The Most Comprehensive Digital Marketing Guide for Brand Owners!

Ever heard of others saying, "If you can identify it, you can improve it?"

Because this is the purpose of tracking your metrics.

You need to identify what's working and not. And that's how you can plan ahead and enhance your ecommerce digital marketing strategy on your next goal-setting.

But what are the specific metrics you need to track?

I won't keep you waiting!

1. Number of Customers

If you're a brand owner, I understand that one of your goals is to increase your conversion rate.

And if you're making sales, it means you are doing something right.

Tracking your number of customers helps you know if your current strategies are working or not.

Here are some questions you can answer while analyzing the number of your customers:

1. Is the number of my customers decreasing or increasing?
2. What is the reason for the decrease? Where am I lacking?
3. What am I doing right for my customers to increase?

So if you see an increase in your number of customers, be quick to identify what's working! It's time to enhance your ecommerce digital marketing strategy.

Another important metric is...

2. Average Order Value (AOV)

Don't get too overwhelmed with these terms, okay?

So an Average Order Value (AOV) is the average amount your customers are spending to buy from your ecommerce store.

But how to compute your average order value?

For example, you are selling 3 types of high-quality, painted leather bags for women. The cheapest one is $250, the mid-range is $350, and the most expensive one is $450.

You just have to divide your revenue and the number of customers.

Let's say your total revenue for December is $15,000. While your total number of customers is 50.

So your average order value for December is $300. This means that your customers prefer the cheapest option to the mid-range option.

Your Average Order Value helps you determine the purchasing patterns of your customers. This will also guide you in your overall marketing and pricing strategy.

Next is...

3. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost Per Acquisition is used for measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) for every marketing campaign.

And simply put, Cost Per Acquisition is one of the most important financial metrics because it measures the financial outcome of your campaigns.

For example, you were able to convert 2 customers from a Google ad. One of them purchased a $2 item and the other for $4. Your Cost Per Acquisition would be $3.

But let's say you're advertising on Facebook. Suppose that the Cost Per Acquisition is $1. Do you think it's cheaper?

Probably yes, but here's the catch...

For your Facebook campaign to work, you need copywriters, creative designers, media buyers, video editors, etc. On the other hand, you can manage Google ads on your own.

So, which do you think results in a lower Cost Per Acquisition after considering the "fixed costs?"

But no worries, I will help you decide later during the execution step. Let's see if hiring is cost-effective or not...

Another metric you need to watch out for is...

4. Lifetime Value (LTV)

Lifetime Value (LTV) is also a financial metric you need to keep an eye on...

This helps you know who are your possible life-long customers.

But how do you compute this?

Don't worry, I'll help you understand this more!

To compute this, you need to multiply the average value of the sale, the number of transactions, and the retention time period.

For example, Customer 1 buys $100 healthy groceries at your ecommerce store 8 times every 2 years. The Lifetime Value of Customer 1 is $1600.

To improve your LTV, you can check where most traffic is coming from. That way, you know which marketing channel is working best for your business.

But remember, your LTV can still change from time to time. Especially if you don't have a large number of customers.

And to make sure you are achieving your goals...

You need a baseline to compare your number of customers, Average Order Value, Lifetime Value, and Cost Per Acquisition.

To do this, you can compare it with your data in the previous month. And as I said, your goals should be specific. So you can also use your target profit and revenue to set a baseline.

Now that you know what metrics to track and how to track them, you can go ahead and use them to set your goals.

Here is a checklist of what you need to do before you move on!

• Set your SMART goals
• Know how to compute the 4 metrics
• Track the 4 important metrics you can track
• Use these 4 metrics to set smarter goals

Next, why don't you try to...

Collecting data will be helpful in strengthening your eCommerce digital marketing strategy.

Don't know how? No worries, because there's a proper way to collect their data and grow your business.

Here are some ways on how to collect data and get their insights...

Survey

Through conducting a survey, you'd know what your customers want.

And if you ask them the right questions, you'll get the right answers.

Here are some questions you can ask your customers:

1. Are you ordering from our app or website?
2. Are you happy with our service?
3. How was your last transaction?
4. Where did you hear about us?
5. Would you recommend us?

But err, do you also feel lazy answering survey forms by other brands sometimes?

Well... I do, too!

So put yourself in the shoes of your consumers.

Do you want them to stop answering your form mid-way?

If not, try these tips, and don't be complicated!

1. Start with basic questions. Ask their name, age, gender, location, and the like. This will help you in target segmentation as well.
2. Ask simple but direct questions. Not all of your customers would spend a few minutes answering your survey form generously. You need to be straightforward to get the answers you need.
3. Use rating scales. This is an easy way to answer a survey form. It's because they don't have to type multiple sentences. This will save them time, and they might even get to the bottom of your survey form.

Another way to collect data is through...

Interviews

There's nothing better than connecting with your customers at a deeper level. And one way to do that is through customer interviews.

If you want to understand your customers further, I have some tips for you:

Customer Interview Tips:

1. Determine what's the purpose of your interview.
   • Is it for a new product release?
   • Or are you trying to change your website design, and you need your customer's opinion?
   • This will help you streamline your questions and prioritize what matters.
2. Don't invite random customers. 
   • Focus on your customers who have been giving you support and purchasing more than others. They have much more to say because they have grown an affinity for your brand.
3. Be open-minded about the answers they give. 
   • You need to remember that be it a good or bad review, it will help you improve your business in the future.

Remember, the purpose of this is to gain feedback so you can have long-term customers. Don't sell your products during interviews!

But wait... we still have more!

Amazon reviews

Amazon sells everything... but there's one valuable thing you can get for free...

So valuable that you can use them to enhance your ecommerce digital marketing plan!

And that is...

Amazon reviews!

Let me clarify this. You don't have to sell on Amazon to read the reviews. You can browse similar products like yours and look at the comments of their buyers.

Now, you might be wondering why do you need to do this...

And I have a simple answer.

It is to know what customers in the industry need.

Let me explain this further and give you an example.

You can see that the reviews are separated into two categories: positive and critical reviews.

Based on these two types of reviews, you can put them together to analyze what will work for your ecommerce store.

Think Amazon reviews aren't helpful yet? Just wait...

Did you know that there are only 5-10% of customers who write customer reviews? Yes, you read that right!

These are:

1. Customers loved the products so much.
2. Customers who hated the products.
3. Customers who are loyal to the brand.
4. Customers who believe it's just fair to share their reviews because they also used them before purchase.

You see, if you take advantage of these reviews, you can see what exactly they liked about the products. You can also see where the brand is lacking. And from there, you can fill the gap.

To sum it all up, Amazon Reviews can help you in improving your products and marketing efforts.

Amazing, right?

Who would've thought that checking reviews could be part of online marketing strategies for businesses?

Here's another one...

Online forums

If you think the opinions of internet users with the username Potato_Lover01 don't make sense... wait until you join online discussions.

Forums are a safe space for others online.

You can see them posting about their personal problems and random thoughts online... I hope that other users from that specific forum help them.

And one of the things they are also posting is product-related questions. They discuss certain products, and you can see honest reviews.

Let's take one, for example.

This is from one of the largest online forums, Reddit.

In their subreddit "Alexa," customers talk about everything related to the product. As you can see, one user asked if there's a recipe reader feature.

So suppose that you are building or selling a similar product, you might want to include a recipe reader on your features!

This is such a great and easy way to get real insights, right?

So one thing you need to research on your audience is their awareness level of the market.

But what are the levels of customer awareness?

• Unaware. These are the prospects that are not yet aware that they have a problem yet.
• Problem Aware. These prospects are aware that they have a problem, but they are not yet aware there's a solution for that.
• Solution Aware. These prospects are aware that there's a solution to their problem, but they still haven't heard about your brand.
• Product Aware. They're already aware of your brand, but they're not sure if you're the one they need.
• Most Aware. These customers already love and support your brand.

So, do you already know the level of your audience's customer awareness?

If yes, let's get into the next one!

Since you already know where you can get customer data, reviews, etc... how would you process them?

Don't worry, I got you covered!

Once you're done with gathering data from your customers...

It's very important to categorize and process customer insights to help you improve your marketing strategies!

Do you want those survey forms and feedback from your beloved customers to go to waste?

Hmm... I wouldn't want that for you!

So to enhance your ecommerce digital marketing strategy, you need to organize your customer data.

1. Organize them with subcategories

After collecting customer feedback, you need to organize and break them into subcategories or 'buckets.'

That way, it will be easier for you to summarize and analyze the results.

Are you feeling confused? Keep on reading!

So you can categorize your customer feedback by breaking them into these subcategories. Here are some:

1. Basic information. Having a separate bucket for the customers' basic information speeds up your target segmentation process. You can divide them based on their location, age, preferences, etc.
2. Product feedback. If you're selling multiple products, you might want to categorize customer data based on the products they gave their feedback to.
3. Satisfaction rate. Why do you need to include this in your buckets? Because it's important to identify who are your most satisfied and unsatisfied customers. That way, it will be easier for you to address their concerns.

Another way is to...

2. Use charts

If you want to have an overview of the results of your surveys and interviews, one way to do it is to create charts.

It will help you visualize the overall results if you want to spot the patterns easily.

Would you rather look at charts or manually analyze the data through your Excel? I prefer charts.

I'll give you an example.

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As you can see in this example, most of the customer respondents are students.

That was so easy to identify, right?

So through this data, you'd know that you need to focus on how to retain your customers who are students. And you also need to improve the customer experience of others.

But wait... there's more!

3. Input them in one place

You didn't see this coming, right?

Of course, you need to input your customer data in one place!

Your customers trusted you and willingly input their information. They also provided you with feedback to enhance your ecommerce digital marketing strategy.

The last thing you can do to thank them is to make sure that their data are safe with you.

But aside from keeping their data safe, you need to input their feedback in one place, so it's easier for you to sort it out.

How?

Ideally, you can invest in customer feedback analysis tools if you have the budget. Who doesn't want to make their lives easier?

But if you're not yet ready to invest... I have a surprise for you!

(Sample template)

You can use simple customer feedback analysis templates, to begin with.

So here I included the name of the respondents, gender, age, location, occupation, and the feedback. I also included the main categories for each feedback.

This makes it easier for you to identify the common problems your customers experience on your website.

Another example is...

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In this specific sample template, you can see that there's also a 'Channel' bucket included, which indicates from where did they get the feedback.

So you need to personalize your template based on your survey forms or how you collected the data (e.g., Amazon reviews, public reviews, online forums, etc.).

This step is full of knowledge, right?

You already know how to research customer awareness, collect data, create a buyer persona, and how to input the data you gathered! Now it's easy to get to know your audience.

Here's the checklist to make sure you're doing it properly:

• Know who your audience is
• Create a buyer persona
• Conduct surveys and customer interviews
• Read Amazon reviews
• Join online forums
• Learn your customer's awareness phase
• Organize your data using templates

After researching your audience, it's time to put your detective hats on...

After all the hours you spent analyzing your competitors, it's now time to put them in one place!

It's an important way to process your findings efficiently.

Sounds like a lot of stress? You're lucky because I've found some competitor analysis templates you can download for free!

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This template includes an overview of your competitors' social media accounts, target market, tagline, keywords, blogs, etc.

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On the other hand, this focuses on the messaging of your competitors. You can see the description, tagline, audience, meta descriptions, and more.

So in this step, you learned how to find your competitors, the levels of market sophistication, what and where to find what competitors are up to, and how to process your findings.

Let me share with you another checklist:

• Find your direct competitors
• Identify the level of sophistication
• Check out their content strategy
• Check out their claims on Amazon, websites, social media, and other platforms
• Process your findings

After using these templates and checklists, let's move forward to the next step.

There are various ways to analyze and check what your competitors are doing:

1. Market Sophistication

If I ask you what your customers know about your products and the nature of business, can you answer me?

If not, then let me get this straight...

Your target customers are constantly changing their behaviors. They learn more about different brands and industries every time new information is presented to them.

And if you don't know the market's level of sophistication, you are letting your competitors win.

Oops, that doesn't sound nice to me!

But what is market sophistication?

It's from Eugene Schwartz's "Breakthrough Advertising." And the market sophistication measures the maturity of your market. This can be based on all the products, ads, and content they've encountered before yours.

So why do you need to know the sophistication level of your market?

1. If you understand your market sophistication, you can get ahead of your competitors!
2. You know how to talk to them based on their level of sophistication.
3. You can analyze why certain strategies work and not.

Now, let me teach you the 5 levels of market sophistication!

• Level 1: No Competition

"Is anybody here??"

There's nobody here.

Why? Because you are the first one to enter the market. You have no competition yet.

For example, if you claim, "This pill can make you lose weight," no one will question you.

And because of that, you are automatically the #1 in the market! So at this stage, your job is to talk about your products and their benefits. You need to introduce your brand to the market.

Yay or Nay? Of course, yay!

But wait... it doesn't stay like that forever!

• Level 2: Competitors are starting to rise!

Okay, so maybe the competition isn't as tough yet... but there are already several competitors entering the market!

There are a handful of other brands claiming to solve the problems as yours, so at this stage, you need to amplify your voice.

An example of this is "This pill can make you lose MORE weight faster."

Remember, your target market has been hearing the same thing over and over again. It's time to level up your game!

• Level 3: The Unique Mechanism

First time hearing about the Unique Mechanism?

Let me ask you this...

What sets you apart from your competitors?

Do you have an answer for that? Because knowing what makes you unique from your competitors makes you stand out.

With all these brands claiming to solve the same problems, you need a competitive edge.

For example, "This pill with L-carnitine can boost your metabolism and lose weight."

The next level is...

• Level 4: The Competitors have Unique Mechanisms too

This is where the battle begins...

Now, every brand in the market has its unique mechanisms, and it's time you make your brand voice louder!

At this point, the target customers are just tired of hearing the same thing...

"You will get rich in 40 days!"

"You will lose weight in 2 hours!"

What else?

What are you going to do now? At this stage, you need to find your most successful unique selling point, and you're going to talk about it repeatedly!

So to make your brand louder, this is an example. "This pill with the Amazonian Jungle fruit extract that produces all-natural l-carnitine can boost your metabolism and lose 10kgs in 7 days without any side-effects."

And the last level is...

• Level 5: Market Recognition

This is it. Your prospects are now aware of your brand as well as your competitors. They're also most likely tired of hearing the same claims.

And here's the catch...

They don't believe in any of those claims anymore.

So what are you going to do at this point?

You can focus on the emotional touchpoints of your prospects.

For example, "The secret pill Victoria's Secret Models use to stay sexy while eating cake."

Your competitors might not stop talking about their products. That is why you need to use a strategy that will make them feel something.

Market sophistication is not the only thing you need to look for in your competitors, though!

Here's another one...

3. Content Strategy

To determine the market sophistication and customer awareness, you can take advantage of the current content they're using.

This is not limited to social media. You can use their sales page, landing page, websites, or even their traditional advertisements.

This is one way to see what's working on their strategies and not. And then you use it for your brand's improvement.

Another is...

4. Competitor Claims

What problems are they claiming to solve?

If you want to get ahead of your competitors, you need a strong brand positioning as well.

This is also a way to find out how your target market connects with your competitors. And what you can do to make them feel the same about your brand.

I know you want to further study your competitor claims, so I'll show you where you can find their current marketing efforts!

• Check Out Their Websites

Since you want to improve your ecommerce digital marketing strategy, the website is one of the first things you will have to explore.

You're probably wondering... why do you need to analyze their websites? Here are a few reasons why:

• To see their current product campaigns
• To find any opportunities you can take
• To explore their marketing efforts

But wait!

Competitor analysis doesn't mean that you can copy what they're doing! It just means that you have an idea of improving your website based on what you see.

Like what Alibaba's Co-Founder Jack Ma said, "You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die."

So, what's next?

• Use Analyzing Tools

These analyzing tools don't exist for no reason!

You need to take advantage of them.

If you want to go all-out on analyzing your competitors, this is a must.

But why do you need to use these tools?

1. To track your competitors' growth in real-time
2. To identify possible gaps and fill them in
3. To avoid making the same mistakes as them

Do these reasons convince you to invest in paid tools? If not, I have one more solution for you!

• Evaluate Their Presence on Social Media

Just like in analyzing your competitor's website, checking out their social media channels is a must too!

Here are the questions you need to answer when checking their profiles:

• How do they present their products?
• How do they write their captions?
• What are the types of content they push out?
• How often do they post?
• How much engagement are they receiving per post?
• Which content category gets the most number of engagements?

Again, the purpose of competitor analysis is to incorporate some of their strategies into your marketing efforts, not to copy their content.

After analyzing your competitors, it's time to...

Do you want all your research to go to waste?

I think not!

But without mapping out your marketing plan, all your hard work will vanish in thin air.

So how important is a marketing plan? Here are a few reasons:

• It keeps you focused on your marketing goals
• It gives you and your team transparency
• It helps you reach your target audience efficiently

I'll show you a way to map out your marketing plan based on your buyer's journey.

Before your customers buy from you, they've already defined what they need.

This means that they already know how to solve their problem. And they're just looking for the answers.

So what can you do as a brand? Simplify your marketing message.

Instead of talking about your products' multiple features, talk about how to solve their specific problem.

What's the next part?

Your customers are locating and gathering information on how they can solve their problems.

At this point, you need to align your marketing message based on your and your competitors' customer awareness and level of sophistication.

This is also an important time to make sure that you have all the information they might need when they search for it.

And the next is...

Your potential customers are preparing to get the "jobs" done or solve their problems.

They're ready to buy, but they might encounter a small roadblock, and they need to prepare for it! So what can you do as a brand?

Let's assume that you are selling water bottles online. And based on your market and competitor research, customers hate it when it can only maintain the temperature for 5 hours.

You might need to think of a solution before they get into this stage.

And it's your job to communicate how you're solving a common problem online.

But how? Don't worry. Here's the solution...

Just imagine this...

You were so excited to talk about your new product to young people who are the future of technology... then you walked into a room full of people in their 70s...

Apparently, there has been a mistake on your part. And now you're forced to talk about your new product to people who aren't even your target market...

Obviously, you made no sales because they don't need your product. They don't want it.

The bottom line? You just wasted your time and resources.

That's what will happen if you don't choose the right marketing channels.

Because your audience is not everywhere. You need to find where they are on the Internet.

Let's say that your customers are now willing to buy from you. But they still need to verify if they really want to buy from you.

How are they going to do this?

They're most probably going to use social media. Or search engines.

So it's now your job to make sure that you can give out all the information they need to confirm they're ready to buy from you... and you need to come up with the right message.

Once they have already bought from you, you need to monitor their behavior even after purchasing.

Because there might be a need for refunds, returns, etc. The thing is, even if you solved their problem, they still have their own pains and gains regarding your products.

They're not 100% okay.

And you need to satisfy your customers immediately.

By now, you're probably wondering... how can you make sure you are using the right channels?

I got you covered on the next step!

Based on your goals, market, and competitor research, you need to figure out which marketing channel needs some improvement.

Here are some things you need to consider:

• Can you deliver your message efficiently to your target market?
• Do your messages align with your customer's journey? Or you're too advanced?
• Can they easily reach you on a specific platform if they have concerns?

So what it's all about?

Customer-based improvement.

And to figure out which marketing channel needs to optimize, do these:

• Analyze the consumers

The process I mentioned above is for you to determine your buyer's behavior.

And let's say your loyal customers suddenly stopped interacting with your social media posts... what are you going to do?

Of course, step up your social media game!

Another option is...

• Check out analytics

For example, your goal is to retain your loyal customers. But when you check your analytics, your analytics is filled with first-time website visitors.

What does it mean? You might need to enhance your keyword strategy. Or invest more in paid ads.

Remember, planning your buyer's journey will keep you ahead of the game!

Being proactive is better than reactive!

Let's recap! In this step, I taught you the buyer's journey, how you can craft your messages based on your customer's journey, mapping, and figuring out the best channel for your audience.

Here's your checklist:

• Identify your buyer's journey
• Map out a marketing plan
• Figure out which marketing channel you can use
• Optimize channels that need improvement

Now, I won't keep you waiting. I'm sure you already want to read the next step!

But shhh... let me tell you a secret! If you keep on reading until the end of this guide, you'll learn more details about crafting your marketing plans! ?

So, based on your market research, you can determine which marketing campaign you need to focus on.

Here are some factors you need to consider:

• Goals. Let's go back to our "goal-setting" step. What's your goal? If you want to rank #1 on Google, try Search Engine Optimization. If you want to build a community, try Social Media Marketing.
• Target Audience. Where are they on the internet? If your target market is not using social media as much as other demographics, you might want to focus on other marketing campaigns. Such as improving your SEO or using the most common social platform (Facebook).
• Competitors. Where are your competitors? If they're already selling to a specific platform, you might want to challenge their existing market.

But wait, aren't you wondering which is better between push and pull marketing?

Because we need to discuss it more!

Push and Pull Marketing

Let me put it simply first.

Push marketing is advertising to your target demographics based on their profile, behavior, interests, etc.

It means you want your brand to get known through pushing your products using content marketing, ads, and the likes.

On the other hand, pull marketing is making your target customers come to you naturally. It focuses on separating your brand from your competitors by producing the content they're looking for.

Now, let's dive deeper!

You see, push marketing has its own highs and lows. As well as pull marketing, let's have a look:

Now that you know their pros and cons, let me give you examples of push and pull marketing tactics.

Let me help you in choosing between these choices.

If you're planning to focus on pull marketing, you need to understand it's not entirely free.

You need time to create blog posts, reach out to other blogs for guest posts, create a newsletter, build your email list, etc. It takes more time.

Why? Because your customers are the ones coming to you. But if you have the time to do all these on your own, go for it.

While for your push marketing tactics, it might need less of your time. But if you're planning to create a loyal customer base, this might not be the perfect choice for you.

Hmmm... so do you go for push or pull marketing?

I would say that it is up to your business goals and where your customers are in their buyer's journey.

In this step, I've talked about the different marketing strategies you can use. So again, whatever you choose, it all depends on your goals and your customers.

I also gave you some tips on implementing those and gave you options between push and pull marketing.

Let's have another checklist:

• Choose a marketing campaign
• Choose the best platform
• Evaluate your resources
• Optimize your profile
• Brainstorm your content/ads
• Create a content calendar

So, what's next? Let's get this show on the road...

Since the goal is to grow your pages, you need to conduct a social media audit every once in a while.

The purpose of this is to acknowledge what's going right and wrong with your strategies.

Here are the things you need to audit on your social media pages.

• Engagement rates (likes, shares, comments)
• Reach, Impressions, Website Clicks, and Profile Visits
• Content with the most number of likes, reach, etc
• Number of followers
• Number of unfollowers

Compare numbers from the previous months or see if the results align with your goals.

If not, then...

There is no permanent in this world... and marketing strategies are one of them!

Because the user interests are constantly changing in the digital world, you need to adjust based on their likings.

So if something's not working, go back to the previous steps!

Research your audience, see what your competitors are doing, identify trends and patterns, and create more surveys!

Speaking of making adjustments...

Why don't you let me show you a marketing campaign that succeeded after optimizing its strategies?

Let's take Warner Bros movie 'Pan' for example.

In 2015, they released the movie 'Pan' and for their marketing campaign, they incorporated some marketing analytics they gathered. They used the data to look closely into consumer trends.

Then Warner Bros decided to shift their media plan to person-level marketing based on the user behaviors, engagement patterns, etc. They also identified the right marketing channels to deliver their messages based on their data.

The result?

They saw a 26% increase in return on investment.

Remember, analyzing and optimizing your campaign is a continuous process. But this will help you come up with the winning campaign!

Let me give you a checklist:

• Analyze the results
• Conduct a social media audit
• See area for improvements

Do you also want that to happen to your brand?