I recently provided e-commerce strategy to a member of my private group, Ruben Rojas. Rueben’s one of the premier street artists in the world, and is in the process of launching an e-commerce store to sell his artwork.
I’d like to share what I recommended here as well.
E-Commerce Ad strategy
We began by discussing the idea of running social ads from September through mid-November to avoid holiday ad price spikes. I advised shifting the focus to finding his audience and focusing on his numbers instead. This will allow Rueben to go into the holiday season with a clear idea of his target audience, and other valuable data.
While the holidays do drive up the cost of advertisement, the increased buyer activity is something you can capitalize on. Conducting research and gathering data before the season provides an opportunity to fine-tune your focus and determine cost. You can then decide if/how to best proceed with not only the ad strategies you’re considering, but also other efforts.
Lifetime Customer Value
We also discussed lifetime customer value. When you know the net profit of your customer, you’ll be better able to determine what to spend on advertising and other customer acquisition initiatives. For example, if you know this number is $50 per customer, you won’t need to stop buying ads when ad prices shift from $15 to $20 for customer acquisition. There are many other benefits to having a solid sense of your lifetime customer value for e-commerce.
We then brainstormed on how to increase lifetime value.
One of the best ways can be to develop a subscription service. If you can provide a product or service that makes your customer a repeat customer every month, their lifetime value can rise greatly. Explore ideas and see what you might be of value to your customers on an ongoing, recurring basis. This can be effective for both offline and e-commerce retail business.
Another method is to map out a customer journey that focuses on selling different goods and services to the customer, at different times throughout the year. In Ruben’s case, he knows that selling prints can lead to commissioned pieces, and selling t-shirts can lead to increased sales for gifts.
Don’t just think about how you can sell to your customer once. Think about how you can do again and again.
