mastering online marketing & eCommerce

1. Mastering Online Marketing &
e-Commerce
Jake Aull
GSU
Social Media Marketing

2. When is eCommerce Right?
Jake Aull | GSU

3. • When is eCommerce Right?
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• We often think about digital marketing as the means to promote traditional products and services for
traditional points-of-sale (brick-and-mortar).
• However digital marketing can even define and drive the product for eCommerce.
• How? People search online for what product they want to purchase.
• Every year people grow more comfortable with online purchasing, but if consumers can find exactly what
they’re looking for online, and don’t find it physically available nearby, they will purchase online.
• So what do the people want? Keyword research tells us (search volume, competitiveness, etc.).

4. • When is eCommerce Right?
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• And all of this makes “niche” product models (what search marketers call “long tail”) work best (especially
when starting an eCommerce business or site).
• For example I had a client with an eCommerce furniture site.
• Furniture is an industry, like fashion for example, which is less commoditized and less brand dominant. Sure
there are major brands and even common stores, but there are is a huge market for the less commoditized,
less utilitarian products.
• The client site was based on ‘rustic cabin furniture’ - something people searched for, but not largely enough
to be a common product ‘category.’
• Therefore when consumers searched for this term previously there was not heavy competition (nor heavy
search marketing implementation for other sites).
• Fashion would be similar (take for example alternative fashion movements such as Steampunk).
• Which is why we see successful eCommerce sites for these industries, despite the misconception that
people ‘won’t buy furniture or clothes that they can’t see or feel.’

5. • When is eCommerce Right?
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• Of course eCommerce models work well for more rare products also; I have had eCommerce clients selling
unique products direct-to-consumers such as CPAPs (medical and snoring oxygen face masks), and CNC
(builder/maker machines).
• Alternatively, just as with traditional marketing, it’s going to be hard to sell commoditized or even brand-
specific/brand-loyal products which already have heavily established customer purchase opportunities.
• For example, it’s going to be hard to sell non-Macintosh computers to Mac customers (a very loyal customer
base; and there are already many opportunities for Mac purchasing).
• And it’s going to be difficult to break into the market selling red T-shirts online (due to commoditization).
• So again, just as with traditional marketing, it comes down to demand, differentiated positioning, USP
(unique sales proposition), etc.

6. • When is eCommerce Right?
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• The difference is that the eCommerce model offers minimal cost; you can work out arrangements to re-sell
vendor products without upfront purchasing.
• In other words, you can pay the manufacturer once an end-customer buys on your website.
• And at that point route info to the manufacturer to do the product direct shipping.
• And without paying for brick-and-mortar facilities, location or warehousing space, the amount of your profit
growth comes down to the effectiveness of your promotion for increased purchasing.
• What’s more, you can also obtain revenue from ads on your eCommerce site; such as special banner ads for
specific manufacturers (if they wish to heavily promote or give you a discount on your cost for their
products) or even Google ads shown on your site (I have an eCommerce client who allows Google ads to
appear on his site).

7. • When is eCommerce Right?
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• In traditional marketing we talk about “The 4 Ps” being the foundation for marketing planning: Product (or
service), Place (distribution), Promotion and Price.
• But in digital marketing we talk about a fifth P; “Participation.” Meaning the participation element of social
media; the potential for multi-way information and communications between consumers and the marketer.
• Social media not only gives us additional ways to promote, but also ways to identify consumer demand (and
ever-important reviews, complaints, word-of-mouth, etc.).
• So how many consumers are talking about ‘rustic cabin furniture’ that they can’t find in stores? How many in
social media groups are talking about ‘Steampunk fashion’ they can’t find a wide enough selection of? All of
this is identifiable via online research.
• What used to require years of industry experience and awareness of customer buying patterns and
competitors can now be identified more quickly via online consumer research.

8. Jake Aull | GSU Social Media Marketing Instructor
Approach to eCommerce
entrepreneurship

9. Approach to eCommerce entrepreneurship
1). Formulate product/service business ideas and affiliated
keywords list (start broad).
2). Test keywords in SEO and keyword analysis tools for top
keywords in demand.
3). Research competitive sites from same tools and search
results.

10. Keyword
selection
Mastering Online Marketing:
12 World Class Strategies That
Cut Through the Hype and
Make Real Money on the
Internet
By Mitch Myerson.
Entrepreneur Press.

11. Keyword
Comparison

12. Approach to eCommerce entrepreneurship
4). Define differentiated products/services in demand.
5). Create marketing strategy and plan.
6). Construct promotions funnel, incentivizations and
calendar.

13. Approach to eCommerce entrepreneurship
7). Create promotions.
7a.) Buy email list.
7b.) Target and test emails.
7c.) PPC advertising
7d.) Set up social media channels and profiles.
7e.) Find existing communities on your niche.
7f.) Help and answer questions there;
your profile pulls viewers to your sites.
7g.) SEO (keyword build) your sites.
7h.) Submit your sites to social backlink sites
(Reditt, Digg, Pearltrees, etc.).

14. Approach to e-Commerce entrepreneurship
8). Set up customer info-capture landing page survey (require survey and
info-capture for incentives).
9). Ask survey questions that could crowdsource product upsell ideas.
9b.) Crowdsource questions in social sites.
10). Identify upsell products, plans and affiliate partnerships.
11). Implement and test.

15. Marketing
funnel

16. Review: e-Commerce Approach
• Choose industries/product categories
• Research keywords & competitors
• Define differentiated products/services in search content demand
• Create digital marketing strategy & plan
• Output promotions & SEO
• Promote landing page & measure marketing funnel
• Affiliate partnerships
• Crowdsource for upsell products
• A/B; Multivariate Testing

17. Mastering Online Marketing &
e-Commerce
Jake Aull
GSU
Social Media Marketing