Online sales can be the bread and butter of any business, but to reap the rewards of an online store, a brand must have a marketing plan to match. That plan starts by considering what the options are and determining the best e-commerce marketing strategies for your business.
With e-commerce, marketing strategies are typically developed with a number of goals in mind. Driving traffic and increasing conversions for a business’s online store can be a top priority, for instance. Strategies might focus on selling specific products or regular inventory as a whole. E-commerce marketing strategies might focus on creating new customers or encourage previous customers to return to an online store after making their first purchase.
Utilizing the right e-commerce marketing strategies will increase brand awareness and brand loyalty, grow your customer base, and improve online sales. Read on to discover marketing strategies and expert tips to help give your e-commerce business a boost.
SEO & E-commerce Marketing Strategies
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical component of any e-commerce marketing strategy. SEO can be used to boost your online store’s placement on search engine results. The first step is doing thorough research to choose the most effective keywords for your product and business. Once you’ve determined the best keywords, you integrate them into your online store’s URLs, metadata, and product descriptions.
Social Media E-commerce Marketing Strategies
No one can deny the importance of social media marketing these days. Using Facebook and Instagram has been a tried-and-true e-commerce strategy for years now. In addition to a solid base of millions of daily users, Instagram and Facebook allow companies to have an online store on the marketplace sections of their apps. For instance, your products can be featured on Instagram in shoppable posts, stories, and reels.
Currently, TikTok is where you’ll find the most significant social media opportunities, especially if you’re trying to reach a younger customer base. Products in various industries will regularly sell out due to going viral on TikTok. AdWeek has an excellent summary of the studies that show why TikTok should be included in any online store’s current e-commerce marketing strategy.
Influencer Partnerships
Working with influencers also falls under the social media marketing umbrella. Influencers help boost brand awareness and serve as a trusted source for the consumers who follow them on social media. Instagram is the biggest social media platform for influencer marketing, but other popular platforms include YouTube and TikTok.
Influencer marketing is beneficial for reaching out to a specific target audience, and to make this partnership as effective as possible, your chosen influencers should be a natural fit for your brand. For instance, a cosmetics brand is most likely to find the best success partnering with makeup artists and beauty YouTubers. Incentives such as influencers offering promo codes and discounts for your online store can be used to increase sales even more.
Boost Your Email Campaigns
Email has been a top tool in e-commerce marketing strategies for a long time now, but the trick to its success is thoughtful planning and execution. Once a consumer has opted in to receive your emails, you need to make it worth their while.
Many online stores convince customers to sign up for their emails by offering exclusive discounts. Surely, you’ve seen these offers pop up while browsing other online stores. Another effective email e-commerce strategy is to remind consumers of what they’ve left in online shopping carts, known as abandoned cart recovery.
Email marketing can also be an effective tool for soliciting customer feedback—and reminding them your online store exists.
SMS Marketing
Of course, some people ignore, delete, or unsubscribe from the promotional emails in their inboxes. Those consumers may be more receptive to SMS marketing instead.
Like email marketing, online stores usually add an incentive to sign up for texts, such as a one-time discount or weekly coupons. Once a customer has agreed to receive SMS marketing, you can use text messages to alert them to specific sales or their abandoned shopping cart.
SMS marketing can also be set up through automation apps.
Improve User Experience on Online Store Product Pages
Once you’ve grabbed customers’ attention, you can’t have them lose interest if your website isn’t up to snuff. A poorly designed website that loads too slowly or isn’t easy to navigate won’t help your sales.
To optimize product descriptions and pages, online stores rely on conversation-rate optimization strategies. Like SEO, this is an e-commerce strategy that includes research.
Implementing this strategy means designing your online store so that functions are intuitive and natural, including call-to-action buttons and links to products and pages. Throughout your website, use attention-grabbing language that is easy to follow. It should be simple for users to “learn more” about a product or “read customer testimonials.”
Your product pages should include quality, eye-catching visuals that give an accurate idea of what the product will be like in real life. Working with a professional creative team can give you an edge in this area. Highlight customer reviews and let reviewers include their own photos. Your product descriptions should be short and sweet while giving a well-rounded idea of what makes the product unique. Again, incorporate SEO and keyword research into these descriptions for optimal results.
Optimize Your Online Store for Mobile Devices
As you can see from the other items on this list, any e-commerce marketing strategy must keep up with the times. Right now, that means your online store must be mobile-friendly—the majority of consumers are shopping online using their mobile devices.
You will likely need to make changes between your desktop and mobile websites to make the buying process user-friendly whatever device they use. These changes include larger buttons and font choices that are easier to read on mobile.
Create a Customer Rewards Program
You’ve probably joined at least one points-based customer rewards program over the years. It’s always satisfying when consumers can pay for products and services entirely through points or trade in points for exclusive rewards.
Customer rewards programs are a smart e-commerce marketing strategy for building a loyal customer base. Think about it from a consumer’s point of view. If someone can get rewards from continued shopping at one online store, they’ll continue purchasing from that same place. That also means they’d be less likely to check out your competition.
Partner With an Expert Marketing Group
For the most success with any of these e-commerce marketing strategies, it helps to work with an experienced marketing group. Online-savvy agencies like InnoVision have utilized all of these strategies before and can focus their expertise for the benefit of your company.
Typically, a marketing group will include a portfolio of past work on their website. These readily available examples can help you decide which marketing group is the right fit to bring the specifics of your online shop’s vision to life. Choose a marketing group with a proven track record in creating and implementing e-commerce strategies.