Consumer behaviour hasn’t been the same since Covid-19. Living and working from home for the past two years has changed the way many of us live. According to an October 2021 survey, Southeast Asian consumers now spend more money online than at brick-and-mortar stores, with this habit expected to increase even after the pandemic has waned.
But while eCommerce is growing, so too are the many ways brands are trying to market their products, moving away from traditional means of promotion or marketing. With so many similar products being sold online, eCommerce sales competition has grown stiffer, making digital marketing that stands out crucial, especially for smaller players.
Here are some other reasons why digital marketing is an absolute must these days:
- The internet is always open and that means your target audience is always online. With the right digital marketing tools, you’re guaranteed to be reaching your audience whenever they’re online and can be targeted even further
- Having a feedback system is important in understanding whether what you’re doing is right. Digital marketing is extremely results-driven because of the advanced analytics afforded to users. This means that business owners can pore through metrics like engagement, impressions, click-through rates, views, likes, and more – just to see how well you’re doing.
- Have two-way communication: With digital marketing, you get to interact with your customers. You can still win potential customers who want to learn more about your products or have questions or concerns about them.
- To stay on top of competition, digital marketing is a must. An effective digital marketing campaign will help eCommerce sellers obtain leads and prevent them from losing out to competitors. It also increases brand visibility and exposure. People choose brands they are familiar with, so help guide them to choose your products.
That being said, while businesses are now used to the usual channels of email, social media channels, and websites for digital marketing, many eCommerce businesses have begun taking advantage of marketing programs offered by the platforms themselves like Lazada.
What these platform marketing solutions allow sellers is to leverage on the buyer traffic to market their products. Much like how you’d put large advertisements in a physical shopping space to draw traffic in a shopping mall, sellers can now use banners and the like for interested customers on platforms.
Does Digital Marketing Have to be Expensive?
It doesn’t even have to cost much.
Platform marketing strategies like video marketing can be cost-effective – short videos are popular for branding and product awareness and let the buyer feel more engaged. Furthermore, there’s no budget needed to publish your videos on a site like Lazada. In using a video instead of an image for your product, you’ve already differentiated your business.
Other options include streaming on things like LazLive to engage with customers more effectively – promoting and selling at the same time, combining the best of both social selling and the security of Lazada’s platform.
Paid Solutions on eCommerce Platforms
Of course, digital marketing on a platform can also be in the form of paid solutions and advertising. One such example is retargeting.
Retargeting is another important strategy to win a specific customer base. Essentially, it can be described as re-engaging an audience member depending on their last known behaviour. For example, if a buyer were to add one of your products to their cart then leave the platform, retargeting allows you to send ads to this particular buyer, reminding them of their desire to purchase these items.
In 2020, Lazada launched its own marketing solutions, Lazada Sponsored Solution, a form of in-house advertising to help sellers increase their visibility. Some solutions include:
Sponsored Search
Millions of Lazada shoppers use the search bar on the platform everyday and this feature lets brands take advantage of that, pushing their products higher up in terms of visibility.
Sponsored Affiliate
This feature allows sellers to connect with over 3,000 affiliate partners to drive traffic to their product pages.
Sponsored Display
This technology displays sellers’ products on Lazada’s premium online assets to gain new customers. Whether it’s on campaign pages, the front page or on product display pages, the aim is to get buyers to notice you.