BigCommerce Marketing - having a successful strategy

As a platform, BigCommerce comes with a lot of features aimed at various segments of the global market. Utilizing its built-in tools, and with the right Apps, one can have a very powerful solution. Understanding the process in which BigCommerce sees the customer journey is crucial in applying the right tools in real-time through the marketing funnel. Here we will cover in greater detail how this works, and how your marketing strategy should be mirrored into your online store.

BigCommerce Customer Lifecycle

As a system/platform, it is built around the purchase behaviors of various demographics all the while considering the online tools that can differentiate audience expectations all the while enticing customers to transact. While this sounds pretty obvious, how does the BigCommerce platform influences that customer journey is often taken for granted. Much like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce - BigCommerce is a marketing platform that enables online purchasing. Here is the BigCommerce customer journey:

• Reach: BigCommerce has great tools for SEO to be able to reach organically your audience especially when applied correctly with keywords and following the guidelines outlaid by Google on your ability to reach out to clients via search and social media. Propagating your voice via news, blogs, video or other forms of media is crucial to building backlinks as well as resonating with your potential customers. The tools provided in this area are extremely important to ensure that the Google Bots can do their job in capturing your message and having the content architecture to be measured at a high standard.

• Acquisition: In their terminology, it is about being able to "engage" with clients - this can be done via chat, registering their email address, providing supportive sales answers, or taking a phone call. The content, interaction quality all matter when it comes to getting this first engagement. The platform gives you the means to communicate in all the various forms possible to acquire your customer - most methods are specific to the communication tool being used such as Facebook Messenger, where these add-ons are available in the App Store.

• Convert: With the engagement and understanding of your brand, product/services, support, and assistance in guidance to have them purchase from your business come in the form of landing pages, product pages, baskets, and form of payment. Tools provided within the website builder, selling products, and inserting various types of social media that illustrate the use and testimonials of customers are all part of the funnel/conversion process. Defining this portion of the journey is tailored to the customer type and industry segment in meeting the expectations of transacting (Credit card types and other forms of payment), and delivering outstanding service and experience.

• Developing and Nurturing: Once a customer, you want them to return and become a loyal customer long term. It is about building your brand and customer base, which is done through execution, but also through re-marketing methods. Continued engagement post-sale is important in measuring their satisfaction, and seeing if there is anything more that can be done to assist them with their recent purchase. Keeping them in the loop of your news and sales events is key for your strategic marketing campaigns. Social Media sites should be part of your communications to your target audience and any other types of marketing that you are engaged in.

• Retention: This is probably the hardest of all your marketing efforts since it ensures your customers see you in the highest esteem possible, but to achieve this anything that may go wrong with your actions to remedy the issue will require personal attention in getting their satisfaction. Outside of the deviations which can cause harm in reviews and social media if unattended, sharing information in the forms of FAQs, Social Media group discussions, video "Editorials" or any other form of guidance you might deem appropriate in providing your target customer.

• Advocacy: With great experiences come recommendations to which your marketing takes a leap of its own, which is the best marketing possible. This is where your retention efforts pay off, and referred customers visit your site to engage with the process described above.

Your eCommerce website is a structured communication engine that needs to be in tune with the search engines that provides the tools to start selling with ease. To sell online requires building confidence and trust - all of which a clean, structured, and high-performing platform should provide.

Tools and Add-ons

BigCommerce has many built-in tools for every step of the customer journey, and when your business needs are unique - either in communication, logistics, finance reporting, or inventory management the Open SAAS approach of BigCommerce and its super-fast API allows anything to be possible. The BigCommerce App Store will hold standard solutions and best practices, where BigCommerce Integrations will connect to other systems and if it isn't built yet, the API will give you access to your custom needs.

Conclusion

A successful strategy in working with BigCommerce is understanding this process and how their tools apply to each step of your marketing funnel. This is very important to measure carefully the experience of your audience and may require some A/B testing in some cases when it comes to landing pages and how your products/services are being presented and communicated. If you got questions on how BigCommerce can help your business with your online store, feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com.