In an ever-expanding e-commerce world, it can be a challenge to get your products in front of the right customers at the right time, according to Dr Pat Violaris, Managing Director at OneTimePIM
Marketers use a variety of tactics. However, an eclectic mix of techniques, no matter how creative, doesn’t necessarily make a persuasive marketing plan. Your product and your business model will dictate which tactic and channel you use. The marketing approach should fit the market you're targeting. Make informed choices about your marketing channels based on your customer demographics, and adjust as the results come in.
Customer data is like a garden. Frequently, you can grow both the value you receive from your customers as well as the value your company receives from them. A customer might get a lot of value from your flagship product, but even more value by buying it again or buying more of it.
Customers who return to a business compound in value, too. Having a customer who makes a second purchase will allow you to reduce the cost of acquiring them, and they could recommend your shop to others who have similar tastes. Product information management (PIM) systems can provide huge benefits in helping this process.
Here are five ways to get your products in front of customers in 2022.
In 2020, search advertising accounted for £8.4 billion in spending in the UK alone. It is therefore imperative to focus attention on your keyword and paid advertising strategy in such a saturated and competitive space. Hidden within PPC accounts, wasted spend on keywords with little to no conversions is a very common sight.
For example, broad match keywords can often lead to Google bidding on keywords that aren’t particularly relevant to what you are selling, leading to wasted spend if these ads are clicked. Broad match keywords can be used effectively, but it is important to monitor them and add irrelevant words to negative search terms. Poorly set up conversion tracking can also hinder the accuracy of the data your Google Ads account uses. The starting point of any PPC strategy should be to ensure that conversion tracking is set up correctly, tracking exactly what you want to track.
Once a customer reaches your site, you want to ensure it is as easy as possible to navigate to the products they want to buy, and discover new products. This becomes particularly relevant if you have a large range of products. Keeping your ideal customers in mind can help formulate a way to sort your products into groupings that allow your customers to find what they are looking for.
Put simply, the more accurate and detailed product information you provide to your customers, the better they can filter through the products and find something that works for them. If your product data is not in a good place, you may miss out on customers who cannot find what they are looking for on your website. Systems such as PIM can be useful in this respect.
4. SEO marketing on products
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, allows you to promote your product by increasing traffic to your website via internet marketing. By implementing SEO techniques on your product website, you can gain better visibility in search engine results. Increasing the search engine results ranking can bring in higher quantities of traffic to the site, which advertises your product to a greater number of potential customers. This can be done at no cost to yourself, but you can enhance your efforts by paying for some services.
Nearly 70 percent of online shoppers typically read between one and six customer reviews before making a purchasing decision. Less than one in ten shoppers did not have a habit of reading customer reviews before buying. It is absolutely essential to leverage the power of customer reviews in 2022. Especially if you sell your products on sites like Amazon, whereby customers may filter by number of reviews.
The bottom line
It sounds deceptively simple. Your business growth can be elevated by a thoughtful and strategic marketing strategy. You can acquire new customers with great marketing, but retention is the key ingredient that many companies overlook. Prior to acquiring more customers, it's your responsibility to reengage your existing customers. A well-planned, effective marketing campaign is the way to achieve this.