3 strategy for E-commerce Growth
E-commerce has dominated the retail industry. According to Statistica, approximately 20% of retail transactions globally occurred through e-commerce in 2021. According to projections, these internet retailers will represent approximately a quarter of all retail sales globally by 2025.
The COVID-19 epidemic played a big role in the expansion of this online purchasing option. People started doing their shopping online as they stayed at home to prevent the illness. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, e-commerce sales jumped by $244.2 billion or 43%, going from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the Census Bureau.
The necessity to distinguish oneself from rivals has grown as the number of online retailers has multiplied. Given that e-commerce is a virtual experience, digital marketing methods are essential for differentiating your company from competitors. The greatest place to start is by using these three crucial strategies.
Customize Outreach Campaign
The impact tailored SMS campaigns had on customers inspired CEO and founder Danielle Hixenbaugh to launch Bloom Digital, a fully remote digital marketing business, in 2020.
According to Hixenbaugh, “Since COVID-19, I’ve observed that noticeably more buyers are desiring an emotional connection to a transaction. A large number of these people will appear on your SMS lists. This is due to the intimacy of SMS. People on your SMS list are interested in hearing from you and learning about future sales or new products. Make good use of this tool and communicate with your audience as you would a friend.
Another personal approach to invest in customers is through email campaigns, especially for companies with a limited marketing budget. The data contradicts some consumers’ claims that they don’t want to receive emails. The e-commerce sector gets the best return on investment for email marketing, according to Litmus. Marketers get $45 back for every $1 they spend on email marketing.
Loyalty Programmes
118 digital marketing and e-commerce executives were the subjects of a recent poll conducted by CommerceNext in collaboration with CommX. Results showed that the development of loyalty programmes that will foster deeper connections with customers is a key focus for these CEOs. In 2022, more than half of the participants said they intended to increase or introduce loyalty programmes.
Zsuzsa Kecsmar advises firms looking to improve customer loyalty to concentrate on the emotional component of loyalty programmes. Antavo, a provider of loyalty solutions, just released its 2022 Global Customer Loyalty Report, which Kecsmar is the CMO and co-founder of. The relevance of emotional appeal in loyalty programmes was highlighted by this study using survey responses from more than 320 global business individuals and data from more than 25 million member actions on Antava’s platform.
Discounts are no longer as efficient as incentives that have an emotional component, according to Kecsmar. Customers today have access to a vast variety of web stores and retailers, so brands must win customers over with heartfelt rewards rather than financial incentives. ‘In our survey, only 20.7% of current programme owners categorised their programme as more emotional than rational, while 53.6% of companies in the process of launching or relaunching their programme specified that their programme would be more emotional than rational, signalling that going forward, much more loyalty programmes will focus on generating emotional loyalty,’ said the researchers.
It’s important to emphasise that emotional commitment is not a zero-sum game, says Kecsmar. Remember to include a few features and prizes that encourage emotional attachment. Your loyalty programme can still have transactional elements like coupons and collection.
Optimising SEO content
SEO is a cost-effective digital marketing method that enables you to engage with your audience, regardless of the size of your business or budget. In addition to increasing interaction and brand recognition, an SEO-optimized website can help your company secure more media spots.
If you’re unsure about where to begin with SEO, think about the content you already have. The adage “content is king” is well-known among marketers. The ‘backbone’ of an SEO strategy, according to Alex Valencia, president and director of business development at We Do Web, is content.
Maintain high-quality, timely, and original information. These elements are important since they may have an impact on how Google’s algorithms rank your website. The more potential customers view your valuable material, the more they will identify with your brand, and the higher your ranking.
According to Valencia, “the effectiveness of your wider marketing strategy plays a large part in the quality of the content you develop and where it surfaces online.” Each piece of content gives readers the chance to learn more about your business, interact with your offer, and, ideally, become paying clients or customers. With this in mind, your content should be the primary focus of your marketing strategy rather than a secondary consideration. A compartmentalised strategy, in short, ensures that your material is on-topic and appropriate for the people you are trying to target.
By putting these three strategies into practise, you may improve your digital marketing campaigns and expand your e-commerce company. Consumers are prioritising experiences over anything else as traditional marketing changes. Don’t forget to tailor your campaigns, offer rewards to loyal customers, and make sure your material is search engine optimised. You’ll see that your efforts result in sales as customers become aware of your existence and appreciate your customer-driven strategy.