E-commerce Marketing is a platform for spreading awareness about products and services of business electronically. In traditional commerce, one has to go to physical stores for buying goods and services but in e-commerce, everything is available to the customers virtually. They can access it 24×7 while sitting at homes. E-commerce marketers use social media sitessuch as Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc to promote their goods and services. They use digital content, social media, and email campaigns to attract customers and make them purchase online. E-commerce Marketing has many types i.e., Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Influencer Marketing. Each Of them is explained briefly below.
MAJOR E-COMMERCE MARKETING CHANNELS
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Businessmen, brands, contractors, publishers, etc all are connected today on social media sites. It is a platform where one can share information, views, ideas, facts, products, or services to a wide range of people. Social Media Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, etc are appropriate platforms for e-commerce business. It further creates shoppable content which enables customers to buy right away. It uses blogs, contents, social feeds that spread awareness of products or services to the people worldwide.
CONTENT MARKETING
It is the optimization of product pages so as to improve the ranking of the websites. One should ensure that pages of the website must contain titles, headers, and images that make the content understandable, attractive, and creative which attracts lots of customers. Content marketing is a little different from other ways of marketing efforts like sales collateral and other product-specific info. Content marketing includes things like educational articles, e-blogs, Journals, Videos, entertainment, and that answer specific questions people have and provide them with something they can’t get elsewhere. It’s the best way to turn your product, no matter how common, into something that is not like everyone else’s and that is what the crowd is looking for.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
It includes paid advertising and Search Engine Optimization. Google ranks the website and positions it by using algorithms. It involves display campaigns, Pay-Per-Click Campaigns, and product-specific campaigns. It promotes product pages through Pay Per Click Campaigns. When the visitor clicks on the link on paid results, Google charges from us Pay-Per-Click. If a customer is looking for a specific product online, he will search that on the platform, and the Search Engine will show the ads which they are looking for.
EMAIL MARKETING
It is one of the oldest forms of Digital Marketing which involves campaigning through emails. Here, marketing is done by email list. It is good to keep in touch with the previous as well as current customers. Other third-party ads can also be shown via Emails. Also, e-mails are very handy with others so it has a major crowd which leads to better results. E-mail Marketing is of two types. 1. Transactional Email 2. Direct Email.
INFLUENCER MARKETING
It focuses on brands and people that influence the target audience. Influencer marketing builds communities of people that like, know and trust them. It is easier for them to gain attention through sponsored posts. It is a combination of both old and new marketing tools. One of the major faults of traditional marketing strategies is that they cannot differentiate between online influencers and celebrities. Online influencers are paid to promote the products and their audience is keen to watch them so that is also a major crowd puller. Also, Celebrities do promote the products and they are featured in ads on media. But online Influencers only use social media to promote products through ads.
BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE MARKETING
OVERCOME GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
In the case of physical stores, a geographical area is a limitation where one can service. But in e-commerce, the whole industry is the platform where one can sell products and services without any geographical boundaries.
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ATTRACT CUSTOMERS WITH SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY
Online retail is driven by traffic on websites and search engines whereas physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. In online retail, customers buy the products and services electronically just by clicking the button.
LOWER COSTS
One of the advantages of online marketing is the lowered cost. It can be in the form of discounts, vouchers, cashback, etc. Following are the ways through which costs can be reduced:
- Advertising and Marketing: Pay-Per-Click, social media traffic, and organic search engine traffic are the cost-effective advertising channels.
- Personnel: The system of billing, checkout, inventory management, payments, and other operational processes reduces the number of manpower required to run an e-commerce setup.
- Real Estate: An e-commerce does not require a physical location or property to run the business. It is done online.
REDUCE TIME AND COST
It reduces the time taken in traveling of long distances to reach physical stores. E-commerce provides the products and services of the same physical store virtually through various websites just by few clicks. It also saves the cost of traveling long distances.
PROVIDE COMPARISON SHOPPING
There are various online services that allow customers to search for multiple e-commerce merchants with low price and best quality. Also, it facilitates comparison shopping.
ENABLES BARGAINS, COUPONS, DEALS AND GROUP BUYING
Online shopping makes it much easier to enable deals, coupons, bargains, and group buying. One can avail of the benefit of discounts, vouchers, and cashback just with few clicks in e-commerce sites.
PROVIDE SUFFICIENT INFORMATION
In physical stores, there is a limitation of showing only limited and specific information.
CREATE TARGETED COMMUNICATION
t is used to deliver relevant messages to the customers about the products and services. If you search for the product on an e-commerce site, you will also find many more similar products.
OPEN EVERYTIME
One can access 24x7x365 online sites and can buy the products and services while sitting at any corner of the world.
CREATE MARKET FOR NICHE PRODUCTS
In online, customers can search the products and services in search engines by just a few clicks and can make purchases. One can locate parts easily in online e-commerce sites.
MEASURES THE RESULT AND KEEP DATA
One of the important aspects of any business is to have a look at the performance of the organization. The traditional way of marketing very rarely allows that but in E-com Marketing numbers can be seen which will help to strategies further plan for growth and rectify the past errors.
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MULTITASKING IS POSSIBLE
The major benefit of E-com marketing is one can see all the major points of the company. If the website is built properly keeping all the necessary things in mind, one can do so many things on that single platform. (i.e. Shopping, Making Payments etc). So, e-commerce is an easier option.
DATA IS SAVED AND IS USED
Every transaction which is made online over a platform for any purchases, the data is saved for future use. Also, the data is majorly used to keep a record of the sale made lately. Thesedata can also be used to send them personal advertising of what they are interested in. It helps to know the buying behavior of the customer. Due to this advantage, the company can serve millions of customers according to their interests.
BUILDING BETTER SALES RELATIONSHIPS
The major way of building relations in traditional marketing is to share business cards and pamphlets etc. Also, there is a high probability that they can forget and misplace the cards and pamphlets. So, this can lead to bad sales relations. In E-com Marketing customers can use online platforms to make purchases, this is more portable and data can also be saved in their device.
STABILITY
One of the greatest advantages of E-com Marketing is the content which is posted online will be there for many years. This helps to create a better image of the company. This led to the long-time survival of the company.
In this era where everyone is posting their business online. It is important to know why we have to bring the business online and not like the traditional methods. E-com Marketing is more convenient, time saving, low cost, and better in many terms compared to the other methods of marketing. It is most favorable and advisable in the current market.