6 Fundamental Digital Marketing Platforms

Digital Marketing Platforms for Shopify Stores 🚀

Launching an ecommerce store is only half of the battle when it comes to the success of an online business. In 2021, the rule of thumb for merchants is that a considerable amount of effort will need to be given towards curating and executing a planned digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketing platforms are a fundamental aspect of business marketing, as several online outlets have the power to drive traffic to branded websites, which can lead to a surplus of sales and conversions.

Of course, there’s usually a substantial amount of planning and executing involved before businesses reach that eureka moment, but you know what they say? The best things come to those who wait. Besides digital marketing is one of the best ways to build a buzz about your brand and its products, not to mention being an outlet for merchants to earn the trust of their audience also.

So, if you’re looking for how you can draw members of the public into the realms of your online store, that’s one step in the right direction, but reaching a point where customers are coming back to make repeat purchases is the ultimate peak where ecommerce goals are concerned.

If this is the first time that you’ve heard about digital marketing, it’s no big deal, as we’re here to assist entrepreneurs and online businesses of all levels and expertise.

However, for the newcomers, we should probably make it clear from the get-go that digital marketing is an extremely powerful tool that ecommerce brands utilise, but like many things in life, its strongest potential can be reaped when this method is approached strategically.

Approaching with caution isn’t as scary as it sounds. We say this only to remind you that rushing in isn’t always the best way to kick things off. Maybe you’ve been doing a little research on digital marketing and have some ideas already? We get it-you’re excited at the prospect of your business reaching new heights. Who wouldn’t be?

Hear us out though, as we have some friendly advice to offer. As an agency, we’ve seen it all and we know first-hand that the businesses that thrive are the companies who think before they act. So, rather than spreading yourself and your team thin, start with an intention and take your brainstorm from there. Trust us, trying out all the digital marketing channels in this list at one time isn’t how the big boys would do it.

So, if you want to be up there with the industry giants, be prepared to take one step at a time as they did by considering your brand’s; goals, budget and target audience.

Are you ready for the challenge? For those of you who are on board, stick with us as we’re going to dive straight into how online businesses can implement digital marketing techniques into their success strategy:

What’s Digital Marketing? 🤔

Digital marketing is the act of promoting a; brand, product and/ or service through paid and organic advertising efforts via online platforms and channels. So, in a nutshell, digital marketing techniques encompass pretty much any form of online promotion that an ecommerce business expedites.

Additionally, we should point out that digital marketing efforts do not always have to be carried out by the brand at hand for benefits to be reaped from this strategy. Savvy online brands let their customers do the talking for them. After all, what form of marketing is more powerful than word of mouth?

For instance, if a customer were to post a glowing review about a brand or its products online, this would create a positive impression on social media surrounding the company at hand which needless to say is a very powerful form of digital marketing.

The best part of the word of mouth marketing strategy on social media is that businesses won’t need to lift a finger to execute this strategy, but they will have to do the work beforehand to ensure that they are meeting customer expectations with their products, not to mention offering their customers exceptional service. Go ahead, give your audience something to talk about.

It is estimated that more than three-quarters of businesses actively use marketing campaigns to promote their brands online and the most common marketing goals for these businesses include; increased brand awareness, sales, engagement, leads and revenue.

All of these aspirations can be met with strategic digital marketing techniques, but first, businesses will need to create a digital marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategies 📝

A well-rounded strategy will pursue multiple digital marketing platforms and outlets where brand exposure is possible. Generally speaking, many ecommerce businesses will use a combination of; Facebook, Instagram, emails and SEO (search engine optimisation), however, there are of course many more digital marketing techniques that a brand can utilise.

N0.1: Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a great way to engage with existing customers whilst building budding relationships with new audience members.

Social media refers to all of the digital marketing channels out there which includes major players such as; Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, but there are more than three platforms on this extensive list.

Some of the main social media platforms utilised by ecommerce businesses include:

• Facebook: 2.3 billion monthly active users.
• Instagram: 1 billion monthly active users.
• Twitter: 206 million daily active users.
• Snapchat: 530 million active users.
• Pinterest: 454 million monthly active users.
• TikTok: 205 million downloads.

Each of these networks will allow users to create organic social posts which in this context are updates that merchants would post to their brand’s account without any form of paid promotion involved.

Take the home goods merchant MADRE Linen as one example. This brand has curated an Instagram feed that features lifestyle shots and product images.

However, with organic posts, a brand’s reach and engagement will become entirely dependent on algorithms. To reach more people and guarantee more views on social media channels such as Instagram, we would recommend exploring paid social ads and incorporating them into your ecommerce store’s digital marketing strategy.

N0.2: Email Marketing

Email marketing is a prominent digital communication tool that retailers frequently use to communicate with their customers.

According to the Forrester Analytics Email Marketing Forecast (2018 - 2023), email usage is on the rise, with around 96% of users 12 years and above using this digital channel.

Surprisingly more and more consumers are willing to sign up for businesses’ promotional emails, meaning that the gateway for this form of digital marketing has just blown wide open for ecommerce stores.

However, with that being said it is thought that there is increasing dissatisfaction with branded emails, so keeping customers happy is a tough nut to crack. However, the positive here is that there’s an enhanced marketing opportunity for the brands who do it well - may the best businesses win.

We think that sending emails is an effective means of reaching new leads and loyal consumers, no matter their age group which makes this digital marketing technique an excellent outlet for online stores.

It is thought that the majority of online users who are between the ages of 12 and 17 prefer emails as a marketing channel as opposed to the likes of Snapchat and Facebook.

What’s more, is that merchants can use emails to send a mix of promotional and non-sales content such as; newsletters (containing helpful content about how the brand’s products can be used), exclusive discounts, early announcements and VIP access to special sales.

If your business is set up and ready to start running personalised email campaigns, make use of email marketing software to build customer profiles and segment the recipient list.

N0.3: SEO Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimisation (SEO) are the two terms that refer to practices that are designed with the intent of increasing a website’s visibility and findability through online search engine results. More specifically, search engine marketing refers to paid tactics, while search engine optimisation refers to organic and non-paid, efforts.

One report published by wolfgangdigital.com in 2019 estimated that online businesses will earn 35% of total traffic and 33% of revenue from search engine result pages (SERPs).

Even though there are many search engines out there, Google dominates the playing field so, this is the search engine that most savvy businesses prioritise their digital marketing techniques towards.

As far as search engine marketing is concerned, merchants have the option to run pay-per-click (PPC) display ads through the Google Ads dashboard. This powerful tool can target specific keywords for queries that reside within the user’s chosen location(s).

Moreover, we’re aware that the budget will vary from business to business depending on the company’s goals and present keyword competition, however, we believe that there will always be an option for every budget to execute so, fear not if the purse strings are a little tight.

Take LOVBYT for instance. This brand currently sells cruelty-free and chemical-free toothpaste and uses search engine marketing to enhance its strategy.

From what we’ve heard, the company bids on the keyword phrase “organic toothpaste” so that LOVBYT appears at the top of SERPs for users who enter a search query with those words included.

N0.4: Content Marketing

Content marketing is when businesses curate content to promote their business online and for many brands on the web, content marketing takes the form of a blog. Just step back for a moment and take note of where you are. Welcome to Karmoon’s journal.

According to the State of Marketing Report for 2021 published by hubspot.com, more than half of online marketers are making use of blogs in their digital marketing strategy to build new and existing relationships with their audience members.

Maintaining a blog is a wonderful way to generate awareness for an ecommerce business and the products that it may have to offer. Content marketing also serves the purpose of boosting a website’s SEO and establishing authority in your company’s chosen market.

Not sure what to blog about? Take Cerena, the CBD and hemp oil brand as an example. The company has a blog called Cuentos (Stories) on its website and it is here that the business publishes information about the CBS industry and how people can benefit from using these products:

N0.4: Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a method by which merchants use technology to create a set of rules that trigger automated actions from their marketing platforms. Marketing automation could be limited to a single platform in your tech stack or involve a combination of tools via integrations.

For example, the Shopify App Store, has a wide variety of marketing automation apps that businesses on the platform can add to their ecommerce website(s). Furthermore, Shopify users can also create marketing automation campaigns directly from their Shopify dashboard.

Depending on a brand’s product collection and the purchases made many ecommerce brands leverage post-purchase automation in 2021. Why? Well, this strategy is a great way to nurture customer relationships and cross-sell other products through personalised recommendations.

N0.6: Remarketing

Remarketing, or behavioural retargeting, is when you market to people who have already had some sort of experience with your brand. You can set up retargeted marketing campaigns that are informed and targeted based on your audience’s previous behaviour.

Here’s what that might look like in action: Maybe you launched a collection of artist-designed mugs for your home-goods business. A few months after the mugs, you collaborated with a different artist on a new mug design. You can remarket to the people who purchased your first artist-designed mug knowing they already have an interest in this type of product.

Digital Marketing with Shopify

For the Shopify merchants reading this article, you’ll be thrilled to learn that the platform has built-in marketing tools if you didn’t know this already so, Shopify businesses can get started by planning their next digital marketing campaign straight away with the handy plethora of options available.

Some of the tools on the platform are designed to execute; audience targeting, email marketing, SEO, paid social ads and more. Plus, merchants can improve marketing efforts with actionable insights that reduce guesswork and improve campaign results over time with a trial and error approach.

With Shopify, online stores use this one platform to find and sell products to the right shoppers, wherever they are located.

Ready to get started with Shopify? Sign up for a 14-day free trial to test the platform’s digital marketing tools out for yourself.

Well, that’s it for today’s article, as we’ve covered the six fundamental digital marketing platforms that ecommerce businesses should be utilising. If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!