How Digital Marketing Can Help Grow Your eCommerce Business
Digital marketing can help build a brand for your business online. Read on for more information about how digital marketing can help boost your business.
There are between 12 million and 24 million eCommerce sites online. As a business owner, that amounts to a lot of competition. So how can you rise above your competitors?
The only way is with a comprehensive marketing strategy. Read on as we discuss how digital marketing can help you.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of marketing tactics used in online settings. These can be very different, from launching digital ads to creating social media content and hiring influencers. However, all have the goal of raising your brand awareness, which should go on to increase leads and conversions.
If you have an eCommerce business, then you cannot go far without digital marketing. However, it also has its drawbacks. Successful digital marketing is a long-term strategy and should never be viewed as a quick fix.
Search Engine Optimization
One of the most vital aspects of marketing online is search engine optimization (SEO). This could cover an article in itself, but it is the task of improving your website so that it gains more traffic from search engines.
SEO can be broken down into on- and off-page SEO. On-page SEO covers things you do on your website. It may include improving the technical aspects like speed or adding the right content.
Off-page SEO is a little harder to achieve. It involves improving signals elsewhere on the web so that search engines think your website is relevant and important. Backlinks are a key component of this.
Finally, no discussion about SEO would be complete without keywords. These are words and phrases people type into search engines when they are looking for information. By including them in your content and on your website, you may get visitors to your site, which you can then work on turning into conversions.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a similar but very different approach to SEO. Optimization involves adapting your website to get free, organic traffic. Yet SEM is about using paid options and methods to achieve the same results.
This comes back to keywords. Imagine you have chosen ‘blue sneakers' as your term. When you pay for search engine marketing, if you win the bid, your result will appear at the top. This makes it highly likely the searcher will click on your link.
This offers a great return on investment, as it uses pay-per-click methods. You only get charged if someone clicks on the link. Once again, increased quality traffic should result in more sales.
Digital Ads
Digital ads can be used in a wide selection of ways. You can hire them to go on search engines, to get shown on social media, or even in permanent positions on websites. The main types of display ads are listed below.
Traditional
Traditional ads come in different sizes, such as banners, squares, and skyscrapers. Made of text and images, they are the ones you see dotted around many websites. They usually include a call to action, which tells readers what to do next.
Retargeting Ads
These look like traditional ads, but very cleverly only target people who have already visited your website. A very effective advertising form, it reminds people why they came. If they left to do something else and forgot about you, retargeting soon brings them back to complete the conversion.
Responsive Ads
Responsive ads use previous metrics on the user's behaviour to deliver the best ad possible. This will be the one most likely to result in a conversion. It could involve giving them content they like or changing the format of ads they see.
Email Marketing
For a while, email marketing lost its power as a digital marketing solution. Inboxes would fill with spam that most people ignored. However, all that has changed and email marketing is now one of the most powerful forms of marketing online.
Changes to privacy laws mean people now have to sign up to your email list to get updates. As a result, the people there already have an interest in your product. The right email can bring them back to your site, where you can then work on turning them into a conversion.
The best of all is that email marketing is free. Once you have ways in place to collect emails, you don't have to pay a penny. Make sure you use them sparingly and fill the email with valuable information, then watch the sales come.
Social Media Marketing
Social media can be a blessing and a curse. Many small businesses start on social media without knowing how to approach it. This can end up costing time and money and damaging their brand awareness.
A social media campaign should link to your other campaigns. For example, if you are creating content for SEO, it will be shared on social media. So will any advertising campaigns.
Small companies should start on one platform and learn everything about it. For example, if they open a Facebook account, they should learn about how Facebook ads work, how to run pages and groups, and what content works best.
Like all digital marketing, it is a long-term prospect. Build a dedicated following of those who care about the company and it will reward you in the future.
Starting With Digital Marketing
If this seems overwhelming, then don't be afraid to get assistance with digital marketing. This often improves the return on investment and can save a lot of time.
Jumpworks should be your first stop for digital marketing assistance. We can help train you and provide management of social media ads. Click here to learn more about our company and schedule a call.
