SME e-commerce website cannot avoid digital marketing now: blogging, email, PPC and - especially - social media marketing. However, it is complicated and can be difficult to get a coherent picture of how effective such marketing can be together. Getting an idea of effectiveness and ROI is difficult. Nobody wants to be back in the 'only half my marketing is effective. I wish I knew which half' position that was common years ago.
Marketing Automation Software is the way to go
There are many strong reasons to use Marketing Automation software and experts in inbound marketing for e-commerce will be able to deliver much better results because:
- they understand what works
- nothing is 'lost'
- previously difficult to value activity is controlled
Establishing the value of social media
It is no longer sufficient to know which channels bring in most leads but you need to be able to compare the efficiency of each channel too (although it is extremely important to have a good flow of leads). You will also need to know who you are influencing - as well as driving leads, you might be driving certain key influencers who are making a significant impact. Understanding and expanding that will significantly help with success and driving revenue. Another important element is knowing what type of content works best (in terms of type, format and positioning). You will then be able to increase the volume of posts which work more and reduce the volume of posts that don't work.
Using 'campaigns' to collate actvitiy
Marketing Automation Software (such as HubSpot) have functionality called Campaigns. It allows all sorts of marketing activity to be grouped together to allow activity over time to be collected together and reported on quickly and easily.
This is a very useful function for e-commerce marketing because it allows demand-generation activity to be linked to financial results in the future (although this does depend on the marketing automation software and ERP software to be integrated).
Campaigns are also very understandable by the remainder of the business. Finance Directors and Managing Directors will be able to understand and appreciate discrete packets of activity like this and - with an excel download - you will be able to deliver a comprehensive picture of activity and performance.
CRM is needed to track visitors
Every visitor to your site needs to be identified - even if that is just collecting their email address eventually - so that their behaviour can be tracked and measured. Cookies will show how the visitor / prospect / customer has behaved on the site over time. You will be able to model this and build groups with common behaviour which would then allow you to build future marketing programmes.
Closed loop marketing
By using an integrated CRM and marketing automation system you are able to undertake closed-loop marketing. This is where you are able to report on activity from cradle to grave. You will also be able to pass Marketing Qualified Leads into the sales funnel so no leads are ever lost.
An additional benefit of closed-loop is that sales allocation rules can be put in place which are followed automatically. There can also be nurturing campaigns and lead scoring. An additionally element here is the allocation of sales leads is important, especially when these leads are being passed to third parties (your indirect sales channel)
In addition to this, information on which pages within your site which are most influential will also be identified. This is very important because all companies need to know what parts of their website work best.
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ITQ Solution - as a HubSpot partner UK - can help with content marketing UK.