I’m going to break down the strategy I used for a recent client. I’m not going to use the client’s name in this article however to keep the information confidential and I’ll keep most of the information generalised so you can benefit and be able to apply it to your business.
The company I implemented this for is a skincare company that sells body lotions. If your business sells something similar then you are in luck, however, I think you can use this for generally any product you’d like to sell online.
Market Research
The first step in this process is to figure out a few things. Who the target market is and what they are looking for. In this case, we surveyed men and women of all ages. We went wide at first asking questions about what products they use, why they use them, what price points these products are and what could be improved. We found that we got the majority of people using skincare products are women. The prices ranged significantly from under $100TTD to well over $500TTD. There were some women who used no products. This was interesting so we dug further into why they didn’t use any products. Those who used products indicated some features which were missing in their current line up. The end result of this research led us to make recommendations to the client on who the customer is, what she wants, who she buys from and even identified some major competitors. We used this research throughout the next steps.
The Brand
We helped to develop the brand. From the logo to typeface choices, to colour selection and every aspect which would help customers to recognise the company, everything had to be appealing to the customer we identified earlier. The research we did earlier helped to pick even the bottles the product would eventually be distributed in and this also became part of the brand moving forward. I’ve seen many startups fail to recognise the importance of choosing the right elements to build their brand. Needless to say, a brand guideline was developed after many iterations and the client approved it.
The Social Media Campaign
Social media comes in two parts. There is the organic section where you create posts and curate content to share with an audience and there is the ad campaign to make people aware of everything. We did photoshoots to create the content. We picked a few models which represent the demographics identified in the market research as well as we staged many product photos to be used throughout the campaign.
When building the content for social media, I like to look at the entire layout of the social media feed rather than just individual posts. If a customer visits the Instagram page of the brand, for example, the entire feed should tell a story before anyone even clicks on an individual post. It takes a lot more planning, but the end result is usually stunning. The feed should invite customers to like, follow, interact etc.
The ads built for the brand should be those which would bring brand awareness and also encourage customers to the action we want. This could be page likes, website visits or sales. These ads also should be built for the platform they are going to be shown on. For eg Story vs Newsfeed vs Marketplace, all have their unique dimensions and if they aren’t catered to then your advertisement won’t show up as intended.
The Website
In this case, the client had to begin selling online before getting their product into retail stores. This website had to be eCommerce compatible and have features in place to track users interactions. The website had to be on-brand. Every single touchpoint a user interacts with has to be on-brand. The goal is to ensure the visitor has a memorable experience.
Something worth mentioning about this project is that this website; since it is the only means for the client to drive revenue; had to work! By using google analytics we were able to gain insights throughout the project to be able to constantly improve the user experience and optimise to drive them through the sales funnel all the way to checkout.
The Key Points
When selling online, you need to pay attention to every aspect of the user experience. Each element should drive the end-user to the desired outcome. We may be interested in a number of goals such as page likes, shares, sales etc and by being aware of these goals you can design various elements of the strategy to achieve such goals.
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