When a business goes online and starts selling via eCommerce, it has to carry out many other activities to generate and sustain sales. Digital marketing is one of them. It is the bridge that connects eCommerce brands and businesses with their customers and audiences. It comprises efforts to reach out to target audiences, engage with them, build loyalty and retention, and achieve specific business results. Because you are selling digitally, your marketing and promotional activities must also go digital. Without digital marketing, it is next to impossible for businesses to establish a connection with their digital audiences and customers. Your online sales and other digital marketing goals are bound to take a beating if you are not doing digital marketing right.

In this blog, we shall delve into the specifics of digital marketing for eCommerce and the role of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in the success of digital marketing campaigns.

Why is digital marketing so important for eCommerce?

Today, a majority of the world’s population uses digital channels in one form or the other as an important force in their lives. According to Statista, the number of internet users stood at a staggering figure of over 5 billion. That is more than 60% of the world’s population. It only makes sense for eCommerce brands to have a strong digital presence. And to be effective at it, strategies and tools of digital marketing are required.

Developing a business website is not sufficient. With an estimated billion numbers of websites in the world, even if your circle of concern is only 100 websites, what are the odds of your website making it to the first page of any search engine results? There are organic and inorganic ways to deal with this challenge. Using two important tools of digital marketing – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing), businesses try to improve their websites’ visibility and traffic. Better visibility and more traffic improve the chances of lead generation.

The digital world is a vast world of all types of users. It is important to make a meaningful impact with the right audiences. The use of research and analytics tools in digital marketing help businesses better comprehend market demographics and define customer persona with better precision. This helps in formulating better branding strategies to connect with the right audiences in the right ways.

Social media is one of the biggest driving forces behind the surge in the number of internet users and time spent by people on their digital screens. Statista reveals that there are about 4.7 billion social media users in the world. This presents a massive opportunity for eCommerce brands and businesses to connect with their audiences. Today, companies are using social media platforms to promote their brands, showcase and sell products and services, provide customer support, and achieve many other objectives. If you are not strong on social, your competitors might be and that could take away your potential opportunities.

Why use SOPs for digital marketing?

Planned operational approach

The straightforward answer to why SOPs should be used is that it allows for following a planned operational roadmap. As retail consultants, we always maintain that with defined workflows, the chances of deviation are slim to none. Even if there are deviations, such contingencies could also be planned for. With established timelines, the process owners remain aware of when to post content or how quickly to respond to a customer query on social. As duties and responsibilities are pinpointed, the entire team knows who will be doing what. Maintaining these standards is critical to be timely and accurate with the efforts of digital marketing.

Alignment between the strategies and activities of digital marketing

Like any other business function, there is a need to align the digital marketing strategies with the digital marketing operations. For example, if a brand is targeting audiences on TikTok, the content development operations must meet the requirements of the platform. Or if the goal is to increase web traffic organically, the relevant SEO practices need to become a part of content development. SOPs help businesses incorporate the required operational standards into the workflows.

Timely content publishing

Consistency in content publishing is vital to maintain touch with the audiences. In the digital world, you are connecting with your audiences via content (and of course, communication also). This content could be informational, navigational, commercial or transactional. If you do not provide it effectively and efficiently, your competitors might. Haphazard content publishing hurts the reach and engagement possibilities.

Sticking to the digital marketing budget

Achieving the objectives of digital marketing is not easy. It is common to find businesses missing their objectives and timelines. This compels them to continue with the campaigns. As achieving the RoI objectives are important, the budgets often get inflated. This is where KPIs come into the picture. SOPs can be used to measure these KPIs at regular intervals. If things are not going as intended, it gives businesses the time to realign the direction of their efforts.

Team structure and performance

Different companies follow different team structuring formulas for digital marketing. For example, decentralised structures are common with small teams. With increasing business stature, companies go for more centralised options with specialised divisions of work. Whatever the structure of the team, SOPs help to create the required operational coordination between the team members that may even cut across departments.

About Your Retail Coach (YRC)

YRC is a retail and eCommerce consulting enterprise with 10+ years of experience over which we have worked with 500+ clients in 25+ verticals. As a brand with budding global footprints, we endeavour to create and deliver world-class service standards. Our eCommerce process solutions are managed by professional and experienced retail and eCommerce SOP consultants.

For more information on our eCommerce digital marketing and eCommerce SOP development services or to speak to one of our retail and eCommerce consultants, please drop us a message.