When you open a business, no matter what sort of E-Commerce Product it supplies, you will feel extremely attached to it. After all, it is your baby and you want to make sure that it is ready to be exposed to the world. Your business is ultimately a reflection of you and the amount of effort that you put into perfecting it. Do not let your efforts go to waste by not having a good marketing plan to back up your business. Instead, consider these top tips in order to get your business on the right path so that it can truly shine out to your potential customers.
1. Considering your Target Audience
Before you even think of putting your product out into the hurricane of the world of e-commerce, you need to take a moment to define the audience you will be ultimately marketing towards. For instance, if you are marketing towards an adult audience with a sexual pleasure product, then you will see that your range of potential customers will be limited to adults, couples and extremely niche businesses. Your range of digital platforms for selling your product may also be limited due to this, as platforms like Facebook and Youtube do not allow for adult content (even if it is not crude.) However, if you are planning on selling a toy brand then your audience will be focused on children but also their parents, the people who will ultimately buy your product.
A way to figure out your target audience is by looking at your competition. For example, if you are planning on selling on bathroom products, take a look at larger brands, like Lush, take a peek at the sort of people who buy their products. This may be more of a female customer, young adults or people looking for simple presents to give to their friends or family. It is extremely important to filter out the majority of audience ranges that will not impact your brand. Instead, hone down on the main target audience and create an advertising campaign towards them that will truly stand out.
2. What sort of Brand are you?
Instead of comparing yourself to your competition, it is essential that you address what parts of your product make it stand out. What is unique about your product will ultimately set it apart from its competition. This can be in relation to its:
⦁ Quality (aka. you are the better product)
⦁ Cost (How much cheaper your product is)
⦁ A Combination of Quality and Cost
Whilst these are the main ways of making your product stand out, you can also use current day issues to market your product. How green are your manufacturing methods? Mother Earth is currently in crisis due to urban waste, air pollution, acid rain and many other problems that will affect every population on earth. If your product can help the environment or does not negatively affect it, then you can use this to assist in your marketing and overall advertisement campaign. Appeal to your client’s emotions and intelligence and your marketing will always be memorable.
3. Make sure that you have the right team behind you
Yes, it is always good to have the right set of employees working on your product directly, but the last thing you need is to start feeling overwhelmed because you are working solely on your marketing campaign. After all, you need to consider that you are handling your daily business activities as well. That means that when a mistake is actually made, this can leave you feeling isolated and like you have nowhere to turn to in order to figure out how to rectify the situation.
Instead of taking the world on your shoulders, you must pick the right marketing team that has had experience with similar brands. For instance, if we again use the Adult Product as an example, you will need to look have to find the right team, such as Adult Creative, who would be comfortable dealing with sexual topics, as well as have experience in knowing which marketing techniques will work best with your brand.
Whilst you do not need to listen to everything that your marketing team recommends, they will be able to provide you with the advice you need to improve on your overall brand. Should a mistake happen within the advertising campaign, they should be able to give you their experience and help you get out of any situation. They will also be able to help you with both your Traditional and Digital Marketing.
4. Unique Campaigns
Once you understand your brand and your audience, it is time to move on to the actual marketing campaign. Most brands are happy to use online campaigns, such as PPC advertisements on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, or use poster advertisements out in public to gain attention. But there are always quirkier ways to display your product to make sure that they grab the public’s attention. Once you have pumped out your main advertisements online and offline, why not include advertising via:
⦁ Sidewalk Chalk Writing Campaigns (Most effective for Local Businesses)
⦁ Use Urban Surroundings to inspire Slogans and Taglines
⦁ Commissioning Public Art to include your Slogan
⦁ Sponsorship Opportunities (i.e. Bikes or Local Events)
⦁ Contests (i.e. art, photo, video, random draws, giveaways)
If your advertisement offers something to your target audience in a creative way or as a reward, you are guaranteed to grab their attention.
5. Consider the Digital World
Of Course, if you are considering your marketing options, you just have to look into the Digital World to bring your product to life. Think of the internet like an endlessly growing tree. It can spread out far in a number of larger and smaller branches. At the end of one of those branches is your intended audience and your specific marketing group. You just need to be able to find the right platform (i.e. website, video uploads, social media uploads, etc) to be able to grow a sustainable audience who is interested in your product. Always remember that if you create a website for your brand, you need it to be interactive. It has to be modern but simple to use. If it is too complicated then your audience may be scared away from actually purchasing your products. Here is a best website builder for Ecommerce which is very helpful for you to create a website.
6. SEO Assistance
With over 3.5 billion searches being made per day on Google, you need your website and overall brand to be easy to locate in relation to its overall topic. People barely go past page 3 of Google’s Suggested Websites, which is why you will need as much help as you can to get it to Page 1. Being on Page 1 of Google’s Searches will make it easy for your target customer to find you and your brand. That is why you need to consider implementing SEO techniques in order to bring your ranking up. This could include having more content on your website, in the form of blogs, as well as backlinks to trustworthy websites. The more trustworthy your website is seen for its information, the more likely Google will bring it forward to the forefront of its search engine.
If you are looking for the best way to keep an eye on your website’s SEO and ranking, why not invest in some SEO services software, such as Website Auditor, Screaming Frog or SEMRush? These forms of software will allow you to find the best ways of including relevant search terms in your content or any pages or meta descriptions that need to be filled. You can even go on Incognito mode to keep an eye on your website’s overall position.
7. Utilise Social Media
If you see yourself as an extremely creative individual, then using social media is about to become your best friend. After all, what is better than using a platform designed to directly interact with customers to show off the best side of your brand? Whether you decide to use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube, what you post to represent your product needs to be creative. Do not be scared to go outside the box, for instance, if you are marketing a beauty product, why not make creative nails patterns, hair colouring or clothing video? This can be in the form of a collaboration with competitors or used to embrace a specific holiday. Just remember to use the object you are advertising during your video. You can even pay Youtubers to market your product at the start or even during your video! The more relevant they are, the more likely your product may get views and brand new customers.
8. Test and Track
Not every marketing campaign you put into practice will end in success. That is the natural way of advertising. Some things really stand out whilst others just do not even make a dent. Whilst it is okay for this to happen, be sure to always make notes about the impact of these campaigns. If a product has started to sell better due to a specific advertisement, then you can write this down and compare it to previous sales or advertisement campaigns.
Basically, you always need to have a way of measuring the results of both of your larger and smaller advertisement and marketing campaigns. The more information you have on these campaigns, such as where they were held, what market they were aimed at and whether they were on or offline, the more likely that you can create a future advertisement that you can mould to boost your sales.
9. Listen to your Customer
Whether this is in the form of a review page on your website or sending out a survey to your customers via the post, one of the best ways of getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of your business is to hear feedback from your customers. Your customer will always be honest about what they think needs to improve, thus you need to be willing to listen to them. If you want genuine feedback, you can even offer rewards for more detailed answers, such as discounts or free samples of your product. The more feedback you get the more likely you can improve on any initial mistakes you may have made in your original business model.
10. Loyalty and Reward
Once your brand has created a steadfast following that is loyal to a fault, you cannot simply expect them to keep on blindly following you. You need to entice them into wanting to stay and earn their loyalty through benefits and rewards. After all, their reviews completely determine whether others will go to your company in the future. Take word-of-mouth advertising extremely seriously, for one bad review can seriously impact your business.
Praise loyalty with discounts and even, if you are feeling generous, free products. Whilst you do not have to give away a lot, if your customers start to feel like they are getting a reward for their continued loyalty, they are more likely to stay with your brand. You can even consider creating a loyalty card, like Boots have created, in order for your customer to earn points and rewards based on the amount they spend in your store!
Your Business is your Baby, Market it Properly!
One of the main things that you need to remember is that creating a good business marketing plan takes time. You cannot afford to be impatient with your brand. Instead you need to remain in control and give it the time and space to grow. Your business is like a seedling, with the right environment, nutrients, water and sunlight, it may grow into a large tree. If you are willing to put the effort into your marketing campaign then this will definitely help your business blossom into the brand that it truly deserves to be.
Good Luck!
