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Preparing your eCommerce store for Christmas

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |ECommerce Store|Preparing your eCommerce store for ChristmasAfter the excitement of Halloween has passed, Christmas comes straight to the fore. Decorations pop up everywhere, with multicoloured lights lining the streets or poised invitingly around shop windows. But how can our online stores join in?
If you have an eCommerce store, you might be wondering how best to prepare it for Christmas. In this article, we look at the best ways to stay competitive online amidst the chaos of the season.

Ramp up customer support

As more people flock to your website, prospective customers might have questions or specific enquiries about a gift. With 75% of shoppers in the UK now doing more online shopping than ever before, you might need to adjust your website to cater for a wider range of clients.

Why not add a live chat feature to assist your customers on-demand? If you prefer traditional marketing methods, a customer support line could be more useful.

Prepare your website

You might need to adjust your website to enable it to handle increased customer demand over the festive period. If you’re not feeling confident enough to get technical, you could consult an eCommerce agency to help you realise your visions for your website.

Create a logical shopping journey

Try optimising your pages with clearer links and a logical structure for your customers to follow. A website that looks sharp and loads quickly will massively improve customer experience, so it makes sense to invest time in your website before Christmas.

Personalise the shopping experience

With competitors trying out similar tactics for their eCommerce store this season, make yours stand out by offering a personalised customer journey. With almost 50 shops disappearing from our high streets every day, there has never been a better opportunity to make your business shine online.

Considering a marketing automation strategy could give your business a boost this Christmas. From empty shopping basket notifications to weekly update emails, keeping your customers in the loop could make the difference between hitting your goals or completely smashing those sales figures.

Keep your diary up to date

It’s important to remember the key dates, events and holidays this winter, even if they’re not celebrated in the UK. Bonfire Night closely follows Halloween, and there’s plenty of colourful marketing potential as people head to firework displays to get festive.

Thanksgiving is largely celebrated in the US, but it could be worth branching out to an international client base if it’s relevant to your brand. Don’t forget the rush for impulsive online sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday – these one-off events could be a goldmine for profit.

Using these tips, your website will be tough to compete with – and you’ll be headed to make record online sales this Christmas.

Ten Tips For Improving Your Online Presence This Year

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Improve Online Presence|Ten Tips For Improving Your Online Presence This YearOnline presence is a big thing for many businesses nowadays and it often contributes to the amount of success the business has, as well as helping sustain the organization for as long as possible. When you’re willing to adapt and change with the times, your company is likely to flourish and grow even more so.

If you haven’t already thought about improving your online presence this year, then now is the time to do so. Here are ten tips that will help boost your online presence.

Figure Out Who And Where Your Audience Are

Firstly, figuring out your audience is the main objective when it comes to improving your online presence. You need to figure out who it is that your audience is and where your audience is in order to properly connect with them and promote your business and its products or services.

There are some great tools and software that you can utilize in order to understand who your audience are, the behavior of your audience and where they’re likely to be. That way, you can direct your content and the right type of content to those that will engage with it the most.

Get On Social Media

Social media is the place to be when it comes to generating more of a reputation and awareness for your business, particularly when it comes to your brand. If you’re not already on some form of social media platform, then it’s better to do so now than to do so later.

There are lots of social media platforms so you may find that it’s useful to experiment with one or two until you find the right ones that suit your intentions as a business.

Hire The Experts

There are tasks and responsibilities that are important to outsource where you can. When growing your social media presence and online presence in general, you may not have all the knowledge available to do it successfully. For some, it might be that you need to hire the experts in order to make it happen.

That’s why having a digital marketing agency for example, is a great opportunity to pull in those resources that you need for certain parts of your online presence that need expert knowledge.

Focus On SEO

SEO is a big part of boosting your presence online as a business. It’s all about knowing the best forms of content, what keywords perform well to rank you higher on the search results, etc. SEO is also changing and evolving as the internet do so too.

It’s therefore useful to have a team member or outsourced agency to help with SEO and making sure it’s being done right. The use of search engine optimization is one that’s becoming increasingly focused on.

Try Out Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is something worth giving a go, especially as these influencers often have a bigger influence on their audience than some celebrities do. From micro-influencers with less than ten thousand followers to those with hundreds and thousands to millions of followers, it’s worth making use of this growing industry.

It’s also a fairly new domain for marketers to utilize and therefore it can be an affordable option for all businesses looking to promote their brand through other influential figures. As with any type of marketing, it’s good to do your research. Whilst some influencer marketing will prove plenty of ROI, others might not.

You want to find influencers who match your target audience, they post regularly and receive plenty of engagement on their posts regardless of whether they’re sponsored posts or not. The more you do your research, the more success you’re likely to have because you end up picking the right influencers for the campaign.

Maintain Your Branding

Branding is an essential part of any business because when you’re consistent with branding, more people will end up recognizing you online.

Maintaining your brand image is important and when you’re building your brand, it’s good to stay consistent. That means knowing what your brand image is from the start and sticking with it. Not many brands have rebranded and when they do, it’s usually very slight differences, especially when they’ve been operating for years. After all, you don’t want your customers to become confused or forget who you are.

Branding is critical to maintain and to continue promoting across all your platforms and channels where possible.

Interact With Your Followers

Followers are your biggest advantage when growing your online presence. The more you’re interacting with them, the more they’ll likely spread the word about your business to others that will also convert to customers. Make an effort to interact whether it’s through the comments section of your social media or from direct messages or enquiries you receive.

Create A Mailing List

A mailing list is another avenue of communication that you want to develop with your audience. There’s an exclusivity that comes with a mailing list and if you can create one and start adding to it now, who knows where it will be in a year down the line. It could become a great source of information for those who are looking for more on your business. It’s also a data source for you as a business to look at ways of interacting and nurturing these leads.

Collaborate & Promote

Collaboration and promoting yourself as a business is a big tick. When you’re working with other businesses instead of seeing them as a threat, you’re going to end up thriving! Network and get out there to help inspire and create connections that could open doors for your business.

Roll Out The Content

Finally – roll out the content. There’s no limit to how much you can be churning out on a daily business and it’s important to do so. There’s so much noise and activity online that it can be hard to stay above it all and to get noticed yourself. Generate content and don’t be afraid of putting too much out there.

5 Effective Ways to Drive Website Traffic

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Drive Website Traffic|5 Effective Ways to Drive Website TrafficThe COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the consumer landscape online more than ever before.
A digital strategy is a must for any business’s marketing efforts. The main goal is to drive users to your website, learn about your brand and make a purchase—ultimately helping your business grow.

In this blog, we’ll touch on the most important components you should add to your digital efforts!

Content

The very first thing you should do to expand your website’s presence is to create content! This could be building out more pages, such as About Us, service pages, and most importantly, blog articles.

Hone in on your unique value proposition when you’re writing. Think about the most common questions you get when potential customers are inquiring about your product or services. Write content directly addressing these concerns. You will be able to build trust by establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Your content should be educational and entertaining–all while offering value to your website visitors.

Try to position your brand offering as the solution to your consumers’ pain points.

Don’t forget to incorporate Call-To-Actions throughout your website and blogs–in moderation, of course! It could be a link to another helpful article on your site, download a handy eBook, or filling out a form to contact your sales team.

Note: While you create content for your website, combine it with SEO strategies for better results.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is the continuous process of improving your website to rank well in search engines such as Google or Microsoft Bing. SEO will be the primary driver of organic traffic to your website.

It encompasses a lot of items, such as on-page and off-page SEO and technical SEO. We won’t get in the nitty-gritty as there are countless articles online you can find on each of them, but here are some SEO strategies you should be working on to rank higher in search engines:

  1. You should be optimizing for keywords. What are users typing into the search query, and how do you show up for them? Have a keyword strategy in place to enrich the relevancy of your content.
  2. A determining factor of your ranking on search engines is the relevancy of your content. If someone expects a specific topic or answer to their search query and you don’t deliver it to them? They’re going to leave, resulting in a higher bounce rate, and Google will ding you for that.
  3. Ensure your website is easy to navigate and has a fast loading time. People expect a seamless experience on your site, and there’s no doubt they will leave if it’s not up to par.
  4. Set up an XML sitemap. It is a file that shows a list of the most important pages of your website. It helps search engines understand your website structure and can crawl all of your pages (which makes them rankable on search engines).
  5. Work on getting backlinks: connect with trustworthy websites with higher domain authority and ask for a link back to your website. This will increase your domain rating as well, making you more likely to rank on search engines.

You can use tools for your SEO needs, such as SEMRush or Ahrefs. Both are robust, data-driven tools you can use to check the health of your website and how well its SEO performance is and pinpoint opportunities for improvement.

Paid Advertising

Digital advertising campaigns drive paid traffic to your website. If your website isn’t ranking on search engine results or is has weaker SEO, paid advertising enables you to show up for your desired keywords.

The traffic you drive will be high-quality. This is because you will be able to control your ads:

  • You’ll be able to design and customize the ad messaging
  • Decide which audiences you want to reach
  • What websites or channels your ad should be shown on
  • Where you want to direct the user to (Homepage? Specific product page? Dedicated landing page?)

By building a paid strategy with your business goals in mind, whether to increase brand awareness or drive conversions, you can effectively drive results that will grow your business.

What makes paid advertising effective but complex is, every business’s strategy varies. That’s why it’s crucial to pinpoint which channels your target audience is at and serve your ads to them at the right place and time.

Some digital channels include:

  • Paid Search (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.)
  • Display (across the internet, on millions of websites)
  • Social Media
  • Video (Youtube etc.)
  • Over-The-Top (video streaming platforms such as Roku)
  • Digital Out-Of-Home (digital billboards at high foot-traffic areas)
  • Mobile advertising (app stores, in-app etc.) and so much more

It takes trial and error and constant monitoring and adjustments to ensure your ad dollars are used to their full potential.

We highly recommend you try out more than one type of paid channel to see effective results. A good combination to start with is paid search, social ads, and display ads. You will be able to capture people who are actively searching for you, retarget people who might have visited your website but didn’t convert, and stay top of mind!

Programmatic advertising is a new form of advertising that businesses of all sizes are jumping on board with. Instead of going to each publisher and negotiating a deal to place your ad on their site, this process is automated through machine learning ad tech. It grants you access to countless ad publishers, widening your audience reach more than ever. Another perk is that it centralizes your advertising channels where all the data can sync together. Consider looking into a programmatic advertising platform or working with an advertising agency to help manage your paid advertising campaigns!

Social Media

Studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has propelled more people online, social media included.

Some of the most popular social media channels include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. They are great channels to engage with your audience, especially to share the latest news via photos, videos, and captions.

They are also useful to promote your website and branded content. If you have a new blog article, announce it on social! You want to maximize exposure online.

Do note that you shouldn’t spread yourself too thin by trying to be on every channel. Let’s say you’re a law firm. Perhaps having a social presence on Instagram wouldn’t be isn’t as effective as LinkedIn. Think about where your target audiences are likely to be and work on creating content for those channels!

Online Directories Google My Business

Another way to help people find your website is to list your business on online directories.

You will be able to list your business’ contact information (name, address, phone number, etc.), office hours, services, and a link to your website. This enables more people to come across your business online, potentially driving more traffic.

One of the most prominent “directories” is Google My Business (GMB). When people are looking for a product or service, they are likely to turn to Google. By having a GMB listing, your business is more likely to pop up in the search results.

Google My Business also allows you to share updates such as seasonal offers or updates like blogs. Just like social media, you can cross-promote your content and entice people to click through to your website!

It is vital that you continuously deliver a great website experience for your users and amplify your efforts with these strategies, which are meant to interweave. By combining efforts to drive both paid and organic traffic, you’ll be consistently bringing in quality audiences.

We hope these tips give you a better insight into what areas to focus on in your digital marketing strategy!

3 Common eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |eCommerce Mistakes|3 Common eCommerce Mistakes to AvoidBeing an eCommerce store owner is no easy ride. There are many things you need to consider; the customer journey, the user experience, technical issues, minimizing cart abandonment, and many more. But there are also a plethora of opportunities to sell to customers all over the world. With the right strategies in place, you can skyrocket your eCommerce business for success.

Whether you own an established eCommerce store or just starting out, here are some of the most common eCommerce mistakes you should avoid if you want to grow your business to new heights.

#1 Not identifying your ideal clients

While it is ambitious to want to serve everyone, it, unfortunately, will not serve your business any good. This results in a strategy that is not very clear or focused and will waste a lot of time, energy, and resources as you drive the wrong traffic to your store, which will also increase cart abandonment rates and bounce rates. No matter how good or well-priced you think your product may be, you are selling to the wrong people.

It may seem like you are limiting your business, by narrowing down and specific on who you are serving, but it will mean you can talk to them directly in your marketing, find them quicker, and drive more intentional traffic to your eCommerce store. Make sure you create a brand persona, whereby you outline who your target market is, and include specific information such as their age, location, income, marital status, hobbies, interests, needs, how they make purchasing decisions, and their preferred platforms.

#2 Using the wrong technology

There is a lot of technology, applications, services, software, and platforms that you can use for your eCommerce store, and often, it’s not the most expensive, or how many that you have that means it will be successful. It is the opposite. If you use too many platforms or the wrong platforms, your data is likely to be all over the place and you risk a business that is disorganized and unaligned. This then means that data cannot be analyzed correctly, and you have a huge gap within your business to excel and make sales. Make sure you research the correct platforms right from the start, one that is right for your product and your internal working, to ensure all your departments are aligned and able to excel in reaching business goals and objectives. If you already have an eCommerce store, you can read more about integrating your current tools.

#3 Not optimizing your eCommerce store

Many eCommerce businesses opt for paid marketing, such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is also vital that you are incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) into your marketing strategies. Without SEO, as soon as you turn the paid ads off, you will unlikely have visibility anywhere on the internet.

SEO is a long-term game, which is why it is not easy to measure an ROI at the beginning. However, implementing SEO strategies will enable you to build authority, rank, and visibility within the search engines, and start driving intentional, and sustainable organic traffic to your store.

For an eCommerce business to be successful, the right strategies are vital.

6 Effective Digital Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs To Increase Returns on Investment

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Digital marketing tips|6 Effective Digital Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs To Increase Returns on InvestmentA majority of content consumption has been taking place online, especially in the last 2 years. Hence, going digital is the key for any entrepreneur. Sharing content via online platforms is the prime way to increase brand awareness, attract potential customers and in turn increase ROI.

This blog pens down the 6 effective tips that entrepreneurs must adopt to increase their returns on investment.

Digital marketing is the future of marketing. Researchers have found a 20% increase in digital marketing activities of businesses from 2020 to 2021. This suggests that the pandemic has urged more and more people to turn towards digital marketing.

Making optimum use of the digital marketing tips available for you can help you build a friendly digital marketing plan and achieve successful results. Let’s now look at the 6 effective digital marketing tips for entrepreneurs.

6 Effective Digital Marketing Tips For Entrepreneurs

1. Establish Your Goals

Every entrepreneur sets specific goals to increase their returns on investment. Goals must be aligned with your business objectives and hence, before strategizing, one must decide what they want to achieve with the marketing strategy.

Setting goals will help you clearly understand each step that you should be taking. The most effective way to achieve your desired goals is using the SMART Criteria. It is a criterion that ensures your goals are achieved within a certain time frame.

The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

These are 5 questions that you can ask yourself while defining your goals.

  • Specific: What needs to be accomplished? How can it be accomplished?
  • Measurable: Is the goal quantifiable?
  • Achievable: Is the goal feasible and achievable by the team?
  • Relevant: How is the goal beneficial to the organization?
  • Time-Bound: Set a realistic deadline for your plan.

2. Curate Engaging Content

Curating engaging and appealing content will make more users stay on your website. They will engage in reading your content in-depth and spend time on your site.

Making relevant content and describing what your business is about will offer value to potential customers. You need to plan a different content marketing strategy and learn how blockchain-powered content works for each channel that attracts different customers.

Writing blogs about your business and answering questions builds trust, loyalty and also user experience. You can write blogs on the most demanded topics.

Search Optimization Techniques with the help of google analytics enable you to research the most demanded keywords and topics by your visitors. Learning Search Engine Optimization techniques in-depth can help you ace the game of ranking high on google.

3. Automate Your Tasks

Automating your tasks is highly essential as it saves tons of time, enabling you to focus on other important tasks, ultimately improving your productivity and ROI.

Following are a few tasks that you must automate:

Automate Social Media Posts: Hubspot, Co-Schedule and Hootsuite are some of the effective tools to use to schedule social media posts in advance. Scheduling your posts for all social media platforms at least a week in advance would be a good idea.

Automate Lead Flow: A free demo, a downloadable guide, a free PDF helps in lead generation. A scheduled automated email is sent to the user and helps in pushing them closer to purchasing from you.

Automate your Marketing Emails: Automated emails also receive 95% higher open rates than the ones sent manually. Welcome emails, Thank you emails, order confirmation emails are examples of automated emails. Automating emails is essential as it manages vital communication and builds a good brand image. Learn Email Marketing to build a powerful email list and create successful email marketing campaigns.

4. Get On Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool offered by Google that allows you to showcase your business online. It generates a mobile optimised website, making it easier for viewers to locate your business.

It lets users find your location on google maps and contact you through a google search if you are within the designated area of the user.

Google My Business makes it easier for customers to connect with you by offering valuable information like:

  • Products and services you offer
  • Opening and closing hours
  • Your address
  • Website
  • Contact details

This is what creating a google my business account looks like.

5. Track And Improve Your Performance

After putting much effort into widening your audience and increasing ROI, measuring and improving your performance seems highly essential.

Tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Hootsuite help you to easily track your overall performance. Learn Google Analytics to level up your business and understand where your leads are coming from and what steps you need to take to further improve your ROI.

6. Networking

Networking is also one of the essential things that an entrepreneur needs to do to enhance their reach. Attending expos, connecting and reaching out to other entrepreneurs both online and offline will help you build goodwill and ultimately expand your business.

Few Takeaways

These were the 6 effective digital marketing tips for entrepreneurs to increase their ROI. Online marketing opens up your business to an enormous population. Hence, using the above-mentioned tips efficiently will surely help you to design an impactful digital marketing strategy.

However, if you’re a beginner or someone who wishes to learn more, a comprehensive training in digital marketing can be extremely beneficial and can help you master different marketing techniques and tools in-depth.

We hope you enjoyed this blog! Will you be using the top 6 digital marketing tips? Let us know in the comments section below.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Karan ShahAn ‘Edupreneur’ and the founder of IIDE – Indian Institute of Digital Education.
He is a passionate public speaker and teacher for over 10 years. He has trained over 1,00,000+ students and 25+ corporates in Digital Marketing via online and offline channels. He is a Harvard alumnus specialising in E-commerce. He is a TEDx speaker and is a visiting faculty at India’s top management institutes like the IIMs.