06/15/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

Setting goals for your email marketing efforts is an important step in creating a focused and measurable strategy. Starting an email marketing strategy from scratch can seem challenging and a long process. Like with any business strategy, it is important to isolate what email marketing needs to achieve and align some achievable goals so that you can set a great strategy.

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you set effective goals for your email marketing campaigns:

1. Define your overall business objectives: Start by understanding your broader business goals. What are you aiming to achieve with your digital marketing efforts? Examples could include increasing sales, generating leads, improving customer retention, or boosting website traffic.
2. Align email marketing goals with business objectives: Once you have identified your business objectives, determine how email marketing can contribute to those goals. For instance, if your objective is to increase sales, your email marketing goal might be to drive more conversions through targeted promotional campaigns.
3. Cost optimization: E-commerce shipping solutions often provide tools to help you optimize shipping costs. They offer rate comparison features that allow you to select the most cost-effective shipping options based on the package's weight, dimensions, and destination. It helps you save money on shipping expenses and improves your overall profitability.
4. Make your goals SMART: Ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). This means clearly defining what you want to achieve, setting specific metrics to track progress, making sure your goals are realistic and attainable, ensuring they align with your overall business objectives, and setting a timeline to achieve them.
5. Choose relevant key performance indicators (KPIs): Identify the metrics that will help you measure the success of your email marketing campaigns. Common KPIs include open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, revenue generated, unsubscribe rates, and engagement metrics like time spent on your website or the number of pages visited.
6. Set specific targets: Once you have defined your KPIs, set specific targets or benchmarks for each metric. These targets will serve as milestones to track your progress and determine the success of your campaigns. For example, you may aim to increase your email open rate by 10% within three months or achieve a 5% increase in click-through rates.
7. Continuously monitor and adjust: Regularly track and analyze the performance of your email campaigns against your goals and KPIs. If you find that you're not meeting your targets, consider making adjustments to your strategy, content, or audience segmentation to improve results.
8. Iterate and optimize: As you gather data and insights from your campaigns, use that information to refine and optimize your email marketing strategy. Test different approaches, content variations, subject lines, and calls-to-action to improve your email performance and achieve better results over time.

Remember, setting goals for email marketing is an ongoing process. As your business evolves and your marketing landscape changes, regularly review and update your goals to ensure they remain aligned with your overall business objectives.

Dreaming Code is a partner who can lead your digital success. We provide an industry-leading platform to enable agile and flexible digital experiences. We also provide knowledge to help you succeed at driving the performance of your digital solution.

Dreaming Code has an experienced team of solution consultants and website designers who support our customers 24/7. Our customers also always have access to our team, and we are always here to provide guidance. If you fail, then we do not succeed. Please schedule an appointment if you want more information on how to support your eCommerce site best.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

05/12/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

When considering strategies to help drive website visits, content is king. A well-crafted content strategy can help you reach your target audience, build brand awareness, and increase engagement. But creating content on the fly can be stressful and ineffective, and this is where a content calendar comes in handy. It is a tool to organize and plan your content marketing efforts over a set period, typically a month or quarter.

Why is a content calendar important?

1. Consistency: One of the most critical factors in content marketing is consistency. A content calendar helps you plan and organize your content in advance, making maintaining a consistent publishing schedule easier.
2. Organization: A content calendar helps you keep track of your content ideas, themes, and topics. This makes it easier to avoid duplicating content and ensures all content aligns with your marketing goals.
3. Collaboration: A content calendar can help ensure everyone is on the same page if you work in a team. You can easily share the calendar with your team, assign tasks, and track progress.

What should be included in a content calendar?

1. Dates: Your content calendar should include a list of dates for your planning period. This could consist of essential holidays, events, or product launches.
2. Content topics: Your calendar should list issues you plan to cover. This will help you organize your content and cover all your key themes.
3. Content formats: Your calendar should also indicate the type of content you plan to publish. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media posts.
4. Assignments: If you are working in a team, assigning tasks and responsibilities to team members is important. Your content calendar should indicate who is responsible for creating each piece of content.
5. Promotion plan: Your calendar should also include a plan for how you will promote each piece of content. This could include social media promotion, email marketing, or paid advertising.

How to build a content calendar?

1. Define your goals: Define your marketing goals and the audience you want to reach. This will help you identify the type of content you need to create and the platforms you need to use.
2. Choose your format: There are many content calendar templates available online. Please choose a design that works best for you: a spreadsheet or a digital calendar.
3. Add important dates: Add important dates, such as holidays or product launches, to your calendar.
4. Plan your content: Use your goals and audience research to plan your content. Include content topics, formats, and assignments.
5. Promote your content: Plan how to promote each piece of content, including social media promotion and email marketing.

A content calendar is valuable for any marketer or business owner, and it can help you stay organized, maintain consistency, and achieve your marketing goals. Following the steps outlined above, you can create a content calendar that works for your business and helps you achieve your marketing objectives. Remember, a well-organized content calendar can help take your content marketing efforts to the next level.

Have the Dreaming Code solutions team show you how to build a content calendar that can perform. This is included for customers using our Content Marketing service to drive their web rank and visits.

Dreaming Code has an experienced team of solution consultants and website designers who support our customers 24/7. Our customers also always have access to our team, and we are always here to provide guidance. If you fail, then we do not succeed. Please schedule an appointment if you want more information on how to support your eCommerce site best.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

05/09/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

In today's digital world, content marketing has become essential to any successful website brand strategy. But how do you measure the performance of your content marketing efforts? In this blog post, we'll discuss some examples of concrete goals for content marketing performance and outline various strategies to measure your success.

Examples of Good Goals for Content Marketing Performance:

1. Increased Website Traffic: One of the most common goals of content marketing is to drive more traffic to your website. The more people visit your website, the more opportunities you have to convert them into customers.
2. Increased Engagement: Another critical goal of content marketing is to increase engagement with your audience. You want to create content that resonates with your audience and encourages them to engage with your brand.
3. Increased Conversions: The ultimate goal of content marketing is to generate more conversions. Whether in the form of leads, sales, or other conversions, you want your content to drive actions that benefit your business.

Strategies to Measure Content Marketing Performance:

1. Website Analytics: One of the most essential tools for measuring content marketing performance is website analytics. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track metrics like website traffic, bounce rate, time on site, and more. By analyzing this data, you can better understand how your content is performing and make adjustments as needed.
2. Social Media Metrics: Another critical area to measure is social media metrics. You can use tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social to track metrics like likes, comments, shares, and engagement rates. By understanding how your content is performing on social media, you can adjust your strategy to reach your audience better.
3. Conversion Tracking: To measure the ultimate goal of content marketing – conversions – you need to set up conversion tracking. This involves tracking users' actions on your website, such as filling out a form, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter. You can see how your content impacts your bottom line by following these actions.
4. Content Performance Metrics: Finally, you can track the performance of individual pieces of content. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Buzzsumo, or Ahrefs to track metrics like page views, social shares, and backlinks. By understanding which pieces of content are performing well, you can replicate that success in future content.

Measuring the performance of your content marketing efforts is crucial to understanding what's working and what's not. By setting clear goals and using various strategies to measure your success, you can continually improve your content marketing strategy and drive more business results. Remember to analyze your website analytics, social media metrics, conversion tracking, and content performance metrics to get a complete picture of your content's performance. With this information, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your content marketing strategy and achieve your business goals.

To learn more about how outbound marketing automation can benefit your business, reach out to the DreamingCode solutions team, who can provide more insight on a product that can help your marketing efforts and act as experts to help you plug those products into your website.

Dreaming Code has an experienced team of solution consultants and website designers who support our customers 24/7. Our customers also always have access to our team, and we are always here to provide guidance. If you fail, then we do not succeed. Please schedule an appointment if you want more information on how to support your eCommerce site best.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

05/03/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

Creating and launching a website or eCommerce platform can be daunting, requiring a lot of time, effort, and technical expertise. While there are many options, from DIY to template platforms, a platform that can be flexible for your needs today and in the future is important. This is where Dreaming Code comes in - a robust platform that allows users to deploy a website or eCommerce platform with ease rapidly.

Dreaming code offers a wide range of features and functionalities that make it easy for users to design, build, and launch their online presence. Its intuitive user interface layouts, customizable templates, and extensive library of plugins and add-ons make creating a website that fits your unique needs and branding easy.

When there is a feature that we don't support, we leverage product integrations to help make marketing and promotion easy. Email marketing solutions allow users to create and send targeted email campaigns to their subscribers. In contrast, its paid ad solutions integration helps users optimize their ad campaigns and track their ROI. With its powerful features and seamless integrations, Dreamingcode makes it easy to launch a website or eCommerce platform and start reaching your audience today.

Marketing is crucial in driving traffic and demand to a website or eCommerce platform. In today's digital age, there are two main approaches to marketing: inbound and outbound. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses, and companies must consider which direction best suits their needs.

Outbound marketing aims to reach a broad audience and generate leads. Outbound marketing can be effective, but it can also be expensive and annoying to potential customers. On the other hand, Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers through content marketing, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. Inbound marketing aims to create valuable content that attracts potential customers and encourages them to engage with your brand. Inbound marketing can be more cost-effective than outbound marketing but requires a long-term commitment to creating quality content.

Inbound Marketing:
Inbound marketing is an effective way to drive traffic to a website and attract potential customers. It involves creating quality content that attracts visitors and encourages them to engage with your brand. One key component of inbound marketing is search engine optimization (SEO), which involves optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are two main types of search engine results: organic and paid. Organic search results are the listings that appear naturally based on the relevance and quality of the website's content. Click here to learn more about DreamingCode's content marketing as a service. Paid search results, on the other hand, are ads that appear at the top of the search engine results page and are paid for by businesses.

Paid advertising can be an effective way to drive traffic and sales to a website. One way to do this is through Google Shopping, which allows businesses to promote their products directly in Google search results. When a user searches for a product related to your business, Google Shopping ads can appear at the top of the search results page. These ads typically include an image of the product, a brief description, and a link to the product page on your website. Google Shopping can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your website and increase sales.

Facebook Ads are another way to drive traffic and sales to a website through paid advertising. With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Facebook Ads allow businesses to create targeted ads that appear in users' newsfeeds or on the right-hand side of the page. These ads can be targeted based on various factors, such as location, age, interests, and behaviors. Facebook Ads can effectively reach a highly targeted audience, increase site traffic, and drive sales.

Outbound Marketing:
Outbound marketing automation effectively reaches potential customers and generates demand for a website or eCommerce platform. It involves using software and tools to automate marketing tasks, such as sending emails, creating targeted ads, and tracking customer engagement. One popular form of outbound marketing is email marketing, which involves sending targeted emails to a list of subscribers. Email marketing can be highly effective for generating demand and increasing sales, but it requires a reliable and opt-in customer database. In other words, businesses must obtain consent from customers to receive marketing emails, and the data must be accurate and up-to-date.

There are many platforms available to help businesses automate their email marketing campaigns. Mailchimp and Sendy are two popular and simple product options that allow companies to create and send targeted email campaigns to their subscribers. These platforms also offer analytics and tracking features to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and adjust strategies as needed.

Hubspot is another popular outbound marketing automation platform offering various marketing and sales tools. Hubspot's marketing automation features include email marketing, lead generation, and social media marketing. Hubspot also offers CRM integration, which allows businesses to track customer engagement and behavior across multiple channels. If your customer management is straightforward, Hubspot has more features than a simple website needs.

Another critical component of outbound marketing is building an audience. In a future post, we will discuss audience-building solutions and techniques.

Conclusion

Inbound and outbound marketing automation can help businesses generate demand and increase sales for their website or e-commerce platform. Platforms like Mailchimp, Sendy, and Hubspot offer powerful tools for email marketing, lead generation, and social media marketing. Tools like Google Ads, Google Shopping, and Facebook Ads can give website brands paid exposure to reach new audiences.

To learn more about how outbound marketing automation can benefit your business, reach out to the DreamingCode solutions team, who can provide more insight on a product that can help your marketing efforts and act as experts to help you plug those products into your website.

Dreaming Code has an experienced team of solution consultants and website designers who support our customers 24/7. Our customers also always have access to our team, and we are always here to provide guidance. If you fail, then we do not succeed. Please schedule an appointment if you want more information on how to support your eCommerce site best.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

04/26/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

Content marketing has become an essential aspect of any successful online marketing strategy. It's creating and sharing valuable content with your target audience to build brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty. However, creating a solid content marketing strategy for small to medium-sized businesses can take time and effort.

What is Content Marketing as a Service?

Content Marketing as a Service (CMaaS) is an innovative solution for brands that don't have or don't want to build their content marketing strategy. It's a turnkey solution that allows businesses to outsource their content marketing, including everything from strategy development to content creation, distribution, and measurement. It provides an end-to-end content marketing solution for businesses of all sizes.
Building a successful content marketing strategy requires many skills, including content creation, graphic design, SEO, social media marketing, and analytics. Building this capability in-house can be difficult and costly for small businesses with limited resources. Even larger companies may need help to allocate the necessary resources to create and implement a successful content marketing strategy.
Identifying a content marketing partner is a cost-effective and efficient way to achieve the desired results without investing in building the capability in-house. A provider has the expertise, tools, and resources to create a successful content marketing strategy that aligns with a brand's goals and objectives.

Building a content marketing strategy

Content marketing aims to drive web visitors, convert them to leads, and build a reputation for your website. But how do you get started with building a content strategy that works? Here are some critical steps to consider:

Ideal customer profile: First, it's essential to understand your target audience. To do this, you need to create a perfect customer profile (ICP) that outlines the characteristics of your target customer. This includes demographics, job titles, industry, and pain points. This ICP will be the foundation for your marketing strategy, guiding your decisions on content creation, distribution, and messaging.
Buyer Personas: Now, you need to identify buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, and they help you understand their needs, preferences, and behaviors. This information is critical for creating targeted, relevant content that resonates with your audience.
Marketing Funnel: As you develop content, it's essential to consider the marketing funnel. The marketing funnel is a model that describes the journey a prospect goes through before making a purchase or engaging in service. A simple funnel can work for most businesses and is three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

At the top of the funnel, the awareness stage, your content should focus on educating your audience and building brand awareness. This could include blog posts, social media updates, and infographics.

In the consideration stage, your prospects are evaluating your product or service. Your content at this stage should provide in-depth information about your offerings, including case studies, product demos, and webinars. Finally, at the decision stage, your prospects are ready to purchase. Your content should focus on helping them decide, such as offering a free trial or a demo of your product.

Content creation

Once you have a marketing content strategy, the next step is creating content that will engage and convert your target audience. Here are some key steps to consider when creating your content:

First, it's essential to identify keywords that will be part of the overall SEO strategy. This involves doing keyword research to determine your target audience's search terms for information related to your products or services. Incorporating these keywords into your content can improve your website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Secondly, it's essential to develop a content calendar. A content calendar is a schedule that outlines the topics, formats, and distribution channels for your content. This ensures that you have a consistent flow of content that aligns with your marketing goals and target audience.

Good content asset types to help move prospects through the funnel include:

Blog posts: These are a great way to attract visitors to your website and provide educational content that can move them down the funnel. The content should be focused on solving a problem or answering a question that potential buyers are interested in.

E-books: E-books are a more in-depth content asset that provides detailed information about your products or services.

How to articles: By providing helpful information, potential buyers are more likely to trust the company and engage with the brand. A "how to" article can also help build brand awareness and demonstrate the company's expertise. This type of content is also great for search engine optimization (SEO), as it can help to drive more organic traffic to the website.

Case studies: Case studies are a powerful way to demonstrate the value of your products or services by showcasing real-world examples of how they have helped other customers.

Publishing and promoting content

Once you have created high-quality content, the next step is to publish and promote it to drive traffic to your website. Here are some fundamental principles to follow: You must focus on engaging your audience when publishing and promoting your content. This means tailoring your content to your target audience's needs and preferences and promoting it on the channels where they are most active.

Audience building is crucial for driving traffic to your website to speed up engagement. This involves building a community of engaged followers across different social media platforms and email lists. By regularly sharing your content with your audience, you can encourage them to visit your website and engage with your brand.

Another strategy to drive awareness is email marketing, as it can build awareness of your target audience and drive engagement with your content. By sending regular newsletters and email campaigns that feature your latest content to prospects, you can drive the audience to click through to your website and engage with calls to action when they want more info. Others may not convert but value being 'nurturing' when they need or intend to purchase.

Landing pages are essential for converting website visitors into leads. A landing page is a specific page on your website designed to capture visitors' information in exchange for content like an e-book or whitepaper. Creating compelling landing pages can entice visitors to engage in a call to action and enter your sales funnel.

Analytics are critical for measuring the performance of your content marketing efforts and optimizing their performance. By tracking metrics such as website traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates, you can identify which content assets are performing well and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The expected results of a successful content marketing campaign include increased website traffic, higher engagement rates, and increased lead generation and conversion rates. By consistently publishing high-quality content and promoting it across different channels, you can build a solid online presence, engage your audience, and drive more traffic to your website.

In conclusion, Dreaming Code CMaaS offers an innovative solution for businesses looking to enhance their content marketing efforts without investing in building the capability in-house. The service provides a turnkey solution that covers every aspect of content marketing, allowing businesses to focus on their core competencies while leaving the marketing to the experts.

Dreaming Code is excited to launch Content marketing as a service to help drive traffic to your website, convert visitors, and build your online reputation. Our solution experts will work with you to create the strategy and help you execute a growth strategy so that you can focus on your business.

Dreaming Code has an experienced team of solution consultants and website designers who support our customers 24/7. Our customers also always have access to our team, and we are always here to provide guidance. If you fail, then we do not succeed. Please schedule an appointment if you want more information on how to support your eCommerce site best.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

03/07/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

Identifying buyer personas is a crucial part of any successful eCommerce marketing strategy. Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers based on market research and real data about your existing customers. By understanding your buyer personas, you can create tailored content, messaging, and promotions that resonate with your audience, increasing engagement, sales, and customer loyalty. With B2B buyers relying more heavily on search and doing their research online, having targeted content that answers critical questions for those buyers is essential.

Here's a simple guide on how to define your buyer personas:

1. Analyze Your Existing Customer Base: Look at your existing customers and identify patterns in their demographics, behaviors, and interests. What are their pain points, motivations, and goals? This data can help you create buyer personas that accurately represent your ideal customers.
2. Conduct Surveys and Interviews: Conducting surveys and interviews with your customers can provide valuable insights into their preferences, challenges, and buying behaviors. You can use this information to refine your buyer personas and create more targeted content and promotions.
3. Use Analytics Tools: Analytics tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable information on your website visitors' demographics, interests, and behaviors. You can use this data to refine your buyer personas and create more targeted messaging and promotions.
4. Consider the Buyer Journey: Understanding your buyer personas' journey from awareness to purchase can help you create content and promotions tailored to their needs and preferences at each stage of the buying process.
5. Create Personas: Once you have the data, create separate personas for each type of customer. Give each persona a name and create a profile for them. Include age, gender, occupation, interests, buying behaviors, and goals.
6. Use the Personas: Once you have completed your buyer personas, use them to create content that speaks to them. Use the personas to craft content that resonates with your target audience and engages them.

To put the personas into practice, use this information to create targeted content, messaging, and promotions that resonate with that audience. To measure the results, brands should see more qualified leads, increase engagement and conversions, and ultimately build a loyal customer base.

Understanding your buyer personas is the bedrock for any eCommerce brand looking to create a successful marketing and sales strategy. By defining your ideal customers and tailoring your messaging and promotions to their needs and preferences, you can build a loyal customer base and drive more sales.

Dreaming Code helps support its customers with foundational eCommerce marketing principles and strategies to enable your digital business to grow. We are committed to providing a robust platform and consulting support to help you realize your goals. Using our content marketing as a service, Dreaming Code can help you focus your marketing messaging and drive visitor engagement.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

02/21/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Introduction

Content marketing is a powerful tool for Business to Business (B2B) companies to reach their customers, build relationships and grow revenue. It involves creating and sharing content such as videos, blog posts, case studies, e-books, and more to engage customers, build brand awareness, and make them interested. Content marketing is vital to demand generation because it allows B2B companies to reach a wider audience, build customer trust, and increase sales.

89% of B2B content marketers use short articles and posts, making them the top type of content used in 2022, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

This blog is not about content marketing but how to use your go-to-market channels to promote your content. We'll explore the multiple channels for content promotion, including email marketing, social media, website, and more. We'll also discuss optimizing your content for each channel and the best practices for content promotion. By the end of this blog, you'll have a better understanding of the various channels available to promote your content and how to effectively use them to maximize your reach and increase your sales.

What is content marketing for the new B2B buyer?

Content marketing for B2B is a marketing strategy focusing on creating and distributing valuable, consistent, and relevant content to attract and retain a clearly-defined target audience. It is based on the idea that providing customers with helpful information and resources will make them more likely to do business with your company.

B2B buyers today want to educate themselves on solutions and become more informed about the products or services they are interested in. They no longer rely on sales teams to provide all the necessary information. Instead, they are looking for content that helps them understand a product's or service's value and how it can best meet their needs.

B2B companies must create educational and engaging content to meet this need. It should provide helpful information that is relevant to the target audience and that provides the answers they are seeking. Content should also be compelling enough to cause the reader to want to engage directly with the brand or continue to consume additional content.

By creating content that appeals to their target audience, providing valuable information, and publishing it purposefully, B2B companies can engage with customers and build lasting relationships. Content marketing can help B2B companies reach their goals and increase sales.

Overview of Content Marketing Channels

Website and Digital

Content marketing is an integral part of any digital marketing plan, and it has become increasingly important for search engine optimization (SEO), search ranking, and online reputation building. It's crucial to review how to deploy content marketing on a brand's website, including its impact on SEO, why it's essential for search engine ranking, and how it can help build an online reputation.

Why is content marketing important for SEO?

Content marketing is essential for SEO because it provides search engines with the needed information to index and rank websites. Publishing content can help increase a site's visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) by providing high-quality, appropriate content that search engines see as relevant. Using keywords that your audience will use to find your content will help to elevate your content in the search engine results. Techniques like this build content ranking by demonstrating relevance and delivering valuable information to potential customers.

Why is content marketing important for search engine ranking?

Content marketing is vital for ranking in search engines because it helps websites gain higher rankings in the SERPs. The rules search engines use to rank change often, which is why updating and delivering new content is essential. Another important principle for search ranking is getting backlinks that boost a website's visibility in the search engine results pages. Backlinking involves other sites publishing links to your content as they see it as valuable to their audience. These are all techniques marketers use to help boost search engine ranking.

How can content marketing help build an online reputation?

Content marketing can help build an online reputation by providing authentic and valuable content tailored to an audience's needs. Brands need to be subject matter experts in their domain, and publishing thoughtful and engaging content allows this to happen. Content that is detailed and longer form (over 1250 words) also typically ranks best. It helps to build trust and credibility by providing relevant, up-to-date, and accurate information to web searchers.

Email marketing and newsletters

Content marketing for outbound email marketing is an effective way of engaging and converting audiences. It allows you to create content that resonates with your recipients while providing helpful information to drive sales.

Content marketing is essential to convert and support your email campaigns, ensuring that your content is engaging, informative, and relevant to the recipient. Marketers must create content tailored to the recipient's interests and needs. Creating content that is easy to read and understand is also essential, as this will help ensure your message is successfully delivered.

Content marketing also augments your list and newsletter marketing efforts to your opted-in users. Use content built to the preferences of those who have already opted in to receive emails from you. This technique of nurturing opted-in users ensures your audience stays engaged on the latest information that your brand publishes. It can build trust with your existing audience and increase the chances of them becoming paying customers.

Social media marketing

Content marketing is an effective way to reach out to billions of business users on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram. It allows businesses to create and share relevant and engaging content that resonates with their target audience, and great content can develop broader reach and engagement on social media platforms.

The network effect of social media is a powerful channel for even the smaller and most unknown brands. This content can be shared on social media channels like LinkedIn and Instagram to reach billions of business users. To do this, the content created needs to be exciting and valuable to the target audience, and then users like and comment on it to help promote it through their networks.

For example, content shared on LinkedIn should be optimized for the platform, such as using keywords and hashtags to make it easier for users to find. On LinkedIn, businesses can use content marketing to reach out to potential customers and industry experts. By sharing content regularly, companies can build relationships with their target audiences and keep them engaged and interested in their brand.

Businesses can also use content to create a dialogue with their target audience. User interaction happens through comments, likes, and shares. Companies can engage and interact with their target audience and better understand their needs and interests. When users on social networks share and engage with the content, it makes it more discoverable.

Content marketing is an effective way to reach out to billions of business users on social media platforms. They can use content to create visibility and engagement and build relationships with their target audience. And, when users like and engage with the content, it makes it more discoverable, helping businesses to reach more potential customers.

Best Practices for Content Marketing

When deploying content marketing, it's crucial to adhere to some best practices. These include:

Developing a content strategy: Before beginning content marketing, it's essential to create a content strategy that outlines the goals of the content, the target audience, the topics to be covered, and the frequency of content publication.

Optimizing content for SEO: Content is optimized for SEO by using relevant keywords, appropriate meta descriptions, and other SEO techniques. Research is vital to identify relevant keywords that are likely to drive your rank.

Creating high-quality content: Content should be well-researched and well-written to ensure value to the reader. An audience expects a business to be a subject matter expert and that the content is accurate and extensive.

Promotin content: Promote content on social media, through email campaigns, and other channels to ensure it reaches the target audience. Write the content to encourage interaction and responses from the readers to optimize its effects.

Analyzing content performance: Content performance should be monitored and analyzed to ensure that it provides the desired results. Updating and promoting it is vital to create long-term impact and effect. Content marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing plan.

Final Thoughts

Content marketing is crucial for SEO, ranking, and reputation building. By deploying content marketing on a brand's website and following best practices, it can increase visibility, build trust and credibility, and create a positive online presence.

Dreaming Code offers content marketing as an integrated service into our product offering. Our team can help support your content marketing strategy and do all the work to execute it to drive new leads and allow you to rank higher in search. Please get in touch with us today for more information on how we can help you!

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

02/07/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Google Shopping is an online marketing platform that allows eCommerce brands to promote their products and services to a wide range of customers. Through Google Shopping, brands can list their products and services, allowing customers to discover and purchase the items they need quickly. This makes it a powerful tool for eCommerce brands to increase sales and brand exposure.

Google Shopping exists to make it easier for shoppers to find the products they need. It is a platform where shoppers can search for products and compare prices from brands and retailers. Customers can get the best deal possible, making it easier for them to purchase what they need inside a single marketplace.

The platform can be a great way for eCommerce brands to promote and provide offers to their customers in a very easy manner. This is also known as a Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE). Google Shopping results show up as thumbnail images that display each product's retailer and price. It allows them to get their products in front of more customers and increase their visibility in the marketplace. It can also help brands build trust with customers by showing them their product offerings and reviews.

For businesses looking to set up Google Shopping, there are several steps to follow:

1. Create a Merchant Center account to manage your product listings and campaigns.
2. Upload your product data. You must provide detailed product information, such as titles, descriptions, images, and prices.
3. Set up your campaigns. You can use the Merchant Center to create campaigns and bid on keywords to ensure your products appear alongside relevant search results.
4. Monitor and optimize. Monitor your campaigns to ensure they run effectively and make necessary adjustments.

Google Shopping can be an excellent tool for eCommerce brands looking to increase sales and brand exposure. It enables businesses to appear more prominent in SERPs and tailor their product listings to reach the right customers. By following the steps outlined above, companies can set up Google Shopping and start reaping the rewards.

Dreaming Code has helped several online businesses configure and efficiently manage this channel to generate sales, test new ways to market, and improve their reach to market segments. The DreamingCode eCommerce product integrates with Google Shopping.

Set an appointment with us today to learn more about this exciting marketing channel.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

01/31/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

Introduction

In the first part of this review, the focus was low-lift and high-impact ways to grow revenue and reach profitably. Dreaming Code's two-part review of key trends for 2023 focuses on user experiences and building more robust and purposeful connections between brands and their audiences. These trends will be paramount to enabling target audiences and customers to interact with brands anywhere, anytime, and on their terms.

AI and automation in eCommerce are now extending beyond chatbots. These technologies personalize the customer experience, optimize pricing and inventory management, and improve customer service. As technology advances, businesses can expect to see more innovative ways to leverage AI to improve their operations and customer experiences.

Omnichannel experiences always get attention, as customers expect seamless, cohesive experiences across different touchpoints. This trend continuously pushes businesses to focus on providing consistent, personalized experiences across online, in-store, and mobile channels.

Finally, a trend that is both purposeful and fresh. Sustainable eCommerce is becoming more important as consumers are more aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, and businesses are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. While a brand may be focused in its regional market, the chain of where products and services come from and eventually end up have implications for a more sustainable future.

These trends will help businesses continuously embrace new ideas to remain competitive in the ever-changing eCommerce landscape. Brands need to be deliberate about their purpose and curate experiences for their customers that will be memorable and valuable. We will dive deeper into these ideas and explain how they can create impact and value for your brand in 2023.

AI and automation will go beyond customer service.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation play a significant role in the e-commerce industry today. Beyond the everyday use of chatbots, these technologies can also be used to personalize the customer experience, optimize pricing and inventory management, and improve customer service. AI-powered recommendation systems, for example, can analyze customer data and browsing history to suggest personalized product recommendations.

In terms of pricing and inventory management, AI can help businesses optimize prices based on real-time market data and demand, track inventory levels, and predict future direction. This allows companies to make data-driven decisions, increasing efficiency, and profitability.

AI-powered image and voice recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning algorithms are being used to improve product search and make it more accurate, efficient, and genuine.

As technology advances, we can expect to see even more innovative ways businesses leverage AI to improve their operations and customer experiences. Some examples include:

• Automated product categorization and tagging
• Predictive maintenance and logistics optimization
• Fraud detection and prevention

Overall, AI and automation have the potential to revolutionize the e-commerce industry, improving the customer experience, increasing efficiency and profitability for businesses, and making it more convenient for customers to shop online.

Experiences anywhere

Omnichannel experiences are getting attention because customers today expect seamless and cohesive experiences across different touchpoints. Harvard Business Review observed the shopping behaviors of 46,000 consumers and found that around 73% of consumers prefer shopping through multiple channels. Comparatively, 7% of consumers shop online exclusively, and 20% shop merely in-store.

The exponential use of digital channels and the increasing use of smartphones, tablets, and other devices have created more opportunities for customers to interact with brands across different channels. This has led to a shift in customer expectations, as they now expect businesses to provide consistent and personalized experiences across all channels.

Omnichannel means so much today as it allows customers to move between channels, such as online, in-store, and mobile, without interruption. For example, customers who start browsing a website on their computer can continue browsing on their mobile device and then make a purchase in-store. This type of experience is becoming increasingly important as customers expect to be able to engage with brands across different channels and devices. Here is a checklist to help understand omnichannel:

• Businesses need to focus on providing consistent and personalized experiences. This means aligning brand messaging, offers, and promotions across channels and using customer data to personalize the experience for each customer.
• Brands should also focus on providing a seamless and consistent shopping experience across channels, allowing customers to view their order history, track shipments, and make returns across channels.
• Omnichannel experiences also require businesses to have a good view of the customer journey and be able to use the data from each channel to create a holistic customer profile. Companies can use the data to personalize the experience and offer personalized recommendations.

Providing an omnichannel experience can deliver benefits, such as increased customer loyalty, higher conversion rates, and increased revenue. It can also help companies build stronger relationships with their customers by providing a more convenient and satisfying shopping experience.

Mission for sustainability

By 2025, the global eCommerce plastic packaging waste is projected to rise to 4,533 million pounds. Sustainable e-commerce refers to operating an online business environmentally and socially responsibly, and it involves reducing the environmental impact of the company and promoting ethical and fair business practices.

There are several ways to start making your e-commerce business more sustainable in 2023, including:

1. Reducing waste: Implementing sustainable packaging and shipping methods can reduce waste and minimize the environmental impact of your business. This can include using biodegradable or recyclable packaging materials and eco-friendly shipping methods such as electric vehicles.
2. Improving energy efficiency: Implementing energy-efficient practices in your business operations can help to reduce your carbon footprint. This can include using renewable energy sources, implementing energy-saving technologies, and reducing energy consumption in your warehouse and office.
3. Promoting ethical and fair business practices: Ensuring that your products are ethically sourced and produced and that your suppliers adhere to acceptable labor practices is essential to sustainable e-commerce.
4. Supporting sustainable causes: Many customers are looking for businesses that align with their values and support sustainable causes. Consider partnering with organizations working to protect the environment or donate a portion of your profits to sustainable causes.
5. Transparency: Be transparent with your customers about your sustainable practices and efforts to reduce environmental impact. Communicate your values and the steps you are taking to be more sustainable.
6. Continual improvement: Continuously review and improve your sustainability practices, and incorporate feedback from customers and suppliers.

Remember, sustainable e-commerce is a journey that may not happen overnight. It's a process of continuous improvement and learning. Taking small steps can make a big difference in creating a more sustainable and socially responsible business. This does not need a significant investment in real dollars. Still, the impact can be created with a sustained commitment to continuously make more efforts to improve so that employees, customers, and other stakeholders will appreciate and reward your business.

Conclusion

2023 will see brands focus on efficient means to grow their sales and on ways to enhance the connections that a brand has with its customers. The trends we covered represent ideas that a brand can embrace to provide growth and sustainability for its business. By focusing on basics and using technology and data to guide your strategy, brands can achieve very positive outcomes quickly. When all these platforms and trends are used together, eCommerce brands can interact with greater clarity and develop focused strategies to leverage that data to grow existing and new revenue streams.

Dreaming Code helps brands enable a feature-rich eCommerce for their customers using our industry-leading SaaS product. With minimal configuration and access to our solutions consulting team, we package processes, services, and results to enable brands to succeed, all for a straightforward monthly fee. Feel free to contact us to set up a consultation with us today.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

01/24/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Introduction

As we look ahead to 2023, the economy is uncertain and B2C and B2B eCommerce landscapes are evolving rapidly. Uncertainty can bring about change and innovation, leading to new and exciting possibilities for businesses. This type of economy allows for flexibility and adaptation as companies are finding new ways to navigate and succeed in a shifting landscape. While there may be a few new, groundbreaking ideas emerging, there is a lot of momentum behind the trends that have been gaining traction over the past couple of years.

One of the most notable trends is the growing importance of brand loyalty, as customers become more discerning and demand a higher level of service and engagement from the brands. With the current uncertainty, brands need sustainable and less costly revenue growth strategies.

Rules about customer data in 2023 will become increasingly under scrutiny, and brands of all sizes need to be more deliberate about collecting, protecting, and understanding their own first-party customer data. This data, when analyzed and understood, will be a strategic asset for brands to get better insights about their customers.

Social commerce also continues to outperform other demand-generation strategies, with businesses leveraging platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to drive sales and engage customers. Any brand today can harness social commerce to access new markets and audiences with very little investment. More about that later.

These trends indicate that businesses continuously embrace new ideas to remain competitive. Brands should key in on a few ideas that they believe will be low lift but high value. In this first of two-part series, we will dive deeper into these ideas and explain how they can create impact and value for your brand in 2023.

Brand loyalty is often overlooked

The competitive landscape in most markets is fierce as brands use technology to help them scale faster. Shopify's research shows that while only 28% of consumers tend to make repeat purchases from the same online store, these loyal customers make up a significant portion of a brand's revenue, accounting for 44% on average. There are several vital points for businesses looking to maximize customer loyalty.

Brand leaders need to take the time to look at their customers' purchase history. It's essential to understand and calculate typical customer lifetime value (CLV) and look for common characteristics among those customers who are loyal to your brand. CLV will inform the type of customers a brand should target and how to tailor marketing campaigns to access them.

Many people talk about loyalty, but few brands use offers and rewards to incentivize customers to make repeat purchases. You can encourage customers to come back and make purchases with the right offers and rewards. Rewards will help drive loyalty revenue, increase customer retention and incentivize customers to become sources of recommendation and referral.

After brands understand their customers, they need to use technology to help engage with customers on an individual basis. You can reach customers based on their past purchasing habits through automated messages and tailored campaigns with personalized recommendations. These recommendations will give customers the feeling that they are being treated as individuals and increase their chances of making repeat purchases.

By focusing on the above points, businesses can realize an increase in sales and a stronger relationship with their customers. The value of this type of loyalty should be considered, as it provides an excellent source of repeat and referral revenue. With the right approach, businesses can capitalize on this trend and build an even more successful eCommerce brand.

Using new data rules to thrive

The importance of first-party data in the world of eCommerce is becoming increasingly apparent as businesses realize the value of this type of data and the insights it can provide. According to a study by Accenture and Adobe, seventy-seven percent (77%) of CEOs know that they must fundamentally change how they interact and engage with customers.

First-party data is considered more reliable and accurate than third-party data, making it an invaluable asset in helping businesses make informed decisions about their eCommerce strategy. Third-party data can still be relevant and useful in certain situations, but its use has recently been scrutinized due to data privacy and accuracy concerns. Third-party data is typically collected by companies other than the business using it and can be less reliable and accurate than first-party data. Additionally, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) coming into effect, stricter laws and regulations on collecting and using third-party data make this data harder to use.

For businesses looking to capitalize on the trend of first-party data, there are several vital points to consider. Start by setting up systems to collect customer data and obtain customer consent. Store and organize the data securely, and use tools to analyze it. Businesses can decide about their website, marketing campaigns, or product offerings with the insights gained. It is also essential to continuously monitor and maintain the data collection and storage systems, update data analysis tools and methods, and comply with data privacy regulations.

By focusing on these key points and using first-party data to improve the customer experience, businesses should realize an increase in sales, build stronger relationships with their customers, and more effectively target and personalize their marketing campaigns.

Access to billions through social

Social commerce has become increasingly crucial for brands in recent years, and its growth is only set to accelerate. Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin are new revenue tools that brands can leverage their large user bases to access new customers. According to recent research, the social commerce market is expected to hit $1.3 trillion in 2023, exceeding the $1 trillion mark for the first time. This is a 30.8% increase from the previous year when social commerce sales amounted to $958 billion.

For brands looking to capitalize on this trend, there are some tips:

1. Platform selection is a crucial first step. Brands must consider where their target audience is most active and choose platforms that align with their business goals. The data about the audience is readily available from platforms and easy to access to test and gather data.
2. Developing a solid content strategy is also essential, as businesses must create visual, informational, and interactive content that resonates with their audience and drives conversions. B2C brands need to align with influencers who can help attract new users. B2B customers need to use platforms to educate customers on their products and services and turn them into leads.
3. Businesses need to ensure that their social commerce operations comply with data privacy regulations and ensure that the payment and checkout process is secure for customers. Integrating social commerce with customer relationship management (CRM) and e-commerce systems can also help to track customer interactions and orders across all channels. By allowing customers to purchase products directly through social media platforms, social commerce can help increase sales and revenue for a brand.

Social commerce can increase the average order value by providing a seamless and convenient shopping experience. In addition, social media platforms allow brands to cost-effectively promote their products and services to their user bases at less cost than traditional advertising. To maximize the value of social commerce, brands need to focus on providing personalized experiences for their customers. By using data to personalize customer interactions, brands can increase conversion rates and ensure that they provide the best possible experience to their customers. Customer service is also a key benefit of social commerce, so responding to customer inquiries and handling complaints quickly and professionally is essential. By understanding and capitalizing on the trend of social commerce, businesses can increase sales and revenue and build stronger relationships with their customers. With the right approach, companies can maximize the value of social commerce and create an even more successful eCommerce brand.

Conclusion

2023 is kicking off with its share of uncertainty. Brand loyalty, first-party data, and social commerce are individual trends that can help eCommerce brands succeed with certainty. When all these platforms and trends are used together, eCommerce brands can interact with greater clarity and develop focused strategies to leverage that data to grow existing and new revenue streams.

Dreaming Code helps brands enable a feature-rich eCommerce for their customers using our industry-leading SaaS product. With minimal configuration and access to our solutions consulting team, we package processes, services, and results to enable brands to succeed all for a straightforward monthly fee. Feel free to contact us to set up a consultation with us today.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

01/20/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

Sales & Marketing

In today's fast-paced business environment, ensuring that customer platforms and systems always remain operational is crucial for success. Downtime can result in lost revenue, damage to a brand's reputation, and negatively impact customer satisfaction. To combat these issues, DreamingCode customers rely on Radical Support to ensure the continuous and reliable operation of their customer platforms and systems.

What is Radical Support?

DreamingCode Radical Support is a global, 24/7 support experience that is available every day of the year. This means that customers can access support at any time and location and receive the same level of service and expertise. This is achieved by having a team of experts who are available around the clock, and who have the knowledge and skills necessary to quickly and effectively resolve any issues that may arise.

Why is it important to me?

The key benefit of Radical Support is that it provides customers with a sense of security and reliability. They know that if an issue arises, they can access support quickly and have it resolved in a timely manner. This is particularly important for businesses that operate in a global environment, as it ensures that all customers, regardless of location, have access to the same level of service and support.

One of the key principles of Radical Support is the use of advanced technologies such as automation and AI to keep your platform current with the latest software. These technologies allow for faster and more efficient problem resolution and can help to reduce the need for human intervention. This helps to ensure that customer issues are resolved quickly and effectively, minimizing the impact of downtime on a business's operations.

In addition to providing around-the-clock support, Radical Support also includes continuous monitoring of customer platforms and systems. This allows for early detection and resolution of potential issues, helping to prevent downtime and ensure that customer systems are always operational.

Lastly, the Radical Support team is giving continuous training and certifications to ensure our team members are updated on the latest monitoring, threats, and technologies that could impact the smooth operation of your eCommerce solution.

DreamingCode Radical Support is essential for any business that operates in a global environment. It ensures that all our customer platforms and systems always remain operational, and updated and that customers have access to a continuous and reliable support experience. With the use of advanced technologies and continuous monitoring, a radical support model can help businesses to minimize downtime and improve customer satisfaction.

DreamingCode helps brands enable a feature-rich eCommerce for their customers using our industry-leading SaaS product. With minimal configuration and access to our solutions consulting team, we package processes, services, and results to enable brands to succeed all for a straightforward monthly fee. Feel free to contact us to set up a consultation with us today.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.

01/17/2023

Posted By: Tripti Rijhwani

The eCommerce industry continues to expand rapidly, with the global market reaching $5.7 trillion at the start of 2023, according to eMarketer. Exceptional customer service remains a priority; however, customer expectations are shifting. Not surprisingly, 69% of customers say they're willing to interact with a bot on simple issues, a 23% increase from 2021, according to Zendesk. Brands need more than human-assisted support like telephone and live chat. Below are four of the most contemporary strategies that eCommerce brands should consider for the latest customer self-service solutions:

AI Chatbots is becoming a "must-have" for digital customer support to providing customers with the ability to quickly get answers to their questions without needing a live agent. AI chatbots can answer customer inquiries like product information, order status, and shipping information. They can also provide complex customer support, like troubleshooting device issues, addressing customer complaints, or resolving problems that only humans could handle a few years ago. Today's chatbots are more intelligent and easier to implement with the need for technical staff.

Knowledge Bases and FAQs with searchable content are vital to any self-service solution. They provide customers with detailed information on various topics related to a brand's product or service. Many brands can mine their historical customer requests to help inform and extend FAQs in the knowledge base. The ideal way to deploy these knowledge bases and FAQs is on the website, through a dedicated support search, or via most AI chatbots.

My Account services provide a personalized self-service organized after a customer provides a secure account login. These My Account services offer customers a convenient way to manage their orders and customer service inquiries. This self-service allows customers to view order status, track packages, and read frequently asked questions. It also allows them to update their profile, contact information, and payment options. These solutions are valuable as they can know a customer's identity and provide contextual support based on their profile and past transactions with a brand.

Dark Social is the most intriguing and unknown channel where customers can get support and help. Customer support often lies within a highly used set of social apps where people share content one to one to provide feedback and ask questions about products and services. They are referred to as dark social as they are hard to track or attribute as a referral source to web traffic. These apps include:

• Open social platforms that are trackable sources (very public, but can produce dark social when someone interacts with a peer's shared content).
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Closed social platforms (dark social if copied and pasted – but trackable via share buttons).
• WhatsApp and Slack messaging
• Direct messaging (Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn DMs, Instagram DMs, etc.).
• SMS (text message) and Email
• Private social groups and communities
• Reddit

Customers can use these forums to share their experiences about a company with other customers. Dark social has become a powerful source of word-of-mouth advice that is often more trusted and followed as it's not curated or moderated by the brand. Expect dark social to be the fastest-growing content source brands need to monitor and understand.

In conclusion, a solid customer self-service strategy is a competitive advantage for eCommerce brands if done right. By understanding expectations and embracing new technologies, eCommerce brands can provide their customers with a better customer experience while also improving their bottom line. Implementing AI chatbots, knowledge bases and FAQs, personalized self-service, and knowing dark social are all excellent strategies that will become reliable ways that customers can get support.

Dreaming Code supports hundreds of brands through the complex and ever-changing world of customer self-service. We can offer strategy, services, and solutions to ensure your customers can get the help they need when it is required. Feel free to contact us to set up a consultation with us today.

To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.

To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.