Ecommerce closed loop marketing looks at the entire process of turning a prospect into a customer as a single unit, combining marketing, sales and analysis. Successfully running a closed loop marketing system requires systems that are integrated, but ultimately gives companies that used it much better insight into what works and what their customers want.

Instagram is free, easy to use and it’s grown to 150 million users in just three years for a reason – nothing has greater marketing impact than visuals. Are you taking full advantage of Instagram ecommerce marketing to build your online business?

Consumers have been buying goods and services online long enough now that they're not concerned with credit card security issues, packages getting lost in the mail, or unreasonable return policies. They get it, and Ecommerce sales continue to make gains as a percentage of overall sales with an increase of over 16% in year over year sales in 2013. 

Your challenge is to stand out from the crowd. When everyone sees an economic hot spot like Ecommerce, people flood in to catch a piece of the pie. How will you drive customers to your online store and keep them there?

From it's beginnings as word-of-mouth promotion to its development to print and then radio and television advertising, effective marketing has long been seen as essential to generating sales sufficient to enable any enterprise to survive.  

Although many companies continue to use some or all of those modalities, relying on them exclusively is likely to yield the same result that occurs when a shark stops swimming:  Your business will eventually sink lifelessly to the bottom.  

Pinterest has become a popular site for consumers, prompting a growing number of savvy e-commerce executives to start leveraging its potential as a business tool.  Are you already taking advantage?  If not, read on.  

The to-do list for many business marketing departments can be quite lengthy when it comes to to e-commerce.  With the use of online commerce growing exponentially in virtually every industry, companies are scrambling to make sure their e-commerce models work effectively.  Are you making the appropriate changes?

HubSpot recently released a very cool social media app that should be used by all smart eCommerce marketers - Social Inbox.  Social Inbox is similar to other social media management software like HootSuite, with one big feature that sets it apart.  The game changer that Social Inbox brings is that it is connected to your Contacts database.  This means that you can create monitoring feeds in Social Inbox that are generated from dynamic contact lists.  I know what you're saying - whoa!  no waay!  this is incredible!!  OK, you probably didn't get very excited about this revelation - if you did, contact me - we're hiring!

Automated post purchase email marketing is a process which entails sending timely and useful email reminders to customers whom have purchased from your eCommerce store.  These emails typically will include relevant products and information with the goal of reminding or enticing the email recipient to come back to your store and make a repeat purchase.

When executed correctly, automated post purchase email marketing can extend the LTV (lifetime value) of your customers, bringing your business more sales and revenue.  

HubSpot's all in one marketing solution makes this process possible through their easy to setup dynamic content, smart lists and workflow tools.   This way eCommerce marketeers, store owners and professionals can use the power of HubSpot to personalize post purchase emails - doing their best to ensure that the content being delivered to their valued customer is relevant and of interest to them.

Read on for Step by Step directions of setting post purchase email automation up in HubSpot.

Have you ever tried a to-do list system or app only to find yourself days, weeks or months later frustrated that you never kept with it? 

Personally I've tried a lot of them.  Gmail Tasks, Todo.ly, Wunderlist, Evernote, Basecamp, old fashion pen and paper, sticky notes and most recently Workflowy.  

Unfortunately no system sticks with me for more than a couple of months.  I get busy and forget to add tasks, I work in my email and take care of things and just forget to update the to-do list.  So the system falls by the way-side and I get frustrated that I'm not staying organized.  Sound familiar?  If so, you're in luck.  

I've devised a way to create a to-do list in the one system that you'll never leave -- you're email inbox.  Prepare for a life changing moment :]

This is Part 2 (read part 1 here) of a guest post series "Inbound Marketing is the Future of eCommerce" by Katie Hudson (@kt_hudson).  Katie is the Marketing Manager for Demac Media, an award winning eCommerce agency headquartered in Toronto. She is directly responsible for the company’s Inbound Marketing strategies, blog, social media channels and corporate events. Katie's skill and experience have helped position Demac Media as a major thought leader within the Canadian eCommerce landscape. 

Great content should be the focus point of your marketing efforts to ensure the future success of your online store. Why? Because customers are information seekers at heart, especially when they buy online, so what better way to "feed their need" than to give them what they really want?