One of the most common mistakes businessmen make regarding marketing is that they see it as an element that requires huge costs. On the other hand, it would be more reasonable to treat the marketing budget as an investment in your brand’s growth strategy.
When determining the marketing budget for e-business, it is very important to ensure high efficiency even at the planning stage. You must clearly understand your place in the market and imagine the image of the ideal buyer of your product. Consider 6 techniques that make smart companies reap the greatest benefits from their marketing money.
Develop a well-planned marketing strategy that matches the goals of the company
First you need to determine what position you occupy in the market, and how you can attract the attention of your target audience.
For example, if you are selling a unique product online, you need to spend part of your marketing budget explaining to consumers the principles of a concept that may be completely incomprehensible to them. Those present in competitive markets should invest more in creating marketing materials that help the target audience differentiate them from competitors in a favorable light. As experience shows, most successful companies invest from 1% to 10% of their profits in marketing.
As you determine the demographic characteristics of your target audience, you need to determine what tools to use to process the data. Most modern marketing automation and CRM software tools are combined with website analytic tools. Some software tools have built-in tools that display information about who visited your site and made purchases on it. Using this information will help you create a clear picture of your ideal customer and organize sales in such a way as to satisfy his needs.
Review staff costs and plan accordingly
Once you have an overall budget based on your strategy, you need to consider the costs of translating your plan into action. Break the budget down into several parts, such as, for example, technological and operating costs.
Decide if your business allows you to hire marketing staff. When considering options for hiring new employees, training them and paying fees, you may find that there are more reasonable strategies.
For example, many companies prefer to use a hybrid approach, which is to have several managers in the field of marketing within the company. These specialists are focused on issues of general organization of work and the implementation of specific tasks. At the same time, the bulk of the work is outsourced to marketing agencies and freelancers. Consider the benefits of your team to determine a strategy that will suit your budget and needs.
Invest in an e-commerce platform with built-in marketing tools
One of the most important decisions that any e-business company must make is to choose a custom hosting platform for their online stores. Moreover, some platforms may have built-in marketing tools that will save significant amounts of money in the future.
As hosting options for e-commerce, it is advisable to consider such hosting sites as Shopify, Volusion, iPage and Bluehost. For example, Volusion has advantages over some of its competitors, expressed in the fact that its tools help to better rank the site, simplify the work with the site and provide management of social network accounts from one panel.
Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing have become extremely important because they have a direct impact on shopping by modern customers.
For many buyers, the process of buying a product is preceded by a search on Google, so it is important to be able to interest potential buyers of your product in the digital market segment.
Ensure your brand’s presence outside the Internet
E-business owners should clearly understand that marketing is not limited to the world wide web. Creating and distributing professional marketing materials with your professional logo can have a big impact on potential buyers.
One of the most effective marketing strategies involves creating printed printed marketing materials and distributing them at various events and conferences. Distribution of free samples and personal communication can turn potential buyers into your regular customers.
To create business cards, it is better to use the services of professionals, such as, for example, Vistaprint and Any Promo. Of course, before making orders online, check on any resources (for example, DealCrunch.com) the availability of promotional codes for your product (service). This will save you some money. In addition, some online stores (Goodshop) have built-in browsers showing available promotional codes when making an online purchase.
Invest in customer engaging content
In the short term, using staff or freelancers to create content will increase your costs. But in the future, any material - from blog posts to informative videos - will pay off.
Today’s customers have begun to ignore “flashy” ads, so your brand should focus on creating content that will be of great value to them from an informative point of view or that will entertain them. In fact, more than 70% of people prefer to learn about a brand through quality content.
Companies that use content marketing have advertising performance indicators about 6 times higher than those that do not use these tools. Users also try to spend their time on valuable content. Thanks to this, content creation is an effective strategy to attract customers.
Give loyal customers discounts according to the loyalty program
Each company seeks to attract new customers. Moreover, the price of receiving new customers is significantly higher than the retention price of existing ones. Attracting new customers is 5 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. Therefore, when planning a marketing strategy should consider the issues of encouraging regular customers.
One of the best ways to promote them is to get them involved in a loyalty program. Starbucks coffee chain has developed its own application that facilitates the checkout process and involves the use of a loyalty program for regular customers.
Adjust your marketing budget for sales growth
Marketing is an important investment for any business, and e-commerce is no exception to this. In highly competitive industries, the stakes are very high. By 2020, online retail sales will reach $ 4 trillion. Therefore, e-commerce retailers need to focus on cutting the largest piece out of this huge pie.
At the same time, this does not mean at all that you should spend an even larger percentage of your income on marketing. Try to manage your budget wisely. For example, consider using your company’s credit card.
Conclusion
Creating a smart marketing plan will ensure the growth of your business. First of all, it must meet the needs of your target audience.