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Author: Sushanth Shyamsundar

Categories
Pay-Per-Click Advertising SEO

Balancing Your Paid vs Organic Search

Balancing Your Paid vs Organic Search

Search engine optimization, once an afterthought when compared to other marketing strategies, is now at the forefront of inbound marketing success. There are two ways to land yourself on the front page which often confuses people- paid search and organic search 

Paid search results are essentially ads. With these, your placement is usually based on the amount you are willing to bid for the ad’s placement and other factors like the quality and impact of the ad. Paid search results are at the top of the page they will contain a small note saying add. So you can easily identify what is an ad. Even though we don’t sometimes consider digital marketing as advertising, it is an ad. Your paid search results will have little ad icons. There are a lot of similarities between paid search and organic search. 

Difference between paid search and organic search

Paid search is where advertisers pay to serve for different user searches using keywords, landing pages and ads. It is a faster and more straightforward means to serve clickable links on the SERP. The paid results will be shown at the top or very bottom of the SERP with a small ‘ad’ note in the copy. These searches have shorter and more control over the ad copy. Organic search results are results that come up organically. These results are optimized based on website content, HTML coding and link building. Here, the results take time to serve. Organic results are always shown below paid results. They are dynamically created by the search engine organic algorithm. Unlike paid searches, organic search results will have a longer headline and a longer body copy.

Which is best- Paid search or Organic search?

Instead of asking which one is best, it may be wise to ask which is best for you. Both have unique advantages and disadvantages. So it is a matter of knowing which will work best to get you the most of your marketing benefits. 

Pros and cons – Organic Search

Pros

  • Trust

When you are searching for something on Google, you will certainly select the results at the top. And that’s because that’s the search we have grown to trust. This perception of credibility works well for your company if you are at the top of the results. Because most people are guaranteed to click through to your site.

  • Long-lasting

As long as your content remains relevant, your page is likely to remain at the top, which simply means more beneficial exposure over a long period. Once you put in the effort and the resources upfront you never have to do it again, but you will reap the benefits long term.

  • Click-Throughs

If you are comparing the click-through rate of organic versus paid searching, organic make up nearly 68%, especially for buyers who have an interest, but not necessarily an immediate purchase intent.

  • Compounded Ranking

Each time you go on to the search engine results, you increase your chances of ranking high again. By ranking high, you not only build trust with users, but you also build a good reputation with search engines. The more authority status the engine gives you, the higher your rank over time. 

Cons

  • The initial investment at the heart of great organic search results is great content. It can be anything from articles and white papers to videos and infographics. But the best content utilizes SEO tactics or Search Engine Optimization tactics that can take some time to research and create the content which means inevitably be a lofty investment.
  • Time

On top of that, ranking for highly competitive keywords can take months or even years. So there is a good chance your marketing team will be out of the wild. If you can stick it out and see your efforts to achieve a high ranking, your return on investment is almost guaranteed.

Paid search – pros and cons 

In essence, paid search results are advertising for your company. You associate ads with certain keywords, and when users search for those keywords, your ad displays at the top of the search results, and in the section marked as ads. If your users click on the listing, you pay a small amount which is called PPC or pay-per-click advertising. The placement of your ad compared with your competitor’s ad depends on the amount that each of you bid for a certain keyword as well as a few other certain factors. The pros and cons of PPC advertising have some similarities and some differences from those of organic search.

Pros

  • Time

Paid such rigging shows the top of the results as soon as you pay for the ad placement. You simply decide the keywords you want to rank for, the message you want your searches to see, and find the budget of the search engine to work with, it is fast and it can be very effective.

  •  Success after click through

Paid search is geared towards more serious and eager buyers. Through it accounts for much less search engine traffic than organic results, the actual revenue amount is quite considerable.

  • Targeting

Paid search is tailored to reach certain audiences. So if your target is done correctly, you have a high chance of getting your message in front of the people that you want to see it. Not only can you target by keywords, but you can also further filter into segments by location, marital status, education level and much more.

Cons

  • Cost

In general PPC advertising can be quite costly for a few reasons. The first bid price is based on keywords. So the more competitive the keyword is, the higher price you are going to pay on each click for your display ad. Paid search advertising requires a high level of expertise and understanding to be successful. You either have to have a knowledgeable person on your team or outsource it.

  •  Short-lived

As soon as you stop paying for your PPC ads, they go away. They don’t have a long-term effect that organic searches will over time.

  • Lack of trust

Drawing on the example of organic search results, users tend to select organic results before they will click on the ads at the top of the page because there isn’t the same level of trust. There may be a certain suspicion over how relevant the information might be.

When it comes to best practices, generally a combination of organic and paid nets the greatest results. Making use of the features of both increases credibility, and also ensures visibility, secures everlasting search results and targets, buyers, at different parts of the buying cycle. Mix and match how you utilize it to search for your marketing strategy. Make sure to track the results. You can prove things as you go and try new tactics if the current ones aren’t working. Search Engine Optimization takes time and effort, regardless of which method you use. But the results are always worth it. 

Categories
Search Marketing

how to improve your Google Ads quality score quickly

In the year 2000, Google ads started as a small venture with merely 350 customers, snap back to 2022, the company’s raking in $54 billion in the first quarter of the financial year.

Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, with over a billion users has become a large competitive playground for businesses around the world. To decide if your ad is worth ranking above organic results, Google goes through your Quality score.

Your quality score times your pay-per-click bid equals the Google Ad rank. But what is a quality score? Well if that’s your first question, you’re on the right track, here are answers to 4 FAQs about Google Ads quality score.

  1. What is a quality score?
  2. What are the different types of quality scores?
  3. Why are they important?
  4. How to improve your quality score?
  1. What is a quality score?

Essentially, a quality score is an average of multiple factors which simply display your relevance with user intent and your performance concerning content quality. Quality score will ultimately decide where your ad ranks on the Google search result page.

Here are the factors responsible for your quality score:

Expected CTR – If your content is appealing, it has a higher chance of being clicked on, which later translates to your Click Through Rate (CTR). The expected CTR of your page is one core factor for your quality score.

Landing page UX – Once the user clicks on your ad, the experience of the user while navigating through your webpage will decide if the user stays or leaves your site. As a rule of thumb, the first page or the landing page should be the point of attraction in your ad.

Relevance – Having a beautiful UX is not enough, the primary goal here is meeting the user’s intent and for that, your page should be relevant enough for the user. Your page should deliver what it seemingly promised in the ad.

The quality score is also an indicator of the effectiveness and future success of your ad. It can also be an indicator of possible improvements that might be required.

  1. What are the different types of quality scores?

Now that you know the factors that affect your quality score, let’s see what kind of different quality scores exist. Here are the various types of it, talked about in more detail.

Keyword quality score

This is the one you’re all familiar with, keywords are nothing less than the backbone of a good ranking page. They primarily decide the ranking of your site on the first page of search engine results. 

It works exactly how it sounds, keyword quality score is decided by the number of users using your keywords to reach their desired results. The ranking of your current keywords will decide the ranking of your ad.

The ranking of keywords is also dependent on multiple factors like the relevance to the user intent and expected click-through rates of the keyword.

Landing page quality score

CTRs are useless if the retention on your page is poor, so Google determines your content quality by testing your landing page relevance. The conversion of a user to a customer is heavily dependent upon this quality score.

Ease of navigation and transparency of policies are factors that will decide if the user stays on the page or leaves. Your page should be unique, and informative and provide quality content in a concise format to save the user valuable time.

The user should be assured that the ad they clicked on, displays and delivers what it promised, and this eventually builds brand loyalty in new users.

Mobile quality score

More than half the world’s total internet traffic is from mobile devices and these count for phones, tablets, and other similar devices. This said it becomes a core factor to give you a quality score.

These are also the only devices that consider the location of the device as a decisive factor. Therefore, your ad ranking might be different on a mobile device than on a web browser.

Account level quality score 

While Google doesn’t approve of this quality score officially, many experts believe that it exists. ALQS seems to be an accumulation of all the other QS and judges the overall response and performance of your site. 

The accounts that are older and more consistent seem to rank higher than the newer advertisers, even if the strategies are the same. This made marketers believe that there’s this one more ranking factor that judges consistency and account quality level.

Ad group quality score

The Ad group quality score can be taken as the official version of ALQS, the only difference being that it’s a kind of feedback-based QS. How the site is perceived and accepted by the audience are the factors that affect AGQS.

This lets you differentiate between poor-performing ads and ads that are performing well overall. By putting more effort into poor-performing ads, you can improve your overall average. This clearly proves that QS doesn’t rely solely on keywords.

  1. Why are Quality scores important?

Google’s pride lies in its user base and customer loyalty, therefore keeping its users satisfied is its foremost responsibility. Quality score signifies the relevance with user intent to Google.

To keep its customers satisfied, Google will rank those Ads which will be the most productive for the user. QS is also the deciding factor for the success of your page regardless of Google’s inclination towards user satisfaction.

46% of total Ad clicks are on the first 3 ads of the first page of Google search results, states SEO tribunal. The key to ranking in those first three lies in your QS. 

  1. How to improve your quality score?

Knowing the importance of a quality score, it’s equally important to know how to improve it and rank on the top charts. It should be noted that improving your QS involves much more than prioritizing keywords and ad groups. 

Here are a few ways you can improve your QS, a few of them or a combination of all might suit your business well, go through them and you’ll know what works the best for you:

Ad groups and keyword structure 

Ad groups are a set of keywords that are similar in context and fit into the same bracket of a particular target product. Take, for example, the Parker Vector Gold fountain pen, if a user is searching for this product, it will be put into several product brackets.

Fountain pen, Parker pen, Premium fountain pen, and refillable fountain pen would be some common product brackets that this product will be classified into. Keyword structuring focuses more on individual ad groups and their optimization.

Taking the same example, the product Parker Vector Gold fountain pen can be understood as a particular series of pens by a brand, Parker. So breaking down the name of the product into distinct keywords will make it easier for your product to be found. The keywords can be formed in this format – Parker, Parker vector, Parker vector Gold.

Optimal headlines 

Apart from inserting keywords in headlines, you can opt to add location. Adding the user’s nearest possible locations will make the ad more relevant to the user. Another tactic could be adding a countdown timer to sales and special discounts, it creates a sense of urgency.

Data reports and statistics

Impression share is the number of times your ad is viewed versus the number of times it was expected to be seen. Analyzing the reports after your ad goes public and calculating the impression share tells you whether your ad is performing the way it should or not.

Negative keywords

While using the right target keywords is important, it’s equally important to terminate the possibility of a user landing on your page for a different purpose. Marking keywords that are not related to your site is important so that an unintended user doesn’t leave with a negative experience on your site. 

Landing page 

Optimize your landing page to grab the user’s attention at the first glance. The promise should be kept, that is, what the user saw on your ad, should be present on your landing page. The keywords being searched should be visible on your landing page.

Moreover, the page should provide value to the user and their intent should be fulfilled. Presenting the user with the exact link-ups to their desired sections of your site will earn loyalty. If the user intent is fulfilled, your bounce rate will automatically decline and will be marked more relevant by Google.

Site speed 

Navigating through your site should be smooth and easy. According to Marketing Dive, 53% of users abandon the site right away if it fails to open in the first 3 seconds. Slow speeds will increase your bounce rate and thus cut down your quality score. 

Using Google’s free site speed tool you can analyze your site speed and work on the further improvements needed to make it better. Site speed can make a ton of difference and can be the gap between user and conversion, so work on it carefully.

Categories
Featured

seo writing #101

seo writing #101

The most common and productive way to drive traffic to your website with ease is Search Engine Optimization. In 2022 if you’re ranking #1 on search results, your site has a 39.6% CTR, which is more than twice the #2 result (18.4%), and almost quadruple of #3 (10.1%).

As vital as it is to rank in search engine results, it’s as tough and competitive to reach there. Google will simply rank your result on top, only if your content is relevant, useful, and helpful to the user. 

Well, then how exactly does Google understand that your content is valuable? It’s simple, by going through your page and ensuring that it has relevant keywords and delivers the information the user’s searching for.

But that’s not all, there are a lot of factors that affect your content’s value and thus your ranking. Here’s how you can start writing SEO-optimized content and drive relevant & organic traffic to your page.

Implementing SEO

SEO applies to every single type of content available online. Be it the e-commerce industry or the social world, SEO is in effect everywhere. You can put it to use in:

  • Online Stores
  • Blogposts
  • News articles
  • E-books
  • Videos
  • Landing pages

Ensuring that the delivery and intent of your content are on point is another aid to SEO. Having a proper structure to your blog post and having an overall pleasant user experience (UX) ensures the retention rate of the user.

SEO tips & techniques 

First, let’s admit that tricks without quality content are useless, you need to have valuable content while also having consistent uploads. It’s notable, that sites with the highest CTRs (Click Through Rate) have a very average CTR per page.

Here the takeaway is that you need to have consistent uploads to have constant traffic. The implementation of SEO is still individual for every post or webpage. Here are 9 hand-picked strategies to Ace the SEO game.

  1. SEO keyword targeting with keyword research tools
  2. Exploring the KPI of your writings 
  3. Writing catchy headers 
  4. Refining your tone
  5. Creating a content strategy 
  6. CTA aka conversion 
  7. Updating and Optimizing
  8. Backlinking more relevant content
  9. Writing style
  1. SEO keyword targeting with keyword research tools

The first and simplest strategy to implement is adding keywords to your page that is the most trending or are being searched for the most. You can think of this process in three simple steps:

  • Curate
  • Filter
  • Prioritize

Come up with synonyms and words that are the key terms of your page. See that these terms are common and easy to understand. Filter out anywhere from 6 – 20 keywords, and use tools like Ahrefs and Keyword surfer to figure out monthly search volumes.

Finalize your choices according to the stats and prioritize which keyword is the most important. Keep one keyword as your primary keyword, two secondary keywords, and the rest as tertiary keywords. Use these according to your page’s visual hierarchy.

  1. Exploring the KPI of your writings 

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs (referred to as KSI sometimes) are measures of your brand’s performance meeting your strategic goals. In simpler terms, it’s a measure of how much you put in and what you expect out of it.

An understanding of what brings in the sale and what doesn’t is simply termed KPI. They give you a holistic view of the performance of different functions in your organization.

  1. Writing catchy Headers

Research has it that readers these days tend to stick to content that is short and to the point. It all sums up the fact that the human brain releases dopamine (an excitement hormone) in the first 15 seconds of any action.

Moreover, the user is searching for constant information that has an appeasing approach to it. Be it any header in your hierarchy (H1, H2, or H3), try to make them catchy and meaningful. Remember, you have to create the need in the user to read your article.

  1. Refining your tone

Knowing the niche of your content and the target audience, you can tweak the tone of your text to suit the reader better. Observing the need of your customer and the easily understandable tone is the primary aim here.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post for your blog, then your language can be pretty informal and the text can have a story format to it, on the other hand, if you’re a B2B brand, you might want to put in a more formal and structured approach.

  1. Creating a content strategy

If you’re still unaware of the fact that marketing your content needs a proper strategy, then it’s high time that you start working on them, here’s a quick start.

Marketing your content is a crucial step and plays an important role in explaining the intent of your page. There are multiple approaches to a single strategy, the most useful for SEO is the Hub and spoke model.

The approach is simply generating content about a broad topic called a hub piece and then generating supplementary content that links to it and is generally more detailed.

  1. CTA aka conversions

CTA (Call To Action) is a set of keys or functions that help convert a user at the top or middle of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. Buttons like “know more” or “try for free” are common examples of conversion CTA.

Other types and examples that you might have observed and can be implemented are: 

  • Sign-up
  • Download now
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • Get started

Using the right CTA, you can drive potential conversions to your page. 

  1. Updating and Optimizing

Content never gets old, but knowledge is an ongoing process, so updating the stats and info on your old blog posts or landing pages can always be the cherry on top.

Keywords get outdated as well, with upcoming trends and fashion, you have to identify the mood of the market and edit your keywords accordingly.

Remember, once you put out your content, you’ve to water this plant to grow into a tree. Don’t forget to share it, with your contacts, on social media, and on every platform that you can think of, just put out your content to let it reach a more diverse audience.

  1. Backlinking more relevant content

Suppose you’re writing a blog post and there are terminologies and concepts that are better explained in any other post by you, don’t hesitate to put down the link for it. 

Referring the user to even more useful content will highlight the quality of your content and bring more traffic to your other pages. The same goes for stats and data, barely anyone conducts their surveys to put data on their blog.

Apart from the fact that the data on survey sites is free to use, it’s also unnecessary to conduct more surveys. Backlinking the sites where you collected the data is a good way to add quality to your page while improving your rankings.

  1. Writing style

Yes, we told you to put out your content everywhere, but keep in mind, that SEO works differently for every platform. 

Each platform requires you to have a particular writing style to make it rank. For example, on a platform like Instagram, content in the form of photos and videos will rank higher than any other format.

You must understand what the audience on a specific platform demands and what content will satisfy them. Plan and structure accordingly.

SEO writing as a career?

Being a content writer for blogs and websites, you can always integrate SEO and make your life easier. But SEO writing in itself is a sub-part of content writing. Big brands can have a specific post for this role, and if you know you’re good at it, give it a shot!

With that said, we hope you have an excellent time watching your sales go up, while in the meantime, you can subscribe to our newsletter for more mind-blowing stuff.

Categories
Featured

a guide to online Marketplaces

a guide to online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces give you the chance to showcase your brand and products on channels that link you to diverse and increasingly global consumers.

What are online marketplaces?

Online marketplaces often provide the following regardless of their style or income model:

  • A single platform that many sellers use.
  • Web hosting, transaction processing, and general website interface upkeep. Fulfillment services could also be available for extra money depending on the platform.

Although this definition covers the essentials, the lines are becoming more hazy today.

Google Shopping and other search engine shopping destinations show products from various vendors in a marketplace-like setting, but historically, consumers clicked back to retailer websites to find out more and make purchases.

Google is moving toward becoming a true marketplace by now providing its own payment mechanism. Similar to how social networks have long included product listings connected to eCommerce websites in paid advertising, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even TikTok now accept transactions within their environments, fusing with markets to create new social commerce platforms and experiences.

 Why should I sell on an internet market?

Marketplaces may be advantageous for your company for the following reasons:

Online markets are used by consumers. The attractiveness of buying a variety of things from several merchants in a single transaction is its convenience. Six online marketplaces, accounting for 62% of all eCommerce transactions globally, were among the top eight most popular retail websites on the internet in 2020.

The infrastructure is kept up by the marketplace. You can concentrate on your primary company since you can use an eCommerce site that has already been created and perfected by someone else.

International exposure is provided by online markets. You can acquire exposure across borders without any hassles by using a number of the most well-liked marketplaces in the globe, which cater to viewers outside. Regional competitors like MercadoLibre compete with Amazon, which is powerful globally.

Reputable internet stores–

Some of the most well-known online marketplaces are handled by the greatest names in retail, while others are independent of well-known companies. Top marketplace locations include:

  • Amazon- The vast majority of products sold on Amazon come from marketplace vendors in a variety of industries, from electronics to beauty. Amazon is both a seller and a marketplace, thus goods from independent merchants are displayed alongside goods the company sells. The core functionality of Wix eCommerce can be used to create an Amazon shop for those who want to learn how to sell on Amazon.
  • Shopping at Walmart With more than 100,000 vendors on its marketplace, which Walmart launched in 2009 (primarily to compete with Amazon), the retail behemoth has had double-digit eCommerce growth since the epidemic. Once their applications have been accepted, marketplace vendors can start selling items alongside those that are available in Walmart shops.
  • eBay- With the bulk of things selling for a fixed price utilising the “Buy It Now” option, eBay has evolved from its roots as an online auction site for individuals to sell their used goods to its current status as a popular platform for brands. Approximately half of eBay’s 152 million buyers are based in the United States. Wix eCommerce features eBay as a native sales channel.
Specialized markets

Though the largest online marketplaces provide strong platforms and wide audiences, it may be simple to get lost in the noise, making more specialised niche sites an appealing alternative. In 2021, 42% of shoppers made purchases from one of these locations, demonstrating the popularity of these locations. The top locations are:

  • Etsy- Despite offering a wide range of products, from 3D-printed trinkets to vibrant cloth face masks, Etsy places a strong emphasis on handcrafted goods from small vendors. Even though it earned over $330 million in sales in a single quarter with a blistering annual growth rate of 19%, this lends it a specialised appeal.
  • Wayfair- Wayfair touts more than 20 million customers and 12,000 suppliers, specialising in “home products” like bedding and kitchen appliances. Wayfair is the leading furniture-related online retailer in the US because to a meticulous vendor selection procedure and attentive curating.
  • Newegg- This tech-focused marketplace has gained more than 40 million users since its start in 2011, and they utilise the website to buy electronics, entertainment media, games, and other items.
Choosing the appropriate online market strategy

Selling opportunities on online markets are essentially limitless. But a sound market strategy is essential to maximizing the benefits—both now and in the future. A quick check list is provided below to get you going.

1. Select the location where you will sell

Your marketplace choices can be made with the support of current and potential customers. You can also look at listings on rival marketplaces to get a sense of the hotspots in your industry.

2. Recognize the trade-offs in each market

Markets offer a lot, but they also have their own difficulties. Make sure you comprehend the following before deciding on your product selection and pricing:

Popularity versus rivalry. The largest online marketplaces feature both a large number of sellers and a large number of customers. This implies that increasing visibility might not come naturally, and you might even need to incur additional costs like paid listings in order to attract new clients.

Friend vs foe: the marketplace operator. Some online marketplaces don’t just offer things for sale; they also produce their own private-label products, which could lead to a conflict of interest with other merchants. Amazon has come under fire for stealing the ideas for its new products from marketplace best-sellers and releasing them under its own private label. Due of this, it is crucial to own and maintain your own eCommerce real estate, such as a Wix online store.

3. Select products and establish prices

You can decide which things to sell and at what price once you have a handle on your true costs. The objective is to showcase offerings that are distinctive without being so uncommon as to be infrequently searched for and observed. Established best-sellers (products that fit with popular categories) and distinctive presents or sets are among the items to take into consideration.

4. Construct a robust product feed

Each marketplace has specific guidelines for how product information and photos should be presented. To make use of all the features offered by the marketplace platform, carefully construct your own product stream.

05. Define and evaluate your fulfilment procedure

Larger marketplace platforms charge extra for fulfilment services, which might be especially helpful if your consumers need faster delivery than you can handle on your own.

Make sure to thoroughly test whatever procedure you develop because fulfilment time is frequently one of the factors marketplace algorithms consider to determine which listings receive higher notice.

06. Boost client service

Provide timely attention to them because most marketplace systems track marketplace merchants’ reaction times to customer care inquiries and grievances.

07. Complete, assess, and modify

Once your marketplace products have been released, monitor sales, ad spending, and customer service closely. You may also utilise the built-in monitoring tools to monitor performance. Adjust product offerings, costs, or shipping alternatives as necessary, and always carry out a thorough evaluation before significant occasions, like the busiest holiday season.

Categories
eCommerce Marketing

technology trends that are redefining e-Commerce

technology trends that are redefining e-Commerce

As the Pandemic engrossed the market, retail giants like J.C. Penney & GMC filed for bankruptcy, while e-Commerce went from $3.3 trillion in 2019 to a $5.5 trillion Industry in these 2 years. Here’s the sorcery behind it.

It’s no secret that when contactless operations were a necessity, e-commerce retailers were having a great time doing what they do the best. This was indeed predicted before the Pandemic even happened. Here are 13 more trends you should know before everyone.

  1. Drones and Droids
  2. Chatbots
  3. Mobile Commerce
  4. AI copywriting 
  5. Livestream Shopping
  6. Social Commerce 
  7. AR/VR
  8. Digital wallets and BNPL
  9. Voice Commerce
  10. AI graphic and image generator
  11. Headless Commerce
  12. Metaverse
  13. Blockchain and NFT 
  1. Drones and Droids

Drones used for non-military purposes have been around for about 16 years now, and even though the idea of delivering goods with drones has been in the air for long enough now, it’s finally being put to justice. 

Apart from small startups like Manna Aero who started a similar service in Ireland in early 2020, no e-commerce giants were seeming to accomplish this task until Amazon announced its first successful drone delivery by June 2022.

When such behemoths are putting their best foot forward, it’s questionable if they’ll ever be looking back to the classic delivery boy era in the coming decades.

  1. Chatbots

While Chatbots might not be the talk of the town, they certainly are blowing out the talks in the town. According to Insider intelligence, the chatbot industry will be worth $142 billion by the year 2024. 

Simply put, almost every other e-commerce sites, banking services, and even startup pages are onto adding its own chatbot to the web. The idea was given the spotlight when a Chinese messenger company introduced its first smart chatbot in 2009. 

Eventually, all businesses are looking forward to solving their consumer queries personally while not requiring a human to make the conversation happen. And apart from connecting more complicated queries to customer support, the uses of this tech scale up to gathering valuable feedback & reviews automatically.

  1. Mobile Commerce

E-commerce operating on devices like phones and tablets is simply termed mobile commerce. Insider intelligence says that we could be looking at nearly half (44.5%) of the total e-commerce turn into m-commerce. 

Since regular user spends upwards of 5-6 hours on their mobile devices, it’s understandable why it’s the easiest for them to shop there. Easier payment methods, one-tap buys, and BNPL are propelling more and more sales from the e-commerce sector.

If there’s anything to learn from this then it’s to optimize your site’s presence and outlook keeping in mind a mobile user. Prioritizing payment gateway smoothness and keeping your site speed fast is one of the key takeaways here.

  1. AI copywriting 

What if computers could generate poetry by William Shakespeare without William Shakespeare? That’s literally where AI is heading towards, from generating texts for letters, and court writings to generating poems, product descriptions, and scripts, AI doesn’t seem to stop.

The major problem that AI copywriting seems to solve Is cutting down e-Commerce store owners’ need of hiring content writers for writing product descriptions. The need for small-scale businesses to write premium captions for their social media posts will also be aided.

  1. Livestream Shopping

With the Livestreaming market reaching $70.59 billion by the end of 2022 and a CAGR of a whopping 21.3%, it’s not a surprise for Livestream shopping to have a $500 billion market share in e-commerce marketing, roughly 10% of the total e-commerce market.

Livestream Shopping is the most operational on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. The live aspect of this field lets the customers manipulate and view the product according to their convenience.

The takeaway here is, that most of the Livestream audience revolves around influencers, so you can think of collaborating with one. There are many more strategies when it comes to e-commerce and you can find the best in the market here.

  1. Social Commerce 

Just entailing m-commerce and Livestreaming comes social commerce or social media commerce. While influencers are the connecting link between the three, it’s not the only aspect of social commerce.

Social media after its core values, is a huge marketplace for subscriptions, advertisements, courses, products, services, and whatnot. The opportunities are endless. The monetization feature might roll out soon on the social platform, while full-blown online shops are already a trend well known among merchants and raking in dream numbers.

  1. AR/VR

Augmented reality and Virtual reality are not Data scientist things anymore, undergraduate students of computer science are curating projects using virtual reality as the backbone. Limited use of VR in watching 3D movies and playing 3D games is history.

Using VR to create 3D digital art and listing them on the NFT market as virtual products is the new normal. With the AR market to seemingly cross $2.3 billion in the coming year, brands like IKEA are already into the game, providing the in-store experience to its buyers sitting at home.

  1. Digital wallets and BNPL

According to JP Morgan, the BNPL methods are being accepted by people as an alternative to conventional online payments as these transactions could be faster and easier to make.

While digital wallets have been around for years, the Buy Now Pay Later technologies are making the market faster than any other payment method before. As with the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies, even digital wallets are going to make it back to the game.

This is a clear indication for you to facilitate these upcoming easier methods of payment on your online store. Bear in mind the fact that the amount of annual transactions through digital wallets alone is expected to cross $10 trillion dollar by 2025.

  1. Voice Commerce

Voice assistants aren’t a new thing if you’ve browsed the internet. Google says that currently, over 27% of the world’s total population is using voice assistants the present day, and that’s more than a quarter of the whole of humanity. 

While voice assistants might not be something new to you, voice Commerce might as well be. Studies show that nearly 30% of total internet users from the US, were using voice search to shop for their products or to find info about them.

Even when it’s a bit difficult to add in support for voice search on your site’s search bar, it’s relatively easy to rank on Google’s search results, learn more about SEO here.

  1. AI graphic and image generator

Just like AI copywriting, this is a Hot topic among digital artists and even if it’s proving to worry some of them, it might just be a new door open for opportunities and talent to grow. Software like Dall-E and Midjourney have created fuss among digital artists lately.

This software is capable of creating high-definition artwork/images from just input commands describing the scene. Apart from the controversy, these require high filtration to strain out any offensive results.

Though these results aren’t really reliable to create good art every single time, better use it for recreational purposes only and let the professionalism dwell with the real artists.

  1. Headless Commerce

The term Headless refers to a software infrastructure without a front end, and the term Headless commerce on the other hand refers to the architecture of an e-commerce platform where the front end and back end are well distinguished.

This gives the freedom of expression to the developers and creates a user experience that is miles apart from the traditional e-commerce stores. Moreover, it enables brands to create exceptional navigation and user interface while having riveting site speeds.

  1. Metaverse

A Metaverse is primarily a public platform-based Blockchain that uses a decentralized open-source ecosystem to enable users to create applications and engage in digital commerce. It basically comprises a user-friendly DUI, a decentralized wallet, and a decentralized exchange.

Put in simple language, it’s a virtual copy of our whole world, replicating everything and every action that takes place on earth into a computer world. Recently re-launched Meta (formerly Facebook) is now heading towards creating a whole different world of characters, estate, infrastructure, products, and services.

It’s a crazy Idea fueled by enthusiasm, excitement, and a plethora of knowledge from the developers. Unknown to the certain future, you can still be sure that it’s a world of possibilities and opportunities.

  1. Blockchain and NFT 

We saved the best for the last. Blockchain is a server-free network to execute transactions that have open records. These records are accessible to every user of the Blockchain network and no centralized entity governs it.

The currency used for the transactions in a Blockchain system is called Cryptocurrency. The first and the most famous Cryptocurrency is Bitcoin which is widely used for untraceable transactions all across the globe. 

NFT or Non-Fungible Token simply is a virtual product whose ownership records and trade information is stored on Blockchain. This makes NFTs tradable and opens up opportunities for yet another type of E-commerce. 

While everyone has their own stats to show, it’s difficult to state one solid value of the market, but the market is expected to be at $122 billion by the year 2028 showing high volatility.

Categories
eCommerce Marketing

the ultimate guide to e-commerce branding

the ultimate guide to e-commerce branding

As fast as light moves or even faster the globe is going round and round with miraculous developments everyday. Yet from miles away to a touch away, the big world has come to our palms. The digital revolution!!!

With the COVID pandemic the world has transformed itself to a more digital space and it has triggered forever changes in online shopping behaviours. People value time and convenience more so online shopping becomes seamless. It has played an important role in creating a network of consumers and sellers where people across the world can purchase products. This has become an efficient way of rejuvenating the economy by creating an increase in demand, expansion in consumption, and promotion of employment.

What is an e-commerce brand?

Before getting deeper into the field what needs to be understood is that there’s a fundamental difference between a brand and branding. 

Many of the aspiring entrepreneurs may not have an understanding of why a brand is important or even what the concept of a brand is. A brand isn’t just your branding. A brand transcends the concept of a mere name, logo or even just a product. A brand only exists in someone’s mind. It is a perception created by experience and association. This can be both factual (for example, the product comes in a red box), or emotional, (for example, it makes me happy).

Why is it important to have a brand?

The market of a brand goes beyond from just selling products. Even if there is no product, the brand sells itself. Think of an e-commerce store. You need products in that store for it to be worth anything. 

Being original is the essence of being a brand. That doesn’t mean you can do otherwise. If you just want a short term benefit, then you could always settle for selling someone else’s products. But that puts you a lot away from being a brand.

But if you are someone who wants to pursue the exciting side of this field and wants to create the brand equity and goodwill that will skyrocket the valuation of your company, then you need to consider building a brand, something for a longer term and more sustainable purpose. It’s to be noted that branding not only generates new customers, but also brings back return customers because of that brand loyalty, customer support 

How to create an e-commerce brand?

A business is not necessarily all about a sophisticated brand strategy. What all businesses do need, is a clear idea of what, why and how they’re doing. A successful business springs from the culmination of unique and creative ideas and strategies.

So, what the startups really need to have is a Brand 101 which is designed short enough to be understood easily, sharp enough to clearly differentiate your business from the market, and flexible enough to incorporate the necessities for your business. 

What elements exactly should be considered in your Brand 101?

Your idea to create a brand should start with the four Vs. The brand Vision, Values, Voice and Visuals. The 4 Vs need to be inculcated into the brand strategy with the aim of bringing the brand closer to the customer’s heart and thought. The dream is to let the audience know that they are indeed the kings of the market.

How to go about determining needs for your brand?

Your brand vision is what your business aspires to achieve beyond your bottom line. One must be able to uphold these principles and aspirations everywhere and exhort it to the outside world. As your brand vision symbolises everything and everyone you stand for. This comes from the inside that you perceive through your product, which is nothing but a solution to a problem that you wish to address. Every product you bring into the market will surely not be the only solution to the problem as that is why the market is known to be competitive. But you lay a signature in the market by making your solution unique with a strong resolve to contemplate and address all the perspectives to tackle the given problem.

The corner stone of a brand values is simply what your brand stands for, the targeted audience and your own ideals as the founder. Your brand values lie at the core of your culture staying on theme with our reusable coffee cup example. These values could revolve around the environment, transparency and the customer. Do research around other brands you love and see what resonates with you most strongly when it comes to establishing your brand’s tone of voice. Every brand has a personality. The soul of a brand lies in how peculiar it’s traits are to the target audience. With the right amount of zest and a well oriented plan, a brand will always stand out in the market.

The right way to brand positioning

Making yourself unique is not as simple as we just stated it to be. You need to enforce a strong message into the minds of the audience in the most creative way possible. One of the very common ways to implement this is to have a unique value proposition or UVP. This can be seen as more of a cogent and vivid message from the brand proving their originality. In this context you aim to understand your problem in-depth and to solve in your own vibrant way. Some areas where you can highlight your point of difference are your products, design,function, price and time that it’s available.

One of the most pivotal elements to branding is the right theme and design with an enhanced user interface. The goal is to make it sleek, cozy and enrapturing for the customer. Various online platforms like canva, 99 designs etc give you a plethora of options to customise your brand in the most modern way possible. So do some research around these tools. Otherwise you can always work one on one with a graphic designer or a branding agency.

Upon changing the functionality of your product you jeed to look out to fund a more genuine and effective resolve to the issues and queries raised by the existing customers on the product. Once you move in to fixing a price range for your product you have two options.One to go foe a lower direct to customer price point which is more inclusive and accessible for the customers or to go for a higher price point ensuring a premium service. 

So consider how your brand is different and how to communicate this with your target audience.

How to increase e-commerce brand value?

1)Marketing = Getting attention

Get people to look at your brand by having amazing creatives and going against the grain. Do something outside of the norm and set a trend. Be the trendsetter by being unique and elagant and don’t be a boring trend follower. 

2)Get people to pay attention

You do this by being omnipresent- meaning marketing your brand or product on every social media platform and have incredibly engaging content. 

3)Get people to pay

Have an offer so good that people can’t resist it. Branding is like fishing. Crafting the perfect offer hooks your audience. Always keep in mind that we live in an attention economy. The only way to scale your business online is to use advertising. 

12 things e-commerce businesses can and should trademark.

1.Brand name

2. Logo 

3. Product name

4. Tagline/slogan

5. Product line name

6. Subscription name

7. Membership name

8. Better customer experience

9. Fast shipping

10. Reward programs

11. Regular sales and discounts

12. New product drops

With these pro-tips and a lot more passion, an e-store becomes a part of the customers everyday life by evolving to a brand and concludes to the perfection of an elegant

Categories
Digital Technology

What is Marketing Technology and MarTech?

What is Marketing Technology and MarTech?

Marketing technology is a collection of software solutions that marketing executives employ to achieve mission-critical business goals and generate innovation inside their firms. Content and customer satisfaction, advertising, lead generation, marketing management, and promotional data and statistics are all areas where Martech solutions may help.

What are the benefits of using marketing technology?

Marketing technology boosts corporate efficiency and performance.

Increases in the latter can be due to two separate drivers: first, automation of time-consuming marketing duties reduces the number of man-hours required for marketing plan implementation, allowing you to accomplish more with fewer resources. Second, marketing technology may give you useful information about the ROI of company marketing initiatives. Once you’ve determined ROI, you can balance a load of various activities to maximize cost per acquisition.

Many organizations are engaging in marketing technologies due to increased competition. As leading companies realize the benefits of implementing MarTech solutions, others dread falling behind and see investing as an opportunity.

This has resulted in an increase in the acceptance and adoption of MarTech platforms, notably systems that provide automation for marketing and data analysis, among many other advantages.

There is also a growing desire among organizations to upgrade existing old systems and implement MarTech platforms that can be used by corporations, rather than the marketing department being segregated and missing out on critical information that may be used in their campaigns.

Offering a personalised approach

The capacity of enterprises to give a more tailored approach than they could previously is fundamental to the use of this data.

The more data you collect, the more knowledge you have to target your advertisements to precise, segmented audiences across all of your platforms.

The better you understand your customers and tailor your campaigns to them, the further effective they will be and the further leads you will convert.

When putting together a marketing technology platform, it’s critical to understand which technologies are basic and should be installed first. These technologies should be considered necessary by all B2C and B2B marketers:

  1. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CSM)-

A content management system (CMS) is an application that is used to manage content, allowing multiple contributors to create, edit and publish. Content in a CMS is typically stored in a database and displayed in a presentation layer based on a set of templates like a website.

What Makes up a Content Management System?

On a more technical level, a content management system is made up of two core parts:

  • A content management application (CMA) – this is the part that allows you to actually add and manage content on your site (like you saw above).
  • A content delivery application (CDA) – this is the backend, behind-the-scenes process that takes the content you input in the CMA, stores it properly, and makes it visible to your visitors.

Benefits of a content management system

The advantages of a content management platform. The collaborative nature of a CMS is a significant advantage. Many people can log in and edit, schedule, or control published material. A CMS can be accessible from everywhere by any number of users because the interface is usually browser-based.

  1. EMAIL –

Email marketing is the use of email to advertise a company’s products and services while simultaneously rewarding client loyalty. Email marketing is a type of marketing in which you can inform clients on an email list about new products, promotions, and other services. This can be a soft sell to teach your customers about the worth of your brand or to keep them engaged in the interim. Mailchimp can assist you with designing, building, and optimizing email marketing to maximize the ROI of your marketing program.

Email is one of the finest venues for reaching a specific audience because it is not affected by algorithm updates or what is hot. Consider the following: According to a recent survey, over half of US respondents check their email over ten times every day. An email is an efficient tool for businesses to communicate with their clients.

Advantages of email marketing

Email marketing may help you create relationships with your customers while driving blog traffic, social networks, or anywhere you want them to go. You can also divide your emails and attract the audience based on demographics to ensure that you only send individuals the messages they want to see.

  1. SOCIAL MEDIA –

Social media operations may be enhanced in a variety of ways by utilizing technology. For example, if you manage many Twitter accounts, TweetDeck consolidates all of your Twitter accounts into a single, easy-to-manage dashboard.

Alternatively, if you find that looking for and resizing photographs for various social media accounts takes too much effort, Bynder derivatives automatically resize your images for each platform, making publishing images across several social media platforms simple.

Advantages of Social media 

Because it allows for sharing, social media may also help you establish your brand. On these sites, you may re-pin, share, retweet, and material. This implies that followers may share your material with their family and friends, exposing your business to a larger audience. It’s a wonderful technique to get fresh leads.

  1. Customer relationship management (CRM) – 

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a method for managing all of your firm’s relationships and interactions with present and potential customers. The goal is simple: to strengthen commercial ties. A CRM system helps organisations stay connected to their consumers while also reducing procedures and enhancing profitability.

When people speak about CRM, they usually mean a CRM system, which is a tool that aids in sales management, contact management,  productivity, and other areas.

A CRM solution allows you to focus on your organization’s partnerships with specific individuals — such as customers, service users, coworkers, or suppliers — throughout the lifecycle of the relationship, including customer acquisition, winning one‘s business, and offering assistance and additional services.

Here’s why CRM matters to your business.

A CRM system could provide you with a comprehensive perspective of your clients. Everything is in one place – a simple, customizable dashboard that displays a client’s prior history with you, the progress of their orders, any exceptional customer support issues, and more.

Marketers can utilize a CRM solution to have a better understanding of the sales or prospect funnel, making forecasting easier and more accurate. Every chance or lead will be clearly visible to you, displaying a clear route from inquiry to sales.

  1. ANALYTICS –

What you don’t measure, you can’t improve. Understanding the performance of your website as well as other digital assets is critical for marketing teams these days.

Google Analytics is the most famous and comprehensive analytics application for your website, and it’s free. Google Analytics delivers the most comprehensive statistics on website performance, able to monitor everything from the number of website visits to the average length of time spent on every page of the website. These insights are extremely helpful to marketing teams since they allow them to optimize marketing efforts using real-time data.

Google Analytics is completely free and simple to use. There’s really no reason not to have a basic understanding of how your website works.

The importance of Digital Analytics in marketing

Digital analytics gives a strong foundation of real facts on which to build your marketing framework. Without it, you’re constructing uncharted territory. Digital marketing analyses real data to determine what’s working and what isn’t in the context of company goals, and creates strategies to exploit the good and improve the not-so-good so you may expand as rapidly and effectively as your business objectives require.

Biggest MarTech Challenges –

  1. Marketers may get complacent due to factors such as prior success or reluctance to risk. According to a survey conducted in the United States, just 25% of marketers utilized AI and prediction marketing in their efforts. Many industry experts in the Asia Pacific consider complacency among marketers’ most significant challenges.
  2. According to one report, more than half of marketers believe redundancy is one of the most significant impediments to developing their MarTech stack. With over 7,000 MarTech solutions currently on the market and new services that it offers being released daily, redundancy in the MarTech stack is unavoidable.
  3. Human capital is the single most significant barrier that brands confront when it comes to MarTech. The proper people with experience, knowledge, and ability to help develop a final MarTech stack are hard to come by, but the demand for this type of tech-savvy marketer has never been greater. Companies are relying on technology to drive campaign effectiveness more than ever before, but without the appropriate people to apply those technologies, the true capacity of their expenditures may never be realized.
Categories
Content Marketing

Content Marketing 101: Reach Your Audience in Many Ways

Content Marketing 101: Reach Your Audience in Many Ways

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a method that involves developing and disseminating valuable, relevant, and consistent content in order to attract and gain a certain audience. Content marketing is a marketing strategy that employs blog articles, videos, tutorials, and other forms of media to attract consumers, develop trust in your brand, reduce sales cycles, and eventually assist people in purchasing your goods and services.

Outbound marketing methods are no longer as effective as they previously were at connecting with and retaining audience members.

Today, your content must target your audience in a natural way. Creating a story for your material or telling a story is a common way to accomplish this. As a result, your material will feel more genuine, engaging, and suited to your target audience.

Why is content marketing important? (Include a link to our blog post about the importance of content marketing.)

There are many reasons why content marketing is important. Here are a few of them.

  • Improving brand reputation: The reputation-building capabilities of exceptional content are one of the most significant benefits that demonstrate the value of content marketing. Great content can assist you in establishing trust with your clients. If people find information that is fascinating, educational, and valuable, they will begin to think the same way about your company.
  • It is cost-effective. Lead generation is critical to small businesses that depend on constant visitors to expand their brand and increase revenue. Content marketing is effective for lead generation as well as being inexpensive. Although content marketing costs approximately 62 percent less than conventional marketing approaches, it generates almost three times the number of leads.
  • Enhancing your online presence: Almost every facet of your brand’s digital strategy is supported by content. When marketing across several platforms and channels, you want to guarantee that your audience receives consistent, high-quality content regardless of where you post or publish. You will be able to acquire a loyal audience across numerous media platforms by improving your digital presence and expanding your social media traction.

How does content marketing actually work?

Whatever kind of content marketing resources your company develops, you’ll want to ensure that you distribute the relevant information at each point of the sales cycle. You’re not alone if you’re not sure what form of content marketing fits where and how it might help you sell.

In 2019, 76 percent of marketers tackled content management strategically. In other words, they take a methodical approach to the processes, people, and technologies required to scale and distribute content. The following are the primary objectives of a content marketing strategy:

  • Enhancing the customer experience
  • creating and cultivating business leads.
  • supporting the organisation’s goals and success criteria.

As more businesses embrace content marketing, a systematic approach is required to maximise ROI.

Here are a few steps that show how content marketing works.

  1. create your valuable content. Create content that is valuable and addresses your audience’s questions. If you really want to keep people interested in your content, it has to be helpful and comprehensive.
  2. Your businesses will be searched online. People can locate your brand and learn about it if you create great content on relevant themes. As a result, they’ll devote considerable time to your site and learn more about your company.
  3. Share your content online. You then distribute your material to your target audience. You must get your material out to your audience, whether you optimise it in search results or promote it on social media. If you publish your social media content, you can do so on your account or seek help from influencers to have them post it for you.
  4. Brand awareness and trust: Your audience becomes acquainted with your brand after reviewing your material. They might look around your website to check out what you do. It assists people in developing brand familiarity and getting to know your firm.
  5. People like informational content. People value content highly. Your useful content keeps visitors on your site longer, which boosts your SEO ranking.

Different types of content marketing

  1. Social media marketing
  2. Blog content marketing
  3. infographics and content marketing
  4. Podcast content marketing
  5. Video Content Marketing
  6. Paid advertisement content marketing

Different types of content that work well

  1. content that entertains people. For example: memes and celebrity YouTube videos and blogs.
  2. content that educates. For example, blogs that answer people’s questions in detail
  3. Contents that inspire For example: predictions, quotes, and ratings.
  4. contents that convert. For example: testimonials, FAQs

5 Content Marketing Strategies That Work

  1. Giving what your audience needs is a sign of understanding them well.
  2. Divide your customers based on their buying personas 
  3. Create good landing pages.
  4. Your target audience must be Gen Z Millennials.
  5. Keep up with the trend because content marketing keeps changing every day.

Conclusion  

At the end of the day, an effective content marketing strategy prioritises the needs of prospective consumers. When it does, you’ll quickly discover that it’s one of the most powerful kinds of brand recognition your team can employ. Consider implementing content marketing in your marketing plan to entice potential customers. Make your material more human by creating an experience, serving smart articles, supporting a cause, and making it more human.

You’ll adore the outcomes if you approach your audience with decency and make interaction with your brand enjoyable.

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