Marketing Calenders are tough! Not to mention a complete year long one that actually works.

Truth is – it's not always possible to start and stay on the successful track. The most common reason for it is that not everyone has the necessary road map they need.

This is why having a sound plan for both marketing and execution are very important for anyone who wants to start an eCommerce business.

So where are we going with all this? For our readers we tried putting together something that is bound to get you results (from our own experience).

Post Summary:

12-month plan for a successful WooCommerce business
Latest stats on why they are important
A FREE Downloadable 12-Month Marketing Calendar

Prologue

If You had any aspiratons of becoming an online marketplace owner it's never been better than now.

The future of eCommerce is taking shape right before our own eyes. From a 2016 report by eMarketer, it is projected that sales from retail e-commerce will increase to $4.058 trillion in 2020. That's 14.6% of the total spending on retail altogether.

Those are some really big numbers! So it's best to start as early as possible.

Trust Us! You Really Do Need A Complete Plan

Bringing value to the readers is our number one priority when creating content. A marketing calendar for an eCommerce platform takes up a lot of your time. You have to try a lot of thing before figuring out the right formula.

So, it came to our minds why not share a solid plan showcasing what actually works and what doesn't.

Let's not waste any more time.

January: Focus on building your base
February: Generate traffic from content marketing
March: Step up your social game
April: Attract customers using promos
May: Start email campaign and influencer marketing
June: Review previous results & optimize
July: Strategize for more traffic
August: Plan for major holidays
September: Look for affiliate partnerships
October: Focus in better CPC
November: Brainstorm for growth hacking & improve landing page
December: Lead with viral contents

Why Would You Need A WooCommerce Marketing Plan Anyway?

In this blog, we tried to mainly put together a complete 12 months plan on how you can use Dokan & WooCommerce to get your dream eCommerce site started.

Concentrating on each month about what you should do individually.

Think of it as a WooCommerce store marketing plan for 2020.

Not theories that we just wrote in the moment rather tried and tested processes from our own experiences.

January: Focus On Building Your Base

You are just starting out. Full of energy, full of excitement for the future. This can get a little daunting we know, so stick with us.

You have to remember that your WooCommerce store is your battleground. So being prepared to analyze everything is a good strategy to have. Some simple basics you should always have covered are

Hiring the right people: It can be one of the key factors in your WooCommerce business success. A team that has a better understanding of each other and works towards a single goal usually beats the team with superstars in it.
A Proper Focus Point: This is the most important part of this conversation. You won't be able to achieve it all. You have to prioritize on what exactly where you want to see your business reach that is feasible. And plan accordingly.
Setting up opt-in, social profiles & their pixels and conversion trackers: To keep a record of people who interacted with your store, it is essential that you set these things up first. Opt-ins for building email subscriber list, social media business profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest social media pixels for ad targeting/retargeting, setting up email automation services like MailChimp, Aweber etc for email marketing campaigns. Some plugins that can greatly help you are –
Contact Form builders like weForms for making forms that attract the attention of your visitor.Some kind of conversion tracker that keeps data of who interacted with your store and from which platform. Similar to WooCommerce Conversion Tracking (a free tool) so you can target them at a later time for marketing purposes.
Email campaign plugins like MailPoet a great tool for beginners when starting out.

February: Generate Traffic From Content Marketing

You are starting to get visitors to your website. Congrats!

Now comes the part to retain them. Generating good, valuable, helpful contents can be a great way to make your visitors loyal. Start by thinking what you can do that would be beneficial for them, both in their personal and business life.

Create a separate blog page where you not only talk about only your business but also other things related to your industry. Produce video contents for YouTube, Facebook (which is a great way for organic traffic). Some tips that can be helpful

Follow what your competitors are creating as content inspiration
Make contents as valuable as possible for the other end
Be aware of what the industry is scaling to be good content
Share content on multiple social channels for maximum reach

But its imperative that you do it on a regular basis. You never know when and what might click with your audience.

Also some other beneficiary things you can do alongside these tasks

Create blog post by doing proper SEO research
Analyze what type of content the market is in need of and deliver properly

March: Step Up Your Social Game

There are approximately 3.4 billion active social media users worldwide with an average of 135 minutes spent on social media every day by the global internet users.[Source]

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This time you need to create a strong presence in the social media communities relevant to your business. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest are great sources of traffic. They are also free. You just need to create an account to get started. Though there are some best practices you need to follow when interacting with the end user on platforms like these

Clear understanding of what kind of image you want your content consumers to have about your brand
Have the proper tools to measure Social Media ROI from the get and set them up correctly[Ex: Setting up UTM tracking codes, using built-in analytics of these channels]
Proper knowledge about what to measure, how and why
Treating these platforms not only as a distribution method rather brand/reputation building platforms.
Interacting with your fans across all social channels for more organic reach.
Giving proper budget to paid options on social media. It will take some time to see the results but you should always have a long-term plan if you are in the eCommerce business.

April: Attract Customers Using Promos

Your business will start to see some tractions now. Now comes the time to offer lucrative promo deals like discount coupons, free products campaign with purchases etc.

But don't just offer promotional deals and sit back to see the results. You have to let people know what they are missing. Things you can do

Start a Google AdWords campaign to promote your deals on Google platforms. Consider a sufficient budget and wait a little while to see your expected result(you will get them eventually)
Retarget your fans from social media(like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc) across multiple channels
Use the data you got from plugins like Woocommerce Conversion Tracking to target potential customers who interacted with your website

May: Start Email Campaigns & Influencer Marketing

Email marketing will take a boom in 2020 with an estimation that 246 billion emails will be sent in total.

This by no mistake because email marketing still provides the best bang for your buck. The depth of communication you can get using personalized emails is still the best in the business. Latest reports show that email marketing shows 76% make a purchase from an email. Here are some tips you should always follow to have the best results

Make your emails as mobile friendly as possible. As the usage smartphones are rising at a greater rate than ever before it just makes sense to be mobile friendly.
Personalize your emails as much as possible. Doing this will make your customer feel valued.
Differentiate your subscribers by age, location, industry, sales cycle etc so you will have a better understanding of what to send to who. This lets you avoid spam emails that you might have sent to those who are not interested.
Test, test, test! Don't just restrict yourself to A/B testing go as much C/D/E/F

Other than email you can also look towards influencer marketing to get a boost up for your eCommerce business. Influencer/KOL marketing is simply put – “Promoting your business through someone's channels on social media who have a large amount of attention”

June: Review Previous Results & Optimize

You should start seeing results now!
But don't take anything for granted yet. You need to analyze what your previous results are trying to tell you. Learn from your mistakes and see what you can do better.
Use advanced analytics like Google Analytics(which is FREE) to see where most of your content consumers are coming from, their demographics, age, behavior, traits etc. Use this in-depth knowledge to see how you can optimize your main landing pages, child pages to see better growth for you WooCommerce business.

July: Strategize For More Traffic

The holidays are in sight now. It's time to gear up for how much you are going to bring value to your customers. Offering different discount can be really beneficial in bringing more traffic and brand awareness. The most important holiday you can look for in this period – is the 4th of July. People in this time will be looking offers that will be lucrative for them.

Some strategies you can follow

Offer discount coupons/price for your products
Start a FREE with every purchase promotion on all/multiple products
Track your previous offer results to optimize how you can get the best out of investment this time

August: Start Planning For Major Holidays

You got the results in hand and they are looking promising. But it's not time yet to stop. The holiday seasons are only just beginning. Use the CALENDER that we gave you to map out which major holidays are most relevant to your business and how you can use those occasions. Sales go through the roof during the holiday seasons. You have to maximize your efforts to get the most out of your efforts. Look out for prominent holidays you need to concentrate the most like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving etc.

It is never too late to plan early

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September: Look For Affiliate Partnerships

People are becoming really interested in your products. Now to grow your WooCommerce business even further you can start affiliate partnership. Look for people who are interested in earning some money from your products. You can even offer some really good compensation if they successfully do it.

Rather than looking for affiliate partnership, create a section of your main landing page for affiliates.
Review who you are doing affiliate with. It is directly related to your brand reputation.
Offer lucrative percentage so more affiliate marketers will be interested to be in a partnership with you.

October: Focus On Better CPC

Time for you to spread the word that you have a WooCommerce store and it is giving the best value for money out there. To do that you need to find sources that can generate more traffic than you are getting right now. Analyze the previous results that you got from Google AdWords, Perfect Audience etc and focus on what can be improved.

Analyze, reanalyze your previous data to see what areas need improvement from your side
Update old Ad copies that are performing worst & take hints from the ones that are doing good.

November: Brainstorm For Growth Hacks & Improve Landing Page Conversion Rates

Your team is starting to work together to a single goal. As previously mentioned

A team that better understand each others weakness and strengths tends to always beat the team that has superstars in it but no team work

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Create a brainstorming session with your team who knows the ins & out of business because they have experienced it first hand from the start. Some little growth hacking ideas might come out of this session that won't seem so little later on. And also you have to start preparing your landing page for the holiday season. Your website is your second home. Treat your visitors the same way you would treat a guest in your house. A neat trick you can use is using plugins that will add a simple holiday touch to your site like snowfall effect, Christmas lights, Santa Claus banner etc.

December: Lead With Viral Contests

It seems viral content is what the rage is all about in today's content marketing world.

Though it seems obvious, it is given that viral marketing of content is one of the greatest way to attain the attention of your customers.

Everybody loves free stuff. Start a giveaway and start to see your traffic spike through the roof. Or be creative and think of something unique like interactive quiz marketing with prizes, a contest for premium products, share to win and so on.

Bonus Tips

There are some things that should always be followed throughout your WooCommerce journey.

Always analyze reanalyze the data from your investments
Look at what your competitors are doing and what they are lacking
Planning is the most important and crucial part. So, you need to spend more time on planning than execution
Never stop learning
Don't be frustrated by lack of results. Remember that it takes time & hard work to build something sustainable

Conclusion

This a simple yet effective road map to guide you in your WooCommerce journey.

You can rest assured that these are effective strategies, not just theories

Though many unforeseen obstacles will come that you have to deal with on the fly. If it doesn't produce the results that wanted move on to the next milestone.

Remember to stay patient and trust your journey. You will get there eventually!

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P.S . Don't forget to download your Free copy of the marketing plan for 2020 and start today.

Get Your Free WooCommerce Marketing Calendar Now

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WooCommerce Marketing Calendar 2020