New online stores are cropping up every day. And, every online store wants to boost its traffic and conversions. However, even after you have formulated a basic strategy to market your eCommerce business, it might be a little challenging to decide which strategies are going to work in your favor.
Marketing an eCommerce business requires specific strategies that are different than your regular digital marketing strategies. A long-term plan focuses on the shopping experience of the customer and strategies to improve that.
The key performance indicators of your eCommerce business will focus on targeted web traffic, organic revenue, shopping conversion rates, and click-through rates.
When you are formulating a strategy, you have to keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every company should have its own dedicated marketing strategy that is based on the product or services they offer. Moreover, your strategies should be a combination of time-tested methods.
To help you out, we have put together efficacious marketing strategies for eCommerce businesses that you can implement for your business.
So, let’s dive in.
But, first, let’s learn what is eCommerce marketing.
An Introduction to Ecommerce Marketing
Ecommerce marketing uses promotional tactics to secure more traffic for an eCommerce store, converting them, and then retaining them after they complete their purchase.
A good eCommerce marketing strategy comprises of strategy both on and off the site. With a sound marketing strategy, you can build awareness.
Ecommerce marketing is used to promote your online store and to drive traffic towards a certain product.
Best Ecommerce Marketing Ideas to Try
As we said, there is no set formula. However, there are a few eCommerce tactics that you should include in your checklist. Here are a few of those effective ideas.
- Optimize the eCommerce Website
Sure, major players are hogging the eCommerce limelight but the domain is diverse and large.
The competition is fierce and the average conversion rate is 2-3%. Furthermore, the cost to secure new visitors through Facebook ads, pay-per-click, or search engines is also increasing steadily. Thus, eCommerce sites should make the most of incoming and existing customers through an eCommerce marketing strategy.
To make sure your potential customers find it easier to access and navigate through the site, make it mobile-friendly. Studies have shown that more than 50% of the users are using their mobile devices to make online purchases. So, it can be frustrating for them if the site is too big for the screen size.
You have to make the site’s features mobile-friendly. Responsive websites get a better ranking on the Google search engine page. In fact, it can penalize the sites that aren’t. You should take responsive design as a vital aspect of your eCommerce strategy.
The goal is to make things effortless for your customers. They should be able to locate and view your products without any hassle. Remember, your visitors are not going to convert with the first encounter. However, if you can make the first encounter seamless, it is likely they will return to your site to make a purchase.
- Develop Content that Offers Customized Shopping Experience
In this era of fierce competition, to survive, you cannot simply offer quality products. Your customers are expecting more from you. To make sure that they return to your online store to complete a purchase, you should provide them with a personalized shopping experience focusing on product recommendations or individual deals.
For this, you first have to get to know your customers. Learn about the product pages they visit or the kind of content they are consuming. Also, get to know the device they are using to shop from your site. When you have these details, you can begin segmenting your audience and provide them with a personalized shopping experience.
- Use Search Engine Optimization
Creating a responsive website for your customers is not enough. You need an eCommerce SEO strategy that will support your web development efforts. It ensures your potential customers find you even in this highly saturated online market.
Studies have shown that over 87% of the customers, lookup for a product over the internet before placing their order. This is what makes eCommerce optimization crucial.
To employ the eCommerce SEO best practices, you have to do the following-
- Perform keyword research relevant to your business
- Use different keywords for each product
- Optimize the site content along with the product descriptions
- Use conversion rate optimization for analyzing campaign performance
You should improve the customer checkout experience of your site. According to studies, 68% of the shopping carts are abandoned due to customers’ poor checkout experience. To ensure this, there are a few things you will have to avoid-
- Including only a few payment options
- Forcing customers to create accounts
- Not including progress bars
You have to provide your customers with a unique and optimized shopping experience.
- Maximize the Email Campaigns
With email marketing campaigns, you can encourage direct contact between your brand and your customers. Personalized emails have a better reach than social media.
There are many email marketing strategies that will help in improving results. With these strategies, you will be able to transform leads into sales.
So, create an email list. When you are building your tribe of loyal customers, you are checking off many important business-building tasks-
- You are securing permission to send promotions without even paying for the ads present on social media.
- You are retargeting people interested in the products you have to offer.
- You are creating an opportunity to develop a community
Emails work since customers are choosing to hear from you rather than being targeted by the paid ads. Moreover, you have complete control over the email list. This is not the case when you use social media ads.
Now, let’s take a look at the different types of emails you can send to your customers.
- Welcome emails for returning and new customers
- Birthday emails to stay in touch with your customers
- Promotional emails to let customers know about the discounts and offers
- Newsletters to touch bases with clients and boost website traffic
- Shopping cart abandonment mails
- Thank You emails to foster customer relationships or promote your products
Make sure you maintain a steady flow of communication with your customer email list.
- Use Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the best online marketing strategies when it comes to eCommerce businesses. This is because platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook let you target a specific audience. Also, it allows you to link specific pages on the website.
So, if you use the right social media marketing strategies, you can draw in the right customers to your eCommerce site and connect them to the products they are searching for.
Use the power of social media to engage prospective customers and generate more traffic to your website.
But before you start with your social media marketing strategies, you should –
- Learn about your target audience to know who you are connecting with
- Select the social media platforms you would like to promote on
- Learn what your competitors are doing on their social media handles
All these will help in creating an effective online marketing strategy for your online store. Once you start to share posts and create campaigns, use the data you gather to decide the best posting times or the preferred number of sports. Measure the campaign results to make adjustments to the marketing strategies.
- Tap on Paid Campaigns
Apart from using SEO and social media for eCommerce sites, you can use paid campaigns. It is affordable and can boost your marketing strategy.
The ads appearing at the top of search engine result pages are pay-per-click in action. It can expand your reach when you incorporate them into the eCommerce strategy. With paid campaigns, you can optimize your strategy for specific keywords for reaching out to the right audience.
The good thing about pay-per-click is you will pay only when someone clicks on the ad. So, budget for these days when you create your eCommerce marketing strategy. Here are the types of PPC ads you need to consider-
- Paid Search Ads- These are seen at the top of the SERPs and do not contain any images. Paid search ads are text-based.
- Product Listing Ads: These are a must for shopping campaigns. Product listing helps in displaying the ads in relevant searches.
- Display Ads: It is also known as banner ads. You can see them on websites, apps, and mobile games. These ads are mainly based on the browser history of the users.
Bottom Line
Ecommerce is here to stay. With time, more and more users are getting access to the internet. Thus, you have to make sure your eCommerce strategies stand out in the crowd. It should appeal to new customers and make them trust your business. In case you are a little confused as to how to start with it, take the help of an eCommerce marketing service.
