Key digital marketing strategies for retailers to expedite online revenue

1. Top 5 effective digital marketing
strategies for internet retailers
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2. In this age of information, where any-
thing is just a fingertip away, nearly 97% of
consumers use online media when researching
products or services. And these are not just the
Gen Y but people across different age groups.
People now feel it safer and easier to buy
online. These changes, in the mindset of
consumers took some time to evolve. Even
though it’s challenging at times, digital
media has opened up so many opportu-
nities for internet retailers. The ‘word of
mouth’ has turned into ‘world of mouth’. Data
shows that 78% of the consumers trust peer
recommendations, only 14% trust
advertisements (1800 Enterprises LLC). The
whole marketing paradigm has shifted
from being a one-way broadcast to a multi-
point conversation. The control has become
more decentralized and the consumers are
equally contributing in the branding of a com-
pany as the company itself. And for that to
happen, it’s necessary to be present ‘out there’.
“If Facebook was a country, it
would be the 4th largest in the
world.”
Digital Marketing Channels &
End Customer Behavior
There is a gamut of channels which could
work wonders if utilized in an appropriate
manner. But often, it is being seen that these
channels are getting over-utilized rather than
properly utilized. There is growing evidence
that marketers don’t want to manage and
maintain presence across all the platforms
and networks. It is largely due to two factors:
» It’s just too much effort to reconcile all the
profiles, logins, etc.
» It’s simply not needed to be everywhere
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You have to choose just a handful of channels
which resonates with your business and your
target audience and then manage them really
well.Some of the channels which go well with
the e-commerce business are briefed here.
facebook
When you think of Facebook, the word
e-commerce doesn’t generally comes to
mind but when a medium is digital world’s
most loved one, there must be something
about it. It’s just not about the masses
being there. Facebook provides a lot of
convenience for branding and even transactions,
considering the recent emergence of the
‘buy’ button.There are plenty of easy to use,
tightly integrated Facebook apps for internet
retailers, which can import the whole store
into the page itself. Below are some of the
suggestions which work well for this platform:
» Use more images for posting than videos
» Never post anything having just a plain text
» Connect with your audience’s emotions,
don’t just promote
» Engage in the comment section giving
personal attention
» Use different apps for coupons, offers,
loyalty management, etc.
» Integrate with one of the e-commerce apps
like StoreYa, Storefront Social, Ecwid,
Shopify, etc.
Twitter
Same as Facebook, Twitter also introduced the
‘buy’ button, but even before Facebook has
announced that. This will let users to buy
directly from the promoted tweets without
having to go through any third
party. This was done, keeping in mind that
almost 80% of the Twitter users are on
mobile devices. And this functionality is
really a win-win for both end customers
and the marketers. Some suggestions which

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» Figure out what frequency of posting you
can manage and commit to it
» Use analytics like Audience Retention to
figure out which videos aren’t working
» Engage with your audience using
annotations which are either commentaries
or hyperlinks
5 Digital Marketing
Strategies
In this content centric, socially driven,
digitalized world, social media channels play a
prominent role and judiciously utilizing them
can take your business to a different height.
But then, there are a few more things when it
comes to planning a digital marketing strategy.
Organic Search Marketing/SEO
For many internet retail businesses, more than
half of the traffic can come via the search en-
gine result pages. It is free of cost but you
need to earn it. Search Engine Optimization
is a vast area but even if you can take care
of a few basics, your website will start get-
ting the traction. Often, not enough atten-
tion is paid to these basics, which include:
» Including alt tags for images
» Blog posts having keywords in the
headlines
» Proper meta description of the pages
» Including social sharing buttons
» Creating contagious contents to attract
backlinks
There are many such tactics which can en-
hance your search engine rankings without
even paying a dollar.
can enable you to effectively use this channel:
» Try to be creative. It’s got space for just 140
characters
» Use twitter cards for better engagement rates
» Use images as much as possible
» Use hashtags carefully. Don’t spam around by
using unrelated hashtags
» You have to tweet a lot. The frequency in the
medium demands a lot of content creation and
curation.
» Don’t overshare self-serving promotional
tweets
» Integrate with different native apps for
providing coupons, contests, gift cards, etc.
Pinterest
Pinterest’s explosive popularity is making it a
major sales tool for social-savvy online retail-
ers. Last year, 38% of the users made a pur-
chase because they saw it on Pinterest. There
are different tricks which can enable you to ef-
fectively use this online pinning board plat-
form for getting more re-pins. For example:
» Use images having lighter colors
» Try more pins of taller dimensions
» Be sure to provide a call-to-action
» Try our promotional pins like Promoted Pins
and Rich Pins
» Use hashtags for business promotions
YouTube
Visuals always add a whole new dimension to your
marketing mix. So, we need to utilize the king of
all visual content platforms – YouTube, which has
over 1 billion unique visitors each month. Through
YouTube you can give your followers a face to as-
sociate with. You can consider your YouTube chan-
nel just like a visual blog and focus on engaging
with your fans rather getting viral. Some tricks:
» Shoot shorter videos
» Create your channel and segment the videos
into different playlists

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» Choose your social handles/channels
according to your target audience
» Build sizeable followership but more than
that engage with the audience
» Social channels are like your digital assets
which speaks of your brand
» Use different media like blogs, images,
videos, etc.
» This is the best place to show your offers and
events
» Be creative with your themes. Add humor!
Content Marketing
As of yet, whatever we have discussed, would
be successful only if we have a good content.
This is the core to the whole digital marketing
process. It has far reaching effects on search
engine results, paid marketing and even while
engaging in the social media. It is key to
create brand awareness and drive online
engagements. Even Google’s algorithm is
giving more priority to the higher ranking
pages which give unique content. As such, the
advertisers are evolving more and more into
publishers. There are a few things which
online stores should consider:
» It should maintain a blog with regular posts
» The blog should be consistently shared
across the social media channels of the
business
» Every page, wherever you are putting up
your content, should have the social sharing
buttons
» The content should vary according to the
channel viz. Facebook, Twitter, etc.
» The content should inform, entertain or
otherwise add value to the daily life of end
users
Paid Marketing
With over 550 million websites, it becomes a tough
job to get your traffic especially when you are
bounded by a limited budget. Paid marketing is a
tricky job and you have to find out a formula which
fits your business. Many times internet retailers
will have low cost products for which they will be
doing paid advertising. If you consider just this
one ‘buy’, you will never get the clear picture
of the ROI. It should rather be calculated on the
basis of Average Revenue Per User in a year. Paid
marketing should work hand in hand with other
factors like a smooth navigation in website, better
offers, faster checkouts, etc.
Only then you can get loyal
customers which in turn will lead to multiple buys.
This will in turn increase your ARPU. Some of the paid
ads which can work for internet retailors include:
» Google AdWords
» Facebook – Sponsored post, right column Ads,
etc.
» Twitter – Sponsored Tweets, Sponsored
Accounts, etc.
» Content Syndication – Outbrain, Taboola, etc.
» Remarketing
Social Media Marketing
As mentioned before, social media is not just
a playground of teenagers anymore. It has
evolved into a multi-purpose tool across different
demographics. Social media opens up a forum
of dialogues with your end users and it builds
up credibility when you are easily accessible. It
helps you in crafting your loyal customers and
in the long term boosts your brand image. But
if you are here for a short-term direct sales
target, you might be in the wrong place. Social
media is often hugely successful for e-retailors
for bringing the traffic and is a great way to get
that ‘word of mouth’ momentum. But there are a
few principles of effective social media marketing:

5. Email Marketing
Last but not the least, email marketing is still
one of the most powerful ways to share across
your content and communicate with your sub-
scribers in a consistent way. Online
retailers are still using mass email campaigns,
which are smart enough to look personalized.
Some of the cases where this can prove really
beneficial are:
» Sending automated reminders whenever the
shopping cart is abandoned
» Sending personalized emails considering the
demographics
» Pre-booking reminders to highly engaging
customers
» Emails regarding offers, coupons, contests,
festival wishes, etc.
By seamlessly integrating various digital
marketing channels into one cohesive
approach, you are better able to foster deeper
and more meaningful connections with those
who find value in your brand. Following are
the steps to execute an integrated digital
marketing strategy:
» Define and Establish your brand in the
digital age
» Convey and Promote your brand message
across channels
» Connect and Covert your target customers
» Measure and Refine your efforts
about
Frequent innovations, 3-click away
purchasing models and the internet of things
world are constantly pushing the boundaries
for both online and offline shopping. As the
digital and virtual in-store experiences shape
the retail experience for end customers, it
is opening up exciting new possibilities for
the out of the box retailers. With this power
shift comes a great opportunity for retailers,
the front runners choose to adopt the tools
and insights from the web to close the gap
between the smart online consumer and
the offline retailer, which enables them to
stand out in a fiercely competitive & crowded
marketplace. The biggest question now for the
internet retailers is – How will I increase my
revenue from X to 2X within the
given time frame? Who has the
mindset to help me achieve my revenue
targets promised to my stakeholders?
Expedux technologies an Online retail special-
ist operates with a single minded focus towards
achieving one goal – Increase the online retailers
revenue from X to 2X for our customers. We fre-
quently push our boundaries in technology and
marketing perspectives to achieve our customers
end objective of maximizing their online pres-
ence and revenue within short duration. Online
retailers interact with customers through count-
less channels—websites, physical stores, kiosks,
direct mail and catalogs, call centers, social media,
mobile devices, gaming apps and more. Expedux
can help Online retailers to have their presence
across all the above mentioned channels with
the technology and customer engagement best
practices.
Expedux Technologies Pvt Ltd
No.61, Gangathara Naicker Street,
M.T.H Road, Villivakkam,
Chennai-600 049,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
Phone: 91-44-4263 6948 05