Marketing for online e-commerce can be difficult to picture because it’s a more abstract concept than it would be with a brick and mortar shop, but it should be treated very similarly. So let’s make it concrete (stay with us here, we promise it'll be worth it!). 

Say you own a bakery. Your bakery is on a specific road in a general town. Theoretically, everyone that has access to the specific road your bakery is on is technically a potential customer of yours. However, not everyone in that town is likely to purchase from your shop. Only the people that enjoy or have a reason to purchase baked goods will eventually make a purchase.

This is the same with online e-commerce. Technically, everyone who has access to the internet is a potential customer of yours, but the only group that is likely to actually interact with your brand are those that have an interest in what you’re providing, or have a problem that you’re able to solve. 

The trick to growing your customer base and revenue is capturing as many of those viable customers as possible. 

This is where the closed-loop methodology comes into play. The closed-loop method of digital advertising is much more comprehensive than the traditional funnel method. Developed by The Growth Guys, the closed-loop methodology takes into account that a customer’s journey with a brand is not linear, it’s cyclical. And if you can keep your customer base within the cyclical marketing sphere of your brand, you will be able to retain your customers for longer and have more meaningful and profitable interactions with them. 

Acquisition

The first step of any customer’s journey is reaching out to find a solution for their problem. Once they get that craving for a sausage roll, they’re going to need a bakery. What your goal as a business should be in the situation is to be in the best position to be found first and to create a positive experience once found. A high street bakery sells pastries easier than one that’s hidden away, but only if it’s clean.

When it comes to e-commerce, you can put your brand in a great “be found'' position through several means including optimised paid media and PPC ads. If customers are searching for keywords relevant to your products, you want your brand appearing first. Growth marketers specialising in PPC know how to make this happen.

You can also acquire customers organically. Some people may not know they want a sausage roll until they’re walking down the street and see your bakery. 

In both cases, the quality of your digital assets is what’s going to get them through the door and looking at your bakery cases. Online, your shop is your website— undeniably your most important digital asset. 

Little things on your website can lead to losing a potential customer before it’s even loaded, the same as how many factors in shops could cause someone to walk straight out the door. The quality of a website and its loading times is what a consumer will subconsciously use to decide the trustworthiness of your brand. Would you wait 30 seconds for a website to load when you can usually access its competitors in 2 seconds? Would you feel comfortable entering your credit card details on a website that is full of spelling mistakes? Would you buy a steak slice from somewhere full of flies?

Your customers will answer these questions the same way.

Retargeting

The reality of e-commerce is that 95% of people who visit your site for the first time will not buy because the products and services you’re offering likely cost more and have a longer consideration period for the consumers than buying an iced bun does. But that’s okay! That’s what retargeting is for: capturing the 95%. 

Retargeting is all about reminding customers that you’re a viable solution for the problems they have, even if their problem is needing a new t-shirt. Retargeting those who have shown interest in your products in the past keeps your brand top of mind until they’re ready for you. If someone walks past your bakery front they may not pop in right away, but if they see your ads around town they’ll be constantly reminded and eventually cave in to their cravings. 

Effective retargeting is done on a detail-by-detail level. There are many factors that growth marketers will consider when deciding who and how to retarget to earn you the highest conversion rate possible.

Re-Engagement

If retargeting does not lead to a conversion, you still have the potential to keep consumers within your brand’s marketing sphere through re-engagement. Re-engagement is all about continuing the relationship between your business and your customers. 
A customer may visit the same bakery on their way to work every single morning, but they can always decide to mix it up and start visiting somewhere else instead. This may not be because they had a bad experience, sometimes people just fancy a break or a change. Or maybe they initially intended to only buy that cupcake once. 

Re-engagement works to remind this customer that you are their favorite purveyor of baked goods to make sure they come back again. Re-engagement campaigns are what takes a customer from being just a customer to being a customer for life. 

Retention

The goal of both retargeting and re-engagement is to retain your customers. Retention is such an important part of your customer’s journey, and it’s one that’s often overlooked. 

On average, it is 5 times cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. This means that a 5% increase in your customer retention rate could lead to a possible 95% increase in your profits! 

Think about this in terms of our bakery again. If you have a loyal set of customers lining up outside your front door each morning there will be a steady stream of income for you. And the best thing is you don’t have to pay anything to get them there!— they show up all on their own.

Compare this to the cost of advertising and retargeting across the town trying to get more people to join the queue. It’s quite a difference. 

Retention strategies make sure that the cost of acquiring new customers is worth it, because if you can increase the amount of people lining up outside your bakery everyday, you will be exponentially increasing your revenue.

A Customer’s Journey is not Linear

The heading says it all— a customer’s journey is not linear. This is why the closed-loop methodology was developed, to represent the many cyclical paths your customers may take. 

A customer may enter the cycle through acquisition and go straight to conversion, they may bounce around either the upper or lower loop first, or anywhere in between. There is no start and no end. 

If you make sure to always serve the customers in your line first and work to grow that line over time you’ll be one hot pasty.