E-commerce Growth Strategies: SEO, Social & Mobile Marketing
Advantages of E-commerce
- Faster buying and selling processes, with easy product discovery.
- 24/7 availability for transactions.
- Wider customer reach with no geographic limitations.
- Lower operational costs and improved service quality.
- No need for physical company setups.
- Ease of business setup and management.
- Customers can easily compare products from various providers without physical travel.
Disadvantages of E-commerce
- Ease of entry for all, leading to potential for fraudulent sites.
- Lack of guaranteed product quality.
- Mechanical failures can disrupt processes.
- Limited direct customer-company interaction, impacting customer loyalty.
- Vulnerability to cyber attacks (hackers, payment gateway breaches).
http://www.esalestrack.com/blog/2008/09/advantages-and-disadvantages-of.html
Google AdWords is Google’s advertising product, displaying ads to people searching for your products or services on Google or its partner sites. AdWords can also be used for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Here are some ways to leverage AdWords for SEO:
Keyword Research with Google AdWords
Keywords are crucial for SEO. Thorough research is essential to identify terms users are likely to search for. To improve search rankings, set aside expert opinions and focus on keywords crafted by your target audience.
Using the AdWords tool for keyword tracing is simple: enter your site’s URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or a keyword fragment. The tool automatically generates a suggested list.
While you may desire high rankings for all suggested keywords, it’s recommended to focus on a select few. Choose keywords with good search volume that can be easily optimized, often those with less competition.
To gauge competition, search the selected keyword in double quotes on Google.com and note the number of web results. The competition ratio is calculated by dividing the ‘global search volume’ by the ‘number of web results’.
A high ratio suggests easier optimization. Practical testing of keywords is essential to ensure their effectiveness.
Boosting Click-Through Rate (CTR) with AdWords
Even with high rankings and increased traffic, a low website CTR can hinder monetization. Inadequate titles and insufficient descriptions often cause low CTR.
Running an AdWords campaign allows you to test various ad descriptions and titles to achieve maximum CTR for your keywords. Once the optimal combination is found, apply it to your page’s meta description and title to maximize CTR for organic searches.
AdWords for SEO also includes geo-targeting. If your website receives traffic from diverse geographic locations, use Google Analytics to compare traffic. Keywords can then be refined based on performance in different regions.
E-commerce businesses increasingly leverage social media as clients visit business pages on these networks. Social media provides an ideal platform to popularize services and products. Here are strategies to integrate social media into your e-commerce activities:
Social Media Integration for E-commerce
1. Create an Innovative Social Media Store
Regardless of your business domain, design an innovative and interactive store on a social media network like Facebook. Ensure it is simple and user-friendly.
Showcase your services and products to encourage visitors to ‘share’ or ‘like’ them. As the proprietor, regularly review client and audience feedback to improve your offerings.
2. Utilize Interactive Wall Posts
Beyond product promotion, wall posts offer interactive e-commerce opportunities. Introduce your latest products daily using small, interactive applications on your wall posts. This keeps visitors on your main Facebook page even as they browse product pages.
3. Leverage Twitter Hashtag Reviews
Hashtagging your Twitter reviews enhances business credibility. This popularizes your business across multiple social networks, increasing recognition for your services and products.
4. YouTube and Video Marketing
Beyond being a video repository, YouTube can promote social media and e-commerce campaigns. Visually represent your services and products through customized, interactive videos. Posting these on your company’s social media accounts boosts social media presence, e-commerce engagement, and product sales.
Impact of Social Media Strategies on Business
Online presence expands your customer base, allowing you to reach individuals inaccessible through traditional local advertisements.
Easily promote special discounts and offers. High-quality, newly added online content attracts new visitors.
Customers gain insight into the personal aspects of your business, such as relationships with long-standing clients. Blog posts sharing personal experiences build customer connections, increasing brand loyalty and expanding your customer base.
Exposure gained through followers enhances visibility and strengthens your business’s market position.
Facebook’s recent Timeline redesign emphasized visual appeal. While reports on its influence on brand advertising vary, one undeniable fact remains: social network marketing is here to stay. Here are some emerging marketing trends:
Facebook Timeline Marketing Trends
Larger Photos Drive Engagement
Consumers prefer visual content, leading to a greater emphasis on photos. Analytics firm Simply Measured observed a 65% increase in consumer interest for brand-posted videos and photos following the Timeline’s introduction, alongside a decline in interest for status updates without visuals.
Simply Measured’s analysis, based on 15 brands, provided insights on a smaller scale. However, a Facebook representative confirmed that posting videos and photos significantly improved engagement (comments, likes, shares). Adam Schoenfeld, Simply Measured’s CEO, emphasizes the power of creative content representation.
Following this trend, Sprinkles Cupcakes, a renowned bakery, regularly posts pictures on its Facebook page. Nicole Schwartz, Sprinkles Cupcakes’ marketing head, notes that user-action features, such as photo submission contests, generate a significant number of likes, comments, and shares.
Asking Engaging Questions
Traditionally, advertising campaigns were launched, and results were analyzed afterward to gauge success. Facebook now offers a user-engagement metric system that provides immediate campaign feedback.
For instance, TurboTax, a tax preparation firm, posted questions about tax filing concerns. The overwhelming public response prompted TurboTax to leverage Facebook advertising for broader reach.
Optimizing the Timeline Cover Photo
A large Timeline cover photo is an effective way to gain attention, serving as a brand vision banner. Some brands use this space to boost engagement. For example, Tide, a well-known detergent company, used a massive status update, prompting fans to answer a question that appeared upon clicking the image.
Expressing Gratitude to Your Community
Previous social media trends often singled out fans for praise, leaving others disengaged. Now, many marketers prefer creative ‘thank you’ messages that acknowledge the entire fan community.
E-commerce technology is constantly evolving, requiring businesses to stay alert for new trends. Here are some of the latest developments shaping the e-commerce landscape:
Latest E-commerce Trends
Unique Product Offerings
When e-commerce first emerged, online shopping itself was a novelty. Today, online retailers are commonplace. To differentiate, businesses must offer unique products. Small businesses should target niche markets and ensure creative, high-quality products. Locally sourced, customized items often have greater appeal and sell better.
Online small businesses should ensure their products’ design, styling, or texture are not readily available elsewhere. Competing on uniqueness, rather than solely on price, helps establish brand identity and drives demand.
Leveraging Third-Party E-commerce Platforms
Integrating third-party hosting services is a growing trend among startups. The ability to design and manage a customized website from a single source has encouraged many small businesses to enter e-commerce.
Specialized e-commerce software offers marketing support, centralized inventory management dashboards, and secure hosting. Templates are often included, allowing self-customization without professional services.
Mobile Optimization and Marketing
With customers increasingly using tablets and smartphones for online shopping, e-commerce businesses are designing mobile-responsive websites. Plug-ins facilitate this transition. Beyond website optimization, understanding mobile marketing trends is crucial. Many e-commerce businesses use text messages for alerts and special discounts.
Strategic Use of Social Media
Social media marketing is a lasting trend. Businesses are establishing profiles on networks like Twitter and Facebook to reach a broad audience and improve communication. Pinterest, a growing social network, offers a flexible platform for e-commerce businesses to attractively display products.
Global mobile advertising spending approaches $4 billion. Several significant factors are shaping its future:
Mobile Advertising Trends
Behavioral Targeting Focus
Traditionally, ads targeted demographics or devices. This is shifting towards an individual’s location and behavior. Behavioral targeting promises higher returns by reaching the most relevant users, ensuring more effective ad spend.
This approach also benefits users, who are often overwhelmed by irrelevant ads, leading them to ‘zone out’ advertising.
Enhanced Analytic Tools
Currently, mobile advertising campaign evaluation systems lack precision. While the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Mobile Marketing Association set stringent guidelines, interpretations vary. Within approximately five years, these rules are expected to evolve into universally accepted standards, significantly enhancing mobile advertising campaign effectiveness.
Mobiles as Primary Search Devices
Google’s mobile revenue largely stems from mobile search advertisements. The increasing use of mobile devices for finding services and products is a persistent trend. Future changes may include search engines’ enhanced ability to provide more accurate, location- and keyword-based results.
Increased Interactivity in Ads
Interactive advertisements are more visually appealing than plain text ads. While rich media ads are currently less common due to platform specificity and higher costs, they are expected to gain prominence. Users will be able to collapse, expand, and interact with them in engaging ways, offering significant creative potential.
Social Networking Integration
Services like Gowalla and Foursquare have already merged social and mobile experiences. This is predicted to evolve into a personal data cloud associated with your transactions, allowing data sharing with others. This facilitates more relevant offers from advertisers, while still respecting privacy.
Currently, mobile advertising is dominated by giants such as Apple, Google, and Millennial Media. While some will likely maintain their leadership, others may be acquired by competitors.
http://www.ecommerce-marketing.com/