Thanks to the growth in technology, ecommerce businesses have emerged and many have succeeded by using effective ecommerce marketing strategies. Deciding which ecommerce marketing strategy is right for you will help you compete in a crowded online landscape where so many similar products and services are offered at a wide range of prices.
Getting your company known to a larger audience can be key to surviving among your many online competitors. Using ecommerce marketing strategies can help you stand out among others and increase your revenues by growing sales. Here are twelve proven strategies you could employ.
1. Improving Your Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO strategies can optimize not only your website and all its pages, but also your product names, blog content, video and podcast descriptions, and more. Keyword research tools are essential for an effective SEO strategy, and many are available for free, at least on a trial basis. Googling “keyword research tools” is a good place to start, but some of the most popular tools include:
Many of these platforms will help you also identify synonyms for the keywords, which you should consider as well.
2. Adding Review Boxes
Reviews play an important role in the conversion rate of your ecommerce website. According to a 2019 consumer survey by BrightLocal, 82% of buyers read online reviews and trust them when considering a purchase.
If you have a WordPress website, there are many WordPress plugins that enable you to post customer reviews. If you use Shopify for your ecommerce website, Shopify provides apps that enable you to easily feature customer reviews on your products or services pages.
3. Developing Content Marketing
Content marketing has different categories that you should pay attention to as an ecommerce owner or marketer. Using what you learn from your keyword research tools, you can create SEO-friendly blog posts. Blog posts can attract leads to your ecommerce website where you can entice them to either join your newsletter, sign up for a free trial, explore your products, or even buy now. If you feel you do not have the time or the writing skills to create blog content yourself, you can hire copywriters and other content marketers or even freelancers.
What content topics might work best for your blog? Think informative or educational rather than promotional. It is a mistake to write about your products in your blog posts. One effective tactic is to write blog posts that answer the questions your customers or website visitors have asked, which can often be found in your website’s Google Analytics. Then, within an informative article, you can mention and link your products or services as a solution to a common question or problem.
4. Writing Guest Posts on Other Blogs
Find and collaborate with other ecommerce businesses in your community. Check if they accept guest posts and then share some of your content with them. Adding backlinks to the blog post that direct readers to your products or website can help grow your website visitors and sales.
Be considerate of what websites you choose to offer guest posts, because you may draw away some of their audience. The ideal websites to choose for guest posting should not be neither low-rated nor very high-rated and they should work in an industry related to yours. This makes it more likely that their audience will be interested in your products or services and are therefore more likely to click on your backlinks.
5. Engaging in Social Media Marketing
The power of social media is something that no one can deny. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are some of the best platforms to promote your products and services for free, even if you do not use paid ads or influencers. Since there are many people checking these social networks first thing in the morning or any time during the day, social media provides numerous opportunities to make impressions and build stronger ties with your existing and new followers.
One characteristic of social media is the sharing feature which makes it possible for your audience to share your content. As a result, your followers can act as your advocate and display your content to their followers. That’s why the more shareable your content, the better. In other words, do not just post about your products and services. Add something of value to your posts, such as information, news, infographics, or even humor.
6. Collaborating with Influencers
Working with social media influencers is not a budget-friendly strategy compared to the other strategies mentioned so far. However, it may still be possible to use influencer marketing to grow your business on a tight budget by choosing micro-influencers instead of macro-influencers.
74% of buyers get influenced by the word of mouth rather than the words of the business itself. That’s why it may actually be more profitable to invest in an influencer. The followers of influencers usually trust them and they take their recommendations seriously.
It is highly likely that you grow the number of your followers through influencer marketing, especially on Instagram. The audience of that specific influencer sees your content and browses your feed. If they find it interesting and feel the need for your products or services, they become your followers. So, you have just learned to get organic followers in addition to resorting to Instagram followers apps.
Here is an example of collaborating with influencers by Sephora that has partnered with Patrick Starrr:
Source: Instagram – @patrickstarrr
7. Sending out Email Marketing Campaigns
With nearly 4 billion active email users worldwide, adopting an email marketing strategy makes good business sense. Email marketing is actually a key driver of ecommerce marketing.
Create captivating visual and textual content for your emails together with an eye-catching subject line. Regularly send newsletters, promotional offers, event announcements, etc. to your segmented list of subscribers. You can also send personalized emails to leave better impressions.
8. Connecting the Instagram Shopping Feature
With over 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is one of the most popular and user-friendly apps available. Its photo-centric nature has caused it to be a highly entertaining platform for its users of different age ranges. Therefore, planning to sell on Instagram can be one perfect move for you.
You can directly sell on Instagram by connecting your account to Instagram Shoppable. Using this feature, you can tag your products in your post so that your audience can check the prices on the spot.
9. Advertising with Google Ads
Google AdWords is a tool for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Therefore, it is not a budget-friendly ecommerce marketing strategy. However, they are highly effective if you want to have a well-developed or large ecommerce business.
You can target particular keywords through Google AdWords and bid to appear in relevant searches. Therefore, your ad is shown on top of all other results which wins you a lot of audience and website visitors. Consequently, you can connect with the users who have searched for that specific keyword.
10. Using Facebook and Instagram Ads
Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, they have a similar approach in their ads but are different from Google Ads. Facebook and Instagram Ads target users based on some specific characteristics such as sex, age, interests, geographical location, demographics, often based on more detailed behavioral data learned through engagement on the social media platforms. This rich data specificity may help keep your ads budget-friendly because you can more precisely control the amount of money you want to spend on any audience.
11. Developing Your Own Apps
All the strategies explained so far can be practiced either for free or with a small amount of budget. However, if you have enough budget to promote your ecommerce business using e-commerce marketing strategies, you can consider developing apps that can put your store right onto the mobile devices of your customers.
Your app should make the shopping process easier for your customers-to-be or former customers. It can also have other functions regarding the requirements of your business. The thing you should remember to make your app strategy work is to run push notifications. Therefore, your app users will get notified to do something every once in a while by receiving your push notifications.
12. Use AR and VR Technologies
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are two technologies you can turn to as ecommerce marketing strategies to promote your business. Similar to the previous strategy, this strategy is not budget-friendly either. However, the audience for such technologies is often more affluent, so your product or service may find valuable customers if presented in a convincing way.
The use of VR technology helps you to simulate your products for your audience. For instance, Sephora uses VR technology by allowing its customers to upload photos of themselves onto Sephora’s app to see how each makeup product looks on them before deciding to buy.
Conclusion
Depending on your budget, you can choose different ecommerce marketing strategies to promote your business. Using the available tools and technologies can significantly enhance your brand image and your relationship with your audience. Therefore, consider the ecommerce marketing strategies that suit your budget and business best and wait for the results. Wish you good luck!
