As more and more people jump into the e-commerce world to get a slice of the global $23.445 trillion dollar pie, it’s going to become incredibly important to learn how to stay relevant and ahead of your competition

While e-commerce is transactional in nature, there is a human element in effectively building long-term relationships with your customers. The question is: Why do some e-commerce merchants manage to execute this very well while others blow thousands of dollars and countless hours of time and never figure it out? This guide will help you supercharge your business and leave your competition helplessly trailing behind you.

1.     Be in the right market

Perhaps the most important tip to put your business in a position to leave your competition in the dust is to enter the right race.…

Digital tools are a key part of growing your e-commerce business and can better help you understand and target the right audience

In order to grow and scale your e-commerce business, digital tools are a must: marketing tools for helping you acquire more customers, analytics tools for understanding your audience and improving your strategy, competitor research tools for understanding your competitors and their strategies and many more. In this blog, I’m going to share five must-have e-commerce tools that will help you improve your businesses’ results. We won’t be talking about e-commerce platforms, but rather all the other tools that you need once your online store is up and running.

For email marketing: Mailchimp

Email marketing is essential to business growth as one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies out there. However, in order to create and run successful email marketing campaigns, you need…

Effective customer engagement requires making your customers an integral part of brand creation and not just seeing them as a means of revenue generation

The first short message system (SMS) message was sent in 1992 and the first phone with texting capabilities was released by Nokia the following year. Given the digital communication technologies introduced since then - voice over internet protocol (VoiP), video streaming, and social media - it may be tempting to discount the potential of the humble text message. You do this at your own peril. After all, SMS response rates are 209% higher than email, Facebook or even phone calls. That's because 94% of text messages are read and recipients typically respond to them within 90 seconds. In addition, when comparing SMS messages to mobile ads, SMS wins every time. Half again as many recipients immediately purchase…

The evidence conclusively shows that a site with optimized website speed will equal more revenue

It is no secret that with the increased prevalence of mobile platforms and web apps specifically designed for usability on the fly, people increasingly expect a fast user experience.

The Undeniable Case for Optimal Website Speed

Plenty of big companies and extensive research projects confirm how much consumers value a fast site. For instance, big names like Firefox, Netflix, and even the Obama Campaign found that optimizing web speed results in higher conversion rates and better sales. A study by Brian Dean for Backlink recently found optimal website speed to be one of the most significant factors in determining a high Google ranking position. Roxanna Elliot of Performance Metrics reports that 9.6% of visitors will bounce when a page takes only two seconds to load, while…

Forget all other social media platforms - If you run a B2B business, LinkedIn can be a treasure-trove for you

With more than 500 million users present on LinkedIn, of which, 61 million users are senior-level influencers, 40 million users are decision makers and around 7 million users are C-level executives, it is without a doubt a B2B marketer’s dream. Around 94% of B2B marketers out there are already making use of the platform to showcase their expertise, generate leads and make a tonne of sales. But are they doing it well? If you are experiencing sub-par results from your marketing efforts on LinkedIn or haven’t yet started your marketing journey on the platform then this post is just for you. I have mentioned some actionable steps below that you can take to put your LinkedIn…

"Diamonds are forever but converted customers are even better" (unknown digital marketing guru). We couldn’t agree more, and marketing automation is the perfect tool for optimizing your conversion funnel. We invite you to read on to learn how to streamline your funnel with an automation tune-up.

As diamonds make their way from mine to shop, an assortment of professionals carefully tends to them, transforming "rocks" into luxurious jewels. Much in the same way, businesses strive to convert leads into valuable assets, i.e. customers, by nurturing them along their journey from awareness to conversion. Marketers call this a "conversion funnel", and marketing automation, such as that offered by leading email marketing platforms, is all about making the best funnels possible. Yet, the automation of your conversion funnel has another far-reaching benefit. The process of building and configuring automated activities for your funnel forces you to frame your efforts in a strategic perspective, considering…

Qualified leads are your lifeblood, so here are three ways to capture more leads on your mobile landing pages

Qualified leads - in the form of emails you have captured and nurtured enough to effectively sell to - are the lifeblood of your business. Whatever your current traffic level reality, you need to capture more of these emails. What you need to do leading up to your email forms is key, because it’s these copywriting, form presentations and calls to action (CTAs) that will grab your visitors’ attention and get them to take the next step. Better yet, you’ll be distancing yourself from competitors who don’t yet understand and apply these fundamentals. [si_guide_block id="125214" title="Download our Premium Resource – Mobile SEO guide" description="This guide will give you a through breakdown of everything you need to know about mobile SEO. It explains different ways to configure websites, important design principles to follow, and how to…

Stories are extremely effective at building trust. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing

Stories are a great way of appealing to and connecting with people. They’re extremely effective at building trust. Think about every time you consider customer reviews before buying a product - the stories of real people and their experiences are what truly encourages you to buy it. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing.   A study by Twitter found that tweets from influencers coupled with tweets from brands can increase purchase intent by 5.2 times. In fact, 40% of the respondents in the study reported having purchased products based directly on an influencer’s recommendation. 

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So, the big question is - is storytelling the future of content marketing? In this post, we’ll explore…

Content marketing includes more than articles. Videos can help increase engagement and leads, which is why you need to make the most of them

It used to be that content marketing meant just that - just content, with perhaps static images. Then along came infographics and animated gifs, which enlivened our visual experiences. Well, those ‘static’ days of the Internet are now behind us, thanks to the growing popularity of videos in general, and video marketing in particular. According to a recent Cisco study, by 2021 82% of consumer internet traffic will be video. That’s a lot of bandwidth-sucking streaming. Here are more compelling statistics from Demand Metric’s report 'The State of Video Marketing 2018,' courtesy of a recent post by Smart Insights' managing editor, Joanna Carter: Some 67% of respondents use video on YouTube, while others use them on landing pages (57%), recorded webinars (55%) and…

How product page videos can convert customers on e-commerce pages

You already know that video belongs on your social media platforms, in your product ads and on your homepage as a vibrant gateway into the world of your brand. But did you know that you can also use video to convert visitors on your product pages, whether on your own website or on other e-commerce platforms? According to research from MultiVision Digital, customers are 64% more likely to buy a product if they watch a product video first. On top of this, according to Google, product videos online even push traffic back toward your brick-and-mortar touchpoints - 40% of people surveyed are drawn to check out a physical store after watching a product video online.

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