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Digital Garage

Learning Digital Marketing and Web Analytics

https://digitalgarage-au.withgoogle.com/

Build your Web presence

Have a plan, think about where you want to start and where you want to go:

  • Scope of advertising - web, mobile, social;
  • Technology and content - create yourself or not;
  • Cost & time - set a realistic budget and an achievable schedule.

Find an approach to your Digital Store Front. This could be creating a social media profile (Facebook, Twitter, Gumtree), sign up for local listings on Google My Business or a website.

Brainstorm: What to you want to achieve? What's your goal? Which tracking tools should you set? Around conversions (turn visitors to clients), engagement (get visits from email marketing), acquisition (get new customers)?

Website 101

  • Get hosting space, you need a server to host your site;
  • Choose a good domain so people will find you easily:
  1. Preferably with the business name, check if the name's available to register;
  2. Have it short and relevant, get a nice extension;
  3. It's the <title> on HTML.
  • Design your home page and figure how to organise content, combine the business goals with what people want;
  • Use Content Management System - manage your site contents from here;
  • Include clever features like easy touch;
  • Get contacts visible, "call us!" with a click, easy to find address/ phone number;
  • Include maps, prices, special offers;
  • Explain how you meet the customer's needs with reviews, testimonials and what you can do to help;
  • Add images, a clickable logo that takes you to home page with a good layout and easy navigation (search box in the same place on every page);
  • Don't make people scroll too much for important content;
  • Encourage call to action - expressions like "apply" "buy now";
  • Responsive site, accessible on all devices, look and behave properly;
  • Use small size images with good names and alt tags on HTML, simplify design, swipe, good icons, always use the same background and efficient code;
  • Use Google Test My Site Tool and test all platforms.

Speak the language of customers so it's easier for the search engines to put them in front of people looking for your business. Post about your business, post tips, view search engine blogs to look for ways to improve, watch competitors, talk to customers, ask for reviews, see the trends in your industry.

Website content

  • Make sure you don't repeat content across the site, use related phrases but don't over repeat;
  • Create a good site map;
  • Add terms and tags to your images and headings;
  • Use meta info tags in <title>:
  1. Title: generate the first line on search engine;
  2. Meta info: describes in 1/2 sentences your business, tells what the page is about.

Email marketing - build customer loyalty

  • Goes well on mobile;
  • Set goals;
  • Get a list of people interested, a database with name and email and a subscriber list acting accordingly to the Australian Commercial and Media Authority norms;
  • Include subscription options and unsubscribe button;
  • Use a recognisable email address;
  • Emails should be about a single idea, consistent with the brand;
  • These emails should be brief, have a salutation, info about the product. You can use forms and targetted vouchers as well. Needs strong calls to action;
  • Make it entertaining and with useful content like tips and links, build a relationship;
  • Subject must be short and simple, make a good impression. Avoid words like "specials", "percent off, "free", "reminder" and characters such as "!" and "$ €";
  • Provide good landing pages to the links in the email;
  • Use A/B testing: have 2 versions of the same email and see which has higher open rate;
  • Analyse response and behaviour on site to see what's working best. Analytics will provide us with open rates, click-through rates, sales rates, not-trash rates.

Use email marketing services to know consumer behaviours and better target them with personalised content. Make sure it is mobile friendly and schedule it.

SEO - Search Engine Optimisation

The practice of making changes to web pages, content and the promotion of that content to improve visibility in the organic - unpaid - search engine results.

Good quality content helps your page show first. Make sure that you add content to the page that helps the engine show it to customers, like your location and what unique services are provided.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6227162?utm_source=digital-garage&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=promo - What you need to know about online marketing.


SEO plan:

  • Do keyword research, find what customers are looking for;
  • Search related topics to your business and see how many of these words bring your site to search;
  • Find any gaps, search ways to bring attention to your site;
  • Make a list of what might be good to improve your SEO;
  • Review your results regularly;
  • Set deadlines for each task.

Mobile SEO - apart from the same factors considered for standard websites, it is crucial to have good mobile performance and usability. Consider doing a mobile check-up of your site by visiting Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.

  • Performance is how quickly a site loads. This can be impacted by many things, such as overly large images and file sizes;
  • Usability - if your site has a good mobile user experience, it will be more likely to appear in mobile search results.

https://gtmetrix.com/ - Analyse your site's speed.

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/ - Google speedtest tools.

http://yslow.org/ - Tests your site's performance.

https://www.webpagetest.org/ - Another speedtest tool.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001177?hl=en&ref_topic=4631146 - Make your site mobile friendly.

https://www.dudamobile.com/mobile-website - Sites made mobile.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing

A form of paid advertising that allows you to bid for your advertisement to show along with the search results for keywords that people are typing in. This lets businesses be seen by people at the very moment they're searching for the things a business offers. 

You pay to be the first on a search made by someone who already needs you. To show up your ad has to have 2 components:

  • Bid - maximum amount an advertisement is charged for 1 click (maximum Cost Per Click or Max CPC, you can always change it);
  • Quality - no matter what the bid is, only sites matching relevant info for the search will show up.

You should consistently review your campaigns to sharpen its relevance.

An SEM bidding example

We have two businesses competing for the first place in search results over a given keyword, Sam's Pastries and Twikah's Cookies.

  • Sam defines that his Max CPC is 5$ and his relevance degree is 2/10.
  • Twikah sets her Max CPC on 2$ and her relevance is 8/10.

Who wins the higher place? Google multiplies Max CPC by site's relevance/quality so in the end, despite Sam having a higher Max CPC, Twikah reveals a more relevant result to the search and for this reason she gets a higher score of 2x8=16 versus Sam's 5x2=10 and wins. In short, high bidding is not enough if your site isn't relevant to the search.

What brings relevance to your site? The title and the short description. Define great keywords, a good title, headlines matching searches, get descriptions with discounts/ promos and calls to action by telling what the customer should do in your site (buy now, see our portfolio, apply today).

SEM structures

  • Check your site's copy;
  • Check your landing page;
  • Organise your campaign: define what types of products to sell, create ad groups for each type of product (each group has its keywords);
  • Search engines help you finding the most relevant keywords and suggests how to create ad groups;
  • Negative keywords prevent your ad from being shown to people looking for something unrelated (use it as - "word");
  • Match types - broadmatching, you don't have to add every variation of your keyword:
  1. Phrase match "between": shows only to phrases search;
  2. Exact match [between]: shows exactly to those words.
  3. Applying these will bring a decrease in traffic but its quality will increase. You'll see this by tracking conversions from visitors to the things you want them to do - transactions, form submissions, downloads. You should install conversion tracking code on the page for order confirmations, after the purchase or on the page confirming a form submission, in pages that will be generated only after the action you want is taken.


Google console

Find it on google.com/webmasters. Gives you feedback on your performance on Google search and suggests better titles and keywords. Tells you if there are search words that doesn't match your business. It also says if the site is accessible or not.

Keyword mastering

  • Frequency - use most often-searched words to get more traffic;
  • Competition - in small business try long trail keywords such as "organic local strawberries delivered in Brisbane" instead of just "strawberries". These have a low search volume, which means fewer competitions so it's more likely to be relevant to a user's queries;
  • Relevance - your words must match your real offers.

Search visibility

  • Encourage links to your website, backlinks with great content - content marketing;
  • Promote your site with social media, encourage to share;
  • Engage with the audience, get an interesting blog.

Improve your search campaigns

Make Adwords work. Set clear, quantitative, specific goals to every stage of the customer journey. Google Adwords helps you understand customer's behaviours online and shows what's not working.

Web analytics helps you improve your site to make sure that search engines are sending you to people who are really interested in your product and services.

  • See how traffic is trending over time;
  • Learn which keywords people are typing into Google before they reach your site - this lets you get a sense of what visitors are looking for and, with that, you can improve your site's contents;
  • Understand if visitors end up converting or not;
  • Take a look at the themes that are driving conversions on your goals, as well as visits;

Web analytics is also a great tool for SEO efforts, helping you measure how much traffic you're getting from each search engines and where you might be able to make adjustments.

Segmentation

Segmentation is the act of breaking down and understand the data you get from analytics in smaller chunks to help get more insights and improve website's performance.

Segmentation example

You see that only 3% of visitors convert to a booking. Use segmentation to break down visitors by different groups.

You can separate them geographically and see that Aussies are the ones who most book and Americans come in second. With this information, you can improve the site by including new content directed to Americans such as a list of places to visit nearby and a map with instructions to get to your place.

Another way of segmenting is by used device to make the booking. If mobile phone is the least used way of booking maybe you'll need to check if your site is responsive enough.

Get noticed locally

If your business model is about selling products and services to people who are in a specific location you have to keep in mind that nowadays people hunt for stuff from their laptops, tablets and phones. If they’re searching for something you offer, and they’re in your neighbourhood, it’s the perfect opportunity to get on their radar. In this case, make sure your website contains:

  • Location - address and even an interactive map to show the way;
  • Phone number, email;
  • Working hours;
  • Service area if it's limited.

Local directories are also a great way for local businesses to connect with potential customers in their area. Create a listing with your business name, address (many local directories only allow businesses with a physical location), phone number, working hours, website, serving areas and other relevant info.

There are lots of online directories to choose from and you should register on as many as possible, starting with the most popular ones, like Google My Business. You should then explore social media and industry-specific listings as well. You always want to keep your local listings consistent and up-to-date.

Advertise locally

You should use search engines, online directories, review sites and social networks to advertise, showing the ads only to people looking in certain locations. Facebook and LinkedIn offer business pages as well as paid advertising to target local customers. You can specify your ads with a really relevant, local message to those nearby.

Reaching locals on their mobiles

  • Make sure your site looks good on mobile devices and includes contact details;
  • Take advantage of mobile devices properties such as allowing websites and mobile apps to use GPS to detect their location and guide them to your shop;
  • A mobile app can complement your mobile website, helping you accomplish specific goals. An app could use GPS to send certain messages when people are within a certain distance from your shop. The app could allow customers to schedule appointments for repairs, find answers to common questions or even order accessories and set notifications. Find a professional app developer to work with or a self-service tool such as Appy Pie, Build Fire or Como;
  • In local search, your ad can go higher in the results because your shop is nearby.

Mobile advertising

You can advertise on search results, other websites, social networks or within apps. To get the most out of your ads, you’ll need a responsive website to which your ads will land on.

The ads can appear in text, image or video form, presenting a strong, concise message with a clear call to action.

  • Focus on shorter keywords and phrases mobile users might search (use Google's Keyword Planner or Bing's Keyword Research Tool which help you research a search term you're interested in and tell you what percentage of those searches come from mobile devices);
  • Display ads to target people who are browsing on mobiles (Google and Bing will allow you to specify certain ads as “mobile preferred");
  • Use customising ads that work well across a variety of screens (Google AdWords provide Google Ad Gallery which is a free tool to quickly create professional-looking display ads, in all shapes and sizes);
  • Target specific apps that are relevant to your business. Perhaps ones that provide reviews, how-to information, or DIY content so, when people are using those kinds of apps, your ads can appear;
  • Explore ad extensions that help people reach out to you like a call button or get directions to your shop's address (these features will automatically resize themselves to best fit any device);
  • Use something called a “bid adjustment” to bid a 10% lower price when your ads are appearing on mobile if you get poorer results on mobile devices, allowing you to spend your money wisely.

Social media basics

  • Share content - your followers can share your contents, creating awareness and potential new customers;
  • Build trust - when someone else gives you a good review, it carries more weight because you’re not promoting yourself - your customers are;
  • Understand customers - learn how people interact with your brand online;
  • Grow and nourish your networks - make friends (start with existing customers, put a sign in your shop that says “Follow us” or offer a 10% discount if people connect with you online) and find ways to keep people interested such as contests, special events, members-only offers, entertaining content, or even real meet-ups.

Find out how to reach your public: Facebook, Google +, Linkedin, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest, Gumtree, Zomato or other specific industry social network? Investigate and figure out which networks to participate in, how to use them, and how they’ll help you achieve your objectives. Then build a consistent profile across the platforms chosen, always adding details like your location and contact information.

  • Before signing up, check whether the network distinguishes between businesses and individuals to set the right one;
  • Remember the tone of voice you decided to use and the business goals you want to support. This will help you as you write the descriptions of your business.

Mobile Advertising on social media

  • Decide which social media networks to be present on and use their targeting features to help you get your ads in front of the right people;
  • Create eye-catching ads, short and simple messages optimised for viewing on small screens;

Video for mobile - these videos must be relevant, short and have a clear call-to-action style. When targeting the videos pay attention to location, which keywords to use and where to show your videos.

https://www.google.com/admob/ - Mobile app monetization in a smart way.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6167155?utm_source=digital-garage&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=promo - Connect with users, Google best practices.

A Social Media Plan

  • Create a formal plan for what you want to post, when to post it, where it makes sense to post, and even who at your business should be posting;
  • Consider the next 6 to 12 months, and start creating a calendar. Sketch out what topics should you to post about? What's your audience interested in? Which business goals are these posts meant to support?;
  • Block out a day in your calendar and write up all the things you'd like to post for the next six months. After this, find an app/program that shares them automatically, like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Everypost. Moreover, these tools let you listen to what people are saying back to you on social media.

Measuring success on social media

  • Take a look at built-in analytics on their social networks themselves. They can show you data regarding how many people you're connected with, which posts are being shared or interacted with the most, who your biggest fans are;
  • Social media management tools can compare your performance on all your networks and deliver this information in only one report;
  • Social media monitoring - these tools will scour all social networks looking for mentions of your brand, competitors or even certain themes being talked about. These can help you identify new social networks you might want to participate in, and let you join conversations about your business or your industry;
  • Google Analytics - tracks what's happening on your website like where do your visitors come from, which visitors buy from you, which visitors download your newsletter and so on.

Social media pitfalls

  • Stay true to yourself - don't pitch, people go online to share news, how-to tips and entertaining videos;
  • Reply to comments - they want to know that you're listening, have a plan to answering comments;
  • Focus on the sites that make sense - don't get overwhelmed with too many networks to manage so you'll keep all networks constantly fresh and updated;
  • Be consistent - follow up on complaints, give people the requested information, look at negative feedback as opportunities to show that you care about them;
  • Measure your results.

Display advertising

Display advertising are the ads we keep seeing all around the web in form of banners, text-form or videos. Businesses pay the ad space owners to get their ads seen by the right kinds of people. Make deals directly with the owners of a website or use networks that match businesses with lots of different websites that have ad space to sell.

Contextual targeting - placing ads on pages where your customers are viewing content related to your business.

Audience targeting - targeting people with specific interests while they are reading the news or visiting blogs - even if those websites are not related with your business.

Remarketing or retargeting - a great way to build engagement by showing ads to people who have visited your website, but haven’t yet made a purchase so your display advertising can remind them of you while they're checking the weather or watching videos.

Search vs Display advertising

SEM or Search Engine Marketing concerns paid ads that appear in results on search engines when someone makes a web search, your potential customer is looking for you already.

  • Your ad will only show up when people are searching;
  • These ads are made of text, usually showing the name of your business and a short description and you can click on it.

Display advertising are like billboards, the ads are everywhere for people to see, even if they haven't requested it and they're not looking for products or services you offer.

  • Your ads will show up on any website that’s offering advertising space, unlimitedly;
  • Ads get more creative with different sizes and formats, images, video, and more.

Components of Display Advertising

  • Use a display advertising network (like Google Display Network) - a system that lets you advertise on different websites to help you build and run your display campaigns, allowing you to decide where your ads will be shown and who will see them;
  • You bid for the spots you want throughout the websites in that network, deciding how much you want to pay. The ads that win the right to fill the ad spot are shown. Each network has its own rules, processes and bidding systems but the key is that they all match buyers and sellers to fill available ad spots;
  • Target your ads to show them globally or locally, specifically a certain website or category of websites (placement targeting), to people who speak certain languages to certain days or times or even combine multiple targeting options together;
  • There are banner ads in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and video ads that use the power of sight, sound and motion to really bring your message to life. They must deliver a call to action that tells people what to do after seeing your ad, such as “call us now”, “explore our range” or “get directions to our store”;
  • You'll be able to manage your campaigns. Run more than one kind of ad at a time and choose which target will see it and when to show it to them. Who you want to reach and what you want to tell them will not only keep your campaigns organised, it will also help you figure out the message, the tone, and the style your display advertising should take.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6223297?utm_source=digital-garage&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=promo - Create effective display ads.

Stages in Display Advertising

A way to figure out what to achieve with display advertising is to imagine the steps of the customer journey as a funnel, the widest part at the top being awareness.

  • Use display advertising as a way to reach a broad target audience - like targeting anyone interested in sport or outdoor activities in your local area;
  • When you want to catch someone's attention you might place an ad with a popular item that you sell, getting customers to notice you;
  • Shape people's opinions of you and make sure that they remember you in the future when they want what you're selling. Create campaigns that use messaging to reinforce your competitive advantages and really highlight the benefits of what you offer;
  • Focus on people who are already considering what you offer. Here, you might narrow your targeting ads to people who've previously visited your site, and really refine your message for them, highlighting what exactly makes your product or service so great. With remarketing campaigns, you can define these “shopping cart abandoners” as your target audience.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6178664?utm_source=digital-garage&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=promo - Remarketing's Google best practices.

How Remarketing works

Remarketing tracks what people do on your website and creates an audience based on their actions, letting advertisers design specific ads for people who have - or haven't - done specific things.

  • Define your target audience, like people who added products to their shopping cart but did't buy anything;
  • You might need you to add some code to your site or integrate it into your web analytics tool, so it can start collecting a list of users from your website who match the criteria. This will culminate in an anonymous list of users, called a remarketing list.
  • Create specific ads for these lists. These ads are pretty focused, so you might include things like first-time-buyer discounts, free gift wrapping or some other incentive that's aimed at getting them to come back and finish making their purchase;
  • Once they've bought an item, these customers should integrate a new remarketing list so you can target them with a different ad, convincing them to come back for other products that complement what they’ve bought already.

International marketing

First, learn about the target market in each area you're considering and find out how to reach them.

Cross-border SEO - There are 3 main aspects to consider:

  • Language - add more languages to your website, each with its URL, meaning a different page for each different language. Get a lang tag on html;
  • Location - choose where to be physically present in other countries and display that information on your site;
  • Country targeting - make a well-informed decision regarding the countries which you'll expand to based on your target and segmentation data.

You can research where your product will be better received by looking at digital advertising, search traffic, competition, pricing, trend reports, geographic data in your web analytics, and other marketing insight tools.

  • Google Global Market Finder - this free tool allows you to quickly analyse search traffic on keywords that are important to your business;
  • Analytics - use Google Analytics or any of the other common analytics tools to check if people in other markets are already showing interest in your business, like trying to buy on your site;
  • Google Keyword Planner - find out how much competition there is for search ads. This will help you know whether you're entering a market with few competitors or already a crowded space.

You might need to translate and localise your website's content. Find a native speaker to help you confirm that the content has the right local tone. Also, clients from different cultures and languages will need to communicate with you, so develop a plan to support overseas customer service needs.

Think about the infrastructure and systems you'll need to properly support your expansion into international markets. Don't forget about packaging considerations for fragile components, GST and any legal or regulatory issues.

Review your e-commerce and payment solutions. You'll have to customise payment options and other settings.

Map out what's required to ship and deliver your orders abroad and how to build a refund system.

Translation vs Localisation

Translation is the process of changing your content from one language to another. When customers in new markets find your website, you want them to understand what it says.

Localisation is the process that makes locals feel like you “speak their language”. Be sure that your translated website reflects that region's units of measure, currency, and addresses. You might want to change the website navigation and some specific cultural references to make the website feel local to the customers you’re marketing to.

There are many companies and freelancers who specialise in exactly this types of work. It’s worth the effort to have a native speaker review the work.

Cross-border Advertising

SEM - adapt your keywords and ads for other markets. Your ads must point people to a landing page that's written in the local language.

  • Search which keywords are popular in your new market with Google Keyword Planner to get useful information such as how much they might cost and how many competitors you're likely to face.

Display advertising - choose to advertise on websites that your audience are visiting online as a reference in your product market.

  • Check Google Display Planner to get detailed info about where your audience is spending time online.

Social Media networks - learn the favourite networks on your new market, find out if there are networks unique to its country.

Use remarketing to show ads to people who are interested in your business and encourage them to come back to your site. Email marketing is a great way to keep in touch with interested customers over the long term.

Exporting concerns

  • Check how your website performs in the countries where you expand to, looking for problems with poor internet connection;
  • Analyse your supply chain to make sure you can deliver your products to the places where you want to sell. This may include sourcing local suppliers, factoring in shipping supplies to determine the most efficient way of getting the product to the customer;
  • International deliveries - they need to be shipped accordingly to the promised delivery dates. Shipping across borders may involve extra costs, special packaging and special labelling. Also, find a reliable shipping partner with good access to your new market and the ability to collect and pay import/ customs taxes on your behalf. Define exchanges and refunds processes;
  • Review all taxes, laws, restrictions and other regulations affecting businesses in these new markets. Some countries have agreements that may impact tax collection, and additional customs or tariffs. Others require that you register with proper authorities in order to sell there. Government agencies may provide these kinds of information;
  • Remember to provide customer support to the new markets via email and contact forms on your website. Specially post-sales are a crucial period to cultivate this one-time customer into a loyal, repeat buyer;
  • Countries have different preferred payment methods. You may include online payment services like Paypal and Worldpay, credit cards and debit cards;
  • Find an e-commerce system that adapts for different currencies and taxes, so it's easier for new customers to buy from with no issues.

Marketing & Video


You can produce and share your own videos in your networks, your website or simply buy ad space in other people's videos. You could display a text ad at the bottom of the video, or run a short commercial at the start.

The first step is to define your target audience and identify the types of content they will be most likely to view. Start by looking for video channels featuring content that matches the interests of your viewers. Once you have some ideas of your audience’s interests, you can use Google AdWords to choose the category of people you want to reach on YouTube. When your target audience is watching videos, your ad will then appear next to the video, or even within the video itself, depending on the type of ad you choose.

You don't need videos of your own to advertise on these sites, use images and text ads instead. Google Ad Gallery will help you create professional-looking banner ads.

Be sure to use accurate titles, relevant keywords, and detailed descriptions of each video's content helping viewers know what to expect as well as helping your videos appear in search results on Google and YouTube.

Include calls to action in the video description like visiting your website, subscribing to your newsletter or writing a comment.

Keep your content fresh by uploading new videos frequently and remove outdated videos. Show previews to other videos, encouraging people to know more about you and staying longer on your site.

Sharing video through email marketing and social media is another effective way to engage and grow your audience. Adding hashtags to your posts can improve your visibility on certain social sites.

Video planning

  1. Plan the video release schedule;
  2. Storyboard the video content - Storyboards are visual plans of your story—showing what will happen scene-by-scene, including action and dialogue;
  3. Decide on a location and source props;
  4. Find a video crew and film the videos;
  5. Edit then upload the videos.


Making a video

  • Any high-def camera will do, whether your mobile or an inexpensive digital camera, as long as you keep it steady with a tripod or other stabiliser;
  • Consider using an external microphone for high-quality audio;
  • Make sure the room is well lit;
  • When it comes time to edit your footage, you can find online tutorials to guide you.
  • A variety of video editing tools—such as YouTube Video Editor—can help you edit and combine videos, build smooth transitions, and even add music. Little tweaks in the editing process will give your videos a more professional feel.

Video performance

Find out your viewers' age, gender, location and which videos are most seen.

If you have videos posted in different places (website, Facebook page, YouTube channel) analytics on each site will show you where people are watching your videos the most. Post more on the network/ site you get higher views.

You can also see what day and time people are most likely to watch your videos. Upload fresh content on days people watch more videos.

See if people watch your videos from start to finish. The length of your video may depend on the content. In most cases, the shorter the better. If people only watch the first few seconds of a video, it might not be meeting their expectations. Consider updating your preview images, video titles or descriptions so that people have a better idea of what they're about to watch. Look also at the average length of video viewed. If most people spend only a minute watching your demos, try making videos with 60 seconds or less.

Other common indicators of your videos’ performance are likes & dislikes and shares. Keep an eye on the reactions your videos receive through comments on social media.

E-commerce - selling online!

When setting up an online version of your store, make sure you include lots of photos, detailed descriptions, customer reviews, and even videos of the products. Many customers now expect to be able to see your range and prices online. They often use this to decide if it's worth visiting your store or not.

Add services like eWay or PayPal to your website that make online payment easy. In many cases, your customer doesn't even need to set up an account and can pay by credit card or direct debit.

If you're starting to sell online from scratch, try an “off-the-shelf” service that includes e-commerce, like Squarespace or Wordpress. These accept payments and offer templates so you can easily add product pages to your website.

If you're after a more bespoke solution, you might decide on a customised e-commerce service like Magento or Shopify, with features like product search, inventory management, checkout, customer accounts, order management and more.

Look into other online marketplaces. If you want to sell through sites like Amazon and eBay, make sure that they support your multi-channel selling.

Handling online shops

Easy way:

  • eWay or Paypal - These solutions take care of things like fraud detection, secure funds transfer and safe handling of credit card information on your behalf. After transactions occur, you receive all the information needed to fulfil customers orders. There are a number of ways to implement it whether that's with traditional pop-up payment windows or fully customised plug-ins for your site. Either way using a third party payment solution means you can just focus on your business, while someone else takes care of the complex electronic transactions.

Complex way:

  • When you have lots of products to sell online to a broad audience, it's probably time to consider a full e-commerce solution. There are many on the market— such as Shopify, Volusion or Magento. One thing many of them have in common is the ability to create and manage a fully functional online store. A fully functional online store has a big benefit: a backend system with order management, allowing your customers to create accounts and manage their personal information, billing preferences and shipping addresses. You can offer them voucher codes, integrate multiple payment options, and even customise the checkout process. Another benefit is that rather than program all of this yourself, you can use these e-commerce services to upload and manage product and inventory details, create and organise categories of product pages, and offer advanced product search. At the same time, many solutions manage orders, track shipping and fulfilment details, and integrate with your financial and accounting systems.

Optimising the e-commerce service

Conversion requires a consistent experience across devices, smart site organisation, and smooth checkout using customer accounts.

  • Ensure that the purchasing process works smoothly on all the different devices that your customers might use. Look at your analytics, if people don't complete purchases on certain devices, that may show it's difficult for them to do so;
  • Navigation must be easy for customers to understand and use. Typically, you'll use categories and subcategories to organise your inventory in any number of ways. To achieve the most effective way of displaying your products you can conduct formal testing to see how visitors react to different arrangements, or you could simply survey your friends, family and some trusted clients to see what they prefer. It's also very important to include a search function on your website;
  • If people visit your website but don't add any products to your cart, maybe they're not sure if it's a good buy. You might add videos of the products, or a gallery of photos from various angles to help customers get a better look at products with detailed descriptions and measurements. Make sure those photos are professional quality and load quickly;
  • Customers may shop on your site, put products in the cart but then don't finish their purchase. Encouraging customers to create an account can streamline the process so this happens less frequently in the future;
  • As a customer completes an online purchase, you can allow them to store their shipping and billing information and payment preferences in an account on your site. This will make future purchases that much easier. You can also use a customer's past purchases, recent searches, or recently viewed products to recommend specific items that might interest them.

Product promotion and merchandising

There are great ways to make sure your customers see and interact with relevant products on your site. You can create a virtual display as they enter your site. Or use data to suggest what they might buy next.

You can promote certain products on your homepage and this could be due to help shift old inventory or feature a best-selling item you want more customers to see.

Showcasing products or running online advertising campaigns with dedicated landing pages based on certain calendar events is called product merchandising.

Customers online walk into your store and see displayed products magically sorted based on your interests. And as they browse, all the promotions you find are customised to what they had previously looked at.

Remarketing for e-commerce

Remarketing can be a great way to re-engage visitors. E-commerce websites can track shoppers behaviours and respond with dynamic advertising.

The way a shopper behaves on an e-commerce site tells the shop owner about which products they're interested in. Remarketing code tracks which products on that page a shopper is interested in. There are a number of remarketing options out there which allows you to collect information and target audiences with customised ads based on that information. Services like Google AdWords and Criteo do this for you and, as an advertiser, you can go to your remarketing service and set up rules and parameters. So, when a person browsing your site meets those parameters, the service will then start targeting them with advertisements over one or more of the Internet advertising networks.

Guidelines:

  • You don't always have to offer a discount right away;
  • It's good to know when to stop showing these ads. The visitor may have changed his mind about buying. Most remarketing solutions allow you to set limits and experiment with just how many times you'll show the same ad to the same person, and for how long;
  • Measure and optimise the performance of your remarketing campaigns over time. This means tracking conversion rates, testing new types of ads, tweaking your parameters, and using analytics to manage these campaigns.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6178664?utm_source=digital-garage&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=promo - Remarketing Best Practices.