Digital marketing is the segment of marketing that makes use of the internet and online-based digital technologies such as computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. There is no doubt that digital marketing or online marketing is crucial when it comes to the success of any business no matter what industry you are in. Now, like every other skill, for one to excel in digital marketing, there are certain things you should know.

Here are some digital marketing tricks for e-commerce that should be helpful:

1. Create an online presence: Being seen online is important in every business especially now where almost everything is online-based also for access to a larger customer base. One of the ways to achieve this is by making use of available social media tools and we have quite a number of them like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin e.t.c. All you have to do is to identify the one that suits your business most. For instance, if you are running a fashion store, that deals with an occasional showcase of apparels then Instagram might be it for you, if you are looking to reach a very large audience then Facebook is it for you. You can read further on social media here.

2. Simple website design and emailing list: Another way is to design a mobile-friendly website and to create an emailing list. This should be done from the beginning of your business. If you are in the startup phase, you need to make an email list when planning. Ensure to gather people’s emails where you will be sending them any updates and progress of your business. Send them useful information but avoid spamming them. You can check out our previous post on email marketing.

3. Craft good and original content: Content can be audio, video, or text but when you decide to use one or all of these digital content, ensure it is good and original. If you can’t create unique, compelling, and good content by yourself, you can hire an expert to create content for your website and social media platforms. This is where you will need a powerful content marketing plan like never before. The use of infographics in your content is highly recommendable too. This is to help in capturing customer’s attention and to make sure that you stay interested.  It’s not about publishing content and leaving it there, it’s about publishing and promoting. You need to bring your content close to the right audience as they are likely to share it with their networks and become your customers. You can do this with social media adverts or by sharing links on your social media accounts.

4. Know your target audience: Also, it’s critical to understand who your audience is and how best to market to them. You need to know who your buyers are before you try to market to them. This is an important step in any marketing strategy and it is a clearly defined aspect of your brand that you can keep referring back to. Sean Gallaher, Social Media Director at i7 Marketing explains the importance of clearly defining your target audience when you’re beginning your digital advertising campaigns: “When it comes to digital advertising it is important to remember that for any business to be effective, they need to know who their audience is, which social media sites their audience spend time, and then they have to make sure to be able to provide content for the platforms their audience spends time on.

5. Use the right tools: Digital marketing is a combination of different strategies aimed at a surplus of channels, like SEO, PPC, social media, and so on. In order to ensure that you have an integrated marketing mix, you need the right digital marketing tools to help you run successful campaigns. You also need to develop expertise in using them and applying the insights in the right context.

6. Be current: Times are constantly changing and so as an active business owner, you need to change with time. Digital marketing is constantly updating and new trends are coming up and going every day. You need to feed your customers and prospects with new and fresh information every day. This is the way to be on top of your game.

The importance of Digital marketing is that it allows you to compete with your competition by exposing you to a wider audience on a much smaller advertising budget and so, every business needs to practice it.