Update: 29 Apr 2021
“This is where my 2020 Q4, Q1 2021 went. Helping Retailers go Online thru Shopify/Ecommerce/Social Selling like FB live & IG TV /Marketplace listing like Shopee/Lazada. Glad to see success.”
I spent 6 months working closely with Singapore Business Owners with E-commerce for E-commerce booster grant aimed at skills transfer and capability development in order to keep their business afloat with the current economic Covid19 and prepare their business for the post-covid world. There were 8 of them among other clients my agency handled where we stand as an Associate Consultant.
Every day of the week, I had to conduct training on Digital Marketing such as Digital Marketing 101 and how to survive post-COVID, SEO and Ranking your store on E-commerce, Google ADs, Google Shopping, and Google Display Network, Email Marketing best practices and Marketing Automation Essentials for your online store, Content Marketing, and Social Commerce, Social Selling, and Catalog Manager.
Each training is different in a way that it’s customized based on the client situation and exercises where they can put the best practices in action. I worked with their team including business owners, directors, marketing in-house, branding consultants, content writers, graphics designers, e-commerce executives, on-site retail staff. Most of them, despite registering as SMEs have annual revenue between 600k to 1M. The most exciting part is the “you do, I see” campaign launch where they demonstrate the things they’ve learned – I see excitement and anticipation that it will perform better than the “I do, you see” campaign.
Here’s what I learned:
- The shift in consumer behavior. Marketplaces are preferred. Even one of my clients says that Shopee and Lazada can give higher discounts better than them – as a new sales channel can only take you as far Cross-promotion is crucial.
- Upon doing the project completion report, there is a portion about a 3yr sales & mktg strategy. When we got to the profit forecast, I realized that due to COVID19 pandemic, their initial plan has been set back by 3yrs.
- E-commerce is the way to go. Doing your E-commerce on Shopify will save you from a lot of headaches on digital marketing campaign integrations. You can try the 14-day Shopify trial and see if it works for you. Sign up using this link to get started exploring Shopify as a Shopping Cart for your online store.
- Social commerce is on the rise. Lucky are those who are riding the wave now.
- Live selling serves both entertainment and profit. It humanizes your brand.
- Influencer marketing are the new celebrities. Micro influencers (followers from 5k to 20k) are a good start. They are the ones with high engagement.
- Often, the issue lies at the TOFU or top of the funnel. For most business owners that I’ve spoken to, the ultimate focus is getting customers and increasing orders so I always ask them, how’s your sales funnel currently structured? The moment they hear “funnel”, they give me a confused face. I mean, I know I get it… at the end of the day, you want sales but let’s be real here – In order for someone to BUY, you need to convince people that your product / service is the best, the after-sales is good, the price justifies the value and so on so they will CONSIDER, before that, they will have to be INTERESTED on how your solution is fit to their needs/wants, and before that, they must be AWARE of your existence and their needs/wants. This is the Buying Journey.
- Visitors won’t buy on their first visit. Learn to put a name on them. Marketing automation essentials.
- Cost of acquiring a new customer is 5x higher than retaining a new one. So goes marketing to new audience.
- Facebook pixels and Google Analytics is a must. While doing an Audit and Diagnosis after kick-off, I came across multiple headaches in drawing out shopping behavior and digital audience engagement (both on social media and website). I keep on saying this: “What you can measure, you can manage, and what you can manage, you can improve.”
- Best marketing strategy is word of mouth. How do you make this happen? Make reviews and acquiring reviews a part of your day-to-day ops.
- You don’t need an entire marketing team to run the show. Get an agency, fraction of a cost for both manpower and overhead tools. Out of 8 clients, 3 of them came back and asked “How can we hire someone like you?”
- Know your OKRs or Objective Key Results. You can’t run if you can’t walk and you can’t walk if you can’t crawl. Take it easy one step at a time. Monitor. Iterate. Launch. Thing are easier if you break it down on little steps: to have ecommerce sales, you need people to place order at your site through cart checkout, to do that, visitors have to view the product, before viewing, they should land on your website from different sources e.g. organic, paid ads from google or facebook.ig ads, organic through your instagram shop or facebook shop, and so on.. for them to reach your pages, there should be an enagement, an interest… you need to create demand for your products through partnership, live selling through fb/ig, contests or giveaways, and so on.. this is what I mean by breaking it down to journeys.
Also read, TOP ECOMMERCE SKILLS AND TOOLS THAT WILL GET YOU MORE SALES IN 2021
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