul Yadav didn't leave them with any option. He kept making mistakes, staged dramatic actions to hog the limelight, entered into a verbal duel with fellow industry people/corporates and worst of all, messed up with Indian media. No wonder, many refer to him as the Rakhi Sawant of the corporate world. But today, when the man has been sacked from an organisation, which he had co-founded and raised its valuation to $250 million (Rs 1500 crore) in the last three years, we all have learnt a BIG lesson. And that is, even a CEO can lose his job if he doesn't stick to the level of decorum expected of him.
Do you know what mistakes lead to the dramatist Yadav's downfall? Here we are listing out 4 of them.

· Boomerang character: Every person has the right to change their decisions, but when they make it a habit, it highlights their indecisiveness, which clearly is not a trait of good leader. And when a leader makes a complete roundabout decision in his own professional life, it is a big no no. Rahul Yadav made a similar mistake, not once but twice. He first resigned, made his decision public and then after a few interesting twists and turns, planned to stay on. Then last week, we again heard rumours about his resignation. A boomerang is a fun tool to play with, but something that should be enjoyed outside professional life.

· Badass language: Imitating heroes is nothing new to Indians. And we feel Rahul himself is a BIG fan of Bollywood. How else could someone explain badass language and actions of this educated chap, who is (err was) incidentally a CEO too. The man, however, forgot to draw the line between fiction and reality. Bollywood, heroes with badass character and language might be a hit with Indian audiences, but who wants to see such people in real life. We don't want to, do you?

· Too outspoken: Agreed, leaders are supposed to be vocal in real life, and not everyone can lead the way Manmohan Singh did. Keeping pun aside, let's talk about Yadav. We know talking is what leaders like him do the most besides strategizing, ideating and running business. However, they just can't talk anything and everything in public. So man, if you have had a tiff with stakeholders for some reason, resolve it in the board room instead of spitting venom all over. That would be a mature way of dealing with problems; you've heard of it right?

· 'F**k it all' attitude: Being firm is one thing, and being arrogant, another. And Rahul Yadav made a spectacle of his 'arrogance' and 'F**k it All' attitude time and time again. His nasty emails, open challenge to Ola and Zomato CEOs, and the recent email where he unashamedly admit to have given different answers to journalists simply to have fun, were already signaling his downfall. It eventually happened yesterday when Housing.com stakeholders asked him to 'F**k Off' by releasing him from his services. 
(Image: indiatimes)

9 Time Saving Writing Tools for Content Marketers

Have you ever had an awesome idea in your head, but didn’t find the time, discipline or will to execute it into writing?

All social writers struggle with the same problem – they are hit by inspiration in the weirdest moments, but the great ideas evaporate by the time they get to their computers and try to start writing.

The solution to that issue comes as a combination of tools that are both accessible and portable. If you start using the best tools for social writers, you will never be caught off guard again. These tools will not only provide you with a way to write down your ideas whenever they hit you, but will also enable you to organize your time better and start writing more content through a regular routine.

The best writing tools for social writers

You don’t need many resources and tools to get your creativity out on paper. However, the right tools can boost your effectiveness by providing you with a distraction-free environment, as well as the writing assistance you need. The following selection of websites, apps, and tools will make you fall in love with your profession all over again.

Here are some time saving tools for content marketers.

1. Write or Die

Possibly the most popular writing tool currently available, Write or Die is a must in every social media writer’s toolbox. If you easily get distracted by important updates on social media, then this tool will immediately bring you back to work.

You don’t have to choose the Kamikaze mode right from the start, since it will be painful to watch your work getting deleted if you fail to write effectively. However, it is definitely recommended to give yourself higher goals and stricter consequences as you start getting used to Write or Die.

2. Quabel

Among all online tools that are aimed at limited your distractions, Quabel is possibly the cleanest and most effective one.

By going back to the writing basics, you will be left alone with your thoughts, so the expression will become flawless. This online text editor will allow you to write without being distracted by unnecessary buttons and features.

3. NinjaEssays

If you have a very important deadline to meet, but find yourself in the middle of a writer’s block, then it’s time to get the big guns out. NinjaEssays is the coolest writing help site that puts professional writers at your disposal. You can get assistance on any type of content by talented writers who never seem to get out of ideas.

The extensive team includes experts from various fields of study, so you can also rely on their assistance if you have to complete a project whose topic you don’t understand. That will save you from a huge amount of research.

4. Plotbot

Plotbot is an online editor that will format your writings automatically according to the widely-accepted standards.

Although the software has been developed to serve for editing screenplays, it can also serve as an essential tool for social media writers who cannot focus unless their pages are perfectly organized.

The coolest organizational tools for social writers

You can be the most talented social media writer in the world, but you could never reach your full potential without proper organization. If you don’t manage your time effectively and organize your ideas into a steady workflow, both you and your readers will end up frustrated by your publishing schedule.

5. Wridea

If there is such thing as an effective idea management service, then Writea is the one.

This website provides you with a great choice of brainstorming tools that will help you get ideas from the hidden folders of your brain. It takes only seconds to create new idea entries, and you can later update their details as a new wave of creativity attacks you.

We are listing this concept under organizational tools because it enables you to categorize your ideas under convenient groups, so you will track them easily whenever you want to.

6. Cherrytree

This tool is labeled as a “hierarchical note-taking app”.

However, its functions go beyond that simple explanation, since cherytree provides a great spell check, syntax highlighting, rich text, list handling, and many other features you will find useful. This tool can serve as your personal notebook, with the important difference of better organization and management.

7. Bubbl.us

If you have never tried a mind-mapping tool, then you should start exploring that concept with bubbl.us.

At this website, you can do some effective brainstorming and mind-mapping without the need of getting use to complicated options. The interface features an intuitive drag-and-drop mode that will help you keep pace with the emergence of new ideas.

You can easily save and share the mind maps, but you can also collaborate with other users on the same mind map.

The most effective productivity tools for social writers

Since you chose to be a social writer, then you are undoubtedly talented in developing content.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can always stay as productive as you want to be. There are days when you cannot keep up with the responsibilities and wish to take some time off everything. Don’t do that before trying some of the following productivity tools that can bring you back on track:

8. StayFocusd

If you want to fight online distractions, then StayFocusd should be the first weapon in your arsenal. This website blocker will save you from a lot of regret, since it won’t allow you to access distracting website during an active working session.

If you prefer Firefox over Chrome (StayFocused is a Chrome extension), then you should try LeechBlock, which works in a similar manner.

9. Tomato.es

You have surely heard about the Pomodoro Technique, but did you try using it? Those writers who haven’t tried it may claim that it’s ridiculous, but its effectiveness has been proven many times before.

Tomato.es is an effective Pomodoro timer that will help you reach your highest levels of productivity.

Every social writer can become better and faster!

No matter how devoted you are to your career as a social media writer, there is always more space for growth. Start exploring some of the resources we listed above and you will be much more satisfied with your achievements. If you find the right tools for your writing style, you will be able to produce better content in larger quantities without wasting any second of your working time.

Our Education System

After more than sixty years of Independence, and officially becoming a “free” nation, still being a part of the Commonwealth of Nations, India has a long way to go before it is decolonized. Dr. Namvar Singh, quite appropriately, in his famous essay, “Decolonizing the Indian Mind”, pointed out the colonized mind set of the inhabitants of India. The current education system in India is a reflection of this. Education is still designed to keep the human mind enslaved and bounded in a clichéd, limited capacity, inspite of policies which proclaim to equity in education. In educational realms, we discuss the consequences of ideological politics formulating the curriculum and influencing its transaction, as curriculum offered as mandatory in educational institutions is still inspired by the dominant ideology deemed suitable for preservation and propagation of a “cultured” nation, where culture itself is defined by the sponsoring ruling. We still are far away from recognizing our uniqueness as a people.

While the statistics of unemployed postgraduates in the urban settlements in India is reportedly soaring to an all- time high, we still witness an enormous influx of candidates into archaic degree programmes, established since the colonial times, where tradition and white-collar culture inspire uniquely talented individuals to take up programmes unmatched to their skills and potentials. Education has moreover become a profit inspired industry where students are products manufactured and finally stamped into the market. We expect the birds to swim and the fishes to fly. Education in India is still primitive in not recognizing the inherent skills and talent of a base population, belonging to a specific context and culture,in its own time and space. As a result, generations have ended up being slaves to the rudimentary tradition of archaic job positions, where limited number of positions are generated in comparison to the number of aspirants. It is time that individual entrepreneurship is not subdued and individual capacities are not subjugated. Educational programs need to be rewritten with a revolutionary immediacy and new areas of study need to be introduced and explored, with an interdisciplinary approach to education.
Every individual thus, according to us, deserves to develop in his or her natural course with complete freedom and full access to multiple disciplines, so as to uniquely contribute to the society.

The future is constantly changing and hence education needs to evolve with changing times at pace with the constantly changing understanding of the world we inhabit.
Education and knowledge can’t be exclusive or indifferent towards economic sustenance or vice versa. We believe that once the two start complementing each other, the existential issues, at individual and societal levels, will address themselves.
Each nation, has the ability to have a base population of self-employed entrepreneurs, who do what they are born to do than do what is “needed” of them. Such self-actualized people will eventually form a strong foundation of society. A revolutionary growth and development in society will come, not by means of monetary gains generated through labour, but through a satisfactory, self-determined quality of life and a higher graph of human happiness. And happiness comes when one loves what one does as a living.

we groom each individual in discharging what is unique in them and help them explore the ways their inherent talent can be honed and exploited, at their will, to produce a unique professional – an asset to society.

When you join us, stop worrying about what you will do when you leave us.

Just be prepared to discover yourself and the world.

The world awaits your expertise.

Redefine it and mark your signatures.

25 Ways to Do when you are selling online- Marketing fundaa

As an online merchant, making your first sale is as symbolic as it is necessary.

Completing the first sale sounds straightforward enough, yet the optimism and reassurance it brings can make it the biggest turning point in the life of your business.

However, don’t let the simple concept of a first sale mislead you. Obtaining that first customer can sometimes be a long, arduous battle.

To make the battle easier to win, below are 25 sure-fire ways to make your first sale, and then some.

1. Send Free Samples to Influencers

The Internet is packed with influential bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs, and vloggers from a wide range of industries and niches.

Many of them have large followings on social media and loyal audiences on their websites.

Sending a free sample of your product to such influencers, who are either within your industry or related to it in some way, gives you an opportunity to let them know you appreciate their work with a small gift. Also, hopefully, you will get a mention on one of their sites or platforms.

Not only will this provide you with a spike in traffic and social media followers, but you’ll also have a seal of approval from industry experts. These influencers will provide you with measurable results following a potential share or shout out, and you’ll likely raise the status of your product in the eyes of potential customers.

A useful resource regarding influencers is KISSmetrics’s definitive guide to influencer targeting, which tells you everything you need to know about getting your brand under relevant, important noses.

2. Start Blogging

If you aren’t already running a blog associated with your store or product, then you’re missing out on the limitless potential of content marketing.

By producing free, valuable content, you will create trust in your brand and keep people informed. Blogging also gives you something to share on social media and helps you rank in search engines.

A simple yet highly effective way to get started with content marketing for your business is to think of all the starting-point queries people have about your products and industry. Using your blog, you can answer these queries as individual articles.

As an example, visitors to the Shopify blog are interested in learning about e-commerce and drop shipping among many other topics. Because of this, we created content that ranks for terms like “how to sell online” and “how to drop ship.”

Additionally, you can use your blog to offer tips, tutorials, and resources related to your products and the lifestyle around your products.

If you can create epic content on a fairly regular basis, you’ll begin to see the power of content marketing via social media shares, search engines, and so forth. All of this is covered under KISSmetrics’s guide to content marketing.

3. Build an Email List

Building up an email list for marketing purposes is absolutely essential.

In fact, according to research by MarketingSherpa, 60% of marketers polled found that email marketing produced an ROI for their company (32% believe it will eventually produce an ROI). When asked what the estimated ROI from email marketing programs for the company were – the overall group reported 119% – a figure that’s tough for any online store owner to ignore.

Having a list of emails from previous and potential customers means you can get your information, products, and content into their personal mailboxes. In contrast, updates made to your Facebook page and Twitter handle will almost never be able to reach your entire following, due to time zone differences and other factors.

Start building your email list today by including an email subscription form somewhere noticeable on your website. Here’s a clever way to convince visitors to sign up for your list. Instead of simply saying “Join our Newsletter,” offer an incentive or some type of value for signing up. Skinny Teatox offers the chance to win a free product every week, so they showcase that offering to encourage people to join.

If you need some more advice on how to get started, KISSmetrics offers the perfect beginner’s guide to email marketing.

4. Sponsor an Event

In some cases, sponsoring an event can work wonders. In other cases, it can be an immense waste of time and resources. To avoid the latter, you’ll need to do your research.

First, you should ensure that you select the right event to sponsor. Search for events where attendees actually will be interested in your products, and then find out how many consumers will be in attendance.

Once you get a rough idea about the different event types and sizes, you can begin sorting them by cost.

It’s also important to avoid sending just a small convoy of marketers to simply set up a table and hand out flyers. If there are potential customers attending, you’ll need to be more creative than that in order to build relationships.

Demonstrate some of your most interesting products to tell your story, get people talking, and provide on-the-spot rewards like coupons and free stickers in return for email list subscriptions and social media follows.

Here are some tips from Inc to help you maximize your return when sponsoring an event.

5. Interview Industry Influencers

Remember the importance of content marketing I mentioned earlier? Well, interviewing an industry influencer is a prime example of how to create epic content.

Interviews work because they are win-win situations. The interviewee gets more exposure, while the interviewer gets their hands on some hot content for their publication, which in this case, is your blog.

Make the most of the interview by asking relevant questions surrounding not only their lives and careers, but also the industry as a whole. This will ensure that fans of the influencer get a taste of their personality, while others will value their expert advice.

A great example of this is 500px’s interview with Elena Shumilova. As a popular name in the world of photography, her interview made perfect content for the online photo vendor.

6. Pull a PR Stunt

If you want that first sale fast, pulling a PR stunt could do the trick.

Much like viral videos, which are based on the same concept, a PR stunt has the potential to propel your brand into fame. If executed well, you’ll be swapping conventional time-consuming brand marketing with instant publicity, gaining you loyal followers and customers in the process.

Essentially, a PR stunt consists of doing something unusual, outrageous, hilarious, or remarkable enough to be worthy of media attention.

If done correctly, your store could benefit from tons of links from authority news sources, which is great for both traffic in the short term and SEO in the long term.

No company pulls a better PR stunt than Virgin. Their founder, Richard Branson, has dressed up like a wedding bride, jumped off a casino roof, posed as a zulu warrior, driven a tank down Fifth Avenue in NYC, and flown a balloon around the world, among many other newsworthy things.

To get your creative juices flowing, take a look at Entrepreneur’s list of top 10 successful marketing stunts. They’ve covered everything from outrageous tattoos to left-handed burgers. Remember, a good PR stunt doesn’t require tons of cash or a big brand to pull it off. It just requires creativity.

7. Experiment with AdWords

AdWords is Google’s hugely popular pay-per-click advertising network that allows online retailers to place advertisements on nearly every Google search results page, YouTube video, and partner website. Who wouldn’t want to rank in the top three of a search query that drives sales? Here’s what shows up when you type “Samsung TV” into Google. Note that the first result is a paid ad from Samsung.

The beauty of AdWords lies in its speed and massive reach. In as little as a few minutes, you can set up and launch an advertising campaign which gets your text, image, or even video ads seen by browsers all over the web.

Using the AdWords campaign options, you can create targeted ads which are triggered and displayed alongside Google searches when Internet browsers search for predefined keywords. Additionally, your ads also will appear on websites and articles which contain similar keywords.

To get started with your advertising campaigns, check out The Next Web’s informative Google AdWords beginner’s guide, where you’ll learn how to build and launch a successful AdWords campaign.

8. Share the Load with Affiliate Marketing

Trying to sell your products alone can be a difficult task, so why not share the load with others?

Affiliate marketing is when you let other people market your products and send you website traffic. In return, you pay them a percentage of any sales that originate from their efforts. Their marketing efforts can be kept track of by giving them unique hyperlinks (which they can post on their website) containing an ID code at the end of the link, just for them.

For example, a website owner may post your affiliate link for a blue sweater that is for sale on your website. If one of his website visitors clicks the link and then buys the blue sweater, you’ll have made a sale, and as an affiliate, the website owner will be entitled to a percentage of that sale.

The success of affiliate marketing schemes depends greatly on the types of products you sell, as well as the commission percentage you reward your affiliate partner.

To get started, check out this explanatory affiliate marketing guide from QuickSprout, which goes into great detail about the different facts, figures, and methods you’ll need to know.

9. Sell Wholesale to Other Retailers

Selling to consumers is fine, but there’s nothing wrong with selling wholesale to other retailers, too, especially if the consumers aren’t biting as often as you’d like them to.

One of the main advantages of selling wholesale is the obvious increase in cash flow. You may be selling with a finer profit margin, but you’ll be shifting products in quantity.

Additionally, if you’re selling your own products, you’re essentially enabling other companies and resellers to market for you, spreading the word about your merchandise as they buy it themselves. In other words, selling wholesale could indirectly boost your consumer sales.

For a crash course on the basics of selling wholesale, check out Entrepreneur’s guide to starting a wholesale distribution business.

10. Publish a Press Release

Lots of new online stores push out press releases in order to attract media attention, but fail.

It goes without saying that to get ignored by every single news outlet when distributing a new press release is demoralizing and often a huge waste of resources.

The secret to getting noticed is simple. Don’t publish a lousy press release!!!

First of all, make sure your news actually is news worthy. Don’t expect a massive response unless you’re giving the public something seriously interesting to read about. Also, a press release should be presented in a way that is concise and professional, without being too monotonous.

Copyblogger has pieced together six ways to write a killer press release, explaining everything from avoiding jargon to creating a magnetic headline.

11. Pay Attention to Stats

Reviewing and acting upon website analytics is paramount. The behavior of every website visitor from entry to exit helps you understand why you are selling, and more importantly, why you aren’t.

Your website stats (or analytics) will show you what your customers are doing on your site, including which web pages they enter, the time they spend on particular pages, and the route they take to leave your site. Occasionally, some tools will display additional information, for instance how frequently a customer visits your site.

It won’t cost you a penny, either. Google Analytics is a completely free service, allowing you to measure your traffic in more ways than you can think of.

Here’s an example from Miracle Berry. You can see steady traffic up until early January when there is a huge jump. They looked at their data and saw that the jump came from StumbleUpon, which could be a good indicator that the social channel is worth pursuing further, either organically or via paid placement.

After you launch your online store and while you’re fighting for your first sale, it’s extremely important to spend time analyzing your traffic in Google Analytics. You never know what you’re going to learn.

If you need a hand getting a grip on the world of analytics, Simply Business offers a comprehensive Google Analytics guide, covering everything you need to know.

12. Run a Survey

Learning about the common pain points and desires of consumers can help you make all the right moves going forward.

Consumer surveys are an ideal tool for obtaining honest feedback. Unlike your friends and family, consumers have no qualms about hurting your feelings by picking at your web design or your marketing material.

To run your very own survey, you can make use of online apps like Survey Monkey and Qualaroo to create online surveys.

Econsultancy has picked up on some important practices to be used whenconducting e-commerce consumer surveys, which can help you get the most out of your feedback.

13. Network on Forums

Online discussion forums are great places to give out industry tips and advice, answer questions, and acquire a customer or two.

Use Google to search out some active forums that may directly relate to your niche. When you post, ensure you aren’t breaking any forum rules when you promote your brand or products. Get to know the limits and restrictions of the forum, and stick to them. Using your forum avatar, signature, and profile page to promote your brand are usually well within the rules.

You may feel the temptation to post and promote wildly, but keep it professional. No forum will tolerate constant promotion or posts full of links to your website. Bedsides, acting in such a way online will damage your brand in the eyes of other forum users. So, keep it simple by posting just enough for people to notice your activity, but not enough to constitute spam.

Two popular business focused forums worth getting active on are Digital Point andWarrior Forum, both of which have thriving, helpful communities.

14. Set up a Cartel

Sometimes it’s nice to have some support. A small online cartel could be just the trick.

Find a group of complementary (but not competitive) retailers and agree to promote and support each other. It’s a brilliantly simple way to gain traction in a variety of ways.

For example, if you run an online clothing store, ideal cartel candidates might include jewelry and footwear outlets. Essentially, the stores you would partner with are similar enough to be able to cross-promote and share advice, but not similar enough to create a conflict of interest.

You can opt for a completely private setup, keeping things small and tight-knit, or you can branch out and publicize your online cartel in order to attract more members to help build a supportive community of online merchants.

Take The ecommerce Group for example. Operating via a Facebook group, they have over 2,500 members sharing advice, giving feedback, and providing a helping hand whenever possible.

15. Build the Right Relationships

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Building the right relationships, both online and offline, can act as your portal to success.

No matter what type of product you sell or which industry you work within, there always are like-minded businesses out there, and you need to befriend them.

The trick is to build relationships with others that are closely aligned to your business but not direct competitors.

For example, suppliers, blogs, and websites that focus on your industry would be ideal, as they can help provide you with consumer feedback and offer promotional deals, without stepping on your digital toes.

To learn more about how to build a positive relationship with your supplier, All Business offers a great relationship building tutorial.

16. Offer a Contest or Giveaway

Everybody loves free stuff, and if you’re looking to build up some trust while launching your sales efforts, a contest or giveaway could help you do just that.

Not only can contests and giveaways help you build valuable inbound links, they also are a great way to show potential customers that you can be trusted and that your brand means business.

It’s important to remember you don’t have to start big. Tease Tea is a new online tea store running a simple contest on their Facebook page.

This contest costs no money to run and likely took only a few minutes to put together.

Online services like ViralSweep and Gleam allow you to run such contests and giveaways online, helping you to keep things simple and professional without all the added work.

Get started by checking out Stoked SEO’s brilliant tutorial on how to get a ton of eCommerce traffic via giveaways.

17. Begin Tweeting on Twitter

Twitter’s beautiful simplicity is what makes it one of the most effective ways to engage with your target market. An excellent method for finding potential customers is to proactively search for people tweeting questions about your industry and reach out to them in a helpful way.

The idea is not to pitch or even mention your products – just be helpful. For example, when Gary Vaynerchuk was running Wine Library, he would search “Chardonnay” on Twitter and find people asking related questions. All he did was offer advice; he never pitched.

As a result, people would be grateful and naturally look further into who he was, and ultimately discover his business on their own. This is just one of many Twitter strategies that can work wonders for your sales figures.

If you need some real life examples of how to nail Twitter marketing, take a look at the Twitter profile of online jewelry store Lola Rose, which could teach you a thing or two.

18. Make Connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the office block of the Internet. Within it, you’ll find professionals and executives of all types, boasting about their abilities and connecting with others. It’s an online resume so to speak.

After you set up your e-commerce business profile, you can begin doing the same for yourself (if you haven’t already). You may not make many direct sales through LinkedIn, but you’ll discover an array of opportunities with other companies, suppliers, related websites, and more.

LinkedIn Groups also are a stellar way to engage with other business owners in your industry. There are vast amounts of public and private groups set up for specific niches, allowing you to post questions and converse with other members.

To find some relevant Groups, check out Practical Ecommerce’s top ten LinkedIn Groups for ecommerce.

19. Go Visual with Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine

When it comes to representing personality and creativity via social media, the three big visual platforms do it best.

Pinterest, Instagram, and most recently Vine, all allow you to take a slightly different approach to engaging with consumers.

These platforms are the perfect place to present the creativity and passion that goes into your business behind the scenes. Snap pictures of your products, take videos of the manufacturing process, tell a story with images. Always aim for beauty if possible. People love beauty.

Need some visual inspiration? Melt Cosmetics is a new brand that already has over 150,000 followers on Instagram.

They are doing a great job of Instagram marketing, building up a brand image and a following with their beautiful photographs.

20. Don’t Forget Facebook

It may not be what it once was, but make no mistake, Facebook still is a social media powerhouse.

Leverage your personal Facebook profile and your business page to engage with friends, family, and acquaintances and to get people talking about your products. Get creative with status updates and interact on public groups and fan pages relevant to your niche.

It’s also important to keep Facebook Ads in mind. Much like with AdWords, you can create targeted campaigns to attract Likes, make sales, and promote your brand.

A popular blow drying salon in Toronto called Drybar has an extremely engagedFacebook community of over 80,000 who talk all things blow drying.

If you’re fresh out of ideas for your Facebook business page, check out Shopify’sten ways ecommerce brands can increase traffic and sales with Facebook.

21. Beat the Competition on Comparison Shopping Engines

Many, if not all, consumers like to shop around before making a purchase, and that includes a visit to comparison shopping engines.

Popular engines include The Find, Google Shopping, Nextag, and a range of others, all with thousands of products and stores being simultaneously compared.

Here’s an example from The Find where I’m searching for a price comparison on my favorite hot sauce.

To get noticed, you need to play by the rules of each engine, stay competitive in terms of price, and play the waiting game while you experiment to find out which engine suits you the best and gives you the best ROI.

PC Pro has put together a detailed guide on how to get noticed on Google Shopping, and Shopify has a list of the 10 most popular comparison shopping engines with a brief explanation of each one.

22. Create an Infographic

An infographic is exactly what the name implies, a graph of information, or a visual representation of facts and statistics in a form that is easy to digest.

Although they aren’t entirely easy to create, infographics are gold when it comes to social shares and search engine traffic.

In fact, according to UnBounce, which has created an inspiring and detailed guide to marketing with infographics, people are searching for infographics like you wouldn’t believe, with Google seeing an 800% increase in such searches in the last two years.

If you aren’t a visual genius, there’s no need to worry, plenty of firms like Column Five Media offer infographic creation services, leaving you to focus on content.

23. Design your Store to Look the Part

First impressions are everything, and when it comes to selling online, first impressions rely heavily on web design.

Based entirely on your website design, visitors need to be able to grasp your brand and products without too much scrolling or exploring. Furthermore, navigating through your catalog should be easy, if not enjoyable.

Additionally, making your store responsive to mobile devices is nothing short of vital. Perhaps more so than having a website built for standard PCs and Laptops.Internet Retailer recently reported that 55% of all online shopping occurred via mobile devices in June 2013 compared with just 45% from desktops and laptops. We’re seeing similar numbers with our stores at Shopify. So, looking the part on all devices is an absolute must.

To get some creative ideas about your own store’s design, have a look at Smashing Magazine’s list of 35 beautiful ecommerce websites and Inspired Magazine’s roundup of 40 stunning online stores.

24. Hold a Pop-up Store

Just because your store began online, it doesn’t mean it has to stay online. A pop-up store could be just what you need to compliment your online presence.

Unlike traditional bricks-and-mortar premises, a pop-up store is far less of a financial burden, thanks to its temporary nature.

Like most kinds of physical stores, a pop-up store is all about location. You can open a pop-up store at farmers markets, art fairs, shopping malls, galleries, and any other place people gather. Just make sure you’re set up in an area that is clearly visible and where your target market will be wandering.

A pop-up store also can act as a great offline marketing outpost. You can use your store to hand out coupons to be used via your online store, and you can collect email subscriptions and social media followers.

For some ideas on how to get your pop-up store going, Business Insider has compiled no less than eighteen creative pop-up store ideas to get you thinking.

25. Document your Launch on Reddit

Reddit is a socially powered news and entertainment website where registered users submit content. Also, and more importantly, Reddit is a place where you can attract a large number of dedicated followers and customers.

Using the r/entrepreneur subreddit in particular, you can introduce your brand, gain feedback from consumers, and learn lessons, while also promoting your own products.

The process has to be one of give and take, though. Walk those entrepreneurial redditors through your journey, take them behind the scenes, detail your mistakes and expose some personality in order to gain not just customers, but fans, too.

A brilliant example of using Reddit to promote an online store is what the guys atBeardbrand did. The beard grooming specialists documented their launch on the r/entrepreneur subreddit, deriving valuable advice from subscribers and customers, while giving back to them via regular updates and inside information.

Here’s the founder posting an update to the r/entrepreneur community.

Note how many upvotes and comments this post received. Reddit can be an extremely powerful tool, not only for gaining valuable educational resources to help you start your business, but also for helping you make your first sale.

It’s In Your Hands

The 25 strategies listed above are stellar ways to kick-start sales for your online store. Also, check out a guide I wrote with Sean Work of KISSmetrics titled 50 Ways to Make Your First Sale. It’s a free, in-depth guide on how new online entrepreneurs can make their first sale.

With the right approach, you will need only a handful of the strategies listed above to make the first of many sales.

So, what are you waiting for?