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Bitcoin "eCommerce" Trick 1024 683 ImplicitPay CO

Bitcoin "eCommerce" Trick

The Bitcoin eCommerce “trick is basically where you accept” crypto “money in an ecommerce store (for real world goods). sold (COGS) out via an exchange, and keep the profits as “crypto”.

The aim is to ride any price increases in the underlying “crypto” assets, which should amplify your profits. Obviously, this works the other way – in that it could also lead to a loss of profits due to a drop in the price of the “crypto” tokens you were paid. However, generally, if you play the game properly – you should be able to increase your profits quite substantially with this method.

This tutorial is going to briefly explain the various points about the way this works. To do so means that you have to ensure that you understand fully what you’re doing, and how the process will grow …

Firstly, if you run an “eCommerce” store, you will need to accept payments.

With the plethora of services online today (including the likes of Stripe and PayPal), you have many ways to “receive” payments without the need for a traditional “merchant account”.

One of the newer ways to do this is with a service called BitGo. This is a “payment receipts” system for “crypto” tokens. Basically, it allows businesses to accept “crypto” currency for their products or services, allowing users to take full advantage of the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum etc without fearing any security issues (BitGo is heavily focused on security implementation).

This means that if you receive any money via “crypto” tokens, while their price will often be line with the various “fiat” treaties – they will typically be quite volatile. For this reason, it’s often the case that many eCommerce store owners will simply “exchange” their “crypto” tokens for 100% fiat currency either at the end of the month, or after an order is received.

The “trick” employed by a large number of store owners is to actually keep their profits in the “crypto” ecosystem. This means they pay for everything else – including the likes of their COGS, warehousing and administrative costs – while retaining the pure profit in their exchange accounts.

By doing this, they have nothing to lose (and everything to gain) by letting their holdings ride the price waves of BTC and the other “crypto” tokens – multiplying their holdings faster than any savings account could ever do.

Source by Richard Peck

The Power of Content Marketing 640 426 ImplicitPay CO

The Power of Content Marketing

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WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

Content marketing is described as a strategic approach to marketing that focuses on the creation and distribution of valuable, consistent and relevant content to attract a certain refined audience for profits in the consumer market.

Most leading brands hire people with courses in content marketing to improve the branding of the product or service being marketed in the public domain and also benefits enterprises by increasing sales, cost saving and getting more and better consumers with higher loyalty.

THE NECESSITY OF CONTENT MARKETING

Marketing has revolutionized today due to the digitization of almost everything around us. Mass media is targeted to reach the specific audience for which the product or service has been catered for. Quality content is extremely essential for successful marketing along with a well-defined plan or strategy.

Different forms of content marketing like social media marketing, search engines publishing quality and consistent content, successful PR strategies, inbound marketing etc. are dependent on a proper content strategy that helps deliver the perfect content for a curated or mass audience.

Today, everything is digital. Marketing for almost anything, be it political, retail products or services, food or academic books etc., Everything is effectively and almost freely marketed via social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Most of these social media websites and search engines pop up relevant ads according to the searches we make across the Internet.

STATEGY FOR CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing must be smart so as to capture the attention of the target audience for the service or product. Targeting the youth on social media, the elderly via television and radio advertisements are some of the strategies for smart content marketing.

The content must be designed in such a way so as to target the right audience in their mindset. Map the content for the product or service and then try to use the right type of content for the problem by mapping the buying cycle of people who have the specified problem and would be willing to venture into the product or invest in the service.

VARITIES OF CONTENT

Different types of content are available suitable for different marketing strategies like vlogs, videos, advertisements, billboards, surveys, email newsletters, posts on social media pages like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc., Polls, podcasts, quizzes, outreach programs, photographs, predictions, news etc.

Each option has its own benefits and can be used according to the demand of the situation. The single main goal of marketing is to increase business revenue and there are numerous ways to achieve that.

Content marketing requires creative brainstorming from professionals who can analyze the minds and thinking of the consumer to decide which approach is best to capture their attention. Interactive and creative content will definitely help make a product or service successful.

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Source by Shalini M

How to Maintain an eCommerce Website 640 360 ImplicitPay CO

How to Maintain an eCommerce Website

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Setting up an eCommerce website is not the end of the work that needs to go into it. To ensure that it remains optimized and performs highly, effective maintenance is essential. A website should be considered an ongoing project, especially in the highly competitive and fast paced eCommerce industry.

Understanding the ongoing requirements that a website needs is crucial for growing your business and customer base. We’ve identified the six key areas that you should be considering regularly to ensure you get maximum value from it.

Monitoring customer journey
Understanding how your customers move through and interact with your website should be considered essential. It can help you understand where you’re losing customers in the sales funnel to devise improved strategies. It can also identify where your efforts can be focused in terms of product development and marketing, allowing you to yield better results.

Seek feedback
Do you currently seek feedback from your customers? Trends and technology change rapidly, feedback helps you assess where you need to make changes across your website to reflect this. Request feedback on various aspects of your businesses to inform how your website looks and operates. Listening to your customers can help take your business to the next level by helping you provide solutions.

Keep security up to date
Security is a huge issue within the eCommerce market and security updates should be performed as part of your routine tasks. Ensuring that you stay on top of security challenges not only improves your business in terms of decreasing risks, it can give consumers the confidence to make a purchase by offering safe payment options.

Ensure you have a SSL
As part of your security updates, make sure that you have a valid SSL certificate. It’s the standard technology for encrypting data and should be considered a fundamental part of your eCommerce maintenance procedures.

Monitor your website speed and accessibility
Consumers today expect speed. If your website takes too long to load, they’re simply head somewhere else. Poor speeds can be caused by several different web design aspects. If your website is taking longer than a few seconds to load, it’s to look at the reasons behind it, such as images that are not optimized, inefficient sever hardware, or code. Make checking your sessions one of your regular activities.

Use Google Analytics
Google’s algorithms are continuously being developed and how you perform on these indicators has a direct impact on your business and website traffic. Staying up to date with the latest SEO trends and investing time and resources into implementing them across your site is a critical eCommerce maintenance step.

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Source by Emmett Brosnan

Start Your Home-Based Online Business With These eCommerce Platforms 640 426 ImplicitPay CO

Start Your Home-Based Online Business With These eCommerce Platforms

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Starting an online venture these days is super easy. There are many inexpensive or free open source platforms for eCommerce store development.And, with the right development team, you are just one step away from getting your own website. Starting a home-based shop to trade your handicraft items, or other locally sourced products is a great idea as a startup. Starting an online business is trouble-free with ample of flexible open source and inexpensive eCommerce platforms available. The only secret of success is not to stop halfway but go on expanding product categories and store’s features to convert from a small startup to a leading online business.

While we know that for any individual who is not much aware of the functioning of the eCommerce world and how things go live overnight, selecting a platform rightly to set their own online shop is a backbreaking job. So, here’s a list of most powerful and easy-to-use platforms which can help owners to successfully transform their startup idea into a vibrant reality.

# 1 WooCommerce

Those who are at ease with WordPress, then WooCommerce is the right platform for them. Based on the WordPress, it is easy to install and start and since developers will charge you less. Further, there’s a large number of additional plugins or templates and themes of WooCommerce, which will help owners to deck up their stores as per the business category.

# 2 OpenCart

If there is one simple platform for startups, then it is OpenCart! This is the reason it is exceptionally popular among small retailers or the home-based ventures. Easy backend functionality, extensive feature plugins, unlimited products capacity and less server load are few of the perks bestowed by OpenCart.

# 3 Shopify

It comes as a befitting platform for eCommerce stores that simultaneously wants focus on mobile shopping and also social shopping. Easy integrations, lightning-fast loading speed, versatile payment gateway integrations, SEO features, direct social selling are the key features Shopify offers.

# 4 Magento

Acclaimed as the leading and fastest evolving platform, Magento is the benchmark platform. It supports all trades and can accomodate up to 500,000 products and 80,000 orders an hour. With a number of advanced features, easy integration, SEO oriented and versatile content management, it stands to the best solution available within the budget.

Further, it is modular and customisable, means you can gradually expand your store and add new features over time.

# 5 ZenCart

The whole reason for putting ZenCart in this list is its user-friendly approach and easy store management. It bears a set of far-reaching tools that offer full-scale customization options to the owners. Moreover, it focuses on the store security features to safe keep all customers and products information.

For a household person who is new to the eCommerce world with zero technical knowledge, selecting a platform that serves their business interests fully is tough. So, the wisest decision lies in choosing the one that offers best user-experience and inherent SEO features that will help the store outshine on the Google results.

Contact us and let us make your online store dream a reality.

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Source by Rob Stephen

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix) 640 336 ImplicitPay CO

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

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What is e-Marketing?

e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt – that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90’s.

The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing).

There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.

e-Marketing Strategy

The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing – the well-known 4 P’s (Product – Price – Promotion – Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P’s (People – Processes – Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix.

Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P’s) is built around the concept of “transactional” and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.

These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e-Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P’s) and upon each other.

1. Personalization

The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services.

For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor’s computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low-volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer’s experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages.

Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.

2. Privacy

Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one – personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the e-Marketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information.

This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons.

Privacy is even more important when establishing the e-Marketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations.

We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the “time” parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time.

For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix.

As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P’s, hence its moderating character.

4. Community

We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a “community” and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.

The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.

The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) – therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.

Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.

5. Site

We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media – the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place – a digital location for digital interactions.

Such a location is what we call a “site”, which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the “website” is merely a form of a “site” and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The “site” can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.

This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing – it is then a moderating function.

6. Security

The “security” function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.

What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security:

– security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;

– security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.

A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company’s IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.

7. Sales Promotion

At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.

This function counts on the marketer’s ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.

On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

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Source by Otilia Otlacan

Small And Midsized Company Marketing And Marketing Communications – A Lesson From Large Agencies 640 426 ImplicitPay CO

Small And Midsized Company Marketing And Marketing Communications – A Lesson From Large Agencies

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Over the past few years, rapidly developing technologies have changed the way marketers think about marketing and marketing communications strategies, plans and tactics. However, somewhat quietly but perhaps more importantly, a significant change has occurred with the world’s largest communications agencies – the dramatic growth of consulting companies at the expense of traditional advertising agencies.

Management and accounting consulting companies with new services are now ranking sixth through tenth among the world’s biggest communications companies. The specialized divisions of Accenture Interactive, PwC Digital Services, Deloitte Digital, Cognizant Interactive and IBMix had total global revenue of over $20 billion in 2017, with an eye-popping 32 percent growth in US revenue versus a year ago.

While traditional advertising industry giants WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic and Dentsu are ranked as the top five, with global revenue of nearly $62 billion, US revenue barely increased at 0.3 percent (Advertising Age).

Why is this change happening and what can small and midsized marketers learn from it?

Consulting Companies Focus On ROI

There are many reasons for the growth of consulting companies – in B2B, B2C and nonprofit marketing and marketing communications areas – but the top reasons are:

  1. Consulting companies already have deep ties, experience and credibility helping organizations improve their profitability, because of a sharp focus on ROI;
  2. Their existing familiarity with digital technologies, along with the financial resources to acquire specialized digital companies for expansion;
  3. Maintaining a data-based strategy with clients and prospects – not creative alone – which means they are focused on understanding customer wants and needs, as well as customer experiences at all pre- and post- customer purchase points;
  4. A focus on marketing and marketing communications effectiveness and not just efficiency, resulting in a very big difference to a brand’s profitability.

In short, a history and vision of focusing on and improving a brand’s profitability and its ROI. Keeping an eye on the bottom line – cost per customer, not just media cpm efficiency.

ROI Focused Marketing And Marketing Communications Consultants

As a small of midsized marketer, what can be learned from this dramatic shift of larger marketers? With only a small (sometimes inexperienced) staff, limited financial resources and time constraints, what should be considered?

Start with established marketing and marketing communications consultants who are clearly focused on a brand’s profitability and ROI, and not just “likes” or “clicks”. They should have significant experience across industries and brands, both for profit and nonprofit, and have a broad understanding of customer, prospect (and employee) motivations to purchase and repurchase, regardless of the business environment.

But, above all, they must be media neutral and not selling “one size fits all” solutions. As Tom Bradley, former head of marketing at Nestle said, “The best source of marketing communications leverage is the quality of the message… not the media vehicle, new or traditional, that does or does not deliver.” And that also means you must be sure that your consultants have the ability to cultivate and manage the creative process.

Selecting A Consultant

Unsure of how to select a consultant, much less what type of professional to look for? If your business is floundering and in serious need of overall repair, along with financing, you probably would be better served by either a management or accounting consultant.

If, however, your primary need is to establish or improve a weak marketing or marketing communications program for the short and long term your selection should be apparent. You should be looking for rigorous and objective counsel on the entire scope of traditional marketing and marketing communications opportunities available to you (traditional vs. new media; conventional vs. digital; etc.).

Beyond the qualities of the consultants previously mentioned, be sure to look for:

  1. Someone who is disciplined, apolitical, down to earth, and willing to be part of your team; consultants who will promote candor across all levels, who will listen and explain what needs to be done to everyone’s satisfaction; teaching, not lecturing, is very important’;
  2. Professionals with the ability to develop successful strategies, plans and executions with your team or, if necessary, who can provide outside specialists to improve part or all of the program;
  3. People who have strong convictions to use research and measure not only what has been done but also what is proposed to be done; measurement is key to evaluating success or the need to modify a plan;
  4. A flexible organization that can bring in marketing and marketing communications specialists when and as needed so that overhead isn’t an on-going expense.

Most small and midsized companies find themselves with not enough time, skill or financial resources to develop and execute a profitable marketing and marketing communications program. These challenges are growing exponentially, and consultants can be of great value in navigating this complex environment and adding value to your brand.

Hopefully, these ideas will give you food for thought, but as Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

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Source by Gary Kullberg

5 Trends to Watch Out for to Deliver a Future Proof E-Commerce Website Design 640 465 ImplicitPay CO

5 Trends to Watch Out for to Deliver a Future Proof E-Commerce Website Design

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The world of commerce is increasingly coming over the web. With mobile web getting stronger and sophisticated than ever before, most businesses are now invariably focused to reach their audience with a fluid and versatile experience.

User experience or more precisely, ease of use is the single most important consideration to ensure traction and engagement. It is needless to say that design plays a major role in this. While there is no dearth of creativity and innovation in designing e-commerce websites, the following trends can help your brand to stay future optimized as well.

Material Design

Flat design has dominated for years just because it ensured optimum ease of use and easy access. But as flat design became commonplace, Google brought material design to bring some layers and depth to the flat design. With material design, an interface selling products can allow more layers and help prioritization as well as prominence in certain areas that deserve more action.

For example, subtle use of shadows and gradients can sharpen certain CTA buttons and create a visual hierarchy for the viewers.

More personalization of AI and machine learning

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning became possible thanks to an array of sophisticated sensors that process multiple layers of user data. With devices learning about users and adjusting to their needs thanks to data feedback, websites and web apps could have more scopes of personalization, whether addressing users with notification messages or suggesting them products with in-app messages.

Chatbots

Chatbots offer a complete paradigm shift for the websites and web apps dealing with real-time shoppers. Designed to answer all relevant queries at every step of purchase and browsing it actually replaces the so-called manual customer service to guide users.

Moreover, designed to build a conversation with personalized human touch the modern Chatbots can really sound convincing and pleasant to push customers for better buying decisions. Throughout this year and beyond Chatbots are going to be a mainstay in e-commerce website design and development.

Dynamic search

For any e-commerce site, it is very important to allow ease of searching products with minimum delay. Moreover, with the search results being the same with every user, many users can feel it depressing as they need to reach their desired ones with a lot of efforts.

This is why delivering search results based on the user intents and previous search history is important. Widely dubbed as dynamic search, this new and easy search feature is expected to be a mainstay across e-commerce websites.

Long scroll

Just think of scrolling down the Facebook news feed that seemingly goes on for miles. None of us get bored with scrolling down and encountering new pieces of contents as it continues revealing more.

Long scroll, when introduced into an e-commerce site, does almost the same thing by allowing us to see fresh new options as we scroll down. Moreover, scrolling down is a common action most users are frequently acquainted with.

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Source by Manthan Bhavsar

Planning for an eCommerce Startup? Choose WooCommerce 640 426 ImplicitPay CO

Planning for an eCommerce Startup? Choose WooCommerce

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Thinking of starting your own eCommerce venture? Well, in that case, you will need to build a website first. Starting a business involves a huge investment in diverse segments and building an entire eCommerce site is undoubtedly the most crucial part of it.

According to worldwide developers and market analysts, WooCommerce is an excellent choice for devising eCommerce sites for startup businesses. Why? Well, read on to know.

→ WooCommerce is Free

Yes! You read it right. You can get this amazing eCommerce development platform in free of cost. Worrying about the quality? No need to do that. Despite being an open source free platform, it is going to offer you extensive and out of the box features that will not only enhance the functionalities of your online store but will make it more flexible which is befitting for startup businesses.

→ Wide Customisation Options

In an eCommerce business, customisation of the store is very important. It can help you to present your online store the way you want. Suitable customisation makes your store unique and helps you to stand out from market competitors.

Multiple themes are available free of cost. You can choose any of these options that suit your business type the most. More interestingly, depending on the theme you select, you can make necessary changes in the colour style, CSS styles and experiment with the store features.

→ Familiar Friendliness

WordPress platform is pretty much popular as almost 51% of the hugely acknowledged websites are WordPress-built. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and most of the developers are already well versed with the diverse functionalities and features offered by WordPress.

Now, working with WooCommerce becomes extremely easier for them as they are already kind of familiar with the working environment. Working on a familiar interface definitely helps to avert major complications as well as to save time and bring out the best creativity.

→ Flexibility

When you are new in this eCommerce business and building websites, not having an in-depth technical knowledge is not a sin! The interesting fact about this platform is that it will not let you feel lost in the race. You can easily categorise your products, can add independent attributes, give your desired sale prices and many more.

Moreover, WooCommerce-built stores can sell any type of products including virtual, physical, downloadable and external or affiliate products. This utmost flexibility is one of the main reasons of this platform being very popular with the startups.

→ Easy Analytics

Accurate and precise store analysis helps to understand business owners direction of the business such as how the store is performing. Statistical figures such as total orders and sales, business graph, sales by date, individual statistics of customers etc. will help the store owners to understand whether the business is performing in an expected way or not. In this way, you can set your next strategies to enhance the productivity.

If you opt for WooCommerce platform, it will give you a room for future growth that is very crucial. Suppose you started as a startup and now, your business is expanding. In this platform, making necessary changes will be extremely easier. Additionally, the vast range of available plugins is another reason behind its immense popularity.

So, if you are looking for such a platform that will give a professional look to your business site yet simple in nature, yes, this is the best option for you!

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Source by Rob Stephen

Develop A Marketing And Marketing Communications Strategy And Plan For Small Or Midsized Companies 640 427 ImplicitPay CO

Develop A Marketing And Marketing Communications Strategy And Plan For Small Or Midsized Companies

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Planning for the year ahead is never an easy task. Lack of resources (people, time, budget), keeping up to date on what’s going on in your market, obtaining quality leads and improving brand awareness and reputation have become increasingly difficult for all organizations – for profit companies as well as nonprofits. This has become especially true among US CEO’s who are concerned with not just domestic but also international uncertainties.

Developing A Marketing And Marketing Communications Strategy Is Critical

This should be your priority. Without a strategy for a plan there are way too many opportunities to get off track and chew up your investment. Your ROI will suffer. Consider the following to focus your efforts when developing your strategy and plan:

1. Determining, understanding and verifying your target customers and prospects should be at the top of your agenda. To improve profitability and ROI you must know what your audience wants and needs, how they perceive your brand and how it stands up to competition.

Be sure to avoid industry and company “myths” and internal “opinions”. Employ primary and secondary research to understand your audience. With so much information available about companies and brands, it is truly the Age Of The Consumer and will be for a very long time.

2. Additionally, as part of your knowledge of your audience, determine the size and scope of various sub-segments that exist today and will tomorrow. For example, does your audience include women, or Asians, or Hispanics? If so, look at the dramatic growth of these segments of the populations and determine if your brand needs to pay particular attention to them.

Also, recognize that millennials (23% of the US population) are not a homogenous group. At the younger end (20 – 28 years), 40 percent t are currently living rent free with family, while at the older end (29 – 35 years), 43 percent have already purchased a home. With that in mind, how should your strategy differ if you’re targeting adults 55 years and older (21% of US population)?

3. Once you clearly understand your audience, develop your unique brand position. To do this, create a brand positioning statement. The statement is a succinct description of the core target audience to whom the brand is directed and a compelling picture of how you want your audience to view the brand. Sound simple? Take a few minutes and try to answer the four components of your positioning:

· The target audience, in very specific detail

· The category in which you complete and its relevance to customers

· The brand’s benefit and point of difference

· A reason for the customer to believe – the most compelling proof

All marketing and marketing communications should flow from this positioning, and it should be fully understood and embraced by all employees, sales reps, partners and management.

4. Improving brand awareness is very important but only the first step. You also need to create great customer experiences with each touch point of your brand. And that means creating brand advocacy at all levels of contact. Develop brand champions at every level of purchase and repurchase to improve ROI.

Be sure these influencers completely understand, believe and can articulate your brand premise. And provide them with the training and tools to convey their trust-worthiness in a believable manner.

Developing A Focused Marketing And Marketing Communications Plan And Budget

After the hard work of developing a meaningful strategy, recognize it’s equally important to develop a specific plan and budget. The following should be taken into consideration:

1. You must be media neutral and open minded in developing your plan and budget. It is extremely important to understand the difference between “efficiency” and “effectiveness”, and not get caught up with the latest trendy new tactic.

Regardless of the specific marketing tactic, or type of digital or traditional media, you’re evaluating, keep in mind that cost efficiency does not necessarily lead to effective results. Also, and most importantly, the best source of marketing communications leverage is the quality of the message, not the marketing tactic.

2. The scope and diversity of marketing and marketing communications tactics have grown faster than the ability to measure some of them. Marketers now are actually spending money without knowing how it impacts their profitability and ROI! Consider the variety of ways in which nearly $450 billion is expected to be spent in the US in 2018:

· Sales promotion ($83 billion), telemarketing ($60 billion), direct mail (($46 billion) and events ($40 billion) highlight projected 2018 US Marketing Services expenditures;

· The internet ($78 billion), television ($68 billion) and the combination of radio, newspapers and magazines ($47 billion) are projected to be at the top of the 2018 US Major Media spending categories.

Source: Zenith Total US Spending

And while it may surprise you, 90 percent of consumers (and 94 percent of millennials) still use coupons. The coupons come from a variety of on-line and traditional mediums, but mail is most popular. Why do marketers still use coupons? The simple answer is because they’re effective in guiding purchase. In developing your own plan and budget, determine and recognize the effectiveness of all marketing tactics, not just their efficiency.

ROI Focused Marketing And Marketing Communications Consultants

If you’re like most small and midsized companies, you and your team may not have the expertise or time to develop an ROI focused marketing and marketing communications strategy, plan or budget.

Even major global brands are seeking outside advisors. In my May article, I discussed the dramatic growth of management and accounting consulting practices (33% increase in US revenue) at the expense of traditional global advertising agencies (0.3% increase in US revenue). One reason for this 2017 growth of consultants is their focus – not on trends or what’s in the news – but on marketing and marketing communications effectiveness, profitably and ROI.

While you may not be able to afford the large global consultants, you should consider hiring a marketing and/or marketing communications consultant. The type of people you should hire should:

· Have a focus on ROI, with significant experience across industries, b2b and b2c brands, both large and small, as well as for profit and nonprofit organizations

· Be media neutral, apolitical, down to earth, be willing to be part of a team and “tell it like it is” so candor will flourish

· Have flexibility to bring in other professional specialists when and as needed so that overhead isn’t an ongoing expense

· Have strong convictions to measure what has been done and measure what will be done to improve ROI, perhaps including a marketing communications audit

In today’s challenging environment, a greater focus on strategy, planning and budgeting can go a long way toward leapfrogging competition and improving brand profitability. And the fresh eyes of a consultant can go a long way to building a meaningful future for your brand.

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Source by Gary Kullberg

Major Challenges of Ecommerce in the Developing Nations 640 406 ImplicitPay CO

Major Challenges of Ecommerce in the Developing Nations

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Ecommerce can change the economies of the developing nations. It can integrate them to the global market which in turn improves and strengthens the economic well-being of these nations. However, the practice of Ecommerce in these nations is in its early stages and there are also major challenges that can hold back its growth. I categorize them in two major parts as follows;

Cultural issues

1. Lack of online culture

Electronic way of doing business is a new concept for the societies of the developing nations. People usually buy and sell on face-to-face basis. They see and touch (physically) what they want, negotiate on best deals, and buy. This is the type of business activity they are familiar with, which is entirely different from online way of doing it. The idea of buying goods and services that cannot be seen and touched physically is not the type of risk they can afford. They are not confident also whether online merchants are trust worthy enough to deliver products and services as promised.

Merchants as well are afraid to sell their products over the Internet. Considering the lack of online buying habits of the society, and because of the reason that electronic way of doing business is not well-known, they think it is a high business risk to take. They usually are not willing to invest on online ventures. Thus, this extremely damages the growth of Ecommerce in these nations.

2. Lack of Trust

Basically, trust is a major issue in online business environment. As I mentioned earlier, people in the developing nations are not confident with online way of doing business, by which one of the major reasons is trust. Because Ecommerce is not a practice in these countries, and business is usually done on face-to-face bases, people usually raise trust issues. They are obliged to think how could they trust people they do not see and may be found thousands of kilometers away? Besides, because there are no Ecommerce policies and laws in most of developing countries, they are afraid where to go in case of disputes.

Infrastructural issues

1. Limited access of Telecommunication infrastructure and high cost of Internet

Ecommerce requires technological foundations. One of the major ones is access to the Internet. To run an online business one needs an Internet connection with stable and high connection speed. However, mostly the Internet connection type in the developing nations is a dial up connection, which is very limited and slow. Besides, the cost of possessing it is high. This is another challenge Ecommerce faces in the developing nations.

2. Limited access to Personal Computers

Another major technological facility Ecommerce needs is Personal computers. Possessing computers is expensive in the developing nations because they usually are imported products from the developed nations; which is another major challenge for the growth of Ecommerce in these countries.

3. Lack of Electronic payment facilities for enabling transfer of funds

Banking is another major facility needed to do Ecommerce. And in most cases, the developing nations lack this major facility. Online merchants in these countries are obliged to use banking facilities offshore if they are going to do business over the net.

4. Imperfect legal system and policy barriers

To do Ecommerce, perfect legal system and policy is required. Without them it is impossible to do business online. However, these nations usually lack these major systems which in turn could make doing Ecommerce difficult.

However, even though doing business online in the developing nations is difficult, it is not impossible at all. It can be done given the circumstances. It could take more effort to be successful though. In addition, the industry needs time to utilize its potentials.

Thus, realizing the potential of Ecommerce in the developing nations, there are concerned bodies by which their co-operation can make a big difference. They are government, professionals, online merchants, banks and customers. If they can work together and collaborate, they can fully avoid all the above mentioned obstacles and can benefit their nations from the outputs of Ecommerce.

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Source by Hanna Shiferaw