Digital marketing on the rise for ecommerce stores

The number of online stores investing in digital marketing has never been greater, according to figures released by the Internet Advertising Bureau. 

The survey, carried out by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), found that ad spending on the Internet and for mobile phones, rose 12.6% to £2.6 billion when compared to the same point in 2011. 

A specific breakdown of the figures found that:

• Mobile advertising is up 132% to £181.5 million
• Video advertising is up 43% to £69.8 million
• Social media banner advertisements are up 36% to £134.2 million
• Paid advertising is up 15.9% to £1.527 billion, accounting for 59% of all digital advertisement spending

So what does this mean for your ecommere store?

Well, the first obvious thing you should take from this is that if you aren't really putting in the time to develop a strong digital marketing campaign, you may want to do so in an attempt to not only help boost your brand and sales, but to also keep up with your competitors as these increased figures indicate that many online stores are making use of this digital marketing platform. 

Where to start?

Although paid advertising makes up around 59% of all digital advertisement spending, you may want to try other avenues before delving into channels such as retargeting and adwords. As pretty much 99.9% of all businesses have some form of social media presence, social media banner advertisements may be the way to go to begin with as not only will it allow you to increase traffic and sales for your online store, it will also allow you to build up a greater social media presence and increase any social commerce your business may have.

Once you have developed strong marketing engagement through these channels, you may then look to branch out and take advantage of other channels such as mobile marketing and other paid advertising as mentioned above. There are a number of different things you can do to help effectively market your business, both for free and paid. Read 'Marketing tools for the big, the small and the just getting started' to find out a variety of marketing techniques, both digital and non-digital, that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy.

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What eBay's 'Like' and 'Want' Buttons Could Do For Your Business?

eBay are currently experimenting on their website by adding 'Like,' 'Want' and other social media buttons to some of their stores. 

If this becomes a standard feature across all eBay stores, how could this potential new feature impact your business?

Well, the obvious positive straight away is the ability to create greater interaction levels between your eBay store and Facebook. Having your customers 'Like' or 'Want' a particular product on your eBay store will provide two glaring positives. Firstly, it is great advertising! If someone likes or wants one of your products, the item will be added to their eBay listings and gives them the option to share with friends via Facebook. The notification including the product itself will then instantly appear on this person's Facebook news feed. This will mean that all of their friends will be able to see your product. Secondly, it will also provide a direct link to the product within your eBay store. That type of direct traffic is great not only for attracting customers, but also increasing your websites search engine ranking. Secondly, having a number of buyers 'Like' a particular product gives you an added indication of which items are currently popular with the wider public.

For those who run not only an eBay store, but also a Facebook store, this could be a fantastic way to increase your following within Facebook. If one of your items are posted on a persons wall, one of their friends may then look to see if they can find a fan page or store within Facebook that is linked to your eBay store. The main reason for this would be to see if your store currently has any news, sales or offers advertised on the Facebook page.

However, some store owners believe that this addition is a waste of time and one which would of been better spent improving levels of communication between the buyer and sell. The possible button additions have also been met with mixed views by eBay buyers. Some believe they are a great addition, allowing people to keep track of what they like, while others think it is somewhat an invasion of their privacy as others should not be able to see what products they like. 

While the positives of these buttons in the eyes of the seller are clear to see, time will tell as to whether it is something that eBay will integrate across all of their stores.

Your Social Media Voice

I think it's safe to say that everyone now understands how important social media is when creating interest and awareness in your business.

However, simply creating accounts on various social media sites isn't going to be enough to make your business a household name. 

What you post, when you post it and what voice your posts are in are all important in generating interest and followers for your social media content. 

The first thing you should do is generate content on a daily basis. This may be articles you have written yourself, articles shared from other users or offers and promotions from your business. Posting content every day allows you to create a regular following who will revisit your social media accounts each day expecting new content. 

While you are a professional business, your posts and status updates don't have to be written in a formal fashion. In fact. writing in a authoritative voice is likely to make users feel less comfortable about visiting your site. Writing in a personal style allows you to relate to your audience. This creates almost a conversational tone, which instantly makes users comfortable on your page.

The beauty about social media is that it is a two way interaction platform. Normal marketing avenues are simply one way communication with you sending a message to the consumer. Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow not only you to communicate with your followers, but for them to communicate right back. Taking the time to respond to any questions, queries or comments your followers have is a great way to not only get some customer feedback to help improve your business, but is also a great way to build up personal connections with consumers. The more personal connections you create, the more potential customers you will be generating for your online business.

Although many businesses look to separate their online and offline marketing into two different strategies, you shouldn't overlook the benefits in advertising one platform across another. The best example for this would be Twitter's use of hashtags. It's obvious that when looking to build a Twitter following, the majority of your followers are going to be people who have seen the content posted on your Twitter feed and then decided to follow you. However, placing your Twitter address of 'hashtag' on other promotion items will also have a large impact on your social media following. 

Many businesses have taken up this concept of offline advertising for an online platform by placing the addresses of their social media sites on store windows, posters and even television adverts. Placing your social media identities anywhere and everywhere can only be a good thing. Not only does it increase your online following, it creates extra avenues for brand promotion.

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