1Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

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Digital Marketingfor eCommerce:Everything youneed to know

2Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

An introduction to digital marketing .....................................................................................

Advantages and challenges of digital marketing ...................................................................

Digital marketing channels explained ...................................................................................

Which social media channels should you invest in? ..............................................................

Social media best practices ...................................................................................................

What is SEO? .........................................................................................................................

SEO dos and don’ts ...............................................................................................................

Key metric definitions ..........................................................................................................

Creating KPIs and measuring performance ..........................................................................

When digital marketing goes right: How to handle increases in order volume .....................

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Table of Contents

1Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

An introduction to digital marketing

Digital marketing in eCommerce has transformed the retail industry and the way in which businesses need to think about their retail marketing strategies.

What is digital marketing?

Put simply, digital marketing is a catch-all term to describe all of your online marketing efforts. Businesses can leverage online channels such as social media, paid advertising, email marketing, and content marketing to connect with prospective customers and better serve existing customers. Each of these channels would fall under the “digital marketing” umbrella.

REACH NEW MARKETS TARGET THE RIGHT

PEOPLE

PUT THE CUSTOMER

FIRST

2Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Why is digital marketing important for eCommerce businesses?

Today, a savvy and forward-thinking digital marketing strategy is crucial to the success of any retail business. For example, 80% of digital marketers think Facebook is an effective use of resources for small businesses, and it’s easy to see why - digital channels like social media marketing and paid search have allowed retail businesses to reach more customers than ever before.

While previously retail marketers would need to rely on physical store locations as a basis for their marketing efforts, today customer geography is spread out over a much wider area, sometimes even on a global scale.

The proliferation of eCommerce trading means customers can more easily shop around to find the best value. The result is that customer loyalty and repeat business are harder than ever to obtain for most businesses.

Through online channels, retail marketers can overcome these challenges by directly connecting with customers and providing highly personalized service.

Online marketing allows businesses to connect with the right prospective customers through sophisticated targeting - a far more advanced approach than traditional marketing methods.

Read more about how digital marketing in eCommerce has changed retail.

3Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Advantages and challenges of digital marketing

Digital marketing for eCommerce has had a significant, positive impact on SME retail marketers, but there are some challenges inherent to digital marketing. Here are some of the pros and cons.

Smaller businesses are now able to

compete with large companies in terms of

customer reach and driving leads.

In a recent report, 48% of SMEs said they

didn’t know whether their digital marketing

efforts were effective. eCommerce

businesses need to define marketing

objectives and measure results for digital

marketing to be most effective.

Targeted marketing efforts open up a huge

pool of potential customers to any sized

business - maximizing use of marketing

budget and the potential for leads.

With widespread access to online

shopping comes increased customer

demand. Businesses need to be constantly

innovating to provide tailored service in

line with customers’ changing needs.

SMEs can compete with

the big guys

Being effective in your digital

marketing efforts

There’s a whole new world of

prospective customers

Providing a personalized

service

Advantages Challenges

4Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Digital marketing channels explained

Any form of online marketing where you pay for ads. It can be in the form of pay per click (PPC) advertising, where you pay every time a person clicks on your ad, or cost per thousand (CPM), where you pay per thousand impressions your ad receives. Includes platforms such as Google AdWords, Google Display Network ads, and Facebook advertising.

Covers any marketing activity you undertake on social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Twitter. Social media marketing is one of the foremost ways to gain exposure for your business and engage with your customer base.

Creating sticky, engaging content online that your customers or potential customers are interested in. Content marketing is most often in the form of blog content on a website, but includes everything from infographics to videos.

Paid marketing

Social media marketing

Content marketing

5Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Optimizing content and the structure of your website to improve your organic (non-paid) rankings in search engines. SEO is an essential part of any organic content marketing strategy, as search engines are one of the most common ways new customers will find your business - as long as you are ranking near the top of the search results.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Performance-based digital marketing where you pay for conversions rather than clicks or impressions. Usually you pay a commission to an external website for any traffic or sales that have been referred by that website.

Affiliate marketing

Sending email updates, special offers, etc. to a list of subscribers. Email marketing can be a great way to nurture and retain your existing customer base, or to incentivize potential customers to make apurchase.

Email marketing

Usually involves a combination of the above digital marketing strategies, which results in a fast and significant increase in interest for your business. It generally involves mass sharing of a marketing piece through any online channel, or online interest coming from other means such as TV or grassroots marketing.

Viral marketing

6Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Social media is an extremely popular form of digital marketing, and it’s easy to see why – it can be used to engage and nurture existing customers, and reach out to a huge network of potential customers all in the one place. Here are some most common platforms and when they’re best used.

Which social media channels should you invest in?

Facebook

Considering the versatility of the platform, Facebook is a great starting point for most B2C eCommerce businesses, particularly those with a target market aged 25-34. The marketing options are vast, as is the audience base.

A worthwhile platform for eCommerce businesses with a visually appealing product or service, particularly in the food, fashion, travel, fitness or art industries. An average engagement rate of 4.21% makes Instagram one of strongest platforms for businesses.

Instagram

7Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Skews younger than Facebook or Instagram, with 46.8% of its users between the ages of 18 and 24. It also tends to be a much more expensive advertising option, so should be considered carefully before investing in.

Best utilized by eCommerce businesses offering B2B products or services. Keep in mind that the cost per click tends to be higher than other social media advertising.

Similar to Instagram, Pinterest marketing is most effective for businesses in sectors such as food, fashion, travel etc., where the product or service is visually appealing and the target market is highly engaged.

LinkedIn

Snapchat

Pinterest

8Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Read more about increasing sales through social media marketing.

While best practice on social media depends on the platform and your type of eCommerce business, there are some general rules you should follow.

Social media best practices

Respond and interact

with followers

Be transparent

Keep it short

and sweet

Strategize

Use your

brand voice

Review and revise

Show that you are engaged and interested

in your audience.

Consumers appreciate honesty, and it will help

build trust with your community.

Try to be as punchy as possible, unless it’s

a lengthier thought leadership piece or

story.

All your social media activities should tie into your overarching digital

marketing strategy.

How does your audience speak or want to hear you speak? Stick

to a defined tone.

Don’t keep posting the same content if it isn’t

working – measure your success and refine your approach continually.

9Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

SEO is the practice of optimizing your website’s content and structure to improve your ranking in Google and other search engines, and ultimately, drive more organic (non-paid) traffic to your website. When implemented correctly, search engine optimization can have a significant impact on the number of potential customers visiting your website, leading to higher conversion rates. Strong SEO can even give you the edge over competitors if you’re able to rank higher for key terms on search engine result pages (SERPs).

However, there are certain approaches to SEO that, while still widely used, will actually be penalized by Google and other search engines – pushing you further down in search results. Read on to find out what you should be considering when optimizing your website, and what to avoid.

What is SEO?

SEO can directly improve awareness of your brand. The goal is for your business to sit at the top of search results relevant to your products and services – leading customers and clients to see you as the best of the best.

ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ

TradeGecko’s Head of Search Marketing

SEO

10Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Everybody wants to see their website on the first page of search results. Follow these tips to ensure your search engine optimization techniques are putting you on the right track.

SEO dos and don’ts

Fresh, compelling content that provides value to your audience can mean the difference between an average website and one that consistently shows up at the top of search results.

Tools such as SEMRush are useful for finding out which keywords have the highest search volume (i.e. the highest number of searches by users). Once you know your focus keywords, be sure to use them only where they fit naturally.

Always consider complementary pages or pieces of existing content on your website that you can link from in any new content you create. You can also go back to older pieces of content and update them with links to new articles you’ve created.

Every page on your website should have a keyword-rich page title (70 characters or less including spaces), meta description (155 characters or less including spaces), and H1 heading.

Factors like slow site speed and poor mobile usability can seriously hinder your search engine rankings.You can use Google’s free website tester to see how your website is performing, and updating your site regularly will help withlong-term results.

Write well-researched, relevant, and engaging content

SEO dos

Use keywords wisely

Use internal linking

Optimize metadata

Make your website user- and mobile-friendly

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Read more about SEO best practices.

11Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Gone are the days when a website footer with 100 keyword-rich links were the ticket to SEO success. These days, those kinds of tactics are frowned upon by search engines, so be sure to use keywords appropriately and in the right places.

As search engine algorithms become more sophisticated, they are tending

towards original content more and more – and conversely, they will penalize

websites for content duplicated from other sites. Make sure your content is

unique wherever possible to avoid hurting your rankings.

Participating in link networks and buying backlinks are outdated SEO methods

that simply don’t work. As is the overarching focus of SEO practice today, quality

trumps quantity, so let the link juice flow naturally.

Unlike other digital marketing efforts like paid advertising, where you can

sometimes see results almost instantaneously, SEO can be a slow burn and take

time to yield noticeable results. Your SEO goals should therefore be spread over

a longer period – at least a month to measure improvement.

Read more about common SEO mistakes.

Stuff keywords into your content or website

SEO don’ts

Copy content

Buy into link exchanges or schemes

Expect success overnight

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To find out how your digital marketing efforts are performing, you first need to identify the metrics by which your success will be measured. Some of the most common metrics include:

Changes in the volume or type of traffic to your website are a good indicator of whether your digital marketing techniques are effective. This includes factors such as overall site traffic, traffic sources (where your customers are coming from), time on site and bounce rate.

Traffic

If you’re running paid ads or email marketingas part of your marketing campaign, your clickthrough rate can tell you which content isgarnering the most clicks from visitors.

Your CTR should be measured against theaverage for your industry.

CTR (Click Through Rate)

If you are running ad campaigns, you should look at how much you are paying per click on your ad or per thousand impressions, depending on the type of campaign.

CPC (Cost Per Click)/CPM (cost per

thousand impressions)

Key metric definitions

13Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

As an eCommerce business, conversions will most likely be defined as product sales on your website. Measure your sales against previous periods to see how your digital marketing efforts are improving business.

Conversions

This is the cost you have paid to acquire new customers over a certain period. You can calculate it by tallying your total marketing and advertising costs then dividing it by how many paying customers you had during that time.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

14Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

Setting objectives for your digital marketing initiatives and measuring performance is crucial to ensuring your efforts are successful.

Creating KPIs and measuringperformance

How to create KPIs for your business

Once you have identified the key metrics by which you will be measuring performance and understand your industry standards, you should set targets, or key performance indicators, so you know if you are meeting your goals.

You should define the following:

Where you currently stand against all your chosen metrics.

The places you will implement your strategy e.g. Google ads, social media, website content, email marketing etc.

This could be more sales, brand awareness, customer loyalty, or a combination of objectives.

How long it should take you to achieve your goals.

What digital marketing activities you are putting into place to achieve your objectives.

The percentage or amount by which you want to see each of your key metrics improve.

Your baseline

Your mainobjectives

Yourstrategy

ChannelsTimeperiod

Growthforecast

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How to measure your digital marketing success

When you’ve locked down your KPIs, it’s important to continually check in on how you’re performing against those objectives. Record your monthly results by metric and channel, so you can identify areas where you’re achieving your KPIs, as well as areas where you need to revisit your tactics.

Our free Digital Marketing Tool for eCommerce businesses allows you to record your key metrics, marketing channels and performance data in one place – and it pre-populates key reports so you can easily see how you’re tracking.

Read more about setting KPIs for eCommerce digital marketing.

DOWNLOAD FREE TOOL

16Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

When your eCommerce digital marketing campaign succeeds, you can usually expect that a significant increase in order volumes will follow. Here’s how to streamline your inventory and order management processes when you experience an influx of orders.

When digital marketing goes right: how to handle increases in order volume

Looking at sales data from previous marketing campaigns can give you valuable insights into typical customer behaviors, your most popular products seasonally and during peak times, and any areas where you can improve your approach in the future.

Any successful eCommerce business understands the need for scalability. Before launching any new marketing campaign, you should ensure you have a sophisticated eCommerce platform and inventory management system set up. You’ll also need to make sure that the limit on store items and customer purchases is high enough to accommodate a major increase in orders.

Make your eCommerce business

scalable

Analyze, analyze, analyze

17Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

When you’re preparing to launch or ramp up a digital marketing campaign, you’ll need to make sure you have enough inventory to meet a spike in demand and reduce the risk of stockouts. Your safety stock level should be high enough to cover your forecast increase in customers and take into account your supplier’s delivery times. Learn more about calculating a safety stock level for your business.

Once you’ve considered factors such as your lead time (how long you need to wait for stock from your suppliers) and your safety stock level, you can determine the point at which you’ll usually need to reorder more stock, also known as your reorder point.

Know your reorder point

Calculate your safety stock level

18Digital marketing for eCommerce: Everything you need to know

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About TradeGecko | tradegecko.com

TradeGecko is powerful inventory and order management software on web and mobile. Every product, order and customer is managed in one place along with the best eCommerce, accounting and shipping integrations. It also includes a customizable B2B eCommerce Store so you can sell wholesale online with unique prices for each customer.