With the pandemic as the defining moment of 2020, we are indeed living in unprecedented times. The same goes for e-commerce businesses. If you own an e-commerce business, then you must have felt the strain it caused to your competitive advantage in the market. From bulk-buying to online shopping, consumer behavior changed. People are avoiding public places, so nonessential businesses were closed. This challenged e-commerce brands to adapt and be flexible to keep up with the rapid changes.
In the age of social distancing, many businesses are turning to online platforms and digital marketing to stay ahead of the competition. According to statistics, there are about 24 million e-commerce sites in the world. That’s a lot of competition. But, not to worry, the number of digital consumers is also rising.
By 2021, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online. That’s a relief, isn’t it?
But still, e-commerce marketing is known for cutthroat competition. You will need to put in more effort in your digital ventures if you want to stay ahead and have a competitive advantage. Whether you’re an e-commerce startup or have been in the business for a long time, Proweaver is here to guide you
along the way to secure that edge in the marketplace.
I’m new to digital marketing, and where should I start?
For starters, perform a competitive analysis. Learning your advantages and disadvantages from your competitors helps you know what to improve on and retain. You can also spot new trends and anticipate market shifts in the future. Knowing potential barriers and keeping track of your competitors will allow you to make informed decisions for your marketing strategies.
How do I perform a competitive analysis?
First, identify who are your main competitors. Simply search for an overarching product idea, business name, or products. Next, categorize your competitors into either primary, secondary, or tertiary competition. Primary competitors are those targeting the same consumers and offering the same products or services like yours. On the other hand, secondary competitors are those selling the same products or services like yours but are targeting a different consumer. And tertiary competitors may include related businesses that may sell to the same consumers, but their products or services may be different but still distinctly related.
After identifying your competitors, assess the following:
- Website and customer experience
- Marketing messaging
- Pricing strategy
- How they handle shipping
- Their online reviews and social media presence
I already did a competitive analysis. What’s next?
You already have a good idea about what your brand lacks and the possible solutions that can maintain or obtain that competitive edge. Now, Proweaver will walk you through potential digital marketing strategies that will help your e-commerce business stay ahead of the marketplace competition. Have a look at the online marketing strategies we can offer to your brand.
Custom Website Design
If you want to create a clear brand identity, then opt for a custom website design. It will allow you to conceptualize your brand identity from the ground up as your work with Proweaver during the process. A custom website design also opens up the opportunity to create a personalized customer experience that is unique to the brand, which will greatly help in brand recall.
A website is an asset. Creating one for your e-commerce business will boost customer visits and lead generation. Shortly, you’ll be surprised at how much value for money you’re getting from a custom website.
What other benefits does having a custom web design offer? Here are some things that you’ll be missing out on if you don’t design a custom site now:
- Operating your business anywhere
- No opening time restrictions
- Higher margins and better cash flow
- Lower set up and running cost than offline businesses
- Overcoming geographical limitations
- Eliminating travel time
- Enabling deals, bargains, coupons, and group buying
- Creating targeted communication
- Providing abundant information
Search Engine Optimization
In the race to increase e-commerce revenue, traffic from organic sales is important for your business. Whether you want to reach a targeted market or a larger network of digital buyers, Search Engine Optimization is a handy tool. Optimizing your SEO means achieving higher search rankings. There are approximately hundreds of millions of Google searches per day. In other words, the higher your rank is in the search results, the more potential customers for your business.
Search Engine Optimization is the industry standard, and rightfully so when it comes to online sales. There are two simple reasons for this. First, the most popular website is Google. And second, those without optimized search will not stand a chance against those that do. Your ranking and visibility are vital to generating conversions and clicks. The higher your traffic, the more abundant your e-commerce sales are! If you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge to climb up the search results, you can always turn to Proweaver for SEO services.
Social Media Management
Who doesn’t have social media nowadays? If you want your e-commerce business to reach a bigger market, then social media is the best place to go. It is an ideal e-commerce marketing tool that doesn’t need a huge commitment of your time and resources. That goes without saying, SMM is tailor-made for startup e-commerce businesses that need to budget their resources wisely.
All it takes are a few hours a week and active social media accounts, like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, to pull off this marketing tool. There are also many ways to engage potential customers in social media. You can run ads, post interesting content, announce special offers, and many more!
What other benefits does Social Media Management have to offer?
- Improved brand loyalty for customers
- Creates brand awareness
- Engagement via newsjacking
- Gives a boost to your SEO efforts
- Lower costs
- Drives website traffic
- Boosts conversions
- Impacts buying decisions of consumers
- Builds a solid brand image
- Connects with your customers
- And so much more!
Video Production
While your competitors follow a mainstream marketing strategy, you can leverage the benefit of video production to stay ahead in the competition. For customers to buy a product, they will need to feel related to it. Images alone can provide a fair idea about how the product looks. But with video production, you can thoroughly and precisely explain its usage and intent. This will allow customers to make confident and informed buying decisions. Not only does video production provide a 360-degree view of your product, but it also decreases the likelihood of returns or exchanges in the future.
Leveraging video productions will be great for your e-commerce business. Here are some ways it can benefit you:
- Customers pay more attention to videos
- Google gives a higher preference to videos
- It builds brand credibility
- 160% conversion improvement for pages with video
- Increases sales and reduces returns
- Improves brand awareness
- And so much more!
Graphic Design
Every business will need effective graphic designs of brochures, business cards, promotional banners, leaflets, and more. Effective visual communication from graphic design experts will increase the potential engagement of new customers. It can help educate, inform, or persuade your target customers and convert them into sales. Just like most businesses, you would definitely want to grow your revenue faster. A good design is among the top effective growth tools that you’ll want to leverage. In e-commerce, grabbing the customers’ attention is no easy feat. You will need the appropriate visual cues to persuade them to shop for the products you offer and even return in the future. Graphic design can do that and more.
Like us at Proweaver, our graphic design services will bring your ideas to life through effective digital designs. The use of graphics is always changing and might be difficult to keep up for someone who isn’t that involved in the industry. So, hire experts in graphic design who are updated and can handle the latest trends.
Content Writing
Providing original content in the form of blogs, newsletters, guest postings, video blogging, or infographic can greatly influence your customer’s buying decisions, as well as your efforts in a marketing push. Writing killer content will fill in the gaps in your lack of proper exposure and promotion. Having original content also builds brand identity and tone, which will surely make lasting impressions on customers.
Content mediums like blogs also help educate customers about your products, which, in turn, can improve loyalty for your e-commerce business. If you’re consistently providing customers useful content, it will do wonders in building consumer trust and they may begin to look at you as experts in the field. This will greatly improve your credibility in the marketplace and help you find new customers while still engaging the previous ones.
Here are some of the benefits of content management for e-commerce businesses:
- Demonstrates your product more deeply
- Opportunity to influence and shape your field
- Generates more sales, traffic, and leads
- Improves search engine visibility
- Builds better relationship with your audience
- And so much more!
Web Hosting
Your e-commerce business will expand and develop over time. By then, your website will need more resources to properly function. Keeping your site up to speed, upgrading the software, controlling your data and content, and creating sound backups for your site is no easy task. Using expert providers of Web Hosting like Proweaver not only gives your website a professional hosting service but also saves you time and effort.
Web hosting also offers substantial benefits, such as:
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Enhanced Security Options
E-commerce businesses do a lot of online transactions. You must strengthen and secure the safety of your business and its prospects. A web hosting provider can do this and more. They will equip your website with genuine SSL Certificates which encrypt your information to such an extent that no other third party can intervene between online deals.
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Customer Support
Hiring a web hosting provider means having reliable support at your disposal. Whenever something goes wrong with your website, you don’t have to struggle to find solutions for it yourself. Your provider will just be one call away, and they will fix the issue right up as soon as you inform them.
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Search Engine Optimized Pages
Professional website hosts like Proweaver know exactly what your website needs to climb up the search ranking. They are also familiar, or even experts, with Search Engine Optimization. So, never worry about brand visibility, awareness, and ranking as long as you have a web hosting provider to help you.
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Better Value for Money
With a web hosting provider, your e-commerce website can save significant costs. You can get various features in one provider, such as domain transfer or registration, included tools and apps, templates for personalization, best backup and security options, Intuitive Control Panel, hassle-free setup, and many more.
The Key Takeaways for E-commerce businesses
Staying ahead in such a large marketplace feels quite impossible when you’re a beginner in digital marketing. Not to mention, so many of your competitors are large brands that are already well-established when it comes to brand visibility and awareness. However, this should not discourage you from venturing into the online scene. There are millions of potential customers waiting for you in the digital marketplace. Whether you’re a startup e-commerce business or have been in the business for a long time, there are a lot of marketing strategies that you can use to have that competitive edge against big brand names. It only takes good planning, leveraging what’s best for your business, and a reputable digital marketing provider like Proweaver to help you out along the way.
Proweaver got you covered!
First time venturing into the digital marketplace? You might want to give Proweaver a call so we can help you out with your marketing strategies. From designing your own custom website, web hosting, and web maintenance to search engine optimization, social media marketing, and graphic design, we can help you get started with our varied digital marketing services.
We have served thousands of happy customers and have experts in the field who will do wonders for your brand visibility and recognition. Feel free to get in touch by dialing +1 (866) 777-8315.