E-commerce stores can use Google AdWords to successfully market their products to customers who are searching for them.  The degree of success you can achieve when advertising an ecommerce store depends solely on the sites ability to convert visitors into actual product sales. There are many ways to improve your conversions on AdWords, and one of the best ways is to run promotions alongside your campaigns. Business owners can develop promotions using the marketing mix (4ps) that reach their target markets without sacrificing too much profit, and clearly define and maintain a competitive difference against their competitors. With a continued increase of people wanting to buy online, along with a growing percentage of retailers marketing online, ecommerce stores need to invest in developing creative and effective marketing strategies to coincide with their Google AdWords campaigns.  

This article will:

• Define the marketing mix (4ps) and;
• Show your 6 strategies for Ecommerce stores using the marketing mix. 

What is the Marketing Mix and how this affects E-commerce stores?

The marketing mix is the foundation of marketing theory, better known as the 4ps. The elements in the marketing mix help marketers to develop strategies for their business. The elements are:

• Product: what you are selling?
• Person: who you are selling to?
• Place: Where are you selling?
• Promotion: how to reach your market using tracts to encourage sales. 

The 4ps are imperative to thinking in marketing. The 4ps allow a business owner to develop strategies for their market. For example, let’s say you sell men’s apparel that will be product, your person, will all men ages between 18 +, your place will be online, and your promotion will be ideas to increase sales. 

6 Strategies for E-commerce stores on AdWords:

According to the ACMA, (2011) Ecommerce Marketplace in Australia: Online Shopping, found the top three reasons people buy online is convenience, price, and a better range of good/services. With ‘price’, being the second biggest reason for purchasing online, e-commerce stores need to consider how to tap into the market without losing on product. The aim of e-commerce stores is to sell as much volume as possible, thus by thinking of the marketing mix, we can develop promotions to increase sales.

Here are 5 strategies that were developed using the marketing mix:

•  Price strategies: Pricing for most buyers is very important, especially when there is no loyalty to a brand.  Here are a few strategies that are around pricing:

1. Bundle offers: buy buying in bulk, people are save x amount on a purchase.  This rewards people by offering a discount on larger orders and more importantly for your AdWords campaign can raise you average checkout value.
2. Buy one get one half price: This increases the chance of customers to buy more products, if you have overstocked products, this will be a good way to reduce this.
3. 'Free Shipping’ when spending x amount: Shipping costs are usually important, especially if they only need one item and the shipping is more than the price of the product. Again, this increases the average order size and average checkout value.
4. ‘X Day Free Return’: Many people like to try a product, especially clothes before they purchase. Offering a free returns policy can encourage a user to convert more readily as they know they can return the goods if unsatisfied.

• Product strategies: Generally prices of products are determined based on the break-even theory, that being how much you need to make if the profit is set at zero, which determines the unit price. By having a look at your products, you can increase your sales by answering these two questions:

1. Seasonal Marketing: Some products are seasonal, for example swimwear. It would make more sense to have a promotion on swimwear in summer.
2. Popular products: In many cases, a few products are responsible for the profit margin. By understanding which products are the most popular, this can help you to develop promotions around throughout the year, and focus your orders.

Going Forward

Hopefully this article has shown you some strategies that e-commerce stores use to differentiate themselves from their competitors. By implementing the marketing mix theory, advertisers will be able to develop promotions, combining this with their AdWords campaign, they will be able to focus on their sales volume, and increase this.

Feel free to read 3 Tips to Improve Ecommerce website Conversions to see how your website plays a role for ecommerce stores.

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