The eCommerce industry is booming. The increased reliance on technology and the internet has accustomed people to have everything at their disposal just with a few taps on their screen or clicks on their computer.
There are approximately 24 million online stores in the world. This figure is sure to rise in the future. The global epidemic also escalated the success of eCommerce stores. By the end of the current year, eCommerce sales are expected to rise to $4.479 trillion.
Hence, there is a massive scoop of establishing and running an online business. Starting an online business has become easier than ever; with just a few clicks, any person can design and launch his store without prior coding or technical knowledge.
But when it comes to running and growing an eCommerce store, it is altogether another story. With numerous brands reigning in the market and many competent sellers entering this arena, survival has become challenging.
To keep your business thriving and grow in the competitive market, forming robust, well-designed, powerful, and effective marketing strategies is essential.
Regardless of its size and type, every business needs effective marketing strategies to outshine its competitors and win prospective audiences.
In today’s article, we have compiled a list of powerful and effective eCommerce marketing ideas which will help you boost your eCommerce business and stay ahead of your marketing game.
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
10 Proven Ecommerce Marketing Tips and Ideas to Boost Your Business
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing has become an essential tool to attract the audience, improve SEO, and increase conversion on eCommerce stores. If a business wants to rank higher on search engine result pages and welcome an audience on its website, it must befriend this marketing strategy.
Content creation has become necessary for every type of business. It helps the company establish its credibility in the market and convey to the audience that it is a professional and competent brand with industry knowledge.
For instance, a nutritionist sells diet plans to the customers. How will the audience know that he is an expert in its field if there is nothing on the website that vouches for the nutritionist’s knowledge or expertise? In contrast, if that nutritionist has posted numerous articles about different diets, tips on portion control, diet plans for thyroid patients, etc., it will become easier for the audience to trust him and become his customers.
Thus, whichever niche you are working in, create informative and interesting content for your audience to keep them engaged on your website, win their trust, and improve your website’s visibility and ranking on the search result pages.
2. Embrace Personalization
Personalization is another proven marketing tip to boost eCommerce business. By using behavioral data, marketers can quickly provide a personalized experience to their visitors.
Providing a personalized experience at your store will make the customer fall in love with your brand. Consumers love it when the website displays products that align with their interests, needs, previous purchases, preferences, or location.
Did you know, personalization can increase sales up to 10%? However, only 15% of the brands are using the power of personalization to its full potential. It means you can embrace personalization, stay ahead of your competitors, and offer your visitors the product and content relevant to their preference.
The best example to give in this regard would be the eCommerce giant Amazon. It does a remarkable job of recommending products to customers that they might be interested in buying. Every consumer’s dashboard looks different from the other due to the magic of personalization.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media websites are the greatest gift bestowed upon millennials and Gen Z, and they’ve ensured to use them to their fullest potential.
More than 3.96 billion people use social networking sites. These networking sites have become like virtual cities where billions of people of different interests, needs, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc., give brands and marketers the perfect opportunity to divulge their business and products.
A business’s presence on social networking sites has become imperative in this highly competitive market. Brands can connect with their audience, humanize their brands, build a long-term relationship with their customers and turn them into brand advocates.
Thus, make your business’s social profiles this instant and start posting engaging content that will keep your targeted audience hooked to your brand.
Upload high-resolution pictures of your products, design engaging infographics, create Marketing videos on unique and out-of-the-box topics to pleasantly surprise your audience.
4. Integrate Email Marketing
We know what’s brewing in your mind…who uses emails nowadays?
Dear readers, we take immense pleasure to inform you that email marketing is one of the most effective and promising marketing channels. Social media marketing is indeed necessary for the business to increase its brand awareness and target the prospective audience. Yet, email marketing is a highly targeted form of marketing where the prospects willingly sign up to hear from the business.
The business can segment its subscribers into different lists and design messages, offers, and updates to target each list. This benefit is unavailable to marketers in social media marketing. Marketers cannot create content for a particular segment or category of their audience.
Encourage your website visitors to sign up for the newsletter to receive the latest updates about the products, sales, discounts, or other deals offered by the business.
Many popular brands use email marketing in the following ways:
- They send discount codes and coupons to the customers.
- Send updates about the arrival of the products, sales, restocking of items, or any other important news about the business.
- Attach the link to the latest blog post, social media handles, or YouTube videos of the business
- Inform the customer about their order confirmation and shipping details, etc.
- Collect feedback by sending the questionnaire or survey forms.
5. Leverage User-Generated Content
Attracting a new audience and converting them into a customer is no joke. Instead, it is a pretty tough job, providing there are thousands of other brands with the same motto in the market.
Creating content, running paid advertisements, and collaborating with influencers is a sure-fire way to attract more audiences to your eCommerce store. But, all these efforts take a considerable amount of time, effort, and sometimes a good amount of money.
What if we told you there is a way to promote your brand without spending much time and money on it?
It’s the content created or shared by your users, such as the product reviews they’ve shared, pictures or videos they have captured of your products, etc. You can take your customers’ permission and use their photographs or videos on your social media accounts or websites.
For example, if a customer has uploaded his photo wearing the watch of your brand, you can post it on your website and social media accounts to let the audience know that people are using your products.
Similarly, if a person has shared a review, strategically display it on your website. 90% of the online buyers read reviews before purchasing the product from a business. Thus, entice your prospects by publishing the reviews and images of your happy customers.
You can get more clear ideas with these marketing videos examples.
6. Offer Free Shipping
Customers love free shipping. They prefer to shop from brands that offer free delivery. When customers indulge in retail therapy, they don’t like to pay for something intangible such as shipment of the goods.
Hence, if you want to boost your business and market your brand to a broader audience, offer free delivery at your online store. People would love to shop from your website as they will only be required to pay for the goods and not their delivery.
If offering free delivery is burdensome for your business, you can keep flat delivery charges for all the customers. Or you can set a threshold after which you can waive delivery charges from your customers’ bills. For example, you can offer free delivery to customers who shop for $100 or more, etc.
Always be clear and upfront about your shipping charges and policy. Do not wait for the customer to arrive at the checkout page to reveal your shipping charges. Hidden fees, taxes, and shipping charges are responsible for 50% of the cart abandonment. You sure don’t want that, do you? Hence, inform the customer about the shipping rates, days to deliver the parcel, terms, conditions, etc., from the beginning.
7. Connect With your Customers through Live Chat
Emails and phone calls are not the only media to connect with your customers and solve their queries. Customers want a quick solution to their problems and don’t want to take the formal channel of writing the email. Thus, live chat features can help the seller to connect with their visitors on the website.
Your sales rep can respond to customers’ queries instantly. For example, sometimes, the customer is on the fence about purchasing the product. He has doubts that prevent him from finalizing the order. With the availability of the live chat feature, the sales rep can clear the doubts and persuade the customer to buy the product.
The live chat feature is also helpful to take feedback from the customer. The visitors and consumers can be asked questions related to the product or service, and they can answer it right then and there.
8. Retargeting
If a hundred people visit your website, only 2 out of them will convert as your customers. The remaining 98 people will explore your website and leave without buying anything. So, aren’t you going to do something about that 98% of the audience?
Thanks to technology! Marketers can now chase their prospects and the interested visitors and entice them to revisit the website and complete their unfinished business of placing orders. An enthusiastic marketer must have solid retargeting strategies to win back the prospects and convert them into customers.
There are numerous ways to retarget your potential customers and remind them about the products that piqued their interests or the ones they added to their wish lists. One of the most common tactics of retargeting is running retargeting ads on the websites that customers use. When customers see the ad and the products that they liked, they are tempted to visit the website and buy the products.
Another way to retarget prospects is by sending them emails. Simply send them an email and remind them about products they added to their wish list or carts. Then, for better results, attach the images of those products and the link to the respective product pages.
9. Pay-per-Click Ads
Running paid ads to attract a new audience and retarget previous visitors is a sure-fire way to boost your sales and maximize profit.
PPC or pay-per-click advertising model is where the marketer pays the publisher to display his ads. When the target clicks on the ad and lands on the website’s landing page, the marketer will pay the publisher. PPC ad campaigns are helpful for all types of businesses as the business will only pay the publisher if the prospects click the ad.
These ads are helpful to reach the right audience who have high intent in your products or business. The most common type of PPC ad that people come across is when they search for products, places, services, etc., on the search engine, and various ads are displayed on the result pages. Then, the interested people can click the ad to visit the website.
10. Go Above and Beyond for Your Customers
The last and most crucial eCommerce marketing tip for growing your business and boosting your sales is to give an impeccable experience to your customers. Make the shopping experience so unforgettable that they return to you in the future for their retail therapies.
Start from your website. The layout of your website is like the storefront of a shop. The prettier and attractive the design is, customers would be tempted to explore the store and available products. If your website is built on Shopify or WordPress, ensure to select an attractive theme that aligns with your brand and products. For instance, a simple website with a dark background is a fantastic choice for a brand that sells diamond jewelry.
Similarly, a clothing brand should select a theme with a light background and categorized pages for each product.
Don’t forget about your mobile users. Ensure to select a theme that is compatible and responsive to various digital devices. More than 79% of mobile users have purchased goods online through their smartphones in the past six months.
Keep the navigation of your website simple, do not experiment with it. People prefer the conventional website menu to navigate on the eCommerce store. Thus, the simpler your website menu, the easier it will be for the visitors to view the products and their details.
Moreover, help and assist the customer after the sales transaction has been completed. If the customer has any queries and concerns related to the product, look into it at your earliest and provide a feasible solution.
Customers are kings; treat them like royalty, and your business will conquer the new worlds of success and prosperity.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap for today!
We hope these eCommerce marketing tips help you to grow your eCommerce store and achieve all your objectives.
Do you have any other marketing tips and ideas to boost business? If yes, please share it in the comments below.