Best Ways to Implement an E-Commerce Marketing Campaign
E-commerce marketing is growing faster than ever. Last year, online retail spending grew by 14%, and experts say that it will continue to keep growing at an exponential rate. The market is already somewhat mature and established, and yet it continues to grow and capture a large portion of retail sales.
Suffice to say, e-commerce marketing is a possibility that you should explore. Here are the best ways to implement an e-commerce marketing campaign that will take advantage of this growth.
Define the goals of your e-commerce site.
When starting an e-commerce marketing campaign, one of the first things you should do is know what your goals are. To be successful and to continue being successful, there are a few things your campaign has to achieve.
First off, you have to be able to make sales and earn revenue. This is your number one goal. After you secure these two, you can begin generating leads, or looking for potential customers to grow your business. Creating brand awareness is another goal that will help spread word about your campaign.
You have to remember that all your efforts should bring you closer to achieving these main goals.
photo 401(K) 2012 via Flickr
Know your niche market.
When some businesses start out, they like to try and target the whole market–the logic being that having a bigger market will lead to more potential customers. But in reality, it’s easier to target your customers if you understand the niche of your business in the market.
For example, if you want to break into the market of selling bed mattresses, it might be tempting to try selling beds for everyone. However, if you think about it, you’ll realize that in such a broad market, you’ll have a lot of competition. How will you be any different from the other brands out there? The answer is to find your niche.
You want to find a niche where people either have a serious problem (wherein you can provide the solution) or one where people are extremely engaged and get high amounts of pleasure and satisfaction (wherein you provide their happiness).
Instead of selling regular mattresses, you can try selling special mattresses that are best for pregnant women. By entering a niche, you shed off a lot of competition (by being specific) while answering a demand.
Know your customers.
The next thing you should do is getting to know your customers. Knowing your customers equips you with the knowledge of how you can address their needs or their wants. What are their demographics? If you’re selling mattresses for pregnant women, then you’ll know that most of your customers will be heavily pregnant women.
Other things you should find out are where they hang out when they’re online, and what they want. What websites do they visit in their spare time? What do they read? What types of videos do they watch? More importantly, why do they want your product? Why do they need your product?
Once you know these details about your customers, you can then use the information to keep your current customers and/or attract more customers. You can also use this information to answer different needs that they may have with a different product or service.
Think of your marketing and promotional approach.
Now that you know more about your customers, you should think about how you will reach out to them. For an e-commerce marketing campaign, you’ll be doing your promotions online. Find out which channel will be the most effective at reaching your customers.
Will they be looking for you in search engines? Will they find out about you through social media? Or will you contact them directly through email? Once you find out which avenue will be the most effective–and remember that sometimes more than one method can be effective–it’s time for you to engage.
If your target market consists of young adults who are very active on social media, it makes sense to try and reach out to them this way. You could do that through viral videos or shareable content. On the other hand, customers who are extremely busy might appreciate a campaign that targets them specifically and contacts them personally through email.
Go full circle.
Finally, go back to your first step and see how each one has worked out for your business. Have you achieved your revenue goals? Are you creating a brand identity for yourself? Is your niche marketing effective? Do you know enough about your customers to effectively reach out to them? Are your current promotional approaches working for you, and by how much?
Answering these questions will help you identify what needs to be improved or what needs to be continued to secure the success of your campaign. For example, if a social media approach to young adults isn’t working, maybe there are more details about them that you need to know. Aside from improving or changing your tactics, you’ll need to monitor these aspects of your campaign as it’s in progress. Keep tabs on how each aspect is going will help you in the long run, as you don’t want to find out at the end of a campaign that one aspect was holding you back the whole time.
In the end, implementing a successful e-commerce campaign involves a lot of research. Knowing what you want to do, what you’re selling, and who you’re trying to reach isn’t just useful, it’s necessary. Use these tips in your campaign for a good chance at success.
Guest Author: Gabby Roxas
