How-Tos of Digital Marketing for Success as an Ecommerce Business

Ecommerce brands are constantly seeking new ways to broaden their online appeal and create engaging content. Harnessing the digital marketplace’s full potential can transform what was once a brick-and-mortar store into a thriving online business — and in light of ongoing pandemic complications, that transformation might need to happen quickly.

The impact of COVID-19 and its associated stay-at-home safety precautions only accelerated the need for businesses to establish a viable digital presence. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, ecommerce hit $245.28 billion in Q4 of 2020, representing a leap from $185.70 billion during the same quarter the prior year — a leap that placed the digital marketplace’s total revenue expectations a full year ahead of schedule.

More than $1 in every $5 spent on retail purchases in 2020 came from online orders, emphasizing an already-growing trend: more consumers are getting more comfortable conducting business online every day.

Where to Begin: Common Digital Marketing Platforms and Channels

Every brand needs an online presence, and every business has an opportunity to expand its reach in the growing world of ecommerce by fully utilizing existing platforms and channels to the fullest. These include:

• Video – Promotional content to leverage an engaging format across channels where audiences are spending an increasing amount of time

• Display – Prospecting to build audiences at the top of the funnel, retargeting them with dynamic creative to nurture them further

• Social Commerce – Promotional content on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram to fuel the sales funnel, as well as utilizing social platforms’ respective in-app storefronts

• Pay Per Click or PPC ads – Paid ad placements in the prime real estate above or beside search results and dynamic content on other web pages

• Content Marketing – Promotion through branded informational resources like company blogs, ebooks, and white papers

• Email Marketing – It’s exactly what it sounds like

Marketing platforms can refer to existing social channels like Google, Facebook, and Instagram as well as the specific digital shopping platform with which your branded website is built (like Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, BigCommerce, and Weebly).

 

Product Feed: Your Online Product Catalog

Social channels have worked diligently over the past year to provide marketers with everything they need to turn their respective platforms into digital one-stop shops. As consumers became increasingly comfortable with shopping online for a wider variety of products, most major social platforms debuted new methods to help connect ad partners with audiences in more efficient formats. At this point, many branded products can be bought without users even exiting their favorite social app.

Every platform draws information from your company’s product feed. A product feed is the backbone of any ecommerce business, working alongside existing shopping platforms to create a functioning online storefront. Your product feed is the key source from which search engines, PPC ads, and your targeted social ads draw information — as such, it’s critical to keep product feeds up to date and accurate (you can learn more about digital product feeds here).

 

Using Tools and Dashboards to Your Advantage

Among the most impactful benefits of today’s ecommerce tools is the detailed insight each channel provides. From the overarching campaign level down to the most granular images and keywords, marketers can observe which of their efforts connects best with target demographics, capitalize on emerging trends, and effectively locate potential new customers in the process.

Commonly-used tools and dashboards like the hub of information provided by Google Analytics can easily identify how the average customer first interacts with your brand (and more importantly, when they typically leave your site). Google Analytics can also expose potential landing page issues, highlight positive and negative ad engagement, trace on-site activity, and locate gaps in your site’s existing path to purchase begging to be streamlined.

Digital tools let advertisers see their own brand through a customer’s eyes, and better understand where the experience may be lacking. Quickly shoring up site glitches and eliminating your would-be shoppers’ stumbling blocks through each platform’s intuitive dashboards enhances user experiences on your site — and encourages many happy returns.