How to Write an Ecommerce Marketing Plan in 2018
The constant incoming of new technologies and ideas ensures that the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve in 2018. Though it is always important to know the latest trends going on in the market, according to digital marketers, this year the best approach is to go for a good blend of the basics and the upcoming trends. After all, simply getting the latest technology at your disposal is no good if you are unable to use it rightly. And it is not wise to write off all the old methods thinking they have had their run because the focus still remains on product, customers, and what works for a business.
A winning strategy for e-commerce marketing is definitely ambitious but not immeasurable and unattainable. According to certain statistics, the global e-commerce market is going to grow by 21% this year and that presents massive growth opportunities for your business. The following are the top ideas in writing an e-commerce marketing plan that you need to try out in 2018.
Defining Your Resources
Before you get into the details of the marketing strategy, the first thing to consider is the resources that you possess and that includes everything from tools, team, to budget.
Tools: There are ample numbers of tools present to help you with the marketing strategy. These are the tools that help in boosting the revenue.
Team: The work of the team or yourself (if you are that one man army!) is to sort out the tasks according to priorities and set the plan for reflecting the skills and size of the team. The key lies in making the most of your time.
Budget: The budget, regardless of the size of your business, has a limit. Make sure that a marketing budget is set early on before you chalk out the rest of the plan. This guides you to a real plan.
Search Engine Optimization
For all the times that you have heard that SEO is longer relevant, it is time to negate those statements as SEO is here to stay for the year 2018. Did you know that about 87% of the clicks for organic searches go to the first five links? Still thinking not considering SEO as a marketing factor is a good idea?
The foremost factor driving SEO is the content and that incorporates all the keywords, product titles, and written copies that you have in the website. The first step of setting up SEO practices for your website is through running a thorough audit. The audit includes off-site and on-site analysis, keyword search, and technical analysis. After you are done on the points of auditing, the picture is clear in your mind about what you need to do. During the audit itself you will understand that it is not all about the keywords but rather the focus should be on creating relevant and high quality content.
However, do not let that give you the idea that keyword search is any less important. You need to choose the keywords carefully. The ones that are too popular would make you get lost among the big rivals in the game but at the same time, you need to set up something that people are actually searching for.
Pay Per Click Advertisements
If you are a new e-commerce store that wants to promote the business on Google, going for Pay per Click adverts would be a sound decision. With all its advantages, it is also true that SEO takes time to show you the results. PPC, on the other hand, is one of the quickest ways to come on the first page. Another good thing about pay per click is that you can easily check the results and also track the click rate on that page. The campaign can accordingly be modified according to the budget constraints that you have. Thus, it also saves you from overstepping your budget. It starts from barely a few cents and the end results make it highly cost efficient option and it is one of the best ways to get to the top of the search results.
There are two pointers that you need to keep in mind right here:
It is different from search results: When you are paying to come in the search results, the results do not appear in the same way as the organic results. A sponsored list comes on top of the actual organic search results.
It is not an add-on to SEO: Such advertisements do not have any direct bearing on SEO. You might be spending on Google but that does not guarantee that your rankings will be bumped up. Having said that, you will definitely have a good position in the search results thus, the extra traffic will come to you site.
Content Marketing
When considering on a long-term basis, the greatest way of ranking on the search engines is through having the consistency of creating relevant, high quality content. This includes all of the things that are written on your website. So, if you do not have a blog yet, start creating it right now.
Having a maintained and fresh blog that is constantly updated with interesting posts will help you in standing out from the competitors. The algorithms of Google are really smart at finding and ranking good content. In terms of ideal content, it by and large depends on the business that you have. In a survey done in 2016, it was seen that the pages ranking in the top ten of Google pages had about 1,890 words. Strong evidence also suggests that customers prefer to read informative and authoritative posts. So, the general consensus holds that long content with enough information has a good chance of standing out in the crowd.
Even if you cannot update with great frequency, do not move your focus from informative and unique content. It helps if you research beforehand on the type of content that your audience wants to read and deliver accordingly. Keep the comments enabled and engage with the readers as it works to your advantage in getting the ranks.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most classic strategies of e-commerce marketing but it still holds its ground this year. The reason why email marketing is not going to lose its popularity anytime soon: you get a return on investments at the rate of $44 for every dollar spent. This is higher than all other forms of marketing that you can try for your business!
In this year, you can expect email marketing to develop and get merged with artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already making the impact felt through optimization of the subject lines, testing, and copy. AI will even help in the collection of data for a business and thus, you will be able to reach out to the audience in a much more personalized way.
For an e-commerce site, email marketing does work to an advantage as it lets you communicate with the buyers directly. But, the way to success is having a fresh listing of interested customers. The emails need to be segmented so that they cater to recipient’s interests and that is only possible through a deep understanding of the buyer’s personas.
Social Media
Social media is actually one of the major things that make the world of digital marketing go round. There are already more than 2.46 billion people on the social media platforms all over the world and this is one number that is only expected to rise in the times to come. You can already fathom the huge marketing potential that lies there for any e-commerce platform. But do not let that give you the idea that your aim should be to stay on every possible social media pages out there. The trick lies in managing the resources and using the ones that help you in reaching out to the target audience.
Social media actually acts as a customer service instrument for an e-commerce platform. An e-commerce platform having a strong presence on the social media forums pays off immensely. The buyers who get a positive experience on social media also suggest that company to other friends of theirs and thus, the efforts pay off.
92% of buyers read online the product reviews and thus, it will help your business to stay on track if you continuously monitor social media for feedback. It is all about going and pleasing a wide audience.
A successful e-commerce marketing plan begins with having a good understanding of the target market. And this is something that will remain unchanged through the years. There can never be such a thing called enough research as you need as much information as possible to set your plan of action. Start the strategizing process as soon as possible rather than getting into the thick of the things and then planning the next move. This is the ideal e-commerce marketing plan for the year 2018, and as it seems, even beyond this year.
Author: SEO Services Consultants
