We at Growth Pixel are on a mission to help 100 Businesses to boost their Online Sales by at least 30% in this Financial Year. Just wanted to know if it is Yours then mail us your requirement.
PS: Our eCommerce Division has seen some tremendous growth, so wanted to share the principles, methods, practices (and secrets) that you can use to sky rocket your eCommerce Business. If you have any query, do leave a comment to this blog or write us to hello@growthpixel.com.
Growth Pixel Mission Statement
Losing Money in Big chunks at your Online Business ! No, the culprit might not be your unique business concept but marketing mistakes that almost all‘online business’or ‘brick & mortar business’ make.
You can avoid these huge loses at your business by being carefully understanding the basic concepts behind them. These concepts are no-brainers but when it comes to adhering to those, even good companies forget and make these marketing mistakes.
Our Experts at Growth Pixel has more than often seen these mistakes being repeated so that it seem natural to advice our friends about the same.
The First one of the basic mistake is :
NOT KNOWING YOUR BUSINESS
Seems like a no-brainer, but most of the companies get so bogged by the ‘concept’ they are putting forth that they forget to ask themselves what value they are putting in their customer’s life. We are asking you to find the actual value their business is providing to their customers? Let me clarify the same with an example of a Pizza restaurant.
Example :
A new Pizza restaurant owners think they are selling Pizza’s, where as their customers are looking for more than a ‘Pizza’, they have been either looking for a good time with friends at the venue or convenience of food reaching at their home. So it make sense that apart from baking great Pizza’s, what value this businesses owner can bring in the life of his customers to attract their attention more than the competition.
So, today apart from ‘A Great Pizza’, which is a minimum requirement for this business, they need to think on what other aspects of ‘value’ is their customer looking towards and choose the one which they can provide to their best within their business model.
Next one is very important and is considered greatest of the marketing sins if not followed well.
NOT KNOWING YOUR TARGETED CUSTOMERS :
On asking who their ‘customers’ are, the many business owners either answer – Everyone or they might come out with answer like people who can afford our product/services or a definitions like SEC A & A+.
It is always better if you can know more about your customers and not attempt to interest everyone. By profiling a customer on a psycho-graphic level can help you provide a product or service which is valued more by that customer. It really pays to know their concerns, pain-areas, motivations and interests more.
Example: With the Restaurant before, they realised that most of their customers in their area are working parents with dual income & have two children, living in a high society areas& reads Economic Times newspaper.Further profiling also suggested that since both these parents are educated so are health conscious for themselves and their children.
NON-UNDERSTANDABLE COMMUNICATION :
This mistake is made unknowingly where business managers are either trying to impress with their knowledge or think that whatever words they are using are known to all.
The result is that most of the customers are either confused by the communication or misinterpret the information. This could either lead to no business or Bad business.
What we need to do is that we need to speak the language of the customer, which is more understandable to the customer.
Example :
Again with the Restaurant Example :
- Our Dough is so fresh, that Will Smith Gets Jealous
(Customers couldn’t make any connection between Will Smith and the fresh Dough)
- Yes, we have no frozen pizzas
(Guys, why don’t you just say that we use fresh baked pizza base or something)
LIMITING THE MEANS OF YOUR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION :
Putting all your efforts and budget into a single medium of communication and hence trying to approach their customers through a limited means. It is widely known that if you are visible to your customers atleast 12 different times or places/means, only then your presence gets acknowledged.
Example : Pizza Restaurant in our previous example was great in this aspect by reached out to the residents nearby with :
1. Leaflet distribution
2. A roadside Billboard giving their website address& Phone No.
3. Website which has clear online pizza ordering system with total 6 clicks
4. Incentive on using their Mobile App for ordering with Marketing messages, offers& special loyalty benefits
5. Offline Activity with information of innovative ‘Digestive Pizza’ on Sunday mornings at Parks, in the periphery of their outlet.
COMMUNICATION DESIGN FROM TECHIES OR SOFTWARE LITERATES CALLED DESIGNERS :
More common of all mistakes is getting your communication piece, be it be website, online advertisement, Brochures, leaflets or Emailers etc, being designed by people having knowledge of Html, Corel, Photoshop or any other softwares only.
What you need is a person who knows how to communicate your value through the medium chosen by you. A proper communication needs to be designed and what visuals will make sense to your customer along with colours denoting towards right emotions for the customer connect. The wordings that harness your value proposition easily understood by your customer. Then let these communicators coordinate with good designers who can catch the essence of all defined aspects in the medium as chosen.
WEBSITE DESIGNERS VS INBOUND MARKETERS :
Choosing a vendor / developer who only has knowledge of coding /website design and not of business might make your site and other digital assets look good but non understandable by your customers.
You have to ask yourself what is that you want your website to do for you. Do you want to make a website just to put its URL on your business card or is it that you want it to be selling for you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week without taking rest.
Keeping communication relevant, you need to choose for Website which should make sense to the customers and should generate leads for your business as well. And if possible should also sell and take orders online for you. And it should be able to do this over and over again.
Example :
The Pizza Restaurant fortunately knew this aspect and got their website developed from website developers who were inbound marketers. The inputs that they received while making the website helped them to increase the reach, sale and also in reducing the manpower cost by automated online ordering system.
They also were benefited on the Competitor mistake of making a website which was good looking but too heavy to open properly and hence even loyal customers of theirs were now trying the Pizza Restaurant’s services and getting impressed.
DON'T CHOOSE BUZZ, CHOOSE BUSINESS :
Online Marketing, Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing or Social Media Marketing will be just buzzwords if not understanding how you can use the same for business. Always prefer online marketers who have an understanding of businesses and are ready to understand yours to suggest the right online strategy and communication inline with your buyer’s online journey rather than asking you your preferred keywords and start gunning for the positions and rankings in the search engine.
Online Marketers who suggest shiny tools (like social media, SEO, SEM) or softwares as solution for all your online marketing requirements, will end up gaining more than you.
If your internet marketing team is bunch of techies and developers then it’s not online marketing that you are doing.You need marketers and people who understand business on your team too to make the best online marketing team.
PUTTING FINANCIALS BEFORE BUSINESS :
The classic mistake of putting the cost consideration while choosing between two vendors or service providers can prompt you to make mistakes over and over again and costs 2-3 times more than you had intended to pay.
You shall clear understand what value both vendors are providing and which value is important for your business –that is comparing apples-to-apples and not apples-to-oranges.
THE MISTAKES THAT SOME PEOPLE MAKE ARE :
- Hiring Designers that don’t know communications and end up with something that makes no sense.
- Choosing Cheap over Best (as in: choosing cheap list/dbase over the best list/dbase).
- Going for a shabbier printing on a low thickness paper.
- Website that is giving wrong impression to the customer.
- Good looking website with message so unclear that the customers do not know what they are selling.
- Choosing inexperienced vendors or hiring low cost less experienced people for in-house capability.
These are but few of the aspects that you need to be aware doing online business or any other and we intend to details them separately in blogs to come, just keep on reading and sending us your valuable feedback.