Contributed By: Nick Calhoun
Unless you’re a local hero who has a consistent mix of brand loyal customers, a business who doesn’t have their tangible products available online is equivalent to basketball court without a hoop. You can still run on it, but you won’t be able to touch any goals. Your website and other eCommerce platforms provides the playground for learning about your business as well as ground zero for your e-Commerce transactions. More and more consumers are choosing to shop online rather than join the hustle and bustle of the outside world. To become successful selling your own products, always remember the following three T’s of e-Commerce:
Target
Who will be purchasing what I’m selling? A simple question with an extensive process to get to an answer. When determining who to target you should not only determine who will most likely seek your product, but determine if targeting the segment will yield the desired profit. You create your target segment by studying your competition, researching the overall industry, and then developing your customer’s persona. Once you gather the information from successful companies already in the industry, write down the ideal traits of your customer such as their hobbies, interests, occupation, income, and any other important information to create 2-3 customer personas.
Tactics
Once your ideal customer is created, ask yourself, what would intrigue them to want to purchase my product? Is it a blog? A commercial? Maybe becoming a social media product enthusiast? There are so many routes to go but only the correct avenues based off of the consumer’s lifestyle and your approach will yield success. If your target is college kids who are always on social media, your tactic should be pushing your product through social media. If your target is senior citizens who watch 4-6 hours of television per day, you should create a commercial to be shown within peek watching hours. Creating the actual ad is the fun part of the tactical process. While some ads may focus on reliability to the consumers, others may focus on things like humor, the need for sex, or a desired lifestyle. Developing your tactic takes time and if done correctly, you should see numbers in both sales and online visits. Just remember to always keep your personas in mind and evolve your digital strategy as you gather more information on current trends and your brand’s web activity.
Track
Tracking your results lets you know how your business is doing as well as provide the framework for your future online strategies. Attaching the FREE tool Google Analytics to your website allows you to get a clear glimpse of your e-Commerce and who’s purchasing your product. Simply visit https://analytics.google.com, create an account, and generate the code. Once your code is provided, insert it into the website’s header within the platform and it instantly begins tracking your website’s activity. Just remember to go into the settings and enable eCommerce tracking as well as following the instructions for adding the necessary tags. Important statistics to look for include site visitors, bounce rate, revenue, product performance, and time to purchase.
Stay tuned for an upcoming discussion on effectively using Google Analytics for your website and eCommerce.
