As small business owners, when it comes to marketing we can often feel bombarded by pressures to keep up with the latest marketing methods, tools and techniques. If you read any business or entrepreneurial publications, it’s likely you’ll have seen things like ‘Why Your Brand’s TikTok Presence is so Important’ or ‘Why You Should Prioritise SEO Over Other Marketing Methods’. As well-intended as these articles may be, they can often leave us feeling overwhelmed, unsure of where to start and clueless as to which marketing methods are really the most useful for us.
Email newsletters, video content, online ads, social media, events, influencer marketing, SEO, review sites, the list goes on. But which strategy is actually the most important for e-commerce brands today?
To find out, we delved into all of the most up-to-date research in the field so you don’t have to!
Let’s start with at the very beginning of the buying journey
After all, it’s a very good place to start.
In July 2022, SEO Consultancy Artios surveyed 2,000 UK adults, asking them which sources they usually check before buying from a brand they’d never bought from before.
The results found that:
- An impressive 50.27% check online reviews before buying from a new retailer.
- The next most common thing consumers do is ask for friends’ recommendations (38.68%).
- Whilst checking to see what other people say about the brand on socials was the third most common way people assess a new company before making a purchase with them (25.99%).
So what do these findings mean? Should e-ccomerce brands be spending all of their time and marketing budgets on prioritising their online reputations in the form of reviews and social media? Well, not exactly, but online reputation management (or ORM) should be up there with some of the main priorities for any company wanting to attract new customers.
What does this look like?
As swanky as it may sound, ORM (or Online Reputation Management) doesn’t have to involve hiring an expensive company to sort out your online presence. For most small and micro businesses, this can be as simple as spending an hour or two a week requesting and crucially – responding to – online reviews. This shows any prospective customers checking out your Trustpilot or Feefo that you care about customer satisfaction and are on hand to help if anything goes awry.
Social media can, in many ways, also be classed as a review site. Search for mentions of your products on all major platforms, and of course stay up to date with any messages targeted at your business (whether they’re private or public). Social media engagement has a great way of showing that your brand can be trusted and is desirable among your target demographic’s social spheres.
But reputation management doesn’t just start and end online. Going back to Artios’ study, it’s clear that friends’ recommendations are also a huge factor in determining whether or not people purchase from a new brand. To encourage people to tell their friends and family that they’ve had a positive experience with your brand – you have to make sure that people have a positive experience with your brand. This involves going right back to basics. From ensuring your product or service is of high quality, to responding quickly to any queries your customers may have, all of these factors can have an excellent knock-on effect when it comes to word of mouth.
Making sure your brand is found
All of these efforts are of course fundamental for encouraging purchases from new perspective customers. But what if you’re already doing these things and still struggling to get visitors to your website and those all important conversions?
The bad news is, many competing brands, no matter how small your niche, are also likely to be going to great lengths to manage their online reputations and encourage positive reviews.
But the good news is, there are ways to improve your site’s visibility in the search results and reduce the likelihood of users going elsewhere. And the not-so secret ingredient in that recipe is… SEO! While there are advantages of strategies such as social media, recent studies have found that SEO efforts are the single best method for attracting those who are looking for new products and services.
Where to start with SEO for e-commerce
The world of SEO is constantly changing and can often feel rather complex. But when you find what works for your business, you’ll be so glad you started your journey with it. Here’s a really handy guide on SEO to help get you started, covering all the most useful and cost-effective tips, tools and guides from SEO and content marketing specialist, Stacey MacNaught.
