Standing out in today’s digital world seems like an insurmountable obstacle at times. Digital marketing is about more than merely getting noticed. It is about turning that attention into conversions. Creating an effective marketing strategy for e-commerce can be tricky.
Step 1: Branding
Your brand is the ultimate foundation for your online business. Your brand should be easily recognizable and interchangeable between different online environments and required sizes.
Step 2: Website
Your website is an online extension of your business. It should be in line with your brand and have the ability to grow and move with your company. Unless you have vast experience with technology, programming, and web development, you will need a content management system. This allows you to manage your website’s content without needing a lot of coding experience.
Magento and Shopify are the top e-commerce platforms for building websites. Do your research and find a platform that fits you and your brand. Keep in mind the platform you choose will be the foundation of your online presence. Platform migration can be difficult and expensive, so choose wisely.
Step 3: Design and Development
Website design and user experience are essential for your digital presence as a business. You want your site to be mobile friendly without the need for developing a separate mobile site. Many consumers like surfing the web almost exclusively from their mobile devices. Responsive design is crucial for user interface and experience across all devices.
If you have the budget, consider hiring a Shopify or Magento developer. Be cognizant of your budget and what to expect. Do your best to maximize the money you have by having a thought-out plan that you can communicate clearly. When considering design, think about content, fonts, sizing, color, contrast, and images.
When hiring a development company, look for a programming team that can provide clean, scalable code. It should be fairly easy to add new features and pages without the whole site falling apart. Make sure the company is familiar with Magento or Shopify programming.
Step 4: Content
You will need to create a strategy for content generation. Start out by developing client personas. Use information from social media, analytics, data and sales staff to divide customer base into three separate groups. You want to know the habits of these persons online and off. This helps give you an understanding of the people you are selling to.
Next, you want to develop an understanding of buying cycles, and how your client persons proceed through a buyer’s journey. Typical buyer’s journey goes through four stages: awareness, research, decision, and loyalty. You want to create content for each person through each stage of your buying cycle.
Try not to become overwhelmed by the size of this task. It will take time and work, but the rewards will be worth it. Start out by considering the resources you have at each stage of the cycle.
- Awareness (client discovers your brand): social networks, publishers and blogs, and search engines
- Research (client researches products and brand to determine fit): interactive tools, communities, and your own website and blog
- Decision (client makes decision to buy from or hire you): prices, promotions, e-commerce process, and products
- Loyalty (client decides whether to use your products or services in the future): social campaigns, marketing emails, customer advocacy
This requires creating content that will draw potential customers to your website, provide them with the information they want and need, and keep them coming back. You want to be consistent and with the brand. Although your tone and voice should remain the same throughout all content, the content itself may vary between personas and stage of the buyer’s journey.
Developing a digital marketing strategy takes time and resources. In today’s market, it is not something you can do without. Be intentional and know your customers and your brand. Make sure your website is intuitive and mobile friendly. If done correctly, digital marketing strategies can greatly increase your business and create happy customers.