By Evelyn Spada
We live in an era of accelerated changes. Technology is constantly presenting new ways and options to perform the most distinct tasks, in a more productive and comfortable way. A successful online store does not appear overnight, it is necessary to follow the transformations and to correspond to the user’s expectations.
It is not only on a competitive price that a store lives. It is necessary to have an optimized platform, products with clear descriptions and easy navigability. Ensuring that the visitor of the store performs tasks with less effort generates a pleasant experience, the productive interaction between the user and the system wins the user on the first visit, therefore, it is necessary to invest in usability.
Products and information already appear old-fashioned, with date and time to disappear. To expand payment options, bet on free shipping, ensure products in stock and not delaying deliveries are ways to please the customer.
It is very important that the company has knowledge of the market in which it will act, of the competitors and especially of the public that it wants to achieve. A well-done benchmark can assist in the success and prevent damage in the future.
To achieve the success of the online store it is necessary to observe all the numbers that the tools can offer. The conversion rate, for example, is the metric used to manage campaign development. Broadly speaking, it is the relationship between the number of visitors in the website divided by the number of purchases made in the same period, and finally, multiplied by 100 to have the percentage rate. The conversion rate can tell a lot about the performance of the store. It is possible to identify which campaign has generated more sales in relation to the traffic generated.
Good communication
To ensure a good communication it is necessary to know the user of the online store. After analysing the audience, adjusting the language level is a basic requirement. The reader must comprehend easily and immediately the information registered in the store. Like the choice of the language, we find the formulation of visual elements, which also must be in accordance with the user that visits the store.
Main points of attention
With the growth of Brazilian e-commerce and increased competition, investing in digital marketing has become essential. To achieve success, the store must pay attention to a few points.
To communicate with the user, the store must use different channels. The e-mail marketing segmented into its contacts base is an excellent option to reach the customer. Other actions to be taken are the optimization of the platform for mobile devices, the use of remarketing for visitors who leave the cart, to invest in sponsored links and ads, to be present in social networks and to invest in partnerships with bloggers.
When choosing the right communication for different platforms you create opportunity to attract people to the website and increase the chances of sales. Paying attention to page numbers is of utmost importance. Conversion Rate and the number of pageviews can be major influencers for future planning.
SEO strategy
The SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimization) is the set of practices capable of achieving a better positioning of the online store in organic results. The SEO techniques can increase visits, generate conversions of the online store and improve positioning in organic search.
Some actions to work with SEO involve structuring an organized and clear website. Writing the titles of the products correctly, creating good descriptions, avoiding flash websites and using keywords may help with the success of this strategy.
Another important point is creating exclusive content. Google considers different criteria to classify the results in a search, for example the time that the visitor stays online in the online page, which is why the store must be functional. The practice of SEO makes it possible to decrease the investment in marketing and, therefore, the company guarantees an increase in the revenue.
Sponsored links
Investing in sponsored links, or SEM (Search Ending Marketing), is the most widely used method for online advertising in recent times. Paid search can generate immediate traffic to the online store. The actions of the ads on the internet can interfere in the decision of a purchase, which increases the expectation of a visit, if it materializes in a sale.
Google provides for free Google AdWords, a keyword planner. With this tool, it is possible to search for keywords and ad groups, observe the possible performance of a keyword list, and create a new keyword list. Google AdWords can also help the online store with the choice of competitive bids and budgets to use in campaigns.
Marketing in the internet aims to promote visibility. The campaign is indexed to a set of previously selected keywords. When the user searchs for one of these words, the link of the ad is published in the results page (SERPs) as one of the first options of the search.
Google Tools
Google offers different online platforms to intensify the actions of digital marketing, the tools allow that the owner of an e-commerce follows through metrics the customer’s behaviour and their sales conversions. With this, the brand can test a campaign and, if it achieves the desired result, invest more time and money in other channels, or otherwise discard it.
Using graphs, Google Trends displays the volume of keyword searches by country and region. Besides that, it allows you to compare different terms in a single graph. For an e-commerce, this tool can be very useful in two situations: when researching trends in product/service and analysing the most commonly used term by users to locate a specific product on Google.
Another function of Google is Google Suggest. This action is available in Google’s search field. It is not possible to buy at Google Suggest, the system works 100% based on search history. While the user types the word in the search field, suggestions automatically appear to complete the search. This means that Google always indicates the most searched terms and the most used combination of words. Location, language, popularity and recent topics influence the suggestions. Google Suggest also acts when it comes to URL, indicating the recently used addresses, and in cases of words typed with misspellings.
However, Google Keyword Planner, the old Google Keyword Tool, displays the number of searches from relevant words and the approximate cost-per-click (CPC) value. In case the brand is not an advertiser of Google Adwords, this tool helps with the search of the most valuable words for e-commerce in terms of search volume and click value. It is an excellent tool to test if the internet users are looking for any product that is entering the store portfolio.
Google Analytics is a free traffic monitoring tool and it can be installed on any website, blog, or online store. For the online store, this tool is essential. Based on the information that it offers, it is possible to analyse the behaviour of store visitors, for example, location, type of browser being used, keyword that has brought the user to the store and how long they have stayed. Among the different resources, Google Analytics also shows the bounce rate and most visited categories. The information helps to understand the interaction of users with the store. For e-commerce, the tool is used to meter results. Through the information provided, it is possible to analyse the behaviour of sales of each product in the online store.
Blogs and social networks
Due to the lack of physical contact, online stores must invest in different ways to ensure the communication with the final client. Blogs and social networks are excellent channels to intensify the digital marketing actions and generate organic traffic.
It is possible to work with blogs in two ways. The first is to partner up with a bog which is related to the market in which the online store acts and put a banner of the store. The second option is to create a blog of the brand that offers relevant content to the public, such as tips on using the products, leaving aside the impression of a virtual catalogue. The blog must have a periodicity for posts in order to be able to work SEO with strong potential for generating organic traffic.
With the web 2.0 concept, the use of social networks allows the store to talk directly to customers and allows users to express and share opinions about the company. It is necessary to plan and offer relevant and quality content so that the online store enchants the internet users. In some cases, it is necessary to evaluate which social network generates more interaction between the store and the public. Besides that, many users like to share information through their profiles in social networks. It is important that the online store provides tools which are easy to access for directing this information.
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