Ecommerce Strategies for Small Companies & Businesses
About PDMG: we are a digital marketing, strategic ecommerce consulting company & web design firm serving Charleston SC, Myrtle Beach SC, Columbia SC and Savannah GA.
In this post, we are going to list the most effective ecommerce strategies for small businesses. In creating a strategic roadmap to build and expand your ecommerce business our group recommends focusing on these 4 principal ecommerce areas:
(1) Ecommerce Website Design
Ensure that your ecommerce website offers best in class web design, functionality and content.
That’s right, if you build it right they will come and come and keep coming… To start, you will need a compelling website design to capture your audience’s attention. Once you capture your audience with great web design, you make sure your website is loaded with unique and captivating content to engage your site visitors and hopefully keep them onsite! The last piece of the puzzle is your websites functionality. The better the function, the better the conversion. The better the conversion, the more dollars that role in.
WEB DESIGN
What: Redesigned websites
Why: Create modern, clean, crisp, responsive look and feel
How: Pick the right web platform (turnkey is better)
CONTENT
What: Create great content
Why: Your fabulous content will feed SEO, your brand proposition, increased conversion rate
How: Use content on sites, emails, blogs, (partner) sites and external blogs linking back to your site
FUNCTIONALITY
What: Offer great website functionality
Why: Fast website load times, single page customer checkout, win-back abandon cart triggers equals more conversions!
How: By choosing a turnkey website builder you get best in class web functionality & scaling
(2) Digital Marketing
Ensure that your digital marketing efforts support corporate and strategic goals, create best in class content, drive new and repeat visitors or customers and drive brand awareness.
Every company is going to take it’s own unique approach to digital marketing. Some companies have big budgets and teams and some companies have small budgets and small teams. However, there are some general guidelines to follow that apply to most organizations, we’ve listed a few components of digital marketing that we think are most important to focus on.
USE DIGITAL MARKETING
What: Expand your digital marketing
Why: Properly use digital marketing for customer acquisition and retention
How: SEO, sem, content marketing, social, affiliate rev-share, email marketing
USE YOUR CRM DATABASE & EMAIL
What: Leverage your database unleash the power of email marketing
Why: Use email and customer database to measure LTV & drive $’s + awareness
How: Measure customer buying habits. Use database to mine & drive more $’s
SUPPORT CORPORATE GOALS + OMNICHANNEL FOCUS
What: Support corporate development and omni-channel focuses
Why: Use digital to support goals and objectives and create consistency for your customers
How: Collaborate closely w/leadership team and business lines
(3) Fully Leverage Ecommerce Partnership Channels
Ensure that your website and business leverage online partnerships or sales channels, such as Ebay, Amazon, or 3rd party websites such as web affiliates to drive corporate brand identity, find new customers and grow your customer database.
Ok, so we discussed website design, content and functionality; then we covered digital marketing. Another effective tool in driving your ecommerce business to new levels is leveraging web partnerships to drive sales and generate new customers and branding.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM – AMAZON
What: Sell on Amazon
Why:
- Largest US web store & 2nd largest US product search engine
- Increased customer acquisition
- Awesome deal math, i.e. rev-share always works
How:
- Gain more exposure
- Get more positive reviews
- Create a great customer experience
PARTNER WITH AFFILIATES
What: Leverage Affiliate Marketing
Why: Great acquisition tool, with fixed cost, choose from 1000’s of affiliates, great brand builder
How: Join affiliate network, recruit affiliates, create aggressive offers, create CPA incentive
DIRECT TO BUSINESS WEB PARTNERSHIPS
What: Form partnerships with additional businesses on the web
Why: Cultivate and find new dtb partnerships to grow sales channel
How: Work existing relationships and build new (dtb) partner pipeline
(4) Ecommerce P&L & Analytics
Ensure that your company have full visibility with web analytic reporting and web P&L so your business can make actionable decisions and create reporting to provide insights for M&A or investment.
Data drives decisions. Companies who do not put efforts or resources into Digital Analytics or create a digital P&L are flying blind in the wind. The most notable digital analytics tool in the market in Google Analytics, and it’s free! Setting up Google Analytics take minutes. However, understanding what the data says is a different beast. You should bring on a Google Analytics expert to help set up reporting and make sense of interpreting the data behind your site or store.
CREATE AN ECOMMERCE P&L
What: Formulate an Ecommerce P&L
Why: Benchmark results for internal uses, drive guidance, or organize for m&a, investment or sale
How: Create more visibility into results, digital P&L by brand, roll up of all spend and demand, metrics by brand, result tracking by channel
GOT ANALYTICS
What: Use Analytics
Why: Data drives decisions
How: Use Google Analytics, free a/b testing tools
Ok, now that you have a plan laid out, set up a visual diagram of what you technology and marketing expenses will look like. We are including an example directly below. Pricing of course may vary depending on your technology partner, digital marketing efforts and number of web properties you own.
Technology and Marketing Expenses Chart
Contact PDMG today to create an ecommerce plan for your company!
At Palmetto Digital Marketing Group we offer digital marketing, web design and eCommerce management services to companies throughout the lowcountry, including Charleston SC, North Charleston SC, Savannah GA, Myrtle Beach SC & Columbia SC regions. Think of us as the digital marketing extension of your company. Our motto is “we do digital, so you don’t have too.”