Estimated reading time: 10 Minutes
Actions of digital marketing, positioning strategies for ecommerce, lead capture, content marketing, have you heard of these practices and their importance for the growth of your online store? If you haven't done so or are interested in learning more about the topic, you can't miss this article.
To talk about the topic, we interviewed Rubén Bastón Meira, Director of the online magazine at eCommerceAlCubbo Marketing4eCommerce, with a presence in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Chile; who is also Director of the Master's Degree in Ecommerce by Kschool and Co-author of the book Ecommerce: How to set up an online store and make it sell?
Don't stop reading these good tips! They will be very useful to take your brand to another level.
Is digital marketing important for ecommerce?
Hay ecommerce whose core is buying, knowing how to search for brands and the right product. For others, their differentiator is in the supply chain, where instead of going through six steps, they streamline them and reduce them to three to make the process more efficient. However, if you do not implement a digital marketing ideally perfect, it will be useless to have the best product or the best distribution chain; if they are not made known, it will be difficult to stand out.
On the Internet, it is essential to digital marketing. If we think of a traditional business, where you choose a central location in a city, the place already has a local audience, all the people who pass by the store represent an opportunity to be known, so you don't implement any communication actions and Marketing. On the web it's different, if you don't Marketing No one is going to come in to meet you ecommerce, traffic is only generated when you start doing SEO, advertising, PR, communication activities, if you don't move to make yourself known, you don't exist.
Also read: 6 indicators you can't stop measuring in your ecommerce
How have you seen the growth of e-commerce in recent years, comparing Europe and Latin America?
At the level of digital evolution, Marketing And ecommerce, each region shows a different growth, in my opinion, between Europe and Latin America, first there are countries such as South Korea, Japan and China that are on a much higher scale, followed by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.
The good thing about having reference markets is that they show you what is going to come. In Germany, the United Kingdom and France, for example, there is a level of penetration of ecommerce very high, but not from people who buy once, but from users who buy back. Spain is twice as frequent as Mexico, while, in terms of market volume, they are similar, although Mexico's potential suggests that, in one or two years, it will be double or triple that of the Spanish market, since there are many more Mexicans than Spaniards.
Will the same evolution of e-commerce be seen in all countries?
Not quite, the ecommerce has a local development with different characteristics. Of the three markets I mentioned before Spain, one of them is Germany, where the most common payment method is cash on delivery, as in different Latin American countries. Rather than being a matter of distrust due to fraud, as is the case in other territories, in this country they have the culture of paying for the product only after receiving it and seeing that it really works for them.
In fact, in Germany they have return rates of ecommerce very tall, because they are used to asking for three shoe sizes, trying them on and returning the two that don't fit them. So, if you want to play in the German league, you have to consider a price that absorbs this situation.
On the other hand, in places like Mexico and Colombia, we must stop associating the internet with fraud, obviously there are cases, as anywhere else, but what should they do ecommerce is to adopt well-structured payment solutions, which do not allow customers to leave through excessive security controls, but that do not endorse fraudulent purchases; fraud exists, but there are many ways to control it.
Also read: Ecommerce in Latin America, growing by leaps and bounds
In Latin America, there is a differentiator between purchase and delivery time. Is this happening in Europe?
In Spain, a logistical differential of ecommerce is to give the customer the choice of the date and time of delivery, but not free of charge. There is the option that comes included with the purchase of the product and other additional ones with specific shipping dates and times, depending on the customer's needs, which have an associated cost that the online user chooses or not to pay.
To compete with increasingly demanding delivery times, rely on an operator that combines technology and urban capillarity. Un fulfillment in Mexico City allows you to bring inventory closer to the buyer, enable more accurate delivery windows and sustain marketing campaigns with logistical promises that are fulfilled.
Every time, more ecommerce they also allow the buyer to choose which logistics company they want their product sent to, or at what nearest convenience point they want it to be left, if they cannot receive it at home or at work. We need to know our customer and give them the options that provide value.
e-commerce digital marketing
What are the main challenges in boosting online sales through marketing?
The main challenges lie in branding, that is, in assuming that the ecommerce “does not sell products”, the product is a commodity that is available anywhere, online stores they sell trust, they sell service, so you have to worry about providing that differential to the user that leads them to buy from you.
When we think about ecommerce successful, we generally refer to those with extensive catalogs, such as Marketplace, which offer different options and categories for the customer to buy again, since they will only be profitable if there is loyalty, a regular repurchase. However, there are also other niche models that also work because they have a very specific connection with the user.
An example of the above would be specialized software for golfers, those who play golf will feel clearly represented in that product, they will think that the ecommerce is speaking directly to you. It is necessary to project the digital marketing always from the target audience, clearly identify what their needs are and provide value to them, go beyond the product alone.
We have to understand that the product is competitively one click away, the customer will find the same product or a very similar one in different online stores, where a value contribution in logistics so that the buyer receives it sooner and better, or a value contribution to the service before, during and after the purchase to seek customer loyalty and repurchase, will make the difference. In conclusion, to have added services for the customer and to make them known through the digital marketing, will make me choose you.
What do you recommend to entrepreneurs to venture into ecommerce?
Understand that when someone ventures into the ecommerce, there is no such thing as a finished web. You launch a website and that's the beginning, you have to improve and strengthen it, you have to have a philosophy of constant trial and error, to be optimizing the conversion to sales ratio of your online store.
There are certain minimum standards of course, for example, that your ecommerce be responsive, that it has a good search engine, a payment gateway, a customer service chat where there are people behind it, not just a chatbot (people tend to get frustrated talking only to machines, and seek to move from that cold experience of being in front of a screen to turning it into something warmer), among others.
There is never an absolute solution. According to an e-commerce study carried out in Spain with almost a thousand ecommerce, the type of payment gateway that converts the most changes every year. Two years ago, it was the four-step one, last year it was the two-step one, and now it's the three-step one. There is no magic solution, users are evolving and we are forced to constantly test.
You have to think, I'll start with this and let's test. If I change a color, what happens? If I place a new option in the ecommerce, What's going on? If I go from 4 steps at check out to 2, what happens during the conversion?
Also read: From scratch to Ecommerce, everything you need to know to create your online store
What are those good digital marketing practices that ecommerce should follow?
Let's start by considering that there is currently a high dependence on organic positioning, and based on this, many business plans are born dead, because they expect that a ecommerce If you're just starting out, you have half your traffic from Google in the first year, this isn't going to happen.
Open a ecommerce is to start a path towards positioning, a online store If you are a year old, you will have by far 10 or 20% of your traffic organically. In the beginning you will have to bet on strategies of digital marketing on social networks and on the blog, the latter as an investment that gradually positions itself in Google.
In the beginning, you'll have to invest in advertising, Google Adwords, and social Ads; the mix you make of the two channels will depend on your type of product. If it's an impulse purchase, for example, such as a watch that you see, like, get excited and buy, social media ads will work very well.
If it's a thoughtful purchase, ads on Google will be better, so whoever is looking for the product, comparing options and deciding which supplier to choose. You have to know the product and the user, to understand how you are going to draw your strategy of Marketing.
There is an important point: content marketing. How to get the most out of it in ecommerce?
This component is very important. You have to understand that SEO is Content marketing, if you want to position your ecommerce At Google, there is no other way than to have a website with a lot of content. But the Content marketing it's not just on the blog, the content can perfectly be in the static part, in the main part of the web where you can have product comparisons.
Our strategies for digital marketing they must always be results-oriented, in the end, our goal is sales. In this case, we must consider that, on average, only 1% of our online visitors will buy, to increase this figure, strategies such as email marketing they will allow us to continue to nourish the user, for this purpose, a micro objective prior to the purchase, is registration.
This is what makes most of the ecommerce have that banner stand out and sign up here to receive our Newsletter. If 99% of visitors don't buy, but we manage to get 10% to leave their email by offering a free e-book with valuable content, we'll have new opportunities to get them to buy. This is part of a philosophy aimed at capturing leads through content.
I have an ecommerce, how did you highlight the customer's inbox sending marketing email?
If you don't stand out, you're not doing it right. When you have a ecommerce and you capture the email of a visitor to send them weekly newsletters with products, until you buy, you're making a mistake, this doesn't add value.
You must think about the needs of your customer. For example, if you have a user in your database who bought you a bike for 2,000 dollars, he's not going to buy you another bike for at least one or two years, then you can't be sending him new bikes to buy, because you're going to bother him, he's going to send you to promotions and he's not going to open you up.
What is that customer interested in? Content related to how to clean your bike, how to change the chain, what are the best brakes on the market, it doesn't matter if you don't sell them, you're adding value to that person, the one who, when they need to change their bike or knows someone who wants to buy, will remember you because they've been reading your e-mail.
That's the level of attraction we should be looking for. We often worry more about being attractive on our social networks than on email. Social networks are full of practically unknown people who have given us a like, which is much less valuable than e-mail, to those who have left us their email we must pamper them and provide them with great content.
You should ask yourself: What can I bring you that interests you? , and not just sending spam. This does not mean that you cannot, from time to time, send an e-mail with valuable content that includes some interesting offer, but this commercial content must be very limited.
Do ecommerce businesses have to comply with the marketing rule: 10 valuable content for 1 promotional content?
We've always heard of 80% pleasant content, compared to 20% of our own, product, self-hype content. Others say that the ratio is 10 to 1; they are references, the important thing is to understand that we must be in the consumer's head, to whom, if we do him a favor, he will want to return it, hence the importance of being generous in the value we provide to the potential customer.
3 factors that generate a high impact on ecommerce?
* The brand. What is important is the weight of the brand. If we look at the trends, every update that Google makes is to give more weight to user brand searches, where those who already generate trust will be the best treated in terms of organic positioning.
* The product and its differentiation. You need the product to be different, it's important to reflect on what we sell and try to have your own brand.
* The service. In the end, it's really what's going to set you apart from others. Make sure that, even if the product is similar, what will convince the buyer is that there are people behind it, someone who is at their service, who advises them, who gives them value.
3 things that happen today that won't happen in the future?
1. I don't buy in this ecommerce because I'm afraid of being scammed. Online shopping will become more common in people's daily lives.
2. I have to go down to the Oxxo to pay for my order. Banking will continue to spread.
3. El ecommerce will deliver my product to me in four days. Fast deliveries are going to be standardized.
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