E-commerce and the online digital world are forever evolving. After years of transition from the emphasis of offline to online slowly convincing the non-believers, e-commerce businesses and their low cost business plans have been proven to be a winning formula for many start-ups.
This has been down to the low costs involved with running a business purely online, without all of the disadvantages involved with tangible assets. Below we analyse the four most profitable digital channels that have the highest return on investment (ROI) compared to other forms of digital marketing communications.
1) Mobile Marketing
An increase in emphasis on mobile marketing, has been as a result of the growing popularity of smartphones, and even more so, the competitive market rivalry between Samsung and Apple.
There are a variety of ways to exploit users through mobile, but the most popular in late 2014/early 2015 has been the use of apps and push notifications.
Brands and businesses alike have been quick to recognise this, with most rushing to develop an app, - with users reluctant to uninstall mobile applications - push notifications have been a valuable marketing tool with a read rate of 97% and an increase of 300% ROI over any other form of messaging communication.
2) Email Marketing
Email marketing can essentially be a goldmine for businesses that are already sitting on a database of thousands of users. Compared to other marketing tools, email marketing has one of the highest ROI's, with 70% of users always opening emails from their favourite companies.
There are various providers that can help you develop an easy, direct email marketing strategy; however YMLP and Mail Chimp provide user-friendly email marketing software compared to alternative providers.
3) Responsive Web Design
The decline of desktop usage, and the increasing trend of customers purchasing through mobile devices has resulted in an increase in traffic to brands' websites via a variety of mobile devices in the form of smartphones, tablets and whatever else you can think of that allows you to browse the internet these days.
Previously, websites haven't been designed to load effectively for a variety of devices. A responsive web design ensures a website is programmed to appear optimised specifically for certain mobile devices leading to a smoother user experience.
With 67% of users stating that they're more likely to purchase a product or service from a site that is mobile-friendly and loads quick, ensuring your website is responsive is the first step to maximising revenue for your e-commerce store.
4) Social Media
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the return on investment of social media marketing. However Jeffrey Gitomer famously states, "If they had measured the ROI of TV, or the computer, or the Internet after five years, nobody would have gotten involved, and we'd be in a technological bog."
The benefits of your brand having a social media presence compared to not having one, outweigh the drawbacks by far. Social media shouldn't be treated as a sales tool, but as a relationship builder that gives your business a ROI in the long term, as famously quoted by - Eric Qualman - "The ROI of Social Media is that your business will still exist in 5 years."
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