Essential E-commerce Principles for Small Businesses to Build a Winning Strategy

Modern technologies provide excellent opportunities for many areas of activity. This applies not only to social networks, logistics, or communication between people but also to businessmen. Because now small businesses can compete on equal terms with large companies. Of course, only if you know which direction to go.

Yes, there are endless ways to promote and grow your newly launched online store. But for most owners, trying to use all the methods at once is the wrong way to stimulate growth. Not only will the effort you make will take up all your free time, but you will most likely get poor results on the way out. After all, it's hard to do something really good when you're out of focus.

There is too much information, and not every piece of advice that you come across on the Internet is useful. You need to be able to find useful knowledge and put it into practice. One of the best options is to talk to experts who are already successful. "If you want to give me advice, show me what you have achieved." We spoke with Natalya Bucuy, content marketer at LiveHelpNow. Natalia told us about the important aspects of small business promotion and the factors affecting the growth of your popularity.

Positioning and Branding

Through positioning, you can communicate the main benefits of your brand and create positive associations with your product. If you want to strengthen your position in the market, then understand what needs your product satisfies and what benefits it brings to the customer. The answers to these questions will help shape your communication strategy with potential buyers and highlight your brand's personality.

Analytics

With the help of analytics systems, you can find out the number of visitors who place an order, the cost of attracting a new client, the profit that the company receives from each client during the cooperation, and much more. By analyzing the user journey on the site, you will begin to better understand the behavior of your target audience and the main customer problems on the way to make a purchase.

Another trend in Ecommerce 2020 is Conversion Rate Optimization analytics. Often a business is faced with the problem of low website conversion and does not know which Internet marketing channels are worth investing more in, and which do not bring results. CRO is a process system that aims to increase conversion. These processes include examining user behavior on the site, actions, and reasons for abandoning a purchase. All this data will help to effectively define business tasks and plan the development of an online store.

Retention Marketing

Retention marketing is a set of actions aimed at increasing user loyalty. The main retention tools you can start using right now are Email Marketing, CRM, Loyalty Programs, Chatbots, and SMM.

Personalized emails increase customer loyalty, and understanding the audience helps to develop your own “tone of voice” communication with customers. Maintain trust and brand love by building friendly email communications.

CRM systems help to store all customer data in a single database. Analysis of this data helps to improve service, reduce customer churn, and get a complete picture of customer interaction.

Chatbots help businesses promote their brand, build loyalty, and collect the data they need from customers. On the other hand, for customers, having chatbots increases the convenience, since they get the information they need faster and perform simple actions right in the application. SMM is a great product promotion tool that allows you to retain interest and remind existing customers of yourself through promotional publications.

Well-designed loyalty programs make you want to work with the brand over and over again. Encourage customers to buy and share information about your online store. A positive experience and a sense of satisfaction with the service always bring additional sales.

Make Blog and Share News

Attention to social media is one of the most powerful tools available to every user. Proper promotion on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms can attract the attention you need. We recommend publishing not just standard stories or other commonplace information. Concentrate on those things and aspects that could be potentially interesting to your buyer. A great step is video tutorials, expert advice, etc. The essence of this approach is that by offering free content now (only getting a name and email address), you can use effective email newsletters in the future. Email marketing will become even more relevant in 2021. The ROI of this tool is growing every year.

Quality Customer Support

This is a very important aspect that allows you to gain customer loyalty as well as their trust. There is nothing better than the recommendations of real buyers. After all, they will tell their relatives and friends about your store. Yes, support services and communication systems have been around for a very long time. But in 2021, their importance has become critical. Connecting with customers instantly to answer any questions or address any issues they have might make a difference between a successful sale and an abandoned cart and the sale lost to a competitor.

Round-the-Clock omnichannel customer support can help companies reach out to the customer from the other side of the screen. Greeting, assisting, and accommodating website visitors in real-time can support proactive lead generation tactics that result in successful conversions. Mobile compatibility is also important. Most customers are using their phones to shop. Meeting them where they are with SMS capabilities and mobile-friendly live chats can help support customers in ways competition does not, giving customers an incentive to stick around. Finally, a communication system that allows for personalization can make each customer like he or she is the only customer the company cares about. Detailed analytics and customer history of an efficient communication system can provide all the information needed to get to know each customer and never treat anyone like a number.

Conclusion

Effective e-commerce promotion is possible only if you use all available tools and work as efficiently as possible. Do not forget that your profile, as well as the link-in-bio on social networks, must be configured correctly. In this case, UniLink is a great option to help you reach your full potential, achieve success, and win the competition for your customer.