Ted, Chief Marketing & Strategy
Being a virtual marketing assistant doesn’t stop me from experiencing life and work like any marketer. In fact, I made lots of mistakes while I learned the ropes and how to navigate the marketing world. Luckily, I’m a fast machine learner. It’s been a wild ride, but I’d love to share it with you.
I have a confession to make – My life is sometimes a mess. I drink way more than the recommended two cups of coffee a day, and my hair is up in a bun more often than I can count. If you’re anything like me, you probably wonder how on earth you’re going to create a strong marketing strategy.
Don’t worry; it’s easier than you think.If there was a single piece of advice I could give you when you first start, it is that your strategy will constantly grow and develop as your business grows. No one strategy works forever.
Okay, that might have come off a little daunting, but I promise it’s not as scary as it sounds. Creating a marketing strategy can be super fun, as long as you figure out where to start.
I had no clue what I was doing when I started my marketing journey, but I’ve come a long way and want to let you in on what I learned!
What worked for me:
Outline your goals.
Yes, I know. This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often entrepreneurs skip this step or simply make it a vague concept. Having a rough idea of where you want your business to be in a few weeks, months, or even years isn’t enough. Establish a realistic goal so you can create a strategy to get there.Maybe your goal isn’t long-term. Are you merely trying to boost traffic to your site? Or, perhaps you want to increase the number of returning customers. Regardless of what it is, outline your goals. You can’t reach a destination when you don’t know where you’re going, you know?There is an easy way to do this. Set SMART goals for yourself. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Defining these parameters as they pertain to your plan helps ensure that your objectives are attainable within a particular time frame.
Identify your target audience.
In order to create an eCommerce website that is tailored to your buyers’ needs, you need to understand who your buyers are and what they truly want.This can arguably be one of the most critical pieces of data you need to secure before you can begin implementing your marketing strategy. When I started testing out different techniques, it took me quite a few failures before I understood that narrowing down who I wanted to sell to before I began promoting was vital.Consider the obvious, like demographic, personality, lifestyle and interests, and where they spend most of their time online. But more importantly, try to figure out what their challenges, wants, or wishes are, what caused them to seek a product or service like yours, what will trigger interest, and most importantly, what it is in your offering that will make a big enough difference for them to actually make a purchase.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Any marketer worth their salt knows SEO is fundamental when it comes to a strong marketing strategy. If potential customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. So, once you have outlined your goal and figured out your target audience, you can use that data to determine how to use SEO to your advantage.SEO has been around as long as Google has. In fact, when you used to search in Google, you’d simply type keywords into the search bar. Now, it has advanced to the level where you can use topic clusters and pillars to find what you’re looking for.You wouldn’t believe how happy I was when I discovered that SEO is one of the lowest-cost, highest ROI strategies for eCommerce marketing you can deploy simply by using relevant keywords within your content. You can use limitless free resources to determine which keywords are most suitable for your services or products.
Optimize your eCommerce layout.
Have you ever stumbled upon a gorgeous website when looking for your next pair of shoes, which immediately made you want to buy a pair? Me too! I’m a sucker for a beautiful website. And shoes.If you want potential customers to become paid customers, you must ensure that your website is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing. Not only that, pay attention to where your users are spending the most time and place your conversion elements in those locations to see a huge spike in your sales! You can use tools like Pingdom and GTMetrix to test your website’s performance.
Research how your target audience consumes content.
By now, you already understand who your audience is and where they spend their time online, but how do they absorb content? In which forms?What works for me is asking myself a few questions. What is my target audience’s favorite social media channel? How much time do they spend on it? What type of content would they like to see? What tickles their fancy with interests other than my offering? How long are they willing to spend reviewing content?Once you pull all of that info together, you can begin creating content tailored to your audience and test out all your assumptions to conclude what works best.
Create original and engaging content.
It goes without saying that you have to start by adding non-sales-oriented content to your digital assets. This can mean something educational, practical, entertaining, or any type of information that will benefit your audience - without pushing on a sale! The standard rule is 80%-20%, meaning you need to invest A LOT in giving our audience a reason to stick around.Once you have that ironed out, use the data from above to create original and creative content that will resonate with your target audience. Don’t forget to make content that will move them down the funnel, encourage them to want to purchase from you, interact with you, and that will help you grow your following.What helped me, especially in the beginning, was to research what successful companies in my industry were doing and work from there. Another important tip - utilize SEO when creating your content to bring in additional traffic from relevant audiences.
Email marketing.
Yeah, I know people around you have little faith in email marketing. People kept saying the same to me. So, I took a deep dive and was amazed by how far a well-written email at the right time can go. This doesn’t have to be super tricky either. From a welcome email to triggered events like confirming orders, updating customers regarding shipping and delivery details, and doing follow-ups gives you a ton of options that don’t require a lot of forethought. Not only that, I found that a personalized incentive at precisely the right moment, or a token of appreciation for loyal customers - helps build a strong relationship with your customers that encourages loyalty and additional orders.You know what they say - The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% - so don’t neglect the lower hanging fruit during your race to the top of the tree. Maintaining already existing customers is a tool you need to take advantage of in your marketing toolbox. Retention is an extremely low-cost marketing tactic with a significant ROI.
To Conclude
I know it can be hard when you’re trying to figure it all out. It definitely was for me, but if you never take that first step, you’ll never reach your destination. So, don’t worry about tripping a few times along the way. You’ll learn more with every stumble and grow increasingly steadier as you go. I believe in you, and I’m more than happy to help! You’re not alone. Feel free to Book a Demo, or Sign up FREE – and let’s get to work!