It’s already 2022! Like 2020 and 2021, eCommerce will continue to develop, as will marketing strategies to market and grow your audience and customer base.
Our web experts have studied numerous client accounts and speak with Google and Bing teams over the last month and based on the way we can see where most of these accounts heading. We believe 2022 will be the year of feeds, data and attribution.
In addition, it’s better for business owners to upgrade eCommerce marketing strategies for 2022 with these top 4 simple strategies. If you manage eCommerce digital marketing campaigns, these strategies can save you time and help grow your traffic, sales and bottom line.
Start increasing your SEO traffic
There was a significant time lag between publishing new content and receiving search engine traffic to that content. When you spend hours on product images and in-depth content, the time lag might be discouraging. Fortunately, Bing and Yandex — two search engines that account for more than 7% of search engine use — recently developed a free ping service called IndexNow, which helps inform search engines of new content on a website. Those changes will appear in search results faster when you update your website.
Even better, Google is testing the service for its search engine in November 2021. Assuming those tests go well, Google will probably start rolling out IndexNow, too.
Clean up your Google Merchant Centre
The beginning of a new year is the right time to do some eCommerce marketing spring cleaning. Specifically, take a close look at your Google Merchant Centre to verify that it reflects your eCommerce offerings. You may have set up your product feeds for Google Merchant months or years ago. There’s a good chance there is out-of-date information showing up in Google Shopping. That’s a problem because potential customers may click through to your website only to find your products are out of stock.
The following steps can help you maximise your offerings:
- Go to Google Merchant Centre and log in.
- Review your existing product feeds.
Do your product feeds and correctly display up-to-date product information? Test this by picking three to five newer eCommerce products and see if they show up in your feed.
1. Create a free listing
You can add listings to the Google Shopping tab for free. Still, it’s only available in the United States right now (be careful if you run eCommerce marketing advertising in several countries). This means you have the opportunity to highlight your eCommerce products right in Google search results in the Shopping tab. Follow Google’s step-by-step directions in Google Merchant Centre Help.
2. Create a reminder to review your Google Merchant Centre
Ensure you periodically monitor your feeds and setup in Google Merchant Centre. At a minimum, checking in annually is a starting point. If your e-commerce business changes more frequently (e.g., new products for summer and winter), you may find it helpful to review your setup quarterly.
It’s critical to keep your product information up to date. In September 2021, Google announced several changes to Google Shopping. For example, searchers can now use an “in stock” filter to find stores with a product on the shelf near their location. This change may create more competition for e-commerce campaigns.
Organise your affiliate, influencer and ambassador programs advertising in one place
Influencer marketing, affiliate marketing and brand ambassadors are growing more important. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the industry will be worth $13.8 billion in 2021. To put that figure into context, influencer marketing was worth $1.7 billion in 2016. If your e-commerce business lacks influencer or affiliate marketing strategies, you miss out on a significant way to find new customers.
Make (or update) your influencer list all in one place. Then, verify that your payments to affiliates are being completed accurately and on time. There are different ways to improve the payment experience for affiliates. You could take a manual approach to verify payment accuracy and timeliness. Additionally, services exist that will let you manage all affiliate, influencer and ambassador tracking in one location along with payments.
Create first-party data
Google said in March 2021 that third-party cookie support in Chrome would be removed. This change is vital because Google Chrome is the most popular browser in the U.S. As of November 2021, roughly 49% of American web browsers use Chrome.
These cookies have been depended on by digital marketers for years to track customers and keep marketing campaigns functioning correctly. However, you cannot rely on traditional third-party cookies any longer. As a result, paid ad campaigns that rely on third-party cookies will no longer be very effective. This change is particularly significant if you rely on remarketing and retargeting ad campaigns to sell your products.
The solution is to connect with your customers via first-party data. This means putting more emphasis on growing your email list. Making more offers, like discount codes and exclusive content, may be wise to reward customers who opt-in on your website. In addition, review how your website is using first-party cookies. To stay compliant with new customers privacy expectations, make sure you ask for consent for your website cookies.
Final takeaways
In this year, digital marketing will undergo significant changes. Work your way through all of these marketing strategies but pick one to focus on first.
ECommerce keeps changing and business owners need to follow the development of eCommerce digital marketing. Why not reach out to our web experts for help? Partnering with our full-service digital marketing agency will offer a tremendous advantage in competitive industries. Our web experts have the flexibility to follow the ever-changing digital marketing era. Give us a good call!
To find out how we can help you with your Website + Marketing, using our unique location marketing platform called Top4, get in touch today at www.top4marketing.com
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