It isn’t all bad news, however. For as time moves on we’re getting an ever better understanding of how to get our message across and create a successful ecommerce strategy.
For that reason, as you’re building your marketing plan, consider embracing these ecommerce strategies.
Focus on the customer
One of the problems that has plagued ecommerce is that a lot of companies seem to think it’s all about creating hype and viral social media posts. That it’s all about creating huge amounts of engagement with their material and that the customers will naturally follow.
It’s slowly becoming clear that that might not be the best way forward.
Instead, just like with a brick-and-mortar business the most important people are the customers you already have. Why? Because they cost you less to market to and spend more money in your business.
The logic of that is easy. Once a customer has made a first purchase, the chance that they will make a second purchase is much greater. And once they’ve made that second one, the same goes for the third one.
That means that if you market to them, not only is the chance that they’ll buy bigger, but that they’ll buy again and again is bigger as well. That means you have to spend less money on getting them to buy and they’ll buy more often.
What’s more, if you can make them come back again and again, chances are good they’ll not just buy your products but tell their friends and colleagues about you as well. And that is far better marketing than any campaign you can come up with.
So take care of the customers you already have and they’ll take care of bringing you new ones.
Broaden your reach
Ecommerce is becoming more global. It’s no longer just Europeans and Americans who are buying stuff online, but now the people in Asia are as well. So, if you’re selling something that can easily be shipped out to Asia, start finding ways to approach that market.
That means, offering up your content in other languages (particularly Chinese) as well as adjusting your image so that you appeal to both western as well as Asian minded people. That might mean using models that have a slightly less western look, as well as adjusting the colors of your site to fit a more international market.
The good news? It’s still a lot cheaper to market to non-western publics. That means you’ll get far more bang for your buck than it would be to market to US customers alone, for example.
Create content
If you’re not doing so yet, consider starting a blog. This can be an incredibly effective marketing strategy for a ecommerce company on a budget. It can allow you to build your brand, tell your story and push yourself up the rankings on Google as you’ll have a constant stream of new content that will rate well.
Of course, if you’re going to start a blog it’s important to consider a few points. First of all, less is more. You’re trying to create a ecommerce site and use your blog to boost your exposure. You’re not trying to start a blogging career. So don’t feel that you’ve got to put content up every day of the week. Once a week is often more than enough.
Content is king. So make sure your is of the highest quality. The point above will already help in that regard. Don’t stop there, however. Get help. This can be a friend who help you edit or a writing site that can help you out. I personally think Lord of Papers is a great site to use, but you should make sure to find your own.
If content is kind, then marketing is the queen of the land. If people don’t know about the blog, then it won’t be very effective. Spend just as much time marketing your blog as writing it.
Blogging is a long-term strategy. It’s something that you do on the side of normal marketing in the hopes that as it builds it will move more to center stage. So don’t be impatient and don’t start off with sky-high expectations.
Last words
Don’t become over-dependent on mobile telephony
Here’s a sobering statistic: Mobile telephony only converts at about 1/3rd of the rate of laptops and desktops. Yes, that’s right. All those websites that have been telling you that you have to be mobile compatible and that the future of mobile telephony neglected to mention that, didn’t they?
Does that mean being mobile compatible is a bad idea? Not in the slightest. Mobile telephony is still how the majority of people access the internet. It just isn’t how most of them are buying what they’re looking for.
They’re doing that on other devices.
That means two things: First of all, you’ve got to simplify your check out process so that people can do it easily from their fiddly telephones. Secondly, you have to make it easy for people to save their information while they’re checking things out on their phone, so that if they do want to move over to some other device to make the purchase there, they won’t struggle to do so.
With those two things in place, the gap between the different devices shouldn’t be a problem. Without them, you’ll be losing a lot of money.
Last words
Ecommerce is new. That means there are a lot of strategies floating around that might seem to work but end up being disappointing. Don’t let yourself get strangled by one of those. Be ready to let a strategy that doesn’t work go. That is just as important as trying out something new.
Yes, I know it hurts to stop doing something that you’ve invested a lot of time in, but sometimes that can be a real anchor and if you don’t let it go, you can sink with it to the bottom of the ocean. You don’t want that. So stay alert and stay nimble.