Digital Marketing Blog

The Importance of Using Offers on Your Landing Pages

Ollie Burrows   Added on 20 Aug 2024

When creating a landing page and using paid social ads to divert traffic towards it, you want to make sure that you are converting as many customers as possible, and using a compelling offer can be the difference in your success rate.

Landing pages are used to sell a specific product, offer or service to a customer from an external link, with the content aimed at converting that specific customer into a paying customer. To achieve this, you want to give the customer a reason for purchasing from you. If they are on the landing page, you have already piqued their interest enough for them to click on the ad, so make sure that your offer and landing page are enticing enough to convert the sale.

Only £23,167.43 in sales in 6 months for Ali Abdaal YouTuber with 5m subscribers

Elliott Davidson   Added on 6 Jun 2024

Lightmode is an eCommerce brand run by YouTuber Ali Abdaal. Despite having 5 million YouTube subscribers, they've only done £23,167.43 in sales over the last 6 months. If I were running the Lightmode brand, here's what I'd do to turn things around from an outsider's perspective.

How to structure your landing pages to increase conversion

Ollie Burrows   Added on 8 Jan 2024

If you are looking to sell a specific product, then a landing page can be a great way to provide all the information a potential customer could need, all in one place. Landing pages are used to connect customers to your site from an external link, whether it be a social ad, promotion or newsletter.

eCommerce Marketing Guide for the Pet Industry: Strategies for Pet Product Marketing

Leonie Farrar   Added on 15 Dec 2023

Carrying out general eCommerce marketing strategies is all well and good, but general strategies won’t get you the results you’re after. You need to prioritise the strategies that are going to work best and bring in the most revenue for your industry - the pet industry.

We’ve developed our proven growth framework which is split into demand generation, demand capture, and retention. To successfully grow your business and achieve your full potential, you need to target all 3 areas of the framework in your marketing strategy.

Guide to the Best Marketing Strategies for Fashion Brands

Leonie Farrar   Added on 15 Dec 2023

We don’t just wear clothes because it’s the law or for temperature control, it’s also one of the main ways we express ourselves. After all, we spend most of our lives in clothes so they may as well express who we are as a person. For these reasons, the fashion industry will never…well…go out of fashion. That’s great news for you - people will always be looking for businesses like yours. But how do you get yourself in front of these people and move them from being your target audience to your loyal customers?

How To Create Engaging Images for A+ Content

Ollie Burrows   Added on 12 Dec 2023

When shopping on Amazon, you are first greeted with a series of product images, the price, product name and a brief description. This is the standard content formatting that applies to all products that are listed on the site. But scroll further down the page, and you are likely to see a lot more information, often stylised to match the brand, and showcasing the products in more images, diagrams and detailed descriptions.

Does the .Store TLD have an advantage for SEO/SEM? A Domain Experiment

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 30 Apr 2024

Over the last 12 months, we have been commissioned by .Store Domains to run an experiment to compare and see if there are any performance differences in using a .store vs a .com domain for your eCommerce website.

How to improve your eCommerce SEO strategy using your internal site search data

Leonie Farrar   Updated on 30 Oct 2023

Is your SEO strategy falling short? Or maybe it’s working well but you want to further optimise it. There’s one place that has a wealth of valuable data that many businesses skip over. Your on-site search can provide you with insights into your customer behaviour that you can’t get elsewhere.

Once you’ve tapped into this wealth of data, you can build on your SEO strategy in a way that will give you the competitive edge. After all, if customers are looking for something on your site, they’re further down the sales funnel and have a higher intent to buy - you don’t want to miss out on those conversions.

Why You Should Be Using Amazon's A+ Content On Your Product Listings

Ollie Burrows   Added on 26 Oct 2023

With brick and mortar stores becoming more of a rarity, most consumers head to the internet to complete their purchases, and the place they are likely to head to first is Amazon. With nearly 2 million small and medium sized businesses worldwide selling on Amazon, you need to make sure that your product listings stands out from the rest.

You need to convince potential customers that your products and service is better than all the others you are competing with, and the easiest way to boost your listings is by utilising A+ Content.

A step-by-step guide to creating an eCommerce content strategy

Leonie Farrar   Updated on 27 Jul 2023

At a time when digital content creation and consumption has gone through the roof, you may be asking yourself, is it worth adding your voice to the mix and how do you make sure you’re heard above the rest? The bottom line is, if you don’t put yourself out there, you can’t expect your customers to find you. And in today's day and age, content is the way to go.

Headless SEO On-Page Best Practices

Keira Davidson   Added on 12 Jul 2023

Over the past couple of years we’ve seen a worldwide increase in businesses opting for a headless CMS due to the additional development benefits surrounding flexibility and control of the backend. But how do businesses achieve this while achieving strong organic results?

Read our guide on headless SEO best practices to help you achieve organic success.

8 Ways to Style Your Creative Ads on TikTok

Ollie Burrows   Updated on 14 Jul 2023

When you are looking to start marketing your products or brand, social media is one of the most effective ways to get your products seen by potential customers. Whilst Google ads can help promote your product to customers who are searching for it, social media can put your product in the feeds of people who might not even know they need it, or have even heard of it.

Long Tail Keywords for eCommerce Guide

Leonie Farrar   Added on 14 Feb 2023

You know keyword research and optimising your site for keywords will help you increase your sites traffic and ultimately revenue. But you don’t have the in-depth SEO knowledge needed to conduct the keyword research that will get you the results you need to hit your growth goals.

Automate eCommerce product description writing with OpenAI GTP3

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 3 Jan 2023

Save time and money by leveraging the power of AI to help automate your product description writing efforts. As a retailer, this can be very effective but should only be used as a starting point for your copywriting team to build off and not the final description you upload to your site.

The eCommerce BNPL Bubble Has Burst

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 20 Dec 2022

Data reveals BNPL (buy now pay later) usage for solutions like Klarna is declining, does this mean the BNPL bubble has burst?

BNPL services are popular with customers as it lets them spread the cost of items over a longer period, with no interest or extra fees unless payments are missed. Typically this payment option is offered for more expensive purchases.

Klarna is one of the current leading BNPL providers. Since July 22 their usage has been on a downward trend meaning people are uninstalling this solution across the top million sites across the web.

Adobe Commerce: SEO Guide [2022] (Previously Magento 2)

Keira Davidson   Updated on 20 Sept 2022

You’re not making the most out of your Adobe Commerce store (previously Magento 2) if you’re running it on its default settings. This guide helps you to optimise your Adobe Commerce store for SEO by covering topics like URLs, meta information, crawling and indexing, and more.

Customise Shopify's URL Structure

Keira Davidson   Updated on 26 Sept 2022

When it comes to choosing Shopify as your eCommerce platform it is often thought that it isn’t possible to update the URLs and site architecture. Which is why, generally speaking, Shopify websites follow one of two URL structures which we have outlined below:

1. domain.com/collections/example-collection/products/example-product

2. domain.com/products/example-product

While it is somewhat true that you can’t change a Shopify website’s URL structure as they always have to reference either /collections/ or /products/, you are able to pick which URL structure to use out of the two structures specified above.

15 eCommerce email marketing strategies to make your potential revenue a reality

Leonie Farrar   Updated on 15 Jul 2022

Sure, targeting your existing customers with your eCommerce email marketing is great for bringing in repeat sales.

But you could be bringing in a lot more.

If you only target those who have already purchased, you’re potentially missing out on thousands of extra revenue - and the first-time customers who will help you achieve this.

7 international SEO strategies to get your eCommerce site in front of a larger audience

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 8 Apr 2022

Want to target your eCommerce site to international markets or customers who speak a different language? International SEO is your ticket to presenting yourself to your international visitors in the best way possible.

15 ways to get the most out of your Google Ads for eCommerce

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 30 Mar 2022

Let’s be honest, Google Ads can be a bit hit and miss sometimes. Knowing what paid advertising strategies Google will like (and reward you for) takes time. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work for you - and thought we’d share our tips that’ll help your Google Ads be more hit than miss.

In this post we’ll go through how we optimise Google Ads eCommerce campaigns to find the best-performing strategies. We’ll show you 15 different strategies for: Google Shopping ads and Smart Shopping Campaigns, Dynamic Remarketing, Search Ads, In-Market Audiences and Dynamic Search Ads.

How to improve branded paid search campaigns in Google & reduce unnecessary spend

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 24 Mar 2022

When someone searches for your brand in Google, you want to be the first and only thing they see in the results. Aka: you want to dominate the SERPs.

If you don’t do branded paid search campaigns and leave it up to the Google gods, your business will miss out on big opportunities for brand awareness, conversions and increases in revenue.

But how do you make sure you’re using your branded campaigns in the most effective and efficient way for your business’ goals and budgets?

How to use UGC social ads to boost engagement & save money

Jade Rowlatt   Updated on 21 Mar 2022

Myth: your ad creative has to always be super expensive, high-production-value photos, videos and designs.

Fact: if you’re solely relying on this, you’re wasting thousands’ worth of your advertising budget.

Enter: user-generated content (UGC).

User-generated content campaigns are nothing new, but since Covid hit, they’ve become even more prominent. When the pandemic restricted in-person photo and video shoots, marketers had to repurpose their existing creative - or turn to colleagues and customers for fresh creative.

Ecommerce copywriting guide: best practices for writing content that converts

Jade Rowlatt   Updated on 7 Sept 2022

Imagine this: you’ve got a killer product. A slick site design. A solid value proposition.

But your product still isn’t flying off the digital shelf. Why? Probably because your copy isn’t compelling enough.

Your site is only as good as your copy, to a degree. So to drive traffic and turn visitors into customers, you need persuasive copywriting that actually converts.

9 eCommerce homepage best practices to improve CRO and drive sales

Jade Rowlatt   Updated on 1 Mar 2022

Too many eCommerce business owners are guilty of spending most of their time optimising their product pages, category pages and checkout process - but fail to optimise their homepage.

Why is this an issue? As one of the first touchpoints for potential customers, your homepage can either make or break your conversion rate.

So it’s crucial to find the right features and design for your audience. Figuring this out is a lot of trial and error, but if you don’t investigate, you can lose out on a lot of revenue and customers.

7 ways to manage out of stock items in your PPC Google Shopping & Search Ads

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 21 Feb 2022

With convenience-seeking shoppers and Covid-conscious customers avoiding physical stores over the holidays, eCommerce retailers might hope it’ll drive revenue higher than ever.

In fact, eCommerce will make up 22% of global retail sales by 2023, compared to 11.9% in 2018 and 14.1% in 2019.

But there’s one thing that can massively derail your sales momentum: supply chain disruptions.

10 holiday SEO steps to get your eCommerce site ready for the shopping season

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 14 Feb 2022

Ever launched your Black Friday deals, only for the influx of traffic to crash your site and cost you in sales? Or made changes to your site that end up negatively affecting your conversion rate right before the busiest shopping period?

It’s not uncommon for eCommerce business owners to think their site’s current SEO strategy can sustain mammoth holiday shopping periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

But if you’re not anticipating the big e-rush well ahead of time, you could be facing a mass exodus of visitors who will happily spend their money elsewhere.

How to choose which eCommerce platform is best for your SEO strategy

Jade Rowlatt   Updated on 14 Feb 2022

Would you change your eCommerce platform if you knew it’d derail your entire fulfillment operation? Neither would we.

So why would you choose a platform that does more damage than good to your site’s SEO (search engine optimisation) performance?

Too many businesses move to a hosted platform with no knowledge on how it’ll affect their SEO strategy - and risk choosing one that actually stands in the way of their goals.

eCommerce CRO Checklist [Free Download]

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 17 Nov 2021

If you could double your eCommerce site’s conversion rate, your store would make double the profit without having to acquire any additional new users. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

When we work with our eCom clients, we run our high impact CRO audit. This way we can quickly uncover and look to improve our clients’ eCommerce conversion rate, having an impact on their bottom line in a short period of time.

In this post we’ll walk you through several eCommerce CRO checklist items you can check on your own to hopefully have a positive impact on your store’s conversion rate.

Competitor backlink analysis for easy link building opportunities

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 25 Aug 2021

Before you jump the gun with ideation and campaigns relative to digital PR, your first port of call should be competitor research. A competitor backlink analysis will enable you to find more than just their backlinks; it will give you an insight into the online marketing strategies they’re using to increase their online visibility. If it looks good, you can then apply the same strategy to acquire the same/similar links (provided that they’re of high quality).

Tips for a successful digital PR strategy

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 25 Aug 2021

Digital PR only works when it’s backed up by a solid PR strategy because you can end up wasting time and money so it’s important to have a strategy that ticks all of your brand’s boxes. This will not only increase your brand’s engagement and awareness but also open your brand’s doors to more opportunities.

In this article we will be giving you the key tips that are super important for your digital PR strategy to ensure you are getting the most out of your digital marketing efforts.

Core Web Vitals: a guide for eCommerce websites

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 25 Jan 2022

For years SEO has been about the informational value of pages: on page SEO, link profiles, the crawlability of sites through technical SEO and so on. From 2021, although these factors are still crucial, Google has moved on to focus on something different: user experience.

A lot of attention has been given to the Page Experience Update and Core Web Vitals this year. Essentially, this is Google’s attempt to improve website performance for users, making sure that businesses deliver content quickly and offer great experiences and interactions on their websites.

How to recover a drop in your SEO rankings

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 5 Jul 2021

With search engine algorithms constantly being tweaked, refined and updated, you can find yourself in the awful scenario of seeing your rankings drop suddenly, unexpectedly and quite catastrophically.

This can also happen after making changes to a site, regardless of whether they were made to improve its performance. Search engines can seem fickle and difficult to master - I know many SEOs who have worked on websites where they did everything according to Google’s own best practice, only to lose traffic.

Website Migration Dos and Don'ts for SEO

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 13 Sept 2021

Website migrations are known to be the bane of SEO’s life when done wrong - we’re here to find out how to get them right.

However, first things first: there are multiple types of website migrations, so we need to familiarise ourselves with these to then understand what we need to do to avoid a catastrophic loss of traffic and what can cause losses in the first place.

7 ways UX can improve your site’s SEO

Elliott Davidson   Added on 11 Jun 2021

Search engine algorithms are getting more sophisticated everyday. But so are users. Think about it: browsing and searching on the internet is an integral part of everyday life.

So what does this mean for SEO? Well, many believe that user signals play a greater role in search rankings. But first let's talk UX. Here's why you should care about it and how it can boost your site's SEO.

SEO for Discontinued or Out of Stock Products

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 24 Jan 2022

You know the drill: you’ve got an eCommerce store with hundreds or even thousands of products - some of which go out of stock either permanently or temporarily while you get a new batch ordered in. You know that you need to let your customers know whether products on your site are available to buy or not - but how do you deal with this from an SEO perspective?

The Ultimate Guide to HARO

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 21 Jul 2021

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a popular online service that enables expert sources to connect with journalists and bloggers. It provides them with a powerful database of sources for their upcoming stories that will help them secure valuable media coverage.

There are amazing, reputable journalists who use HARO from the likes of Forbes, Washington Post, New York Times and many other big media outlets. It has over one million sources and over 75,000 journalists and bloggers within its database, so if you are a business who wants to share their expert knowledge, there are plenty of opportunities for you to do so.

How to film professional testimonial videos

Ollie Burrows   Added on 9 Apr 2021

The same way that people read product reviews before buying a product, they also watch testimonial videos to know what other customers think of your products or services. This gives them an understanding of the value of your company in the eyes of your customers, and whether they should trust purchasing from you.

In this article we will cover how to prepare for your testimonial, what you need to do to record it, what to do to make sure the shoot is successful and how to edit it into an interesting narrative that grabs the audience's attention, and hopefully helps boost your sales.

How to use influencer marketing to drive eCommerce sales

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 9 Apr 2021

So let's start off with what influencer marketing is! It’s the practice of working with well-known social media influencers that can help you grow your brand and online presence quickly. You are able to utilise their social media following for your own gain as the audience is already there for you.

eCommerce Live Case Study - From £0 to £1 Million in 12 Months or Less

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 1 Apr 2021

We’re going to be running a live eCommerce case study over the next 12 months on how to build an eCommerce business from £0 to £1 million in annual run rate. Join us as we take you behind the scenes and show you everything from back-end infrastructure all the way to marketing - sharing real data and real results.

Why I set out to develop the best eCommerce digital marketing agency

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 9 Feb 2023

I’m Elliott, founder of Contrast, eCommerce business owner, and entrepreneur. I always knew I wanted to create a successful eCommerce business (much like you do). And due to a combination of pure curiosity and a sixth sense for an opportunity (you know the feeling), from a young age I started experimenting with small eCommerce endeavours, kick-starting my journey into eCommerce. Many years later, I now own and operate eCommerce stores that bring in several million each year, and my success is still on the up.

Faceted Navigation: SEO Best Practices for eCommerce Sites

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 24 Jan 2022

Ever shopped online? Well you’ve come across faceted navigation, without perhaps realising what it was!

If you own an ecommerce site, you may well even be using faceted navigation to make choices easier for your customers and to organise your products in ways that will appeal to them. Faceted navigation is essentially allowing users on the site to choose filters/sorting preferences or “facets” to browse through all your products.

Faceted navigation also exists on publisher sites (sorting articles by date, author or topic for example), job sites, large sites (the larger the site, the more likely it is that some sort of faceted navigation will exist to make finding content easier for users). For the purposes of this blog, we are focusing on ecommerce sites, but the solutions remain the same.

How to create ads that return a positive ROAS

Ollie Burrows   Added on 3 Mar 2021

When producing your videos, you need to not only make sure that the content you are creating is relevant to your audience and effective at converting potential customers, but also that the amount of money you are spending on your ad is worth the revenue that you are generating. For this we will look at simple rules you can follow to improve your content, and how to get the most out of your investment, by boosting your return on ad spend (ROAS).

Does digital PR work? Five ways to measure its impact!

Puja Kotecha   Added on 23 Feb 2021

Digital PR now, more than ever, is a vital part of digital marketing, so as a business you need to ensure that you are incorporating digital PR within your strategies. This blogpost has everything you need to know about measuring your own digital PR campaigns and their success. But I guess the famous question some of you may be asking is what even is digital PR? Well digital PR is a tactic used by marketers to increase brand awareness online.

How to create buyer personas that’ll drive more sales

Jade Rowlatt   Added on 16 Feb 2021

When you don’t know who you’re writing for, it makes it almost impossible to create a good piece of content. Believe us, we’ve been there. And when your marketing targets everyone, your message gets lost. It’s like casting a line with no bait. It’s never going to bite.

But by truly understanding your customers and finding out what makes them tick, you can deliver relevant, targeted and more personalised marketing that turns window shoppers into buyers.

Break Even ROAS - How to Calculate It and Why You Should Care

Elliott Davidson   Added on 10 Feb 2021

When you’re first starting out and learning about paid media, you hear the term ROAS being thrown around a lot.

What does it mean? ROAS stands for return on ad spend.

We’re going to take you through step by step and show you how we worked it out, so not only will you have a better understanding of it, but you’ll also be able to calculate it for yourself.

How to create a solid content brief

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 10 Mar 2021

Figuring out how to start an article or blogpost is one of the hardest parts of writing content; it’s uncommon for businesses to outsource their content creation to experienced writers. This is where a content brief can come in handy, but often we struggle to provide writers with necessary direction when you need quality content for your marketing purposes.

Link building to eCommerce Category Pages

Puja Kotecha   Added on 10 Nov 2020

This guide will help you explore new and simple ways of building quality links to your eCommerce category pages. Not only do we explain why link building should be a part of your marketing strategy but also show you which top brands are doing it best!

eCommerce Keyword Research Explained

Eleanor Reynolds   Updated on 24 Jan 2022

This article aims to guide you through the reasons for which we do keyword research, the types of keywords to target, what tools to use to find keyword ideas and how to choose the keywords you’ll then optimise your eCommerce store with.

BigCommerce SEO - The Complete Guide [2020]

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

Do you have an BigCommerce site but feel like you aren’t using it to its full potential? In this guide we take a deep dive into BigCommerce SEO and give you an insight into how you can use it to stand out from any other ecommerce store. Take away some actionable tips and tricks to improve your own site.

Is someone stealing my images? Use Reverse Image Search to find the culprit!

Puja Kotecha   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

Have you ever wondered if your images are being used elsewhere without your permission? Here is a simple guide to using Google’s Reverse Image Lookup.

10 Essential Ways to Optimise your YouTube SEO

Ollie Burrows   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

Get the right strategy for your video content, and it can be instrumental in improving brand awareness, generating inbound leads, and building trust with your potential clients. Videos can not only be used to promote a service or product, they can also be used to answer common questions asked by your customers, product demos or how to guides.

Future of SEO & the Implication of Entities - Radical Change in Approach and Perception

Paul Ngoie   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

Entities are having and will continue to have a major implication on the future of SEO and how search engine marketing is evolving. Google has been able to replicate the interactions of how people communicate in the real world, breaking these down into entities to integrate into its algorithm process.

Royalty Free Stock Photos of Nottingham

Ollie Burrows   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

We’ve all been there. You’ve spent a lot of time crafting the perfect blog post to share with the public, but now you need an image to accompany your post.

You can either head to Shutterstock or iStock and have to fork out anywhere between £10-50 per image, or you can head to the free stock sites such as Unsplash or Pexels.

95+ eCommerce Stats and Trends you Need to Know in 2023

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 13 Jul 2023

In 2022, more people are heading online to purchase goods, fewer people are shopping in person at retail stores and more money is being passed through online than ever before.

So it’s crucial to have all the right elements in your eCommerce store to encourage a healthy conversion rate - including an eCommerce strategy that’s set up for success. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing serious business.

We’ve gathered 95+ eCommerce stats and trends from leading sources to help feed your strategy for 2022 and give you some valuable insights.

Website Migrations: 7 Reasons you should consult an SEO specialist

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

So you are about to launch a new website.

Or maybe you are redesigning your existing one. Or maybe you are just planning out your strategy.

What do you do next?

Consultant with an SEO specialist, that’s what.

SEO Agency vs. In-House Team: Which is right for you?

Elliott Davidson   Updated on 8 Oct 2020

As your business grows, a common question pops up: How am I going to get all the marketing work done?

It’s not a bad problem to have. But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy fix. You need help. Who provides this help boils down to two options: Hire full time employees to focus on the digital marketing or hire an agency to do it for you.