With UK consumers reportedly spending £23 billion online in the first three months of 2014 alone, there’s no denying the opportunities ecommerce presents to brands and retailers.

But, whilst it levels the playing field, giving companies of all sizes – from SMEs through to major players - equal opportunity to profit from the rising number of online shoppers, how can firms with a new etail outfit stand out above the increased levels of competition?

After all, the internet isn’t called the ‘World Wide Web’ for nothing; it’s easy to get lost in the vast ocean that is ecommerce - no longer competing solely with neighbours, new websites are taking on the world! But, just because the size of the competition has suddenly grown, it doesn’t mean the marketing budget has to too.

This article outlines four marketing tactics brands and retailers can use to kick start the promotion of their new online presence, which don’t need to blow the marketing budget:

Promote the online offer in bricks and mortar stores

Use existing customers – they are a brand’s biggest advocates and an already an engaged audience – as a first port of call. Let them know about your new ecommerce offering.

Simple tactics, from putting up posters with your website address in-store, or advertising the website as part of in-store visual merchandising, can boost awareness of a brand’s online offer amongst loyal bricks-and-mortar shoppers.

Alternatively, a competition asking people to submit their email addresses whilst shopping in your stores is a very effective tactic. Not only does it promote the online presence to customers, it enables retailers to capture existing shopper details for your database, which can then be used in future promotional outreach.

Email marketing

Incentivise visits to your new website by highlighting promotions and championing core products available online to your database.

While email marketing can sound intimidating for smaller brands and retailers, it doesn’t need to be expensive; there are plenty of free email marketing platforms, such as MailChimp, which can help boost engagement and, ultimately, drive traffic to your ecommerce site.

What’s more, simple steps, such as adding a ‘sign up’ button to your website can help encourage further people to join the mailing list, organically growing the customer database.

Social media

Twitter and Facebook in particular are cheap and quick ways to build brand awareness online. In addition to showcasing the fact that people can now buy from you online, social networks allow businesses to update customers with product news and special offers through another channel.

Retailers should also consider adding a blog to the website – as long as it is updated regularly with posts that include business keywords it will increase search engine rankings, making your brand more visible to both new and existing customers.

Online advertising

Another cost-effective marketing technique is to trial Google ‘pay per click’ advertising, as you can cap your daily budget and vary it from day-to-day. This provides the flexibility to boost spending in line with key sales periods.

Collaborating with other complementary online businesses or, indeed, suppliers can also be beneficial in terms of boosting search – including reciprocal backlinks to each other’s websites, a good technique for improving your search engine ranking.

So, with just a few practical marketing tactics (that needn’t cost the earth), retailers can boost their ecommerce presence and begin to glean the benefits that operating across multiple channels can bring.

 

By Gareth Poppleton, Managing Director of Retail Merchant Services. 

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