Creating a great marketing strategy is a challenging task for online vendors or ecommerce owners. Thanks to the fierce competition among a myriad of ecommerce stores online! If you want to survive through this competition, you need to be skillful enough to drive more traffic to your website and maximize your sales.
But, what marketing ideas for the ecommerce business should you adopt to make it exceptional? In this article, we’ll help you explore the most successful ecommerce marketing strategies to excel in your ecommerce business. First, let’s shed some light on what ecommerce is all about.
What Is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce or electronic commerce refers to any form of business transaction that takes place online. For example, online shopping, which involves the buying or selling of goods and services over the Internet. Ecommerce also entails other activities, like internet banking, online auctions, etc.
Besides, Mobile commerce is another new avenue of e commerce driven by the influence of increased use of smartphones and millennial shopping comfort. According to Business Insider, the percentage of e-commerce sales via mobile phones is forecasted to increase up to 45%. This makes optimizing the ecommerce website for mobile devices one of the useful ecommerce marketing tactics.
What Is Ecommerce Marketing Strategy?
Ecommerce marketing is all about spreading the word about an online store or its products and services. In the digital realm, you can do so by leveraging digital content, email campaigns, or social media platforms and raise consciousness about your brand’s offerings. These digital channels not only help you advertise your products online but also open the customers up to a new world of buying opportunities. Meanwhile, the audience becomes more familiar with your brand. Thus, ecommerce marketing is a win-win!
An ecommerce marketing strategy is a practice of driving traffic to the top of the funnel and converting it into sales or customers. It is a way that helps ecommerce entrepreneurs to leverage the marketing platforms and steer the customers’ attention to their online stores. There is a plethora of ecommerce marketing tactics and tips to do so, which we’ll discuss in the next section.
What Are The Best Marketing Strategies?
With the right ecommerce marketing strategies, like SEO or content marketing, you can boost your brand’s awareness and establish your presence in the competitive marketing world. Discover the best ecommerce marketing practices to set your business apart and get more customers to want to find you. The following strategies for marketing for ecommerce business have proven to be successful in the past and will work well in the future too. So, let’s get started!
Use Content Marketing
Marketing your business using unique, high-quality content is called content marketing. It involves creating online content, like blog posts, videos, infographics, images, or GIFs, to attract the target audience. With the right content, you can make your customers go wow with feed, laugh at a GIF, or share valuable information via a well-written article. You can also provide them with informative guides. Below are a few ways to use content for marketing your business-
- Optimise Your Product’s Page Copy
If you want to sell your products online, you need optimised product pages to generate transactions. Using product-driven keywords that contain the product’s name is the key to do this. Also, the page’s title, the image’s alt text, and headers should include the right keywords so that the search engine ranks your store for the query.
For example, suppose you sell white bridesmaid dress. If you include this term on your product page, the search engine will likely rank your page in the SERP if a user searches for a ‘white bridesmaid dress.’ So, make sure to optimise your product’s page with the right keywords.
- Create An FAQ Section On Your Website
Users might have questions regarding your products or services. Thus, it makes sense to have an FAQ page with response to the users’ long-tail keyword searches to get them to your website. This way, you will build both authority and traffic.
- Promote Your Products Via YouTube Videos
With more than a billion active users, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. Thus, it is a great platform to share videos related to your products with a massive audience. For example, you can create tutorial videos and tell users how to use your product and increase customer satisfaction.
Send Personalised Emails To The Audience
The next great strategy to market your ecommerce store is ecommerce email marketing. But, who still reads emails? Well, everyone does! Despite the growing popularity of social media platforms, email is an important communication channel for many.
The best thing about email marketing is that it can be automated. This means you can build a drip campaign for the subscribers who are interested in your brand or those who are at a particular stage in the buyers’ journey and let your emails do the work. Below are the two ways to use email marketing for ecommerce-
- Emails To Address Shopping Cart Abandonment
There could be several reasons why users abandon shopping carts. However, you can use emails to diagnose the problem and make a difference. Suppose a user didn’t complete a transaction. In this case, you can send a polite email reminding them to complete the process. You can also recommend other products to get them back to your ecommerce store.
- A Follow Up Email
If a user has already purchased your products and subscribed for the emails, you can send them a follow up email to view their future interest in your brand. Post purchase, you can also send an email and ask them to write a review or give feedback. This shows that you value your users and care about them beyond a purchase.
Social Media Marketing For Ecommerce
Social media platforms provide you with a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about your event, products, or promotions. Since everyone uses social media, it is one of the most recommended marketing ideas for ecommerce business.
- Instagram Marketing
The success of an ecommerce store on social media depends on how well you use images or videos to drive traffic to your site. Instagram is a great social media platform as it allows you to share high-quality product photography and expand the products’ reach. If you want to do well on Instagram, create quality content, get followers, and engage with the audience.
Research about your audience and find out what type of content they engage with. Aside from producing quality content, host giveaways and encourage the users to participate in it. Make the competition rules in such a way that the participants have to tag their friends or follow your account. If done correctly, you’ll get tons of followers who are interested in your products.
- Facebook Ads
Facebook is another powerful social media platform available for ecommerce marketers. While advertising on Facebook, you can target your Ads based on age, location, interests, education, behavior, and so on! If there are users who left your site without making a purchase, you can add a Facebook pixel on your site and retarget them.
Whether you use a video or an image of the products, it needs to stand out and capture the attention of the users. Add compelling content to the Ad copy and observe the results for at least a week. Run multiple Ads with different variations to find the best Ad copy that works for your business.
Search Engine Marketing
SEM or search engine marketing includes both SEO and paid advertising. SEO is all about optimizing your content to improve your site’s organic ranking on Google. Paid advertising, like PPC, Display Ads, Google Shopping, etc., help you appear at the top of SERP.
PPC or pay per click campaigns guarantee that the audience will see your products in the search results if their search term matches the terms used in your campaign. So, you can register with Google Ads and promote your product pages via paid campaigns.
Incorporate Influencer Marketing
Nowadays, the audience is exposed to more and more product advertisements. This makes it important for you to incorporate an ecommerce marketing strategy that appeals to your customers. If your brand aligns with someone who has a large following and good credibility in a specific niche, it can be a game-changer. This is where influencer marketing for ecommerce comes in!
Influencer marketing focuses on brands or people who can influence your target market. Since influencers already have the trust of their followers, this type of paid endorsement is less intrusive than standard advertisements. Thus, it is a valuable, ecommerce marketing strategy.
This type of marketing is mostly used across YouTube, social media platforms, or popular blogs. For example, if you have an ecommerce store that deals in fashion accessories, you can collaborate with the top-notch fashion bloggers who can recommend your products in a sponsored post. They can help you generate measurable results.
You don’t have to look for a Kardashian-level celebrity with millions of followers. Even the accounts with smaller yet engaged followers can provide your business with high conversion. One tip is to invite the potential partners to collaborate and ship your products so that they can first try them out and then recommend to the audience.
Write Guest Posts For External Websites
Guest posts extend your reach to well-known blogs and publications for free! Writing guest posts also help put your content or products in front of the new audience and get a few links back to your site. It provides domain authority to your ecommerce website and makes it reliable in Google’s eyes.
But, make sure to submit your posts to high authority publications you want your business to be associated with. Search for the websites that rank high for the keywords related to your products. If you already have relatable posts, you can provide additional content, like a video or infographic with a link to your site.
Some High-Tech Ecommerce Marketing Strategies
Now that we have discussed some basic, low-cost ecommerce marketing strategies, it’s time to talk about some high-tech tips to take your ecommerce marketing to the next level. These strategies are the best for the ecommerce marketers who can afford to spend extra money to promote their products and keep the audience engaged.
Tap Into VR Technology
VR (virtual reality) technology is a trending way to grab the attention of the users in an exciting way. While creating campaigns designed for this technology can be expensive, it is worth your investment, if done correctly. The target customers for this type of marketing are the ones who won’t mind spending some extra cash for the things they desire, or those who love to keep updated with the latest trends. Thus, it provides you with a filtered audience who will likely convert.
Have An App For Your Ecommerce Store
Creating an app for your ecommerce store and having the users download it is simply an excellent way to stay ahead of your competitors. Customized recommendations, one-click purchase, and quick delivery are the things every online shopper wants. If you combine all these things with app’s push notifications, you ensure that the users will return to your store. These pop up notifications on smartphones will keep the audience engaged with your brand.
Marketing Strategies For Ecommerce Startup
If you plan to launch an ecommerce store or have just started one, it is a bit challenging to get even a small piece of the market. You need to have sustainable, long-term ecommerce marketing strategies to bootstrap your newly launched ecommerce store. Here, we’ll tell you some solid marketing ideas for ecommerce startups.
Focus On Building Relationships
As you have just launched your ecommerce startup, you should focus on building relationships and partnerships. If you know an online store owner who sells complementary products, you can try to partner with them. It won’t cost you or your partner extra; but, both the parties will benefit by gaining awareness of the ecommerce stores.
Promote User Generated Content
Usually, an online customer reads reviews, ratings, or other user generated content before making a purchase. They look for the experience of the customers who have already used the products. This is where users generated content can help you. You just need to find creative ways to encourage the users to promote or share your business.
Below are a few ways to use user generated content to promote your ecommerce store-
- Ask your users to submit their content using a branded social media hashtag.
- Host competitions where customers display your products in an interesting way and win.
- Seek feedback from the customers about your product and share it on the review platform.
Word Of Mouth Marketing
This type of marketing is based on the fact that people want advice or recommendations from those who have used the products. You can generate good word of mouth marketing by providing a great customer experience. Encourage your customers to write reviews; a post-purchase follow up email is a great way to start this.
You can also ask your customers to refer to your products in exchange for a free gift, money, or discount. Though it happens naturally if they enjoy your product, make sure that it happens more frequently via a referral program. Something as simple as asking the customers to share their photo with your product in exchange of a free product can work wonders for you.
Drive Engagement On Social Media
You don’t have to spend hours to promote your store via social media. Just spare a few hours everyday to execute your social media campaign. Start with the platform where most of your target audience hangs out. Respond to the queries, reviews, and comments timely, while providing unique content; it would create a pool of raving fans on social media.
Launch Your Ecommerce Store On Multiple Platforms
From Amazon and Ebay to Shopify, there are so many options to host an online store. These platforms are like an extension to your ecommerce store. Moreover, they make it easier for you to spread awareness about your brand, while providing you with an opportunity to drive traffic to your website.
Start Contextual Marketing Campaign
Contextual marketing is all about nurturing the existing or prospects relationships so that they convert. Gather information about your customers’ profiles, interests, and context; it will help you deliver relevant content. For this, set up analytics on your store for tracking the users’ behavior. You can ask a website visitor to fill a form or survey.
Conclusion
Ecommerce stores use several marketing tools and strategies to boost their performance. Which ecommerce marketing strategy will work best to strengthen your marketing funnel? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. You need to try and test different strategies and find out what gives you the best results. Stay updated with the latest marketing trends, provide relevant content, improve user experience, and respond timely. Also, make sure to monitor the analytics and track the results. With the appropriate marketing strategies, your ecommerce business will continue to grow over time.