You’re busy managing fulfillment, shipping, getting your 2013 taxes done and keeping up with inventory. Perhaps the last task on your list is to GROW your business in 2014.
But it's always important to be thinking ahead. If you’re struggling for new marketing ideas, here are a couple reasons to trying inbound marketing for your ecommerce program.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is the concept of drawing more search engine (organic) traffic to your website, converting more visitors into leads, and keeping customers happy, engaged – with content. Need more information about inbound marketing? Read more here.
1. You’ll Start Thinking Like Your Customers
A happy side effect of constantly thinking about content your customers will love is that you’ll start thinking like your customers. Not sure where to start thinking like your customers? Interview them, engage with them through surveys, ask on social media or send personal emails. Ask them why they chose your product, what they like about it, what questions they had when shopping, etc.
2. You'll See an Increase in Referral & Organic Traffic
Once you’ve got significant content geared towards your customers, you’ll slowly build referrals (traffic from other websites) and organic traffic to your website. Make sure as you grow to continue to update your website to accommodate this traffic. Consider where your traffic is coming from – if you’re seeing more mobile traffic, be sure to review your mobile website experience.
3. You'll Have a Bigger Email List
As you engage with customers, be sure to offer an option to subscribe for blog updates or collect emails through contests, surveys and advanced content. Be careful not to spam users in this list, but offer content that is related to your product, events or sales.
4. Your Marketing Gets Smarter
The backbone of any successful inbound marketing is consistent analytics. Once you’re in the habit of reviewing trends in how content is performing with social media shares, comments and traffic, you’ll know what topics appeal to your customers. Perform tests by expanding those topics to your outbound marketing (advertising) to see more return on your investments.
Not sure where to start with getting your analytics set up?
Review free tools like Google Analytics – that can be easily added to any website. Or if you need more than what Google Analytics can provide, consider a platform like HubSpot. HubSpot collects lead intelligence from your website visitors after they fill out a form (this can include creating an account with your website).
If you need help kick starting inbound marketing with your e-commerce program or are re-building your website with inbound marketing in mind, contact us to get a conversation going with an expert!
Photo Credit: rosefirerising via Compfight cc
