eCommerce – Romain Berg https://www.romainberg.com Romain Berg Digtial Marketing Agency Mon, 20 Nov 2023 02:11:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.romainberg.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-RB-Romain-Berg-01-32x32.png eCommerce – Romain Berg https://www.romainberg.com 32 32 SMS Marketing Tips for E-Commerce Businesses https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/sms-marketing-tips-for-e-commerce-businesses/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/sms-marketing-tips-for-e-commerce-businesses/#respond Mon, 07 Aug 2023 15:13:30 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=9677 Do you wish to expand your e-commerce enterprise and make it stand out in this fiercely competitive market? SMS marketing is the right solution. This advanced technique brings plenty of benefits, like high open rates, fast communication, and personalized customer experiences. To get a grip on how SMS marketing could work for an online store, read through our post about useful tips!

We provide all information concerning leveraging text message tactics that help skyrocket success, from basic elements to creating attention-grabbing texts while maintaining compliance standards. With these insights at hand–utilize them correctly and watch as they improve your business’ performance exponentially! Dive into this remarkable world and see just what kind of results can come with applying today’s most sought-after digital strategy—SMS Marketing.

Position your e-commerce business for unparalleled growth. Explore the potential of SMS marketing with Romain Berg. From crafting engaging texts to ensuring compliance, we offer practical insights to enhance your business performance. Schedule your free strategy call to immerse yourself in the world of SMS marketing today and unlock remarkable growth!

 

Understanding SMS Marketing for E-Commerce

SMS, which stands for Short Message Service, is a text messaging service that allows users to send and receive text messages via mobile devices. SMS marketing for e-commerce is making a big splash due to its noteworthy open rates, instant communication capabilities, and the opportunity it offers brands to create personalized customer experiences. Utilizing an SMS marketing platform allows businesses in the sector of e-commerce to connect with their customers directly on their cell phones, which has made this one of the most resourceful channels when it comes to promotion.

The performance potential of using SMS stands out among other available methods. Boasting almost total readability at 98%, more than half of those messages are opened within 5 minutes alone! Because reaching your target audience quickly yields tangible results, employing this approach can be instrumental for any online merchant aiming for both engagements as well as increasing sales revenues.

SMS Marketing - Hispanic man with beard working at small business ecommerce holding packages celebrating crazy and amazed for success with open eyes screaming excited.

The Power of SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is renowned for its high rate of customer engagement, boasting a remarkable 99% open rate. Compared to other advertising mediums, this success can clearly be seen. What’s more, the click-through rates (CTR) on SMS campaigns are as much as 35%.

Customers favor text messages over many alternatives when it comes time for companies and businesses to reach out – with 76% having received communication in that form from brands. Across all demographics, 69% communicate regularly through promotional texts, which demonstrates the value behind using SMS messaging when engaging potential buyers or consumers. Text message marketing strategies have thus become an increasingly prevalent way for e-commerce stores to connect with their patrons while also driving conversions.

Advantages for E-Commerce Brands

SMS marketing can be a great asset for e-commerce brands striving to generate revenue. It provides immediate communication, increased engagement, and the potential to reach an extensive audience.

It also makes it easier for customers to connect on a personal level by addressing them by name or referencing prior purchases, which drives loyalty, leading to repeat sales. This helps cultivate strong customer relationships that create more engaging experiences overall.

SMS marketing has been proven highly beneficial not only from its ability to reach large groups efficiently but also it’s capacity to boost the connection between business owners and buyers alike, making it invaluable when trying to achieve optimal results like increasing conversion rates or creating better brand awareness all while optimizing return on investment.

 

Building a Successful SMS Marketing Strategy

Sale of e commerce value interest growth and earn profit, Make volume small business to success goal aiming to target.

For SMS marketing to be successful, a comprehensive strategy must be in place. This involves creating concrete objectives, growing your list of subscribers, and segmenting the target audience for personalized messaging. 

Such an approach aids in attaining business goals while also providing room for improvement over time via analyzing KPIs (key performance indicators) and experimenting with various techniques to optimize outcomes from campaigns sent out through SMS marketing channels.

Setting Clear Objectives

SMS marketing is an essential part of any business’s overall strategy. By setting specific goals for your campaigns, you can track progress and make necessary adjustments to get better results. 

With clear objectives in place, such as generating leads, increasing sales, or informing customers about new products, it will allow you to create targeted SMS messages that are more engaging and resonate with your audience while helping drive conversions further.

Measuring the success of these strategies should also be a top priority so it’s possible to identify areas that require optimization and improvement over time. Aligning this approach with core organizational objectives ensures that each campaign contributes effectively towards business growth initiatives without fail.

In conclusion. By establishing specific targets related to SMS messaging coupled with measuring their performance – businesses have the opportunity to maximize customer engagement and encourage purchase behavior along their journey efficiently!

Growing Your SMS Subscriber List

For an e-commerce business, building a comprehensive SMS list is essential in order to develop a direct and close communication channel with their SMS subscribers. You can employ various techniques, such as website popups or social media links for customers to opt into your messages so that you can extend your SMS subscriber list.

To identify the methods that are more efficient at growing your SMS subscriber base, try different tactics like changing the design of popup displays on websites and offering rewards, including discounts or unique content when opting in through text messaging services.

By constantly testing modifications of strategies while expanding the range of those signed up for receiving texts from you, you will be able to generate an extensive mobile subscription listing that serves as momentum driving your online store’s growth potential.

Segmenting Your Audience

Audience segmentation is an effective tactic for sending more precise and pertinent SMS messages to your customers. By breaking down the audience into smaller groups according to traits such as purchase history, preferences, or demographics, you can deliver communications that relate directly to that cohort, resulting in higher engagement and conversions.

To successfully achieve this goal, here are some steps: collect customer input so their needs and inclinations become apparent. Assess data on purchaser behavior/favorites, use these details in creating different divisions of the target group, and formulate customized SMS marketing campaigns accordingly that appeal particularly to each one’s own category, thus providing meaningful interactions.

Eventually, through extensive market segregation tactics, it will be easier for e-commerce companies to reach the overall objective – building a sharper targeted campaign utilizing SMStrategy among its consumers.

 

Crafting Compelling SMS Messages

Sale of e commerce value interest growth and earn profit, Make volume small business to success goal aiming to target.

The formulation of a potent SMS marketing tactic should now be completed, and the attention can turn to crafting powerful text messages that are designed to inspire and spur on your recipients. To do this effectively requires an equilibrium between individualizing texts, creating feelings of urgency or scarcity, and striking the right balance between promotional and transactional content in each message you send out. If done correctly with these components integrated into your text messaging tactics, it will generate noteworthy results. Ultimately helping to reach specified commercial goals.

In the following segments, we shall look at customized techniques for personalization within SMS messages together with how one could craft a sense of necessity plus ways in which you maintain parity when using both trade-based-messages alongside ones categorized under promotion themes – all intended towards optimizing SMS campaigns’ success potential.

Personalization Techniques

To create meaningful and engaging SMS messages, utilize personalization techniques such as addressing customers by name or referencing past purchases. Not only does this make the message more relevant, but using a conversational tone will help establish strong connections between your business and its customers, which can drive sales growth. Customizing content to reflect their preferences is essential in order for them to take action on what you are promoting.

Creating Urgency and Scarcity

Utilizing urgency and scarcity in SMS messages effectively prompts customers to act right away. Flash deals or limited-time offers are good strategies for stimulating a feeling of a hurry that spurs clients to buy before the bargain runs out. 

Emphasizing restricted availability or quantities of items may also create an atmosphere where shoppers move quickly to make sure they don’t miss out on something they want. By incorporating these two tactics into your texts, you’ll be able to push people towards taking action and increase online sales!

Balancing Promotional and Transactional Messages

A successful SMS marketing strategy requires a balanced mix of both promotional and transactional messages. For example, promotions such as discounts or new product announcements keep customers informed about your offerings, while order confirmations and shipping notifications help to build trust in the brand. 

To ensure an appropriate balance between these two types of messaging, many marketers suggest following the 80/20 rule – 80% transactional content with 20% for promotional purposes. By utilizing well-thought-out SMS campaigns that emphasize this even split, businesses can engage their audience more effectively without inundating them solely with sales items. 

It establishes loyalty through concise yet informative updates on products. Thus improving overall customer satisfaction levels from any given SMS marketing strategy they implement now or later down the road.

 

Maximizing SMS Marketing Performance

The businesswoman is analyzing stock market investment strategies using key performance indicators on a financial dashboard and leveraging business intelligence on her computer.

Harnessing the full potential of your SMS marketing tactics necessitates a commitment to automation and integration, looking at essential metrics and KPIs, as well as consistent testing/tweaking of strategies. By following these steps, you can optimize your SMS advertising efforts, yielding higher engagement levels resulting in increased conversions within an e-commerce context.

The following subsections cover automating processes. Tracking performance-related measurements (metrics /KPIs), plus proven practices relating to adjusting strategy effectively with regard to SMS campaigns.

Automation and Integration

Investing in automation tools for SMS marketing can simplify messaging, save resources and energy, and increase customer interaction. When integrated with other channels, such as email or social media campaigns, a complete strategy across various touchpoints is created. This way, you’ll have more opportunities to acquire and retain clients while obtaining revenue from your e-commerce business.

Tracking Metrics and KPIs

Analyzing and monitoring important KPIs is critical for the success of your SMS marketing campaigns, as it helps you identify areas in need of improvement. These metrics are some must-haves that should be tracked: delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rates, opt-out frequency, and response percentage/rate. 

Revenue generated from messages sent via SMS, cost per purchase, and customer lifetime value (CLV); return on investment (ROI). Keeping an eye on these vital parameters enables businesses to make informed decisions based on data gathered so they can optimize their strategies accordingly and realize maximum outcomes with regard to their SMS marketing efforts.

Testing and Optimization

Optimization and continuous testing are vital to achieving optimal results with your SMS marketing strategy. To get the most out of it, you need to experiment in terms of message content, frequency, and time slots. Utilizing personalization tactics, as well as A/B testing different messages, could help drive greater engagement for your campaigns among the targeted group.

Changing up when messages go out is a crucial part of making sure they’re effective at driving conversions. Adjusting times or frequencies where appropriate should always be kept in mind if seeking optimized performance from an SMS campaign. By consistently evaluating and tuning these elements through careful experimentation, you can ensure that each one has its desired impact on customer involvement levels and maximize effectiveness over time.

Finally, optimizing this aspect must continue until there’s no room for improvement – using SMS strategies like those mentioned will keep things working efficiently long-term while also helping make sure all aspects dovetail nicely into any overarching marketing plan that may exist already!

 

SMS Marketing Compliance and Best Practices

Privacy and Security encrypted email

It is essential to adhere to the regulations and industry practices of SMS marketing in order to keep customers happy, maintain a positive reputation for your brand, and avoid any legal complications. Following standards such as those set by the FCC, TCPA, or CAN-SPAM Act for global operations are pivotal steps when engaging in this type of advertising strategy. It’s essential to be aware of local regulations as well.

Subsequent paragraphs will address factors like opt-in/opt-out procedures, security requirements that must be met during campaigns, and various important elements related to timing and frequency guidelines regarding SMS promotion techniques.

Ensuring Opt-In and Opt-Out Compliance

Ensuring that customers provide their explicit permission to receive SMS messages is essential for upholding industry regulations. Let your clients know the conditions of your marketing campaign via text, and make sure they grant clear opt-in consent before you start sending out any communications.

Having a reliable process in place for handling unsubscribes is pivotal both from customer satisfaction and compliance perspectives – look into platforms like Postscript, which offer automated tools specifically designed for managing opt-outs quickly and smoothly so no one misses being removed if they don’t wish to continue receiving SMS messages anymore.

Maintaining Privacy and Security

The utmost priority of SMS marketing is protecting customer privacy and security. Strict adherence to regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ensures customers’ data is kept secure while preserving their privacy. 

To enhance safety measures, it’s necessary to employ encrypted emails, credible messaging apps, and reliable payment gateways that guarantee confidential information won’t be leaked out in any way. By making privacy protection a primary concern for your business strategy, you can instill trust in your clients, which will result in long-term brand loyalty over time.

Timing and Frequency Considerations

Managing the timing and amount of SMS messages is crucial to maintaining a favorable brand image while avoiding bombarding customers. While sending between 1 pm and 5 pm, at most four or five times monthly, can be a good starting point, the best time and frequency may vary based on the audience and region. 

It’s often a good practice to test and find the best time and frequency for your specific audience. Utilizing frequency capping alongside quiet hours can aid in efficiently regulating when you distribute SMSs so that people do not receive too many notifications at once and remain content with your business’s reputation.

 

Fully Utilize Your Marketing Channels

To sum it up, SMS marketing gives e-commerce businesses a reliable and versatile way to interact with customers, increase sales, and move their business forward. By grasping the basics of this type of marketing approach, developing an effective plan of action, composing appealing messages that draw in audiences’ attention, and maximizing performance levels as much as possible while still following relevant regulations – you can make full use of this remarkable channel for advertisements.

Elevate your online store with SMS advertising! Utilize the insights and tactics from this blog article with Romain Berg. Schedule your free strategy call to transform customer interactions, boost sales, and achieve exceptional results. Embrace the potential of SMS marketing today!

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/sms-marketing-tips-for-e-commerce-businesses/feed/ 0
Essential Features of an Effective E-commerce Website https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/features-of-an-effective-e-commerce-website/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/features-of-an-effective-e-commerce-website/#respond Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:37:44 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=9412 E-commerce is booming, and with the ever-increasing number of online shoppers, it’s more important than ever to have a high-performing and engaging effective e-commerce website. But what makes an e-commerce website truly effective? It’s more than just a visually appealing design and a user-friendly interface. 

In this blog post, we will explore the essential components, branding, and identity, optimization for conversions, security, and trust, as well as staying updated with trends and technologies that make a successful, effective e-commerce website.

Get ready to discover the secrets to creating a website that not only attracts visitors but also keeps them coming back for more. By the end of this article, you’ll have a roadmap to guide you in building or revamping your effective e-commerce website, ensuring it stands out in the crowded online marketplace and maximizes your sales potential.

Ready to transform your e-commerce website into a conversion powerhouse? Partner with Romain Berg, the industry-leading expert in e-commerce website development. Schedule your free strategy call today to leverage their expertise and create an effective, high-performing website that drives sales and leaves a lasting impression on your customers. 

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to increase your online business – take action now and unlock your website’s full potential with Romain Berg by your side!

 

Short Summary

  • Create a seamless and enjoyable customer experience with essential components such as user experience, site navigation, product presentation & branding.
  • Optimize for conversions by simplifying the checkout process, utilizing effective CTAs & personalizing product recommendations.
  • Enhance security and trust through secure payment processing, clear policies/terms of use & trust signals/social proof

 

Essential Components of an Effective E-Commerce Website

An effective e-commerce site is a delicate balance of aesthetics, navigation, and accessibility, all aimed at maximizing sales and enhancing the overall online shopping experience. The essential components, such as user experience, site navigation, and product presentation, are crucial for the success of your e-commerce store. 

Remember, research has shown that it takes only 50 milliseconds for visitors to determine if they will stay on a site or not. With the increasing number of e-commerce sites, it’s essential to make your online store stand out from the competition.

To create the best e-commerce website, maintain simplicity as the guiding principle throughout the e-commerce website design process. By focusing on these key elements, you can effectively create a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience that not only attracts potential customers but also keeps your existing customers coming back for more. 

In fact, this approach has been proven successful in the development of some of the best e-commerce websites, making them great e-commerce website examples.

User Experience and Interface

Woman on sofa with tablet, credit card and online shopping of fintech payment on ecommerce at home. Happy female customer in apartment, bank app or sale on store website with digital internet banking

The user experience is the backbone of any successful e-commerce website. A customer-centric design with proper use of white space, interactive elements, and clear call-to-actions can lead to a significantly higher conversion rate of 400% and increased customer loyalty.

By establishing an emotional connection with visitors through an engaging and visually appealing design, you can encourage them to explore your website and ultimately make a purchase.

Moreover, an intuitive and seamless structure that is consistent and user-friendly across all devices can greatly enhance the user experience. This includes offering assistance through a chat bubble and ensuring that customers have access to help whenever necessary. 

By prioritizing user experience and interface design, your e-commerce website can make a lasting impression on customers and keep them coming back.

Site Navigation and Search Functionality

Site navigation and search functionality play a crucial role in enhancing the overall shopping experience. Streamlining site navigation allows customers to locate their desired products quickly and easily. 

By optimizing navigation and search functionality, you can facilitate the shopping experience and enable customers to quickly locate their desired items, leading to a higher likelihood of completing a purchase.

It’s important to use top navigation to help users quickly locate the information they need. By providing easy navigation and search functionality, you can ensure that customers have a pleasant and hassle-free shopping experience, making them more likely to return to your e-commerce website in the future.

Product Presentation and Information

Product presentation is a vital aspect of any successful e-commerce website, as it establishes trust and drives conversions. High-quality images and detailed product information can significantly impact a customer’s decision to make a purchase. 

Being mindful of excessive text and supporting the customer buying cycle can help create a great e-commerce website. Utilize headers, subheaders, emphasized text, bulleted lists, and concise paragraphs to make content more legible.

In addition, showcasing product categories in an organized and visually appealing manner can greatly enhance the overall user experience on product pages. By using high-quality photos and testimonials, you can address customers’ inquiries and overcome typical obstacles to purchase. By prioritizing product presentation and information, you can build trust with your customers and boost your conversion rates.

 

Branding and Identity in E-Commerce Design

Effective E-commerce Website - devices responsive on workspace online shop website design

A strong brand identity is essential for connecting with leads, fostering loyalty, and setting your e-commerce website apart from the competition. By implementing consistent visuals, highlighting unique selling propositions (USPs), and utilizing storytelling, you can develop a brand identity that resonates with your target audience and elevates your online presence.

Achieving unified aesthetics and messaging, using product photos, fonts, icons, and color schemes that resonate with customers, as well as ensuring consistency in design, are all essential for a successful design that communicates your brand story.

Let’s dive deeper into these branding and identity aspects to ensure that your e-commerce website leaves a lasting impression on your visitors.

Consistent Visual Elements

Consistent visual elements play a crucial role in boosting brand awareness and fostering trust and familiarity with customers. By maintaining a consistent visual style across all channels, you can create a recognizable brand identity and enhance user experience.

To achieve this, it is essential to use consistent typography, color schemes, and design elements throughout your e-commerce website. This not only creates a unified and professional brand image but also helps customers easily navigate and interact with your site, thanks to a well-thought-out site design.

By prioritizing consistent visuals, your e-commerce website will stand out from the competition and leave a lasting impression on your customers.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a feature or benefit of your product or service that sets it apart from the competition. It is usually expressed in a concise, memorable, and persuasive statement that caters to the specific needs and interests of your customers. Identifying and communicating your USP is crucial for distinguishing your e-commerce website from competitors and attracting customers.

To create a compelling USP, analyze your competition, understand customer requirements and preferences, and recognize the distinctive advantages your product or service offers. Craft a statement that is succinct, appealing, and memorable, which will not only resonate with your target audience but also encourage them to choose your e-commerce website over others.

Storytelling and Emotional Connection

Storytelling and emotional connection play a significant role in creating a bond with customers and fostering trust in your brand. By effectively communicating your brand values and creating a narrative that resonates with customers, you can establish an emotional connection that goes beyond the mere transactional nature of e-commerce.

To achieve this emotional connection, focus on sharing your brand story, highlighting the mission and vision of your company, and showcasing the people behind the products. This not only humanizes your brand but also helps customers connect with your e-commerce website on a deeper level.

By prioritizing storytelling and emotional connection, you can create loyal customers who will keep coming back to your e-commerce website.

 

Optimizing E-Commerce Websites for Conversions

Young and cheerful woman showing a digital tablet screen with launched online store, shopping online at home. Concept of buying online using mobile devices

Optimizing your e-commerce website for conversions is crucial to boost sales and ensure the success of your online store. By simplifying the checkout process, using effective call-to-actions (CTAs), and personalizing product recommendations, you can increase your conversion rates and keep customers coming back for more.

Let’s explore these search engine optimization strategies in detail to help you turn your e-commerce website visitors into paying customers and create a seamless shopping experience that fosters customer loyalty.

Simplified Checkout Process

A streamlined checkout process is essential to enhance user experience and boost sales. By making the process as simple and efficient as possible, you can prevent customer attrition and encourage them to complete their purchase.

To create a clean and intuitive checkout page, ensure all aspects of the process are clearly communicated, provide customers the option to register or check out as a guest, and direct customers to a confirmation page once their purchase is completed. By prioritizing a simplified checkout process, you can increase conversions and ultimately drive more sales for your e-commerce website.

Effective Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Clear and compelling call-to-actions (CTAs) are essential in guiding customers toward making a purchase. Research has shown that 73% of participants indicated free shipping was the deciding factor for purchasing from an online store. By incorporating persuasive CTAs that highlight your unique selling points, you can encourage customers to take action and boost your conversion rates.

Allbirds, for example, uses straightforward calls to action to make it abundantly evident what the next step should be for customers. By clearly articulating your CTAs and making them easily visible on your e-commerce website, you can guide customers through the buying process and increase the likelihood of them completing a purchase.

Personalization and Product Recommendations

Personalization is a powerful tool in e-commerce, as it can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales. By offering personalized product recommendations based on customer behavior and preferences, you can create a tailored shopping experience that caters to the unique needs of your customers.

Utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, you can analyze customer data and provide customized product suggestions, ensuring your customers find exactly what they’re looking for. By prioritizing personalization and product recommendations, you can enhance the overall user experience and keep your customers engaged and coming back for more.

 

Enhancing E-Commerce Website Security and Trust

Office glass window, laptop and team communication on social network feedback, customer experience or ecommerce. Brand monitoring data, collaboration teamwork and black women review online survey

In today’s digital world, establishing trust and ensuring security is paramount for the success of any e-commerce website. By implementing secure payment processing, providing clear privacy policies and terms of use, and displaying trust signals and social proof, you can build customer trust and protect your online business from potential threats.

Let’s go deeper into these security and trust-building strategies to ensure your e-commerce website not only provides a seamless shopping experience but also safeguards your customers’ sensitive information.

Secure Payment Processing

Secure payment processing is crucial to protect customer data and prevent fraud. By ensuring that all transactions on your e-commerce website are secure, you can build trust with your customers and guarantee the success of your online business.

To implement secure payment processing, consider utilizing reputable payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net. These platforms offer a high level of security and fraud protection, ensuring your customers’ sensitive information is safeguarded, and your e-commerce website remains secure.

Privacy Policies and Terms of Use

Providing transparent privacy policies and terms of use is essential in establishing trust between your e-commerce website and customers. By clearly outlining how you collect, use, and protect customer data, you can reassure your customers that their personal information is secure and comply with privacy regulations such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

To ensure transparency, include links to your privacy policy and terms of use in the website footer and provide detailed, scannable information that is easily accessible to your customers. By prioritizing transparency in your privacy policies and terms of use, you can foster trust and credibility with your customers and create a secure shopping environment.

Trust Signals and Social Proof

Trust signals and social proof are essential components in building credibility and boosting sales for your e-commerce website. By displaying customer reviews, testimonials, professional photos, and images, as well as trust badges and technical certifications, you can create a sense of trust and authenticity that encourages potential customers to make a purchase.

For example, Verve Coffee Roasters leverages five-star reviews to foster trust on its e-commerce website. By incorporating trust signals and social proof into your e-commerce website design, you can effectively showcase the value and credibility of your products and services, leading to higher conversions and customer loyalty.

 

Staying Updated with E-Commerce Trends and Technologies

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, staying updated with the latest trends and technologies is essential for the success of your e-commerce business. By keeping up with emerging trends such as mobile commerce, artificial intelligence, and omnichannel marketing, you can ensure your online business, including shopping online and online stores, remains competitive and continues to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers.

In this final section, we will explore some of these trends and technologies and how they can benefit your e-commerce website, helping you stay ahead of the curve and drive your online business to new heights.

Mobile Commerce and Responsive Design

With the growing number of mobile shoppers, adopting responsive design and optimizing your e-commerce website for mobile devices is more important than ever. Research has demonstrated that a negative mobile experience will deter more than half of users from engaging with a brand. 

Conversely, 67% are more likely to purchase from a store that boasts a responsive design.

To cater to the mobile shopping demographic, ensure your website employs a responsive template or theme on any e-commerce platform. Additionally, make adjustments to your website elements to ensure they are touchscreen-friendly, providing a seamless browsing experience for mobile users.

Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots

Chatbot conversation Ai Artificial Intelligence technology online customer service.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots are revolutionizing the way e-commerce websites interact with customers and enhance user experience. By utilizing AI and chatbots, you can improve customer service, personalize the shopping experience, optimize operations, and increase customer loyalty and retention.

However, it’s important to consider the cost of implementation and potential data security breaches when incorporating AI and chatbots into your e-commerce website. By carefully evaluating the benefits and challenges, you can make an informed decision about whether AI and chatbots are right for your online business.

Omnichannel Marketing and Customer Retention

Implementing omnichannel marketing strategies is key to retaining customers and increasing brand loyalty. By providing a consistent shopping experience for customers across multiple channels, you can enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

To effectively implement omnichannel marketing, focus on integrating your e-commerce website with your social media platforms, email marketing campaigns, and brick-and-mortar retail store (if applicable). By creating a seamless and unified customer experience across all touchpoints, you can foster long-term relationships with your customers and drive your online business to success.

 

Make Your E-commerce Business Effective

Remember, the key to a successful e-commerce website lies in maintaining simplicity, staying up to date with the latest trends, and continuously improving the user experience. By implementing the strategies discussed in this article, you can build an e-commerce website that stands out in the crowded online marketplace and maximizes your sales potential.

Elevate your e-commerce website to new heights. Unlock the true potential of your online business by partnering with Romain Berg, the unparalleled leader in e-commerce website development. With Romain Berg’s unrivaled expertise and cutting-edge strategies, you can transform your website into a conversion powerhouse. 

Take the leap and schedule your free strategy call today to revolutionize your e-commerce presence. Don’t settle for ordinary – choose extraordinary with Romain Berg!

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/features-of-an-effective-e-commerce-website/feed/ 0
Best Practices for E-commerce Email Marketing https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/best-practices-for-e-commerce-email-marketing/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/best-practices-for-e-commerce-email-marketing/#respond Thu, 08 Jun 2023 10:23:31 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=9395 Are you ready to supercharge your online store’s sales? E-commerce email marketing can be a game-changer for driving sales, building customer relationships, and increasing brand awareness. In this blog post, we will explore the essential components, best practices, and types of emails that will help you unlock the full potential of this powerful marketing channel. 

Let’s dive in and discover the secrets to e-commerce email marketing success with Romain Berg by your side! Take action now and revolutionize your online business with Romain Berg’s expert guidance. Schedule your free strategy call today, and our team will be happy to assist you.

Short Summary

  • E-commerce email marketing is a powerful tool to drive sales, strengthen customer relationships & increase brand recognition.
  • Utilize list building, segmentation, automation, and personalization for successful campaigns with compelling subject lines & CTA’s.
  • Measure success using KPIs such as open/click rates and revenue generated from emails to refine your strategy!

 

The Power of E-commerce Email Marketing

Business growing in 2023. Analytical businessman planning business growth 2023, strategy digital marketing, profit income, economy, stock market trends and business

E-commerce email marketing is an essential tool for any online business looking to grow and succeed. With the right strategy in place, email marketing campaigns can help you drive sales, strengthen customer relationships, and boost brand recognition. Crafting a solid e-commerce email marketing strategy involves several key elements, such as list building, segmentation, automation, and personalization, which can maximize your email marketing success.

Email marketing best practices can help you optimize your campaigns and reach your goals. These include creating compelling lead magnets, using pop-ups and slide-ins, placing opt-in forms in strategic locations, using a dedicated email service provider, crafting compelling messages, and using a simple, clean, and easy-on-the-eyes email template. 

To truly engage customers and drive sales, consider using various types of e-commerce emails such as product launch emails, seasonal and holiday campaigns, win-back emails, upsell and cross-sell emails, welcome emails, transactional emails, newsletter emails, referral emails, and abandoned cart emails.

The power of e-commerce email marketing lies in its ability to reach both new and existing customers, delivering highly targeted and relevant messages that resonate with their needs and preferences. By leveraging the right techniques and tools, your online store can reap the benefits of this powerful marketing channel and enjoy increased sales, customer loyalty, and brand awareness.

 

Key Components of a Successful E-commerce Email Marketing Strategy

To achieve success in e-commerce email marketing campaigns, it’s essential to focus on four key components: list building, segmentation, automation, and personalization. These components work together to help you craft targeted and relevant campaigns for your subscribers, ensuring that your efforts are both effective and engaging.

Let’s explore each of these components in detail to understand how they contribute to a successful e-commerce email marketing strategy.

List Building

List building is the foundation of any successful e-commerce email marketing strategy. It’s crucial for expanding your subscriber list and guaranteeing a continual source of potential customers for your e-commerce business. But how can you effectively capture email addresses to grow your list?

There are several ways to collect email addresses for your e-commerce email marketing efforts. You can collect emails in person through pop-up shops or physical storefronts, include packaging inserts and small cards shipped with orders, or encourage customers to create an account after their first order has been placed to build customer loyalty. 

Offering a discount code in exchange for signing up for your email list is another effective strategy for rapidly and cost-effectively building your email list.

Monitoring the growth of your email list is also crucial. By leveraging your email service provider, you can track how many new subscribers you’ve gained each week or month or between your latest broadcast emails. Keeping an eye on these numbers will help you make data-driven decisions to optimize your list-building efforts.

Segmentation

E-commerce Email Marketing - Business people Holding Pie Chart

Segmentation is a powerful tool that helps you create more relevant and effective emails by dividing your email list into targeted groups based on shared characteristics or behaviors. By sending highly personalized messages to the right people, you can boost engagement and conversion rates, ultimately maximizing the success of your e-commerce email marketing efforts.

Segmentation can be beneficial for your e-commerce brand by focusing on specific customer segments, such as high-spenders, loyal customers, trendsetters, one-time buyers, and recent buyers. For example, when promoting new products, list segmentation allows you to target customers who have already shown an interest in similar products, increasing the likelihood of driving sales and customer engagement.

With the right segmentation strategy in place, your e-commerce email marketing efforts will become more targeted and impactful, helping you reach your goals and foster stronger connections with your subscribers.

Automation

Automation is a vital component of successful e-commerce email marketing, as it streamlines your efforts and ensures timely and consistent communication with your subscribers. By automating tasks such as sending emails, you can optimize your workflow and save valuable time.

One powerful aspect of automation is the use of triggered emails, which are sent when a subscriber takes a specific action. Examples of triggered emails include abandoned cart emails, win-back emails, and VIP discount emails. These automated messages can help you make sure your shoppers get the most out of their customer lifecycle and increase your sales.

Sequencing emails strategically is also essential in automation. By scheduling your emails in a logical order, you can prevent sending only promotional messages and maintain your shoppers’ interest. For instance, you can create a workflow to send an automated message after someone has made a purchase asking for feedback – an easy and effective way to collect valuable feedback.

Personalization

Personalization is the key to success in e-commerce email marketing. By customizing the content, arguments, and incentives in your email campaigns to the target audience, you can create a more engaging and effective experience for your subscribers. 

You can make your email content more personal by leveraging data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, location, and demographics. E-commerce businesses can also use recommendations to provide tailored product recommendations based on shoppers’ behavior, optimizing their email marketing efforts.

To ensure a personalized experience, consider every aspect of your email marketing, from the subject line to the call-to-action. By focusing on the customer and their unique preferences, you can create emails that resonate with your audience and drive results.

 

Best Practices for E-commerce Email Campaigns

Woman professional business content writer keyboarding on laptop computer, sitting in office interior. Female financier searching information in internet via notebook. Economist using web pages

To maximize the success of your e-commerce email campaigns, it’s essential to follow best practices. By crafting compelling subject lines, designing visually appealing emails, including clear calls-to-action, and conducting A/B testing to optimize performance, you can ensure that your email marketing efforts are both effective and engaging.

Let’s delve into each of these best practices in more detail.

Subject Lines

Subject lines play a critical role in the success of your e-commerce email marketing efforts. More than half of email recipients decide whether to open the email based on the subject line alone. To encourage subscribers to open your emails, your subject lines should be captivating and relevant.

For example, consider using a sense of urgency, curiosity, or personalization in your subject lines to grab the attention of your subscribers. A well-crafted subject line can make a significant difference in the open rates and overall success of your email campaigns.

By continuously testing and refining your subject lines, you can identify the most effective approaches for your audience and improve the performance of your e-commerce email marketing efforts.

Email Design

An essential aspect of e-commerce email marketing success is the design of your emails. Visually appealing, mobile-friendly, and consistent email designs that align with your brand identity can significantly impact the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.

When designing your emails, consider various elements such as the use of images, the font, and the layout. Ensure that your emails are easy to read on both desktop and mobile devices, as a significant portion of your subscribers will likely be viewing your emails on their smartphones.

By focusing on creating visually appealing and consistent email designs, you can enhance the user experience and increase the likelihood of your email subscribers engaging with your content and taking the desired action.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

A clear and concise call-to-action (CTA) is critical in driving conversions in your e-commerce email campaigns. Your CTA should be prominently placed and easy to understand, encouraging subscribers to take the desired action. To create an effective CTA, consider using bright colors, adding white space, using actionable language, and focusing on the benefit to the subscriber.

It’s also essential to include just one CTA per email and place it prominently within the email for maximum results. By following these best practices when crafting your CTAs, you can increase the chances of your subscribers taking the desired action, ultimately driving more sales and conversions for your e-commerce business.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a valuable tool in optimizing the performance of your e-commerce email marketing efforts. By testing various elements of your email campaigns, such as subject lines, email designs, and CTAs, you can identify the most effective approaches for your audience and continuously improve your strategy.

For example, you can test different subject lines to see which ones result in higher open rates or different CTAs to determine which ones lead to increased click-through rates and conversions. By analyzing the results of your A/B tests, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your email marketing campaigns and drive better sales results.

By incorporating A/B testing into your e-commerce email marketing strategy, you can continuously refine your campaigns and maximize their success.

 

Types of E-commerce Emails to Boost Sales and Customer Engagement

Female recieve inbox view the pending e-mail communication, New messages on mobile smartphone.

There are various types of e-commerce emails that can help you boost sales and customer engagement, including product launch emails, seasonal and holiday campaigns, promotional emails, win-back emails, and upsell and cross-sell emails.

By incorporating these different types of emails into your strategy, you can effectively engage your subscribers and drive conversions.

Product Launch Emails

Product launch emails, including welcome emails, are an effective way to build anticipation and excitement for a new product or service. These emails typically include product information, customer testimonials, and a call-to-action that encourages customers to take action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a waiting list.

To create a successful product launch email, consider the following best practices: use data to segment your target audience, craft a powerful and personalized subject line, incorporate eye-catching visuals like images or videos, focus on the customer, create suspense, announce the release date, and include a clear call-to-action.

By implementing these best practices in your product launch emails, you can drive excitement around your new product offerings and encourage subscribers to make a purchase.

Seasonal and Holiday Campaigns

Seasonal and holiday campaigns are an excellent opportunity to capitalize on special occasions and events, driving sales and customer engagement. These campaigns often include product information, customer testimonials, and a call-to-action that encourages customers to take advantage of limited-time promotions or discounts.

To make the most of seasonal and holiday campaigns, consider the following best practices: plan your campaigns in advance, create a sense of urgency, use festive imagery, and personalize your messaging based on your subscribers’ preferences and previous interactions with your brand.

By leveraging these best practices in your seasonal and holiday campaigns, you can effectively engage your subscribers and drive sales during these peak shopping periods.

Win-Back Emails

Win-back emails are an effective way to reconnect with inactive subscribers and motivate them to re-engage with your brand through special offers and incentives. These emails are designed to entice lapsed customers back to making purchases by reminding them of the value your brand offers and presenting enticing deals or promotions.

To create a successful win-back email campaign, consider the following best practices: segment your inactive subscribers, personalize your messaging, offer an incentive or discount, and create a sense of urgency. By implementing these strategies in your win-back emails, you can effectively re-engage inactive subscribers and increase the likelihood of them becoming active customers once again.

Upsell and Cross-Sell Emails

Upsell and cross-sell emails are powerful tools that can help your business increase average order value and revenue. These triggered emails are based on previous actions taken by the subscriber and take into account purchase history, browser behavior, and other profile data.

Upsell emails typically promote a premium or upgraded version of a product that a customer has already added to their cart or purchased, while cross-sell emails suggest complementary products based on the customer’s previous purchases or browsing history. To create effectively upsell and cross-sell emails, consider the following best practices: use data-driven product recommendations, personalize your messaging, and include a clear call-to-action.

By incorporating upsell and cross-sell emails into your e-commerce email marketing strategy, you can effectively boost your average order value and drive increased revenue for your business.

 

Essential Tools for E-commerce Email Marketing Success

Marketing automation, growth marketing strategy concept. Digital marketing automation tools used for all in one, email marketing, social media, customer journey, pricing, advertising, and loyalty.

To reach your e-commerce email marketing goals, you’ll need a variety of tools, including email service providers, list-building tools, and analytics platforms. These tools can help you craft, manage, and optimize your campaigns, ensuring that your efforts are both effective and efficient.

Email service providers, such as GetResponse, Brevo, and ActiveCampaign, offer powerful features and integrations to manage your contacts, streamline your sales process, and create personalized campaigns. List-building tools, on the other hand, can help you grow your subscriber base and segment your audience for more targeted marketing efforts.

Analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics, can help you track the performance of your email campaigns, providing valuable insights into open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and generated revenue. By leveraging these tools, you can make data-driven decisions to continuously improve your email marketing strategy and achieve success in your e-commerce business.

 

Measuring the Success of Your E-commerce Email Marketing Efforts

Measuring the success of your e-commerce email marketing efforts is crucial for making informed decisions and continuously improving your strategy. Key performance indicators, such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated from email campaigns, can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your efforts.

By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your email marketing campaigns. For example, you can use A/B testing to experiment with different subject lines, email designs, or calls-to-action to determine which elements resonate best with your audience and drive the highest engagement and conversions.

Ultimately, measuring the success of your e-commerce email marketing efforts will help you refine your strategy and ensure that you are effectively engaging your subscribers, driving sales, and growing your business.

 

Supercharge Your E-commerce Business

In conclusion, e-commerce email marketing is a powerful tool for driving sales, building customer relationships, and increasing brand awareness. By focusing on key components such as list building, segmentation, automation, and personalization, and following best practices for crafting compelling subject lines, designing visually appealing emails, including clear calls-to-action, and conducting A/B testing, you can unlock the full potential of this powerful marketing channel. 

So don’t wait any longer – start implementing these strategies today and watch your e-commerce business thrive! Take your e-commerce email marketing to the next level and schedule your free strategy call today with Romain Berg, the expert in e-commerce marketing, to get personalized guidance and achieve remarkable results. Take action now and elevate your business with Romain Berg’s expertise by your side!

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/best-practices-for-e-commerce-email-marketing/feed/ 0
E-commerce Marketing: How to Drive More Online Store Traffic With Your Ads https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/e-commerce-marketing-how-to-create-ads/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/e-commerce-marketing-how-to-create-ads/#respond Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:20:04 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=8986 Male and female marketers are having a discussion inside the office on how to create ads to increase their sales online

In the online advertising world, using paid ads remains an invaluable way of driving traffic to your website. Once you design your e-commerce platform, add all your products or services, and set up the payment methods, the next is to ensure your customers can find you. Relying on organic traffic alone is no longer an option. You need to know how to create ads.

Paid advertising can help you generate more traffic, regardless of where you are with your SEO optimization process. It’s ideal for new and established businesses that want to increase their brand visibility and let the world know what they offer. Marketing experts report that an average person sees 4000 to 10000 ads daily, meaning you can potentially reach a wider audience with this strategy. 

This article is a guide on how to create ads that aim to drive traffic to your e-commerce website. As digital marketing experts, we can help you maximize results from your ad campaigns. All you need is to tell us your business goals and target audience, and we will customize a campaign that drives results.

Which are the Best Channels for Paid Advertising?

Paid advertising in Online Marketing charts on the page.

When it comes to paid advertising, there is no shortage of channels. Each platform presents new markets and ways of communicating with your best prospects. 

1. Google Ads

Previously known as Google AdWords, this is the most popular PPC (pay-per-click platform). Google dominates search engine use, with more than 3.5 billion searches every day, making it a perfect place to advertise your business.

2. Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with roughly 2.96 billion monthly active users. It offers an excellent opportunity to laser-target your ads and build a responsive audience.

3. YouTube

YouTube is also a great channel for paid advertising, with more than 2.5 billion monthly users. It has skippable and non-skippable ads that show up before, during, and after a video, making it easy to reach your target audience where they’re watching.

4. Instagram

Owned by Facebook, Instagram has more than 1.21 billion monthly active users. The platform shares hyper-targeting ad capability based on location, demographics, and interests. It is a fantastic channel to focus your campaigns.

5. Pinterest 

You can reach over 445 million individuals every month who use the Pinterest search engine to discover and purchase new products. The platform focuses on users’ highly-specific interests, which makes it seamless to tailor your demographic targeting.

6. Twitter

Twitter boasts more than 368 million active monthly users, allowing you to engage your audience directly with the right targeting. Using promoted tweets can create brand awareness and ramp up your business.

7. Reddit

Millions of people visit Reddit every day to find relevant content and interact with people who share their interests. The platform has niche groups called Subreddits, which you can use to create highly focused ads. 

You can implement a full-funnel approach to build awareness and cast a wide net to capture as many leads as possible. 

How to Create Ads that Drive Traffic to your Website

Notebook written with ideas on how to create ads that drive more traffic

So now, you know the best platforms to focus your ad campaigns. Let’s look at eight effective tactics on how to create ads for your online store that will help you reach your target audience and drive more sales.

Define your Target Audience

When you already know how to create ads, you should target your ads to people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. That means you need to know how to create ads because creating a targeted ad campaign with the right keywords is based on location, language, demographics, and interests. Trying to sell to everyone sounds interesting, but narrowing your audience helps you find high-value leads who easily convert to customers.

You can choose to focus your campaign on retargeting or prospecting. Don’t allow these words to intimidate you. Retargeting means selling to customers who have already expressed some interest in your brand. That means they have visited your website and learned about your business but did not buy. You can keep track of them and display ads persuading them to revisit your website and purchase from you.

 Prospecting means reaching out to new customers. The secret is to select keywords that attract your target audience and a persuasive design on how to create ads. 

Invest More in Successful Keywords

You may notice that certain keywords bring more traffic to your product pages, leading to more conversions. Consider expanding how you use them. If you’re using the exact match targeting option, consider using a broad match or phrase match modifier. 

These changes may allow your ads to appear on more searches, helping you reach a broader target audience and increase traffic to your site. Once you change the keyword match type, track results to ensure the new keywords work well for your ad campaign. You may need to incorporate negative keywords to filter all irrelevant searches that your ad is showing up for.

Use Eye-Catching Visuals

Your ad should be visually appealing. It may sound like a no-brainer, but people are more likely to click on your ad if it has a video or photo that pleases their eyes. Low-quality visuals can make your prospects lose trust in you.

 For instance, if you add product images that are smaller than the actual ad space size, they stretch and become distorted, giving a poor representation of your business. Focus on using perfectly sized and eye-catching visuals that best represent your goals and are not too busy or cluttered. 

Keep your Ad Copy Short and Readable

Your ad copy must be well-written and persuasive enough to make people click on it. Unlike in email marketing, you only have a few seconds to catch your audience’s attention. So, you should plan on simplifying the copy with a clear value proposition. In other words, only focus on the benefits of your product or service and how it will help people address and solve their pain points. 

Aim to use around five to ten words on your headlines, perhaps with thought-provoking questions that make consumers want to learn more. A good example would be, “Are you tired of stubborn acne or dark marks?” Those with such problems will want to know what solutions you have, and chances are that they’ll make a purchasing decision. 

Be sure to add a small version of your logo in one of the ad corners and steer clear and decorative fonts to catch the attention easily. 

Incorporate a Clear Call to Action

Your ad campaign should always include a solid call to action. This is your final instruction to the audience, and it will help them learn what you offer and what they get out of clicking your ad. Use strong and clear words like “Get the Limited Offer,” “Shop Now,” or “Learn More.” 

Whatever call to action you choose, ensure that once someone clicks on the ad, they’re directed to your website or where they were promised. Use a clear button and eye-catching color so that viewers know exactly where to click.

Perfect your Landing Page

When visitors click your ads, the first page they will see on your website is the landing page. This page should allow them to take the action they want, especially if you’re running a lead-generating campaign. 

Since you’re asking visitors to purchase your products and share personal information, the design and content of your website matter a lot. They’re less likely to take action if the platform is not professional and trustworthy. Here are the key factors to consider when designing your landing page.

  • Credibility: You should ensure that your business information and contacts are easy to find. It promotes transparency while making it easy for potential customers to reach out to you. 
  • Load Times: When a prospect clicks on your ad, it would be best to redirect them to a page that loads quickly. If your landing page takes too long to load, they may leave out of frustration.
  • Navigation: Ensure that your visitors don’t have to hunt around your site searching for what they want. By clicking your ad, they expect to land on a page that matches what they searched for. Finding the advertised product or service should be seamless.

Make your Ads Optimized for Mobile

Online advertising on mobile device - Programmatic Advertising cross targeting.

In the modern world, HTML5 has become the ideal online ad format since it can be viewed on any screen or device. The mobile revolution has also changed the way we consume media. Research shows that more than three-quarters of people will only use smartphones as the primary internet source by 2025. For this reason, ensuring your ads are optimized for mobile is essential.  

Keep Testing

If you want your ad campaign to be successful, you must be ready to test them continuously. Not all tweaks will work for your brand and target audience. But closely monitoring your campaigns and making small changes as needed will ultimately help you find a winning formula for your online store.

Get an Expert Help in Creating Ads for your E-commerce Website

Paid advertising is a powerful approach to driving traffic to your business. By using the above tactics on how to create ads that generate high traffic to your store, you can get results that will grow your business. 

Nonetheless, customizing ads that align with your goals may require the intervention of a digital marketing expert like Romain Berg, who understands exactly what you need. Contact us now and allow us to take your website traffic a notch higher.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/e-commerce-marketing-how-to-create-ads/feed/ 0
The Complete Guide on How and Why to Use Google Analytics Attribution Model https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/guide-google-analytics-attribution-model/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/guide-google-analytics-attribution-model/#respond Sat, 11 Dec 2021 00:14:14 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7743 Google Analytics is an indispensable tool in your marketing stack. It is sophisticated enough to provide you with data to help you make sense of your traffic. 

However, e-commerce websites are using Google Analytics to track traffic and sales. In this case, how does one effectively use the analytics tool to determine which traffic source should be credited for a particular sale?

Before asking an expert e-commerce agency to help you make sense of Google Analytics, it’s best to learn it yourself first. Thankfully, this post will shed light on the Google Analytics attribution model, why your business should use it, and how to utilize it properly.

A chart of google conversion models

What is the Google Analytics Attribution Model?

The Google Analytics attribution model refers to how the analytics tool assigns the credit for each successful sale on your website. This is important because it’s possible a user visited your landing page from different touchpoints in your conversion path.

Let’s say a user became your customer from the following touchpoints:

  • First session – Display ads (did not convert)
  • Second session – Paid search (did not convert)
  • Third session – Newsletter (did not convert)
  • Fourth session – Organic search (converted)

From this example, the user first interacted with your site by clicking on a display ad. Then it visited your site again after seeing your paid search ad. The user went to your site yet again by clicking a link on your newsletter.

From the first three interactions, the user didn’t become a customer. During the fourth interaction with your site from organic search, the user finally converted into a customer.

Exhibit 1

Attribution traffic sources

In this case, Google Analytics credits the sale to the organic search’s last touchpoint in this sequence. Even if the initial touchpoints were responsible for convincing the user to convert, the last touchpoint gets the credit nonetheless.

Different Attribution Models

In this example, the standard attribution model Google uses is called the Last Non-Direct Click, which gives credit only to the last non-direct channel. This might not be the best way for some to credit the sales because it disregards the other channels that could have influenced the decision of users to convert into your customers.

Thankfully, there are other attribution models available to help you better understand how each of your channels played a role in the conversion path:

  • Last Interaction Attribution – gives credit only to the last channel, direct or otherwise
  • Last Google Ads Click Attribution – gives credit only to the last Google Ads Click
  • First Interaction Attribution – gives credit only to the first channel in the conversion path
  • Linear Attribution – distributes credit across all channels evenly. As long as the user traverses through these touchpoints, Google Analytics will treat all of them the same
  • Time Decay Attribution – similar to the Linear model, but it gives more value to the channels closer to the point when a user converted into a customer
  • Position Based Attribution – gives credit mainly to the first and last channels while the channels in between split the remaining credit

The first four models only assign credit to a specific channel in the conversion path. The last three are fairer because they distribute the recognition across the different touchpoints the user went through in the conversion path.

Why Should You Use the Attribution Model?

As mentioned, the Google Analytics attribution model helps you make sense of your traffic based on which channels drive the most sales to your e-commerce business.

However, the more important question to ask is which attribution model you should use to determine the effectiveness of each channel in your path to conversion.

By default, Google Analytics shows you the Last Non-Direct Click for your website. This could be disadvantageous for marketers running paid and display ad campaigns for their websites. Whether users visited your site through your ads, this model will always favor non-direct click channels and credit them the sale.

At the same time, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use this attribution model when analyzing your marketing campaigns. It depends on what channels you’re using, how you organized them in your conversion path, and which channels you want to prioritize measuring.

Using the correct attribution modes to measure your campaigns will better understand why they performed the way they did and what approaches you must take in your upcoming campaigns to improve conversions.

How to Measure Your Campaigns Using the Attribution Models in Google Analytics

Before you can analyze your campaigns using Google Analytics attribution models, you must do the following first:

  • Set up goals and transactions on your Google Analytics.
  • Use Google Tag Manager to label your campaigns and help you identify which ones are in Google Analytics.
  • Link your Google AdWords to Google Analytics if you’re running pay-per-click ad campaigns.

Launch your campaign once you’ve set these up and wait for Google Analytics to collect data from it.

Then log in to your Google Analytics account, go to Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Overview, and filter the results to only show Transactions.

Exhibit 2

Multi-channel funnels

Next, scroll down to see the Venn diagram showing the overlapping channels users visited as part of their conversion path.

Exhibit 3

venn diagram of conversion funnels

The overlap among channels results from the default attribution model Last Non-Direct Click. Depending on your goals, the data you will see here may not reflect how your campaign went. 

The next step is to view the transactions using the other attribution models that can help measure your campaign correctly. Go to Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Model Comparison Tool. 

From here, filter only the campaign you want to analyze. Then click on the drop-down menu to select the attribution model you want to use to view the results.

Exhibit 4

Measuring your google campaign

When analyzing the results, click on Source/Medium as the Primary Dimension to view all the different marketing channels you used in your campaign.

After choosing an attribution model, you can select another model for comparison. This is where the fun begins because you’ll be able to analyze the sources using different attribution models to measure their conversions and conversion values from each.

Exhibit 5

image of direct channel results

The direct channel produced over 7,000 conversions in the Last Non-Direct Click model in the example above. This means that more than 7,000 users converted into customers after typing in your site as the final step in their conversion path.

However, the channel got even more conversions in the First Interaction model with almost 8,900. It means these visitors turned into sales after typing in your URL as their first interaction with your site.

With a 26% difference in favor of the First Interaction model, you can conclude that the direct channel fared better when people visit your site by typing it in their browsers. From here, determine which part in your conversion path you advocated for this specific channel and find ways to double-down on it or keep it as is.

At the same time, “(direct)/(none)” could also mean that Google Analytics wasn’t able to track the traffic from this source properly. That means visitors could have gone to your site through channels not included in your campaign.

From here, you need to find potential traffic sources that could have led to conversions and tag them properly in your upcoming plan.

From the example above, we discussed attribution models measuring specific channels. But what if you want to analyze a campaign composed of multiple channels in your conversion path? Doing so allows you to see how the sequence of channels in your funnel affected conversions.

You can do this by using and comparing the Linear, Time Decay, and Position-Based models. These help you understand how effective your campaign is as a whole and how you can improve the different touchpoints comprising it to increase conversion rates.  

Exhibit 6

Linear and Time Decay models

In this example, we compare the Linear and Time Decay models. The difference across sources is not more than 7% except for “groups.google.com / referral” (13%). It means that this source is more valuable in the Linear model where all channels are treated equally.

The source is further away from the conversion point due to lower conversion and conversion values when looking at this source using the Time Decay model.  You could then say that the source belongs at the top part of your sales funnel when visitors are still learning more about you.

Conclusion

If you’re serious about your business, you must drill down into how your website generates conversions by analyzing your campaigns using the appropriate attribution model. It allows you to determine the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives and how each channel and source contributes as sales and conversion paths in your campaign.

While we’ve discussed the Google Analytics attribution model in-depth, there’s still a lot to learn regarding setting up your campaigns and interpreting the results you’ll get when you start comparing each one different attribution models.

So, if you want someone to guide you regarding attribution models, reach out to us at Romain Berg, and we’ll be more than happy to assist you.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/guide-google-analytics-attribution-model/feed/ 0
How to Encourage Customers to Purchase from Your eCommerce Site With Less Clicks https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/people-buy-on-ecommerce-sites-with-less-clicks/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/people-buy-on-ecommerce-sites-with-less-clicks/#respond Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:25:45 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7713 Fast and Easy Shopping with Less Clicks
Make products from your e-commerce site jump right into shopping carts.

As an eCommerce site owner, you face several challenges before making a sale. There are various factors you have to worry about. The most fundamental variable that generates sales is what most tend to gloss over: simplicity

Creating an eCommerce site doesn’t have to be complex. Most get bogged down by features that are not necessary to drive revenue and increase their bottom line. The key is finding ways to decrease the number of clicks between entering one’s site and completing a transaction.

At Romain Berg, we are passionate about creating efficient and engaging websites. Reach out today to learn more about how to improve the performance of your website.

In this post, we’ll examine the concepts that govern the success of high-converting eCommerce websites and even high-performing business sites. And they all have to do with taking visitors to the right place with fewer clicks. 

Don’t Follow the 3-Click Rule

The “3-click rule” originated in a 2001 book by Jeffrey Zeldman called “Taking Your Talent to the Web.” He mentioned it as something other web designers were using back then.

The concept was merely an assumption by the author about visitors bouncing away from your site to another. They could quickly move on if “they can’t find what they’re looking for within three clicks.” 

The concept caught on among web designers. The 3-click rule was taken as gospel truth despite no studies or evidence backing it. 

1-click shopping makes shoppers happy

To be fair, the 3-click “rule” taps into the visitor’s desire for “fast gratification,” as mentioned in the book. But it is by no means a strict rule that all eCommerce sites must observe.

The biggest problem brought upon by this rule is the broad navigation UIs that some online stores utilize. Hover your mouse over a category on the menu. It will display subcategories under it to help you narrow down your search. And the same thing could happen if you place your cursor on a subcategory.

Organizing submenus this way is a logical and sound concept. However, it creates a wide variety of options that can become overwhelming for users. This organization isn’t helping users get to where they want and need to be. You’re delaying their path with the myriad of options you’re offering them all at once.

As a result, the 3-click rule betrays the most fundamental idea it’s trying to champion. This brings us to our next point:

Make Purchasing Simple with Less Clicks for Customers

The number of clicks is correlated to the simplicity of making purchases from your website. It’s good if you’re finding success with the 3-click concept above. However, imagine if you can take visitors less than three clicks to find the page they’re looking for. You can expect more sales as a result because it’s much easier to navigate your site.

Faceted navigation allows visitors to view a category from an eCommerce website and filter the results based on their preferences. Amazon does this to great effect on their pages (Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1

 

1-click navigation
1-click navigation example from Amazon

Using this navigation feature, people can find what they’re looking for with just one click from your homepage to a category.

Visitors land on their desired product page and are ready to purchase. They will be brought to the checkout page to fill out additional information to verify the transaction.

While this is a necessary step, it can be a tedious one. This reason is why the “1-click” ordering that was patented by Amazon in 1999 makes for smooth and frictionless transactions.

Once users have entered their personal information into their Amazon accounts, they can forgo entering them again during checkout.

Amazon’s patent for the “1-click” buying expired in 2017. Therefore, eCommerce firms can make the same ordering process available to their customers without the risk of legal repercussions. Take this opportunity to leverage this convenient ordering system on your online shop.

“Your site’s design should make it simple for online visitors to find what they’re looking for,” says Aria Tsiomakidis, Romain Berg’s Creative Director. “Your site’s content should provide value and a solution to their problems/improve their lives in some manner. Ideally, this process happens in 3 clicks or less and efficiently provides a clear journey for them to checkout.”

Improve Loading Time

Studies have shown through the years that users leave a site that doesn’t fully load after a few seconds. According to Pingdom, 38% of visitors leave a site if the site loads longer than five seconds (Exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2

A graph depicting web page load time VS Bounce rate and how they correlate

Source: Pingdom

Slow-loading sites are bad for the user experience. Nobody wants to stay on a site that takes more time to load. Visitors can easily jump to another site that offers products like yours and loads much faster.

Worse for slow sites, Google is putting more onus on site speed. Page speed was a ranking factor back in 2018. It put into consideration UX in the Page Experience update. It now takes into account the Core Web Vitals score. Core Web Vitals calculates not only page speed but other factors pertaining to a site’s interface and layout.

Therefore, it’s time for you to make your eCommerce site load faster and more efficiently.

There are lots of ways you can do this. For instance, compressing images allows you to decrease the file size of images without compromising their quality. This is vital for online stores since they heavily rely on images to showcase their products to customers.

Also, to help deliver your content faster to visitors, use a content delivery network. This loads content from the nearest data center where the visitor is located. The short distance between the data center and visitors should reduce loading speed significantly.

Observe the best practices of reducing loading speed. Then test your site using Google PageSpeed Insights to see if your site improved its Core Web Vitals score.

Exhibit 3

A screenshot of Romain Berg on Google Page Speed Insights tool

We at Romain Berg make sure that our site loads instantaneously to show clients that we know our stuff (Exhibit 3). This helps us to rank our pages higher on organic search to attract visitors who will convert into clients.

For eCommerce site owners, improving your Core Web Vitals score prevents visitors from bouncing away from your site. Keeping that traffic on your site increases your chances of turning them into customers.

Conclusion

As the number of competitors increases, attracting your target audience to your online store is getting more difficult. You need to pull out all the stops to get their attention by driving as much traffic as possible. 

But just as important is optimizing your product pages to convert in as few clicks as possible. By following the tips above, you make buying from your store a breeze.

If you want to learn more ways to increase your eCommerce sales, drop us a line at Romain Berg. We’ll be more than happy to help.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/people-buy-on-ecommerce-sites-with-less-clicks/feed/ 0
What Is a Marketing Persona and Why Do I Need One For My eCommerce Business? https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/marketing-persona/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/marketing-persona/#respond Fri, 04 Jun 2021 00:55:21 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7517 A person holding a picture frame with a question mark representing a marketing persona.

In today’s market, it is essential to have a well-defined marketing persona. It serves as the “alter ego” of your business — a virtual customer of sorts. The marketing persona allows you to gain insights into how to market your products properly.

Without one, marketing teams will be scrambling for ways to properly promote their products and services to their audience!

Your best path is to ask expert advice from a marketing agency that knows the ins and outs of developing e-commerce personas. But you should at least know what it takes to develop one yourself.

Let’s discuss why it’s important for eCommerce businesses to have a well-defined marketing persona and how it will grow sales!

What Is a Marketing Persona + Factors To Consider

Cartoons of the various marketing persona archetypes.

A marketing persona is the representation of your ideal customer. You should target him or her using marketing strategies in line with who they are.

As a result, you can find and appeal to potential customers to buy your products or services.

The easiest way to approach this is by identifying your brand archetype as explained in the book “The Hero and the Outlaw” by Carol S. Pearson and Margaret Mark.

They discuss the following archetypes that inhibit our consciousness. Our familiarity with these archetypes stems from our exposure to them from stories and legends that we’ve heard and read through the years.

Below is a shortlist of archetypes identified in the book:

  • Ruler – leaders in their respective industries.
  • Hero – continuously strives to achieve something others can’t.
  • Outlaw – determined to make a change in the world.
  • Caregiver – supports and nurtures the well-being of others.
  • Innocent – Has an idea of the world as simple and happy.
  • Regular Guy – blends in as part of a community and avoids standing out.
  • Sage – has an unquenchable knowledge for the truth to understand the world better.
  • Creator – passionate about building and creating things.
  • Jester – entertains others through joy and humor.
  • Explorer – sets out for an adventure and undergoes new experiences.
  • Magician – focuses on radical transformation akin to a miracle.
  • Lover – Promises beauty to help create desire from others.

Using any of the archetypes above allows you to fashion your marketing strategy based on its description above. You can then target the right people that resonate with the archetype you are promoting.

However, it’s also possible to share qualities from different archetypes above — your brand can be a combination of Ruler, Jester, and Love. In this case, you need to dig deeper to determine the best approach to your marketing.

To do this, you must identify the factors based on your target or existing customers.

When you’ve created your personas, you’ll have a better grasp of the persona you must assume as a brand. You’ll also gain insight into the kinds of strategies you must use for your campaigns.

Demographics

You have to know who your customers are before you can sell them anything. You need to know their needs and wants, where they live, their income, and so on.

Knowing the target demographic of your business is the first step towards effective marketing.

A demographic is a subgroup of the population. Job titles, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and geographic location are all demographics.

preview lightbox Make an RB version of this infographic 5 10 21 3

 

You can use the gathered customer demographics to determine who will purchase the most product and provide the most profit. They can also be used for product development and other aspects of a business.

If your business hasn’t built a customer base yet, you can identify the target demographic based on your products. 

For example, if you’re selling baby products like strollers, your target demographics are married couples in the 25-44 age bracket. You can break down their demographics into jobs, educational backgrounds, incomes, and others.

Choosing your demographic based on your products and services is a good way to come up with marketing strategies.

However, it’s much better if you already have irrefutable data from current, active customers.

From here, you can analyze their profiles and determine the demographics of your customers.

Goals

A customer putting a dart into the bullseye, symbolizing goals.

The next step to create your buyer personas for your marketing is by identifying their goals.

Goals refer to the objectives and aspirations of your ideal customer based on their demographics. In other words, these are the things that drive them to purchase or use a product.

Their goals don’t have anything to do with the product directly. For example, they want to spend more time with their families, but your site is selling mountain bikes.

By finding the right angle, customers reach their objectives by buying your product.

Owning a mountain bike allows them and their families to become more adventurous as they explore the outdoors together. 

It’s all about finding angles for your products in relation to their goals.

Hobbies and Interests

Interests and hobbies are a great way to learn more about your customers, which is useful for creating targeted campaigns.

Customers will be more likely to remember the message if they can relate it back to something that interests them. This is a great way for eCommerce businesses to create relationships with their customers; instead of just one-time transactions.

The best way to track this variable is to listen to what they have to say on social media. Using tools like Mention or Awario allows you to see what your target audience loves or is interested in.

Pain Points

Customer pain points are challenges a customer has while using your product. For example, if a user is having trouble setting up an account on your website, that is a pain point.

Understanding customer pain points is important for fixing or addressing those challenges.

From a marketing perspective, knowing your customers’ pain points allow you to provide more personalized campaigns and customer service. Additionally, you can use their feedback to find better products and services to sell, if not actually improve them.

Referral Traffic

Customers can find your eCommerce business in many ways. They could have found you from links to your website posted on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

They are most likely to find your store through search engines. Your site will show up on Google when people search for your products if you optimize for target keywords.

Another way that customers find out about your site is through referrals. They may have gotten in touch with your past or existing customers and recommended buying a product from your site. 

However, you’ll only know for sure where most of them found you if you find out for yourself.

Look at Google Analytics and check the referral traffic you received over time. 

A screenshot of Google Analytics highlighting referral traffic.

From here, you’ll be able to pinpoint where they found you. You’ll also see the link source they clicked that led them to your site.

This information will help lead you to potential new prospects who are searchers or followers like these existing ones.

Developing a Marketing Persona For Your eCommerce Business

A cartoon of a man and various things that make up his marketing persona.

Upon developing the persona template, you should be able to develop strategies and create effective campaigns for your audience.

Below are items that you can take action on with the help of your newly minted marketing persona:

  • Focus on channels that drive traffic and conversions – Instead of spreading yourself thinly on different platforms, dedicate your resources to channels that generate ROI for your business. For example, if most of your customers are coming from social media, focus on content for Facebook or Twitter. You can launch ads on those channels to further scale your marketing efforts.
  • Create more personalized campaignsUsing the customer persona, you can craft campaigns that play off their goals, pain points, interests, and others. This allows your sales team to better connect with your marketing persona, which could lead to more sales!
  • Get more insightful data for your business – Because you have a better grasp of your target customers, you can develop marketing campaigns tailor-made to your audience. You’ll also be able to gather accurate website data and insights based on your efforts to market your business. This allows you to tweak your tactics and strategies based on how your audience responded to them.

Conclusion

A stamp that says "do you know your customers?"

Don’t forget that creating a marketing persona is a crucial step in the process of creating a successful e-commerce business. A well-created persona helps to create campaigns that resonate with your customers, whether you’re selling on social media or through email. 

We at Romain Berg can help you develop this type of marketing plan for your business. We’ve shared some tips about how to do so yourself if you want to take matters into your own hands. 

What kind of persona would work best for your company? Contact us today if you need assistance!

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/marketing-persona/feed/ 0
5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in PPC for eCommerce https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ppc/ppc-for-ecommerce/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ppc/ppc-for-ecommerce/#respond Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:04:06 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7492 A map with a tablet that says PPC over it. PPC for eCommerce is a strong strategy.

There’s more to Pay Per Click (PPC) than meets the eye.

“PPC is one of the trickiest parts of eCommerce for any business owner,” says Craig Rhode, our Director of Digital Strategy. 

“Not understanding the how, what, or where to spend your ad money can cost you a lot of wasted spend without any results.”

If you’re still on the fence about whether to commit to this marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

In this post, we’ll shed light on what PPC brings to the table and why you should run a campaign for your eCommerce business. Whether you wish to do this with your team or hire PPC specialists to do the job for you, it’s important to know your business’s options for growing your business utilizing PPC for eCommerce.

1. Boost Brand Awareness

A tablet that says "Increase Brand Awareness". You can increase brand awareness with PPC advertising

For new online stores, it’s hard to get in front of your target audience, especially when the majority of them already customers of your competitors.

In this case, it doesn’t matter if you have a great product in tow – you simply cannot compete against other eCommerce brands on a level playing field.

This is where paid search comes into play to help tip the scales in your favor.

Doing keyword research and bidding for terms where your ad copy will appear on the top of Google searches is a winning strategy.  

By playing your hand well with your PPC strategies, you can immediately make a splash in the eCommerce market and potentially fast-track your way to the level of your top competitors, if not higher!

2. Complements SEO Strategy

Unlike PPC ads, SEO takes a while to take effect. You won’t appear on the first page of SERPs for quite some time. And that’s only if you optimized your content and have built authority with your site.

An ahrefs graphs depicting the age of pages on the Google Top 10 Results.

Did you know? Only 22% of pages that appear on the first page were published within a year. (Source: Ahrefs

On the upside, SEO is much more sustainable than eCommerce PPC campaigns in the long run. To keep driving traffic to your site via PPC, you must constantly spend for your ad groups to appear on search. 

With SEO, all you must do is monitor the search rankings of your pages without spending a dime. Granted, you’ll need to tweak the page to constantly work your way up to the top of organic search. But you don’t have to spend money every time to appear on search engines.

That isn’t to say that one is better than the other. On the contrary, SEO needs PPC and vice versa to generate the most traffic and awareness to your eCommerce business. 

Paid ads allow you to quickly get noticed by your target audience, while SEO enables you to build a site that will rank on SERPs even without the need for PPC – it’s a win-win!

3. Create Highly Targeted Campaigns

Traditional marketing relies on display ads and billboards, hoping that your audience happens to notice your ad and become a customer. Online marketing allows you to target those exact people so only they can see your ads.

Normally, ads serve different purposes, from driving more traffic to one’s site to increase brand awareness, which we covered above.

But as an eCommerce brand, you’ll need to generate more customers from the ads you run. 

In this case, creating shopping campaigns is the way to go. 

This type of ad shows information about your product (name, price, seller) before you click on the page. You can see these ads on select commercial intent keywords, or you can hop onto Google Shopping to see product ads related to your search query.

Shopping PPC ads for basketball hoops.

With these ads, people who click on your product know its details and are much more likely to purchase it.

Ad retargeting is another method that lets you leverage PPC. You can set up a campaign that leaves a cookie on the browsers of people who clicked on a link to your site. They will then keep seeing your ads on different sites.

Why will prospects keep seeing your ads? Because they visited your site in the first place. This informs ad networks that people are interested in your site. As a result, they will keep seeing your ads until they clear their browser cookies.

It all goes back to precise targeting. eCommerce PPC allows you to market directly to your audience without the risk of targeting people who have no interest in your brand.

4. Maximize Budget

Someone clicking an ad, and a business paying.

The beauty of Pay Per Click is in the name – you only pay for the number of clicks your ads received.

As part of researching keywords to bid on Google AdWords, you must know how much each click costs for that search term. Not all keywords cost the same – some are more expensive because they have higher search volume and more precise search intent, among other factors.

You can see the approximate cost of a keyword using Google Keyword Planner.

The range of costs helps you decide which keywords to bid on that fit your budget. You can take on expensive keywords but keep in mind that you’ll only have a few clicks before your budget runs out. Whereas bidding for moderately priced keywords allows you to show your ads and convert even more people.

The delicate balance of budget and keyword allows you to properly strategize on how you should approach your PPC campaigns so you can make the most out of your return of investment.

5. Data-Driven and Scalable

Once you’ve concluded your ad campaign, you need to delve deep into the results to gain insights into your PPC performance.

Learn which keyword and ad copy generated the most clicks on SERPs. From here, determine why they received the most clicks and replicate the process once again on your upcoming campaign.

At the same time, determine which aspects of your PPC strategy didn’t work. You can tweak the tactics of your strategy and run them again one more time, hoping for better results. Or you can just scrap those that failed and double down on the tactics that worked.

As you can see, PPC helps you build upon the previous campaign by creating better-performing ones using the data provided by tools like Google AdWords. By diligently working to improve your PPC for eCommerce, you can keep generating more revenue for your business!

Invest in PPC for eCommerce

Someone browsing ads on their laptop.

With the growing number of online stores popping up in today’s world on top of established ones, you must use any opportunity to gain an advantage over your competitors. 

And with the reasons mentioned, it’s a no-brainer to run Bing ads and Google ads for your eCommerce business.

It’s just a matter of getting PPC experts to help you navigate through the murky waters of keyword research, bidding, and ad copywriting to maximize your results. You don’t want to set aside a budget for a campaign that won’t generate results.

Ultimately, you want your PPC to work, and that only happens if you have an experienced person spearheading the operations.

“Even though it’s an extra cost, a true PPC professional should be able to find the right niche, audience, and targeting to double your investment,” says Craig. And at Romain Berg, we agree wholeheartedly!

If you have questions about this post or want to learn more about running the best campaign using PPC for eCommerce, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you shortly.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ppc/ppc-for-ecommerce/feed/ 0
17 Important KPIs For eCommerce https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/17-important-kpis-for-ecommerce/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/17-important-kpis-for-ecommerce/#respond Thu, 18 Feb 2021 01:13:15 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7380 A book depicting important KPIs for eCommerce

Generating more revenue from your eCommerce store involves different factors. Here, it’s best to get help from an experienced digital marketing agency.

If you want to do this on your own, try finding out the KPIs to track and measure at all times. 

There are lots of metrics to watch out for with your online store, but we’ll zero in on the ones that have a profound impact on your bottom line. 

This way, you’ll be able to monitor the performance of your eCommerce site and scale its growth.

1. Site Traffic

Someone viewing a graph depicting website traffic on a laptop.

Site traffic directly correlates to your sales and business goals. Your eCommerce business’s revenue hinges on how many visitors your website is attracting. The more people coming to your site, the more chances they’ll become your customer.

To fetch this data, you need to install the tracking code from Google Analytics onto your site. 

From here, you can parse down the data to different subcategories like organic search, bounce rate, time on site, and others.

2. Conversion Rate

This metric refers to the percentage of users who bought something on your site. You can compute for it by dividing the total number of visitors by the number of buyers.

The conversion rate in eCommerce depends on the industry you’re in.

A graph depicting conversion rate. It is an important KPI for eCommerce

Source: IRP Commerce

Use the figures above as benchmarks when you start measuring your conversion rate and work your way into improving them.

3. Revenue Per Visitor

To know how much money a visitor generates for your business, you must compute its RPV. You can do this by dividing the total revenue generated over time by the total visitors your site received in the same time frame.

Having a low RPV means there’s something wrong with your site that’s keeping visitors from placing an order, convincing them to buy from you, or both.

4. Average Order Value

Someone calculating the average order value from their eCommerce site's data

This metric shows you how much each order costs on average. You can compute this by dividing your revenue by the number of sales.

Using AOV, you can gain insights into which products sold well. If your AOV is closer to your more expensive products, more people are buying those than the cheaper ones.

Increasing your AOV also helps boost your revenue. 

You can use the profit to spend on your marketing and positioning efforts to scale your business.

5. Purchase Frequency

As the name suggests, it gives you the number of times a customer purchases from you over a period. To get this figure, divide the number of unique orders by the number of customers at a specific time.

The purpose of knowing your customers’ purchase frequency is to increase the times they shop at your store. This measure is vital, especially if your products have high item value.

6. Cost Per Acquisition

CPA helps determine your marketing campaigns’ effectiveness to generate new customers for your eCommerce business. You can compute for it by dividing the total campaign cost by conversions.

The lower the CPA, the more reason you must double-down on these campaigns because you spend less to acquire these customers. On the other hand, consider tweaking those with high CPA or abandoning them, at least for now.

7. Cost of Goods Sold

Someone holding a clipboard that reads "cost of goods sold"

This data refers to how much you spend on producing your products for sale.

To compute for COGS, add the starting or remaining inventory from the previous time to the inventory you purchased, then subtract the ending stock remaining this time from the sum.

Getting your COGS allows you to understand how much revenue the products are bringing in and how much you should price them.

8. Repeat Customer Rate

To get this figure, divide the number of your repeat customers, i.e., those who have made at least two purchases from your store, by the total number of customers and multiply it by 100.

This rate is useful because getting repeat customers to buy again from your site is cheaper than acquiring new ones. You can then focus on marketing towards them instead of launching more costly acquisition campaigns.

9. Rate of Investment

A chart showing rate of investment

This metric shows the profitability of a marketing campaign for your eCommerce brand.

You can compute this by subtracting investment from profit, dividing the difference by investment, and multiplying by 100.

Using ROI, you can determine which campaigns like SEO, paid ads, and affiliates are getting you the most sales. 

However, this metric’s flaw is it doesn’t factor in potential customers the campaign yields over time. Thus, it’s best to consider ROI with customer lifetime value.

10. Inventory Turnover

You want to move your products promptly to avoid shortages and surpluses of supplies. To find this out, you must compute for their respective inventory turnovers. 

You can do this by dividing the average inventory for the period over the cost of goods sold.

The turnover rate is dependent on the industry you’re in.

If the turnover rate is high for a particular product compared to the average, you must consider restocking the inventory soon or increasing its prices.

On the other hand, a low turnover rate runs the risk of overstocking for that product. You should also think about lowering its price to help hike up its sales.

11. Competitive Pricing

Sheets that compare competitor pricing

Once you’ve determined your product’s retail price, you must compare its pricing strategy with the top five similar products in the market. Doing so helps you gain insights on how you can further improve your revenue.

For instance, your pricing is lower than your competitors, but their product sells much better than yours. Using this information, the problem could lie in your product quality, marketing strategy, suppliers, or other factors.

The insights will depend on the competitor research you’ve gathered. But it should be clear that competitive pricing is a good place to start gauging your eCommerce performance.

12. Email CTR

If you’re building your email list and sending out newsletters and automated emails to clients, you need to monitor the email click-through rate of each campaign.

To get this figure, divide the number of people clicking on the link in your email by the number of people who receive the email. Then, multiply it by 100.

Numerous factors affect the CTR of your emails, such as link placement, use of button or text for the link, call to action, and others.

To improve the rate, you need to isolate these factors and run an A/B campaign for each. This way, you can squeeze out more sales from your subscribers.

13. Cart Abandonment Rate

The abandonment rate tells you the percentage of your eCommerce users who didn’t check out their cart. To compute for this, divide shopping carts initiated by transactions completed, subtract the quotient from 1, and multiply the difference by 100.

There are numerous reasons why they don’t push through with buying your products.

A graph depicting cart abandonment, and important KPI for eCommerce.

Source: Statista

Determine which among the reasons above are the causes for high cart abandonment and fix them.

14. Churn Rate

This figure tells you the percentage of customers who left your brand. I.e., repeat customers don’t buy again, some canceled their subscription from your services, etc.

Compute for this by subtracting the customers who left from the total customers you have from the start, dividing the difference by the actual customers you have from the beginning, and multiplying it by 100.

A high churn rate could mean many things, so it’s best to know what those are so you can stop your business from bleeding customers.

15. Customer Retention Rate

Unlike churn rate, this refers to the percentage of customers who keep buying from your site over time.

To get your retention rate, subtract new customers over time from the total customers at the same period. Then divide the number of customers you had at the start by the difference.

This rate gives you a general idea of how many of your customers have stuck with you.

16. Customer Lifetime Value

A chart depicting customer lifetime value

CLV refers to the value each customer brings to your business based on the amount of money they spent over the past 12-24 years (which is considered a “lifetime”). 

First, compute the customer value by multiplying the average purchase value with the average purchase frequency rate. Then multiply the dividend to the average customer lifespan to get the CLV.

This number is arguably the next most important eCommerce KPI after conversion rate. Optimizing your business for this metric helps you sustain your eCommerce site in the foreseeable future.

17. Net Promoter Score

Also known as the NPS, this eCommerce KPI allows you to measure and analyze customer loyalty towards your business.

The net promoter score asks a single question to customers: How likely are you to recommend our business to your family and friends?

These are answered using a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest). People who entered 9-10 are promoters, while those who answered 0-6 are detractors. Those who answered 7-8 are passive

You can then compute the NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

If you received a negative score, you must find ways on how to improve customer satisfaction.

Wrapping It Up

Boxes with shopping carts on a laptop indicating eCommerce.

As you can see, there are lots of KPIs you must worry about for your eCommerce site.

It’s not just selling as many products as you can. It’s also about understanding how every facet of your business affects your ability to generate revenue.

And we haven’t even touched upon KPIs for marketing, customer service, project management, and others!

You can still track and measure all these by yourself. But as mentioned earlier, you may need help from an agency with a known track record for producing stellar results for eCommerce businesses alike.

In that case, we at Romainberg are your team. We specialize in generating traffic and conversions for your business, which is exactly what your eCommerce site needs.

To learn more about how we can help you, fill out this contact form, and we’ll get back to you shortly.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/ecommerce/17-important-kpis-for-ecommerce/feed/ 0
Creating an SEO Strategy for eCommerce https://www.romainberg.com/blog/seo/seo-strategy-for-ecommerce/ https://www.romainberg.com/blog/seo/seo-strategy-for-ecommerce/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2020 22:33:56 +0000 https://romainberg.com/?p=7157 a light up display that says SEO with a rocket

SEO strategy can fit into two distinct categories: “Before Pandemic” and “After Pandemic.” eCommerce SEO strategy is now more crucial to business success than ever before.

As a business owner, it’s smart to collaborate with an expert team to build your online audience and garner customer loyalty. You must treat your SEO strategy as a critical piece of your post-pandemic success because it is.

The SEO experience and knowledge depth at Romain Berg are unparalleled among digital marketing agencies today. 

Visit our website to discover how we can help you land at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) reliably. Getting seen online and growing your “know, like, and trust” factor are the keys to increasing your online following and revenue. We deal in SEO results, not hype.

A Brief SEO overview

Internet search concept, finger clicking virtual screen.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of getting seen online consistently. Ranking on the first page of Google results is of critical importance to every business. Only 6% of Google users scroll to the second page of search results. 

Search engines like Google rank your website based primarily on trust. Google evaluates your “trust” factor by looking at:

  • Reputable links on your site: As a rule of thumb, sites that contain .edu, .gov, and big players like washingtonpost.com top the list for trustworthiness on Google.
  • Your brand strength: When you have a branded domain (that you’ve registered for 2+ years), a robust About Us page, public “whois” information on your contact page, and reputable backlinks, Google notices. You’ll also help build trust online with active social media accounts and pleasant user experiences.

Start with a sound SEO strategy foundation.

A laptop that reads SEO Strategy

As you launch or grow your eCommerce business, begin your SEO strategy as you mean to go on. Even if your eCommerce website went live months or years ago, you can never go wrong revisiting the basics of practical SEO strategy.

Check your website for the following:

  • Web page function: Some factors might make your site visitors leave your page before seeing your products or services. Some of these factors might be: your page loads slowly, contains errors or redirects, you have poor-quality images, or your animations don’t work. 

To combat these simple issues, check your page at regular intervals for proper function. Update your photos and file sizes as needed. Shrinking image files alone can increase your page loading speed (and user experience) significantly.

  • Secure URLs: Always select HTTPS vs. HTTP in each page URL. 
  • Marketing essentials: Knowing your buyer persona down to the most detailed avatar can help you select and use keywords and content that rank best. 

You’ll also want to choose imagery that represents the demographics, goals, and product use of your ideal customer. Adding detailed ALT descriptions to these images with relevant keywords also helps your site rank well.

  • Reputable backlinks: It can’t be emphasized enough that building a trustworthy chain of backlinks helps your site rank well consistently. When other trusted sites link to yours and vice-versa, Google interprets your website as reliable and accurate.

SEO strategy must evolve continually

Closeup of businessman stopping collapsing dominos from falling with his hand.

While it’s crucial to hit the ground running with a sound SEO foundation on your site, SEO changes all the time. To stay in front of your audience on the SERP, you must be agile and relevant. Even if your brand message is one of consistency and reliability, no business survives online in stagnation.

With competitors entering the eCommerce space all of the time, your SEO must trend accordingly to keep Google’s attention. 

User experience, quality evergreen content, keyword research, and backlink-building remain the cornerstones of effective SEO. Of course, your products and services must provide useful and timely solutions to your customer base, too. 

SEO that works means a combination of trial, data gathering, and responsiveness. It’s crucial to remember that the SEO process takes time to see results at first. When you begin to use SEO in your eCommerce business purposefully, you can expect results after several weeks and months of strategy implementation.

Content marketing may be slow to get started, but the results are fruitful when done well.

When you select keywords for a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign, for example, you’ll need to monitor metrics like click-thru rate, bounce rate, direct website visits, and purchase clicks to discover the convertibility of your campaign. 

Once you have several data points as a reference, you can shift your SEO strategy to where the customers are. Dedicating your marketing dollars to an effective and prolonged SEO strategy results in reliable ROI over time. 

Your SEO strategy should be a perennial business investment to keep you at the top of the search rank. And top-of-mind with your eCommerce customer base.

Why outsource your SEO strategy for eCommerce?

Coworkers working together on a laptop and desktop computer

Unless you have a dedicated, experienced, in-house team of content producers, keyword researchers, social media wizards, and SEO data crunchers at your command, an outsourced SEO strategy is the way to go.

As an eCommerce business, keeping your infrastructure lean means more resources you can spend on product development or curation and a more robust sales margin.

In the eCommerce sector, getting seen online is the most massive hurdle to overcome. It follows that allocating enough resources to this challenge can help your business grow efficiently and dramatically.

Partnering with a team of SEO experts can help you navigate the online sales jungle with confidence. In effect, you’ll stand out more in the vast eCommerce forest when you get help building a noticeable virtual “tree-house.” 

Contact Romain Berg for results you can see on your balance sheet.

A woman creating an SEO strategy on her laptop

Though outsourcing your SEO strategy is an investment, it’s a sound one with Romain Berg. Our team of content producers, SEO experts, and data specialists take your website in hand and shine a laser-focused spotlight on it. 

SEO strategy can make or break your eCommerce business, so it’s paramount to trust the SEO partners you select.

We help you get in front of the right people online to find new audience members and turn them into raving fans and returning customers.

Fill out our contact form today, and we’ll be in touch to get to know your business. Once we understand your sales goals, we’ll help you shatter them with an SEO strategy that delivers results, not hype.

]]>
https://www.romainberg.com/blog/seo/seo-strategy-for-ecommerce/feed/ 1