Why is a Digital Marketing Plan Important for your Business?

To understand how important digital marketing is for businesses, we need to look at consumer behavior –  A recent study by Oberlo reveals that more than 2.1 billion people around the world made purchases online in 2020.

Shoppers flocking online is a prime reason why businesses need to be investing in digital marketing to stay competitive. However, you don’t have to have an eCommerce business to need digital marketing strategies in 2021.

Everyone from small businesses to global companies need to be visible online. Being where and when your customers are searching for you can mean the difference between winning or losing the sale.

"Mediocre marketers think in terms of campaigns. Great marketers think in terms of growth frameworks."  – Neil Patel

Whether it’s a brand or product, customers are using the internet and smart devices all day, everyday to help them make purchasing decisions.

How to Write a Digital Marketing Plan

Step 1: Start with a SWOT Analysis

By SWOT analysis or SWOT matrix, we mean the process of identifying your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This is the first step in developing an effective digital marketing strategy.

Think of this step as the cornerstone for the entire plan. The SWOT is an important situational analysis that considers any internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats).

Step 2: Set your Goals & Objectives

While your goal may be to make more sales, to get there you may need to increase product or brand awareness amongst your target market, or increase purchasing intent. These objectives will guide the types of digital marketing you do. Think carefully about where you want to get to (goals) and what it is that you need to achieve or change to get there (objectives).

Step 3: Create your Buyer Persona

There’s no success in marketing without customers, so if you want your digital marketing plan to work, you should have a clear picture of who your customer is, what they like and how they behave. That’s why marketers recommend creating what’s called buyer personas.

Learn More: How to write a digital marketing plan in 6 steps

About the author, Melissa How founded Marketing Wise in 2010 to demystify digital marketing and support businesses in their digital transformation journeys.  She is also Founder and Director of The Cocktail Shop, Australia’s fastest growing cocktail eCommerce business.

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Integrate digital technology into all areas of your e-commerce business

E-commerce is forecast to have over a 1% annual growth rate, achieving a nearly 22% share of total global retail sales by 2024, so you must stay aware of the changes that have the power to launch your business to new heights. While we can’t see the future, we know e-commerce will be everywhere in retail in the foreseeable future. 

The Perfect Purchase Experience

Shoppers are demanding secure, flexible transactions—and won't return to purchase again without a good reason.  So, what does this mean for you and your e-commerce business? Well, it means you’re going to need to get your digital marketing and e-commerce integration right if you want to succeed in this new retail era. 

Competition is greater than ever, so the more committed you are, the better chance you stand. Oevae Marketing Consultants can help you start integrating digital technology into your e-commerce business.

Develop Long-Term Growth

With your digital marketing in place, it’s time to focus on growing your e-commerce business. You’ll want to develop a long-term growth strategy. This should include a plan to acquire new customers and build your revenue. You may want to consider hiring a lead generation company or oevae.com can assist with this.

Your Lifestyle Business says that “one of the best ways to grow your e-commerce business is to create additional products that compliment your core offering.”

Creating additional products requires that you think about what people are asking for at a particular moment in time. You can also look at your current products and see where improvements or additional features could be added to make your products even better.

“It’s not a matter of determining what consumers are going to do, it’s making it possible in whatever they do.”  

 – Allen Greenspan, American Economist, Former Chair of the United States Federal Reserve.

Develop an Effective Digital Advertising Campaign

Now that you have a store and a lead magnet, it’s time to start marketing your products. As such, you will need to start creating an effective digital advertising campaign. This includes ads on social media sites, Google ads, and all other forms of digital marketing that you incorporate into your strategy.

You need to be consistent with your ads. And you need to be creative with your ads. Remember, competition is stiff when it comes to digital ads. So you need to think outside of the box to hold consumer attention.

Remote Work Is Effective

A great place to start is to allow some of your staff members to work from home. But in doing so, you must ensure effective communication among your team. A process map template is a great way of doing this.  This effective tool can help you keep your crew informed about all anticipated objectives, thus maintaining productivity.

Your process map template should not be the only thing you are working on. Simplilearn points out that big-data analysis is a worthwhile investment. Through process mining, you can discover, validate, or improve your workflows.

The Benefits of Process Mining

When it comes to process mining vs process discovery, you should understand that process discovery, which usually generates a process model, is a part of process mining. The overarching concept of process mining helps increase sales, increase efficiency in the workplace, and manage risk. You can even look forward to finding hidden opportunities that will help your e-commerce business grow. 

Start by identifying potential data sources. Once you have identified potential data sources, plan a timeline to identify key stakeholders. Automated processes can also help you respond to customer demand more quickly. Automation reduces the need for human oversight. This allows you to focus on more strategic tasks such as product development.

Mobile Apps for a Better Customer Experience

Mobile apps are another feature you should think about. Without an easy payment option for your customers, you could lose significant revenue.

It is important to make sure your mobile payment application is secure. This is where authentication API can help. Paying via ACH (automated clearing house) allows customers the ability to instantly verify their routing numbers or bank account information.

Moreover, your app will seamlessly integrate with all ACH processors (including Dwolla and Stripe). This ensures that your customers will have a quick, easy, and user-friendly experience.

Digital E-commerce vs Loss Prevention and Asset Loss

Kroger has implemented various digital technologies in its smart shopping carts to enhance security and improve the shopping experience.

Competing with retail giants like Walmart presents significant challenges for small businesses. However, by leveraging unique strengths and strategic approaches, small enterprises can carve out a successful niche in the market.

To prevent shopping cart theft, Kroger has installed wheel-locking mechanisms in some stores. These systems activate when a cart crosses a designated boundary, typically at the edge of the parking lot, causing the wheels to lock and immobilize the cart. This technology helps reduce cart loss and associated costs. 

The green and red dots on the shopping cart wheel hub are typically indicators for an electronic wheel-locking mechanism. These dots often denote the status of the cart's anti-theft system.

By incorporating and integrating the technology listed above – including digital marketing, process mining, and the latest mobile apps – you’ll be better positioned to optimize your e-commerce business.

Enhance your brand image, equip your staff, and launch your business with more efficiency and effectiveness with Oevae Marketing Consultants. Contact us today to find out more! +1 972-302-8284

Reference 

Smart Shopping Carts at Kroger

Kroger upgrades security measures on shopping carts

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Did your website just get hacked?

A relaxing day at the beach may be one person's definition of having fun. Unfortunately, this person may also be a hacker who's breached your website security while lounging at the beach – injecting scripts that redirect traffic to destinations where they usually get scammed or infected with malware. And more importantly, you don't even know it's going on until someone tells you.

No website security?

Not having website security is worse than being caught with your pants down. That's because you know when your pants are down, and the very moment you hear someone entering the room, you cover your goodies and smile as if nothing ever happened. But when your website has its pants down, you'll be clueless until someone sends you an email, text, or actually picks up the phone to call you and tells you about it. For a business owner, this can be a rather embarrassing experience.

"The most recent Microsoft breach occurred on March 20, 2022, when the hacker group Lapsus$ announced on Telegram that they had breached the company. Several Microsoft projects, including Bing and Cortana, were compromised in the incident."  

 – Fire Wall Times, Microsoft Data Breaches: Full Timeline Through 2022, March 23, 2022

In a nutshell, Hackers illegally access devices or websites to steal peoples' personal information, which they use to commit the crimes like identity theft. Many people shop, bank, and pay bills online. People also store financial information, like credit cards or bank account numbers, on their devices. This isn't probably one of your business' offerings, but it's happening more and more each day.  

Common types of cybersecurity attacks

If you used WIX, Squarespace, Weebly, or Webflow to build your website you are probably a fish out of water trying to identify the common types of cybersecurity attacks (SQL injections, DNS hijacking, Malware, Cross-site scripting).

Cybersecurity involves safeguarding your business' website against cyberattacks. One of the easiest ways to thwart attackers is using website security that offers continuous website monitoring to detect malware and any indicators of compromise.

Cyberattacks can be costly to fix

The cost of putting your website back in order after a cyberattack can run you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. By acting quickly, you can often prevent further damage to your website and hopefully thwart additional attempts.  A hacked website costs your business a pretty penny because you will have to pay the website developer for the time they spend identifying the type of attack, whether the remaining files that make up your website can still be used, and removing files the hackers leave behind to do their dirty work.

If you are lucky and your pages are still in cache, or available in the Wayback Machine (digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive), you will be able to recover your full content or at least take the text from the page.

Protect your visitors by keeping hackers at bay

Malware scans regularly check your website daily to look for any malicious code. Intuitive options allow you to set notification preferences for yourself. When malware, blocklisting, or security issues are detected on your website, you will be alerted immediately. Set up notifications, and you can avoid getting caught with your pants down.

Help ensure continuity and protect your business against adverse cyber events by using our comprehensive suite of security and resilience solutions. Exceptional threat management through a modern, cloud-native stack.

Oevae.com offers website security options that include:

• Denial-of-service (DDoS) protection
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) speed boost
• Denial-of-service attack
• A Firewall to prevent hackers
• SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) aka URL starting with "https://"
• Malware scanning.
• Unlimited site cleanups

The best brands create positive experiences

Your brand experience happens both live and online – for their audiences. But today's audiences have higher expectations. You also put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money into building your brand and creating a website experience that visitors will appreciate. Don't throw it all away at the fingertips of a hacker.  If you need more information, contact us at Oevae.com – we help you find website security solutions.

Related Content: Using Free Email Accounts for Business (Podcast: Morning Joe with Gibrón) 

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