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What you need to know about E-Commerce Marketing

The digital world is now officially a huge part of our daily lives with the new normal that we are promptly facing. The pandemic has made everyone realize that we all have to adapt to living online. We are now living at a time wherein e-commerce is beneficial to every business and consumer.

A lot of changes have happened in the past few months, a lot of lives have changed, some businesses have closed, while different people and communities have been struggling financially. This crisis has tested us but one good thing that has come out from it is how we have adapted to living our lives online.

Let’s begin by first defining what is e-commerce marketing. E-commerce marketing is about driving brand awareness and call-to-action for consumers to buy your products and avail of your services. You have to successfully cater to your buyer’s preferences and work your way around it effectively to reach your target market and to effectively make sales conversions through online platforms whether it be through your website or through social media.

Here are some ways to make the most out of e-commerce marketing:

  1. Build a strong bond and loyalty.

One of the most essential tasks that you should focus on is the strong bond and loyalty towards the consumers. The benefits of customer relationship strategies should be well taken care of and be established. Nowadays, consumers develop a relational approach that relates to customer loyalty.

There is a lot to take into account for an effective service type to build on customer bond and loyalty. For your brand to succeed it must have a sustainable competitive advantage that increases customer retention and attraction to your brand. For as loyalty increases, the volume of purchases and customer referrals also increase.

Once you’ve developed a strong bond with your consumers, a lot of marketing benefits will follow such as, the good ole’ word-of-mouth marketing, good reviews, testimonials, and even case studies. Once successfully done, your e-commerce store will be filled with people that are engaged to your products and services, thereby increasing the level of brand awareness and driving more sales.

  1. Customize and personalize your e-commerce site.

Consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they can remember. The best brands are usually remembered through different promotions and unique offerings. Every consumer is always satisfied when they have a personalized experience thus it makes them feel special, helping improve their shipping experience.

In a traditional retail store, we would always visit stores that make us feel known and special through its store employees. Brick and mortar stores are designed to attract customers while products are laid out to grab attention. The same goes for e-commerce stores, where buyers should be made to feel welcome and should have a positive user experience from the homepage to the inner pages.

Customized and personalized e-commerce sites make the users’ experience and purchases faster and easier. It is all about treating every person who visits your site as an exclusive customer. Tailor fit your site to reflect the unique needs of every buyer in a way that they will feel like they are part of the brand’s journey.

  1. Establish and capitalize on user-generated content (UGC).

To make it big online, you have to cut out and push through ahead of your competitors. Brands should always keep on trying something new and staying in trend to remain and be known as number one. One way to stay influential is through user-generated content. User-generated content allows marketers to let their consumers do the talking for them. It is about allowing people to advertise your product for you based on their own experiences and feedback.

  1. Provide an Add-to-Cart option.

An e-commerce site is not without a shopping cart. It’s almost similar to the traditional shopping cart, but this time around, everything just works with a click Having a well visible shopping cart allows buyers to control what they want to buy and allowing them an easier access to proceed to check-out to purchase the items on their cart.

Most importantly, a visible add-to-cart option on your website lets users know that they can get what they need with no fuss. It is also important that upon checking-out, users are aware of your company’s return policy, delivery procedures and options and that when needed, a customer support representative is available to answer any concerns.

  1. Create a responsive and effective web design.

Having a responsive and modern web design is an important aspect of an e-commerce website. The design should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on the adjustment to the screen size, platform, and orientation.

Follow the rule that “less is more” but also don’t be afraid to use a different mix of artworks, designs, and images. All of your e-commerce strategies will only work well when your website has a responsive design, is easily viewable, and can be accessed with the use of any gadgets. Finally, always make it a point to organize your content, keep the words simple and make sure that your website can be easily navigated regardless of age or gender.

Not sure where to begin with your e-commerce marketing? Having the right agency partner can help you establish your business goals and thrive in the “new normal”. iManila can develop the best, user-friendly, modern and easy-to-use e-commerce website for your business. Let’s talk or check out our website at www.imanila.ph to learn more.

Effective Seasonal Marketing Strategies  

As September comes, it’s as if the world is programmed to go all crazy. The streets are full, establishments are overly crowded, traffic is unimaginable, and loud noises are everywhere. Indeed, the busiest time of the year and the luckiest time for business owners.  

The season has just begun. So if you haven’t planned your marketing strategies yet, we got you.  

Build an email list  

May it be seasonal or all year-round, building your database for your email marketing campaigns should be one of your top priorities. Take advantage of the high number of traffic in an internet-busy and profit-rich season like this by segmenting new signups or retargeting the leads in your old database.  

You also need to highlight the seasonal deals on your newsletter or announce to your subscribers that you are giving them an early access those deals.  

Promote special product categories  

Another great strategy to consider is categorizing your product by season or by occasion. You should know which among your products people are most likely going to buy. This is to keep your customers away from the hassle of browsing your catalogs of products that aren’t fit for the occasion. 

In short words, choose a relevant product to do the front act. 

Set up a countdown timer 

Is there anything else that excites people more than a big event coming? Building anticipation for an upcoming event builds hype and interests among people. So, don’t forget to advertise ahead of time and set up a timer for people to see.  

Create seasonal testimonials and games 

A businessman could attest to how a testimonial could drive more sales. Before checking out, a consumer would usually look for testimonials, ratings or reviews about the product. Have someone review the product you are planning to highlight and post it on your media channels.  

A seasonal game could also work. Always induce fun and adventure to your audiences. Do not just aim for profit but for good customer interaction and experience as well. You can create quizzes, mind games, user-generated content, or anything that requires people to share your brand across social media sites. And don’t forget about the prizes! A reward is what excites them mostly.  

Create daily or weekly offers 

It’s always a good idea to attract people to continuously engage on your social media pages or website. Creating daily or weekly offers could make that possible for you. You may also create daily rewards if they interact or visit your sites.  

Inspect what could go wrong and resolve it 

Seasonal events bring huge traffic. If you sell on your website, be prepared to encounter potential technical issues, checkout errors, or your site crashing. We don’t want things like these to occur but they do happen unexpectedly so buckle up.  

You should ask yourself, is my current hosting plan able to handle a huge traffic? If you don’t know the answer, that’s something we can help you with.  

Just remember that giving consumers a smooth, fast and unproblematic shopping experience is always the key to a successful business.  

Seasonalize your brand 

Aside from making deals or special rewards for the season, you may also customize the look of your brand. Give people the feel of the season by creating relevant content, designs, graphics, and more.  

Play around your packaging as well. Just remember to give your customers an extra something for free. 

Capitalize on advertising 

The spirit of Christmas is around the corner. People are already starting to shop gifts online or offline. 

And what greater way to dominate online than doing ads? Get double or triple your ad investments from running ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Google.  

If you are having a hard time planning your seasonal marketing strategies or running these ad options, you just need a little management investment to have an agency do it for you.  

Don’t miss out this huge opportunity to get ahead of your competitors. Let iManila do the magic for you.  

Request a quote for our Social Media Management, Social Media Ads, Google Ads, and other website services now. You may also leave us a message or email us at [email protected]. 

Is your business ready for the Holidays?

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! Aside from the holly and jolly Christmas carols and festive lights on the streets, Christmas shopping and gift giving are one of the highlights of this season.

Filipinos love Christmas. As a matter of fact, as early as September, Google searches surge for inquiries related to Christmas – from shopping for decorations to special gift finds. It’s not a surprise that Christmas shoppers are now flocking the stores this early to buy gifts for their loved ones hoping to avail of the early season offers and most especially, to avoid the shopping and traffic rush when December comes in. Luckily, the good news for shoppers today is that they can now enjoy a more convenient way to shop this season with the rise of various eCommerce and online shopping channels.

This actually brings in a great opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the increasing demand and the peak of consumers’ shopping behavior every year. In 2018, 26% of the Filipino population have bought at least one (1) item online as their Christmas gift. This is equivalent to more than 27 million people and guess what – this number is expected to grow even higher this year! (Google, 2019)

Kantar TNS has also concluded a study which finds that in 2018, 52% of Filipinos have searched online about food groceries while 80% have searched about consumer electronics. And an even greater 81% have searched for air travel. The Holiday season offers businesses the most active consumers that are ready to convert with the added capacity to do so. With this great boost in online shopping, it’s important that your brand is visible online and that your products stand out amongst your competitors.

To help you out, here are some tips to capture the hearts of your target market this Yuletide season. We made a list, so check it twice!

Reach more people through Search and Display Ads

Christmas gifts, recipes, carols, and decorations – are just some of the possible seasonal keywords that you need to invest in. Apparel and footwear, as well as food beverages, are always projected to lead the influx of search queries this season. Make sure to appear on all possible related keywords to your products and own the SERP through Search Ads. Accompanying some Display campaigns along your Search campaign can also help in boosting brand awareness and recognition.

Create an impact through Video Ads

You’ve seen a lot of Christmas advertisements on television that have gone viral for its heartfelt and emotional approaches. With Video Ads, you can also definitely achieve this! Aside from being more cost-effective than television ads, you can also create a more targeted strategy and have more meaningful metrics to measure your success. The key to creating a story right now that can be impactful to your audience is by making the most out of the existing status quo by giving twists and turns. Focusing on the relevance and relatability of your story to your viewers is ideal especially if you want to inspire and educate them to buy your products.

Explore opportunities in Shopping Ads

The eCommerce industry in the Philippines is said to become a $25 billion market by 2025. Aside from the usual online stores like Lazada and Shopee, you can also explore the benefits of having your own eCommerce website and advertise your products through Shopping Ads. Preparing bigger budgets for large moments like 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday is also recommended as you can go with the trend that pushes people to buy more. Shopping ads are very visual and product based which is generally ideal for F&B, clothing, and consumer electronics industries. There is also no need for keywords targeting as the structure of your feed (product listings) will be crawled by Google and will be automatically determine if one of your products is relevant to a certain search query.

This Holiday season, don’t miss out on valuable consumers that can totally scale up your revenue! Invest in paid advertising and make your brand standout in this season of giving!

Need assistance on your paid advertising campaigns? Talk to us! iManila is a full-service digital and a Google Partner agency that offers web development and digital marketing strategies to help more businesses grow! Contact us at (02) 490 0000 or email us at [email protected]!

How Well Are You Remarketing Your Company?

A study done by Google suggests that 95% of visitors will not convert the first time. Stats like this may seem so scary because for business owners and marketing executives like yourselves, you have to ask the question: “How do I get my consumers to convert or buy?” 

In this day and age, it’s no longer enough to just market your products one time or just for a fixed period of time. The fact of the matter is, with the amount of information going around online, consumers’ attention is constantly being pulled from one direction to another. So how exactly can you persuade your buyers to actually take action and go for the “buy now” button?

The answer can be summed up in one word: remarketing. 

Gone are the days when you simply market a product and hope to the heavens that your marketing campaign has been seen and/or heard by the right audience. In today’s highly online world, marketing campaigns are a combination of efforts to target new audiences and to remarket or continuously show visibility to potential and previous clients or website visitors. 

Remarketing campaigns are basically designed to show your company and/or your products off to potential customers who have either visited your site or previously used your mobile app. This remarketing type of campaign can easily be applied thru Google Display Ads.

Remarketing campaigns are also akin to the scenario when customers opt into your newsletter. Many companies today religiously send out electronic direct mailers or email newsletters to databases which they have maintained and grew over the years. These databases are considered as goldmines to these companies, who are able to use these precious contact details as a means to market directly to people who they know are already interested in their product or service.

So where will YOU begin with your remarketing? 

  1. Start with an understanding of your remarketing goals. Who exactly do you want to remarket to? Do you want to target existing clients? Do you want to target clients who have abandoned their cart? 
  2. Evaluate your databases. Are they up-to-date? What kind of your clients are your databases composed of? Do you maintain a database? 
  3. What kind of channels should you use to remarket? Are your clients more inclined to open their emails? Are they more inclined to see your Google Ads? 

Getting started seems difficult but once you’ve gotten the hang of it and you’ve seen the results in conversion, then you’d be happy you did it anyway! 

Just take note that every company does remarketing differently. What might work for us may not work for you – so it’s really about putting in the patience of trial and error. But like what we said, if you’re able to figure it out and do it correctly, we’re sure you’ll be happy you did it! 

Scared to give it a try by yourself? Get some experts to help you!

Drop us a message at [email protected] or call us at +632 490 0000. 

Going Socials: Which KPI You Should Prioritize? Branding or Sales?

 

The social media hype for brands across the globe is real. Everyone’s jumping right into this seemingly unsinkable boat of social media and everyone’s like, let’s do this, this is the trend these days. However, before jumping into the boat of social you need to know these two things:

Is it for you?

The big question is, is social media fit for your business? Not all business is created with the same audience behavior? Some business especially B2B businesses have a highly ‘niche’ audience with a very discrimination taste for content. They respond differently and unpredictably at times. Lucky for the B2Cs as some groups of end-consumers behave in a predictive pattern. But with a high-end audience, social media isn’t always the Mecca of Digital Marketing. The key here is to determine if it is really fitting to your corporate goals.

Related Reading:  Online Duopoly: Facebook or Google?

How to Measure Success?

Now that your team has decided that social media can be an important channel to your digital growth, the next crucial step is not the content planning yet. Determining your KPI should be the next thing that your team needs to finalize. Without concrete goals and sets of Key Performing Indices, you cannot measure your initiative’s success. And if you’re battling the two sides of the coin whether to go for branding or with sales KPI, you really need to a have a perfect focus to ensure success when rolling out to social media. These two are different in some degree.

If your team is still confused about which KPI to use, you can refer to some considerations mentioned below.

  • Are you a start-up?

If social media happens to be your first digital initiative the most logical approach is branding over sales. You need to build a good brand awareness and brand recall before you make sales pitching over social media. No one wants to hear selling from a brand or a business that they barely know. And if we are talking about branding, building A FAN-BASE, CONTENT REACH and ENGAGEMENT are the best KPIs to go with.

Related Reading:  SMEs Guide to understanding their online market

  • Are you in dire need of lead acquisitions?

Some businesses live and breathe through leads. Well for most B2Bs – YES, this is the business’s bloodline. And leads, when well-nurtured becomes sales. This middle-ground is a little aggressive than branding but should be lesser than sales-driven methods. One must have a landing page inside a corporate website which will catch all of the referred traffic from social media. The landing page should be designed to be enticing enough to take an action either in the form of sign-ups of inquiries. The best KPIs for these is LINK CLIKS or WEB CLICKS.

  • Is your company already visible online?

If your company or your brand has been making buzz online, either on the search engines, display networks or in other channels like guest posting via blogs, turning to social media could be easier than the previous two.

For most companies who have established a good brand recall and reputation online, going for sales goals on social media is likely to happen.

Call-to-actions such as Buy Now, Book Now, Call Now, are the usual go-to CTAs by businesses. And KPI of CLICKS can be used to measure this.

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After finalizing your sets of KPIs, you can now proceed to the drawing board to kick start with your content planning.

iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

Things To Know Before Running an AdWords Text Ad

There will come a day when all businesses in the Philippines will shift online. And as of today, there’s a big chance that a sales executive will knock on your door and tell you, “Ma’am/Sir you need to advertise your business online, it’s the best way for you to get noticed without a big budget.”

What comes after are the feelings of amazement and confusion. Questions like, “Does it really work? Will it really work for my business? Do I need to allot more budget? How will I know if I am getting more from it?”

I am pretty sure that these are the things that you have in mind and you’re probably seeking for someone to guide you in making a decision whether to go or not.

At iManila, we encourage you to go for it. However, we first make sure that our prospective clients know the following things before we actually proceed to do the Google Search Ads for them.

  • First Mandatory: Website

One of the primary goals of a Google Ad is to bring web traffic through web clicks. The ads serve as a portal to bring them to a website of the client. If the client doesn’t have a website, we advise them to consider having one before we proceed with the ads.

A website serves as a primary online contact point of any online searchers to a prospective firm or business. The website must contain all vital information about the business including all contact numbers, email addresses, and physical address. We also highly recommend that the website contains all the offerings be it products or services.

Having a Website is NOT Enough

The website is mandatory but that doesn’t mean that having one is the end of it all. A website should be regularly updated. It should be well-designed and easy to navigate; otherwise, visitors will just bounce off.

The experience visitors have with a website is what matters to Google. If visitors are having a hard finding what they need to see on your website, then that means that the website is not well-made or it lacks content and substance. In return, Google will remove you from ranking high in the Google Search Engine Results Page, and it can also affect your ad rank in Google ads.

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  •  Second Mandatory: Research

We ask our clients if they have an accurate knowledge and sharp business intelligence about their competitors and their industry. This is for them to brief us about their positioning, prices and same with their competitors. If they don’t have one, we do some research to better understand their business and the competition within the industry.

What do we mean by competition?

We do not limit our research to offline must-knows such as location, prices, and their offerings. We also try running some keywords about the business and see if they are doing Google Ads as well. This will help us determine how tight it will get for our prospective clients should they push through with the service. And that’s how we adjust in terms of budget suggestion, keywords and even the landing pages of their ads.

  • Third Mandatory: Landing Page

A landing page is a specific page in the website that serves as a catch basin of incoming traffic from the Google Ads. It is the first page that they will see, hence the importance of having a well-designed and well-written one.

A landing page should be well-made and simple to understand. Moreover, it needs to have one explicit and achievable goal. Goals could be sign-ups, purchases or downloads. These landing pages offer valuable materials that are needed to be a downloaded from a portal going to an e-commerce page to convert them into a client.

What we always tell our clients is: Landing pages should contain a relevant and easy to understand core message. It either instructs to download, persuades to buy or begs for sign-ups.

  • Fourth Mandatory: Budget

Launching an ad means you are willing to pay a certain amount to post the ad. The same goes with Google Ad. It is universal for all ad platforms (both online and traditional) that an ad budget is required.

The difference between Google and other online platforms is that you have the power to dictate what budget works for you, unlike the traditional ones.

Fifth Mandatory: Understanding the Idea of the Bidding Scheme and PPC

Google Ads are created to operate on a specific model which is the pay-per-click type. Pay-per-click or PPC means that the advertiser gets charged for every click. If there are fewer clicks, there will be fewer charges as well. However, if there are a greater number of clicks, the higher is the possibility of spending your maximum allocated budget.

The bidding scheme, on the other hand, pertains to who gets the top spot in the allocated areas on the first page of Google based on the willingness to spend greater amount. However, Google rationalizes their bidding rules by incorporation of a quality score. Those advertisers whose ads obtain a high-quality score gets the spots.

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How to Achieve Better Quality Score?

Quality scores of Google ads are computed using the following elements:

  • Bid – refers to the amount the advertiser is willing to spend
  • Ad Relevance – The resonance of the ad message to the online researchers. It is sometimes evaluated by Click-through rate. Click-through rate is the number of clicks your ad gets over the number of times it was shown by Google.
  • Landing Page experience – The behavior of the visitors as they land on your page. The higher the bounce (quick and unexpected movement of visitors out of the website) rate is considered as bad landing page experience.

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As mentioned from the items above, clients need to make sure that they have everything in their arsenal before actually going for a Google ad – and one of those is having a well-made website with compelling landing pages.

Taking into considerations the ‘mandatories’ above will result in a higher success rate when doing the Google ad.

For further questions and inquiries about the Google Ad or with Website Development and revamp. Contact us at (02) 490-0000 or send us an email at [email protected].

 

 

Office Stories: What Makes a Good Boss?

 

One of the unforgettable things I’ve experienced before embracing the life of a salary man was when I was a marketing intern in an appliance distribution company.

I can vividly remember when I was asked by my OJT supervisor to bring a pile of approval sheets to the Marketing Manager, who apparently was her boss.

As what other interns did, I gleefully took the files, walked down the aisle, and passed by several cubicles before reaching a secluded office at the other end of the aisle. There was no signage on the door. So before I knocked, I asked some employees nearby if that was the office of the marketing manager. The three of them momentarily swallowed their nonexistent saliva before they answered “YES”.

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At that moment, I got the slightest hint that this man behind the door wasn’t the type of boss who had a sunny personality. So with much caution, I knocked twice, opened the door and greeted him.

Boss-with-morning-coffee

No response.

I looked at him. He was so engrossed looking at his computer screen with his eyeglasses on.

He was neither a grumpy old man nor a monster that would eat you alive.

Actually, he was a bit young – in his late thirties perhaps. He looked at me and raised his palm in the air as if telling me: Where are the sheets?

I immediately moved forward to his table and placed the files on his desk. He asked, “Are you a new employee?”.  I immediately told him that I was just an intern. He nodded back and then told me that I can leave.

As you can infer, he could be a typical boss who sat on his desk all afternoon, secluded himself from his subordinates most of the time, and was terrified of him.

You could be right and wrong at the same time.

THE bosses

Bosses are chosen to lead. They are highly capable individuals who are tenured and can speak with authority.

But bosses are human beings too. They are prone to errors and mistakes. And in some cases, they also lose their cool and become temperamental at times. Okay, fine, I get you – probably most of the time.

Being in charge as a head, as a manager or as a boss entails a great responsibility of managing a team. More so, it is an endless challenge to prove their competencies and worth in the organization. That is why people like them are potentially vulnerable to any and all work-related stress you can think of.

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What do Good Bosses do?

Most of us will agree that an effective leader not only helps manage conflict but also supports team members to grow professionally, which can take a lot of time. Some would even argue that a good boss is transparent and owns up to his or her mistakes like what everyone should do. But the most important thing a good manager does is to also regular assess themselves and constantly improve his or her leadership skills.

Below is a helpful infographic from the Headway Capital on how to assess yourself as a leader:

Way-to-becoming-a-good-boss

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You may get mad at your subordinates or makes a little questionable decision once in your life. But just like what every employee needs to do, evaluating one’s self is the best way to reset yourself to make a fresh start.

Is a website revamp or digital marketing part of your marketing plan for the year? Let iManila help you achieve the website that works for your company and achievable digital marketing activities to pumped-up your year marketing direction. Call us at (02) 490-0000 or send your inquiry at [email protected].

 

Source:

  • marketingprofs.com