You have just set up your brick-and-mortar store and are wondering how to take it to the next level. Or your physical store has been around for years and of late sales have plateaued. In either case, you’re probably wondering if an e-commerce website is an answer. The Indian e-commerce industry grew at a whopping CAGR(Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 53% between 2013 to 2017. It’s obvious that more and more Indians are preferring to shop online, whether it’s for mobile phones, clothes, or groceries. So it’s but natural for you to consider setting up a website for your own store. At the same time, there are millions of e-commerce websites out there. How do you make sure your website doesn’t just get lost in the crowd? Plus, you may think websites take a lot of work to set up from scratch and market. So is it even worth all the effort? In this guide, we will discuss why it’s a good idea to launch an e-commerce website for your physical store and what’s the easiest way to go about doing it. Why your physical store needs an online website? If you’re on the fence about launching your e-commerce website, here are some compelling reasons to help you make up your mind. A major chunk of potential customers is shopping online The number of online shoppers in India will surpass 120 million in 2018, and this number will continue to increase exponentially. So chances are that many potential customers are already looking online for the products available at your store. Plus, if you sell high-quality, specialty products, chances are you will find customers in other cities and towns as well. You may be missing out on a huge customer base by ignoring them. Skills gained from running a brick-and-mortar store can be transferred to running an online store The fact is that it’s a lot easier to set up an online front for your physical store than it is to set up an e-commerce website from scratch. You already have so many of the skills you need; from an in-depth understanding of your customers to inventory management. Local customers will prefer an omnichannel shopping experience Most experts believe that the future of retail lies in an omnichannel (online+offline) shopping experience. As a physical store with an online presence, you are perfectly poised to take advantage of this. For instance, you can provide a few hours delivery option for customers who live nearby but prefer shopping online. You can also have a “pick up in store” service for locals who order online and then stop by to pick up their order. You can also benefit from cross-promotion; attractive deals advertised on your website for customers who come to your store and vice-versa. How to launch an e-commerce website for your brick and mortar store Once you’ve decided to launch an online store, it’s important not to get overwhelmed by all the information that’s out there. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way with your own e-commerce website. Step 1: Choose an e-commerce platform The first step is to find the right e-commerce platform. You can choose between two kinds of platforms. The first is a commercial e-commerce website builder that makes it very easy for you to set up your website. Shopify is the best example of this. While this kind of website is simple to set up and operate, it may not be highly customizable or scalable. If you need a more customizable and scalable option, you can go for a self-hosted, open-source website. WordPress and Magento are great examples. While these websites are more scalable, they also require more time and technical skills to set up from scratch. Step 2: Choose your domain name Choosing the right domain name is very important because this domain name will be your store’s identity for a long time. Find something that is SEO-friendly, catchy, and has high recall value. Of course, if you already have a brand name for your physical store that meets these criteria, then stick to it. Step 3: Integrate payment options With platforms like Shopify, payment methods are already integrated into the website. With a self-hosted platform, you get to choose the payment methods. You can integrate Razorpay, Instamojo, PayTM or any other payment processing company. They usually have a host of payment options, from credit and debit cards to UPI and online wallets. Step 4: Decide how to phase out the launch Both Amazon and Flipkart began their online journey by selling just one category of items- books. Of course, things have evolved a lot since then but it still makes sense to keep your focus as narrow as possible, to begin with. Figure out which items in your store will be best suited for your online store; both from the demand side as well as from a supply chain point of view. Step 5: Get your delivery sorted Make sure you’re able to get a courier company that doesn’t charge exorbitantly for delivering the products. Customers are likely to be disappointed if they see a huge delivery charge while checking out. It’s a good idea to keep a flat delivery fee for each item, and then offer discounts to customers whose order value is above a certain threshold. Step 6: Set up an online marketing strategy The key ingredient of any successful website launch is its marketing. From content marketing and search engine optimization to social media strategy, you need to have it figured out. If it’s difficult to manage your online marketing on your own, consider outsourcing it to an agency that knows what they’re doing. Conclusion With all the tools and platforms at your disposal, launching an online front for your physical store has never been easier. The future of retail lies in an omnichannel experience that combines the convenience of online shopping with the experience of offline retail.
Month: March 2019
How to write great social media posts
Social media advertising has gained in stature as one of the most potent mediums to promote, engage and register conversions among the target audience – a testimony to the fact that they have been the sole cause for creating celebrities from scratch, business empires and unique corporate models for some time now. Clearly, this cannot be possible merely by putting together a string of catchy words and phrases but requires proven expertise in crafting powerful copy backed by research into the target’s online presence and preferences. First, let’s get into some general directives on how to achieve great social media posts. Copy Matters Be Compelling There are ways you can cut the clutter of the thousands of posts that are jamming your customer’s feed. One of these is, of course, answering the all-important question “What’s in it for me?” Describe a benefit: “Get more client referrals with..” Display an excerpt: “9 out of 10 people would use their realtor again, if only… Don’t use weak words These are words that sound like a mouthful, take up precious space and don’t mean anything substantial, such as, “maybe” or “hopefully” or “try.” Go for more assertive one like “guarantee” or “expect.” Understand post lengths Sticking to optimal post lengths and shorter will obviously lead to more reach and consequently more conversions. Keep it short Pressed for time and overwhelmed with the post length restrictions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more? The trick is always, always to keep it short. Image Copy Metrics Mechanics-wise, the one key takeaway to remember here is this: Facebook ads and boosted posts place a 20% image text overlay restriction. This means if more than 20% of your image is covered in the text, your post will receive reduced reach. That’s bad news if your goal is to cut through the static in your fan’s feeds. Oversell is overkill Nobody is here for your sales pitch. Ditch the sales, promotional chatter and go for an authentic and ‘real’ person to person talk, one that feels like you are addressing real-life pain points and not pushing your product down somebody’s throat. Write for your audience, choose your voice: Your voice is your brand personality. Ask: What do you sound like on social media? Spend time scanning your follower’s profiles: for the kinds of things they say, do and comment on Read the same websites/publications your audience does: to understand their taste Understand their language and verbiage: from commonly used terms and phrases Use Relevant Emojis Relevantly used, emojis are sometimes more effective than a plain copy! Plan ahead When it’s digital media, every day is crunch time. It may pay to follow some measures to plan ahead and save on quality of posts. Be ready with a Social Media Calendar: The best way to keep your posts organized is to have a social media calendar ready. The benefits include visibility of your social posts to your entire team and the bandwidth to plan your posts ahead of time as also to judge the best time of the week/month to post. Plan Campaigns: This is much better than writing last-minute one-off campaigns without much thought. Think about switching to cohesive campaigns – campaigns with consistent hashtag messaging, a series campaign promoting a single piece of content and the like. And now, a brief rundown on the dos and don’t for crafting perfect posts for popular social media channels: Facebook Post lengths vary, about 80 words maybe hitting the sweet spot. The medium is big for visual and video content and yields well to engagement using questions and contest posts. Cleverly used hashtags helps you join a larger discussion. Twitter Notorious for its character restrictions, keep your tweets to 250-260 characters in length allowing you to add your twitter handle at the end and other information such as blog link. Instagram While visuals are the name of the game here, writing the perfect caption and description can be tricky, especially since it gives you a long hand. Break up your descriptor, get innovative with emojis and you can even use them in hashtags! Linkedin A platform for blog length professional posts, great for sharing company related information like new ideas, insider experiences, and event updates. Stay professional, avoid rants and salesy language. In sum, crafting the perfect social media post is fast becoming the El Dorado of advertising writers all over the world. As is apparent, customers are increasingly going digital and making informed buying decisions based on online advertising exposure. So get ready for writing those lines of winning a copy. It’s social or so long!
Why All Business Owners Should Consider Podcasting
Podcasts started in 2004 as a very niche form of content that only some techies were hooked to. In the last 15 years, that has changed dramatically. In 2013, Apple announced that over 1 billion people subscribed to its podcasts. Today, Apple has more than 525,000 active podcasts and over 18.5 million episodes. Podcasts by Pat Flynn, Srinivas Rao, Michael Stelzner, and others have already become huge hits, drawing in millions of listeners. Yet, podcasts are still fairly unknown as a marketing technique. Business owners invest a lot of money into social media, blogs, and SEO. Few, however, give serious thought to starting or participating in a podcast as a way of enhancing their brand equity. Here are some good reasons why every business owner in today’s day and age should consider podcasting. Podcasts have fantastic engagement rates When it comes to content consumption, attention spans have shortened drastically. People are unwilling to devote a lot of time to content that demands energy and attention. Yet, podcasts seem to be bucking this trend in a big way. In fact, 80% of podcast listeners finish or almost finish an episode they’re listening to. Here are some reasons why podcasts drive such high rates of engagement. The podcast audience actually goes out of their way to find podcasts that are relevant to them. If someone tunes into your podcast, chances are they’ve actively sought you out. Smartphone use has increased exponentially in the past 5-6 years. Smartphones mean it is now much easier to listen to podcasts on the go. Unlike blogs and videos, podcasts don’t demand your undivided attention. In fact, a lot of people listen to podcasts while engaged in otherwise mundane activities like driving, working out or cleaning. This makes it much likelier that they will finish your podcast while they’re doing this other time-consuming activity. Image Source With such fantastic engagement rates, a podcast literally gives you a captive audience. You can express your brand voice through your podcast and get loyal and passionate followers. Podcasts are a great way to build qualified leads In businesses where you need to educate a customer before you can close a sale, podcasts are a great strategy. This is especially true in areas like insurance, personal finance, legal services or B2B products. Podcasts will not be the tool that drives the maximum number of leads to your door. However, people who follow your podcast are much more likely to be aware of what you represent. Since you provide them with a wealth of information and insight, you are now adding value to their lives. When they do finally come to you, they will convert much quicker and will also tend to come back. In businesses where customer churn is a problem and CLTV (Customer Life Time Value) is high, this can be priceless. It’s not an overcrowded space While blogs, social media, and search engine marketing are all important, they are also quite saturated. Of course, content marketing is what helps you build organic traffic for your website in the long run. However, the form your content takes is becoming equally important. While you can’t ignore blog posts, there are over four million blog posts written every single day. This means even exceptional content can get lost in this crowd. Podcasts, on the other hand, are still relatively virgin territory. This is especially true in India. While it is relatively easy to start a podcast, there are still very few people doing it. And even fewer entrepreneurs who are podcasting with a long-term view of growing their company’s brand equity. If you integrate podcasts into your content marketing strategy, you already have an edge over your competition. Moreover, podcasts are likely to explode in popularity in the coming years. This is the time to get that first-mover’s advantage. Better yet, you can actually transcribe your podcast episode and repurpose it as a blog post. This will make sure your blog also benefits from the content created during your podcast episodes. It is easy and inexpensive to set up and manage When it comes to starting a podcast, all you need is a mic and a hosting. A fairly good mic can cost you as little as Rs 5000 and hosting cost is $20 a month. So, you can actually experiment with podcasting without making a huge dent in your marketing budget. The other question is whether the podcast takes more time and energy than it should. The fact of the matter is that running a podcast does involve a lot of work. From hosting the podcast, and finding guests, to publishing, editing, transcriptions, promotion, and show notes. However, you can outsource everything else and just focus on actually hosting the show. Podcasting can even be a source of revenue If your podcast takes off, it may even help you generate additional income. A whopping $220 million was spent on advertising within podcasts in 2017 in the United States. Significantly, a study found that 65% of podcast listeners would be willing to buy products advertised in the podcast. This means there is huge scope for growth when it comes to podcast advertising. This is especially true in economies like India and China where podcasts are still fairly nascent. So on the one hand, your podcast can help you generate qualified leads by building a loyal following. On the other, it can actually help you find sponsorships from brands that want to get noticed by an audience like yours. The podcast can soon pay for itself and then some. Conclusion To be honest, this is the best time to consider integrating podcasting in your overall marketing strategy. Podcasting is still relatively new and is yet to see explosive growth. Best of all, podcasting is fun! It is a great opportunity to meet interesting and well-informed guests and share insights about what you know well. If you aren’t ready to start your own podcast yet, start going
Why Great Brand Stories Need Videos
Videos are fast becoming the go-to medium for brands to connect with customers. With the digital age, videos have become so much more than the traditional 15/ 30-second advertising that dominated television. With the adoption of high-speed internet and social media taking to videos in a big way, videos are more accessible than ever before. Consumer tastes are consistently showing a preference towards videos vis-a-vis static content. In fact, according to a 2014 Levels Beyond survey, 40% consumers said they would rather watch a video of a brand than read the same information. This means that more and more brands are understanding that videos are no longer an option when it comes to effective marketing. In fact, video ad spend is set to reach $20 billion by 2020. Here’s why most brands need videos to tell great brand stories. Videos viewing rates are increasing The average time that consumers spent viewing videos in 2017 went up by a whopping 19% compared to 2016. Video completion rates (videos watched all the way through) reached a phenomenal 69% in 2017. Videos also have the highest CTR (Click Through Rate) of all digital ad formats. Finally, mobile viewing of videos is at an all-time high and in 2018 people will globally watch 25% more video on mobile devices. This means that videos are not just here to stay but are on a phenomenal growth path. That’s an opportunity no brand wants to miss out on. Social media loves videos View this post on Instagram Hi, this is RVR. Drive it, program it, hack it, and back it, because our latest and greatest robot is now on @Kickstarter. Link in Bio. A post shared by Sphero (@sphero) on Feb 19, 2019 at 4:18am PST According to a recent Facebook study, people spend 5 times longer watching video content than reading static content. Instagram and Snapchat are also seeing video take over as the most popular medium. Whether it’s Instagram poster children Inspirato and Sphero or bigger companies like Nike and Jimmy Choo, more and more brands are now creating inspirational video content that is getting them a lot of love from customers. Of course, as social media gets flooded with more and more videos, brands are making shorter ads. Facebook recommends that brand videos should be 15 seconds or shorter while Snapchat limits videos to 10 seconds. The advantage of shorter videos on social media is that A/B testing can be done more easily as it’s easier to produce 4 variants of a 10-second video than a 30-second one. Videos tug at the heartstrings The combination of great visuals and music that videos offer provides users with a great experience. Videos are more effective than any other content medium to make viewers emotional. When it comes to great brand stories, users will connect with and grow to love brands when they have a compelling narrative. And videos are the best way to put a great narrative out there. Barbie’s rebranding video is a great example. Videos allow you to use audience signals and customize content Today, it’s not enough to just create a compelling brand story based on general cultural insights and demographic assumptions. Nowadays, there are many audience signals from views to searches to clicks to shares to searches, and great brand stories come from paying heed to those signals. Luckily, advanced analytics on Youtube and other tools allow brands to understand their customers better and create customized videos. This makes for effective and personalized storytelling. For example, Frito Lay worked closely with Youtube to identify the major interest categories for their users; from gaming to 90s fashion, and used these insights to create different creatives to cater to different interests. For example, a user would see a gaming-related Lays ad before they watched a gaming video. Videos now allow you to build a story, not just tell it With the different channels through which to tell your brand story, videos are now in different sizes and formats. Moreover, you can use digital media to actually build on your story through multiple videos, based on who’s seen the previous ones, instead of telling your entire story in one go. Here are all the different ways in which videos can cater to different audiences and different attention spans. Traditional ads: Online or television commercials Promo videos: Viral videos, interviews, testimonials, product reviews, case studies. Explainer videos: Introductions, processes, tutorials, services, and overviews. Culture marketing videos: Content to showcase the brand, people, or causes. Social videos: Content to engage followers on social—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. In 2018, videos accounted for as much as 64% of all consumer internet traffic. In 2019, this number is estimated to go up to 80%. 64% of all marketers believe that video will be dominating their brand stories in the near future. If you haven’t yet considered getting a video strategy in place for your brand, now is a perfect time.