Every online store wants to increase traffic and conversions. But even after you’ve put together a basic strategy it can still be challenging to decide which marketing tactics you should try.
That’s why we put together an overview of effective marketing tactics and ecommerce tools, along with ideas to help you implement each approach. The ideas themselves run the gamut from straightforward acquisition to generating more repeat purchases from the customer base you already have.
Try to implement one of these ideas every day for the next few weeks. On the last day of your sprint, take stock and figure out which marketing efforts worked best to drive new sales.
What is ecommerce marketing?
Ecommerce marketing is the practice of using promotional tactics to drive traffic to your online store, converting that traffic into paying customers, and retaining those customers post-purchase.
A holistic ecommerce marketing strategy is made up of marketing tactics both on and off your website. A sound marketing strategy can help you build brand awareness, drive customer loyalty, and ultimately increase online sales.
You can promote your online store by using ecommerce marketing tools for business as a whole or to drive more sales for specific products. Below is an overview of a few practical ideas to try.
1. Invest in SEO
Ecommerce SEO refers to the search engine optimization of an online store. The goal is to get your product pages among the top 10 results on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This brings more organic (non-paid and free) traffic to your website. Backlinko found that the #1 organic result is 10 times more likely to receive a click compared to a page in spot #10.
Some ways to invest in SEO are
- Performing keyword research and including keywords in your page URLs, product descriptions, and blog posts
- Optimizing your website structure and creating a good user experience
- Building backlinks from other reputable websites
Done well, you can show up for popular search terms related to your products. The screenshot below shows Shopify merchant Everyday Yoga ranking on page 1 in Google search for the term “women’s yoga pants,” which receives more than 49,500 searches per month.
SEO seems hard at first, but you don’t need to go at it alone.
2. Run an influencer marketing campaign
Influencer marketing is a smart way to accelerate your ecommerce business online. It helps you reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and work with creators that make sales for you. Influencers are like internet celebrities that work as ambassadors for your brand. You pay them to promote your products through free products, cash, or discounts.
A recent study by Mediakix revealed that 80% of marketers find influencer marketing effective. Instagram is the most popular channel, with 67% of brands using it. Other marketing channels include:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Twitch
Influencer marketing is superb for finding relevant customers. How often have you seen an Instagram post from an influencer, liked what they were wearing, and wanted to buy it? Promoting products through influencers shortens up the sales cycle. With more social commerce features on Instagram and TikTok, shoppers can buy directly from the platform.
3. Sell on marketplaces
It’s no secret that marketplaces are where people shop online. The top online marketplaces sold $3.32 trillion in goods in 2021, accounting for two-thirds of global ecommerce sales.
Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay can help people discover your brand easier, reaching millions of people around the world. Some customers are die-hard marketplace shoppers and there is a higher chance they’ll buy something from you on a channel they know. However, they do come with hefty selling fees and other caveats to consider.
That’s why, for ecommerce brands, it’s recommended to use marketplaces to complement your branded store. You don’t need to list all your products on a marketplace, just some of the bestsellers. Create compelling listings that show off your brand and add branded packaging inserts to marketplace orders that encourage people to shop directly from your website.
4. Create a TikTok marketing strategy
Using TikTok for business should be part of every ecommerce entrepreneur’s marketing plan. With over one billion monthly active users and more than 173 million first-time installs across app stores in the last quarter of 2021 alone, TikTok is just as powerful as other social media marketing platforms.
Businesses thrive on TikTok by publishing genuine content. Raw and authentic videos tend to get more exposure and engagement than highly edited content, like what you see on Instagram. That’s what makes TikTok unique when it comes to strengthening relationships with an audience. TikTok also has a few benefits that make it different:
- TikTok’s algorithm prioritizes content from creators you’ve never seen before.
- TikTok’s UI is designed to keep people in the app longer than Instagram or Facebook.
- TikTok’s discovery engine helps videos go viral, no matter your follower count.
People are buying what they see from TikTok creators. According to research from Adweek, over half (51%) of TikTokers make purchases from brands they see in the app. There is also a place for every niche in the TikTok space, including fitness, goth, NYC, and gay TikTok. The platform also offers livestream shopping and advertising to help promote your products.
5. Run PPC campaigns
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the main model of online advertising for businesses both large and small. It’s backed by data, easy to scale, and offers a good return on investment. PPC ads often target online ad space in search engines, social media platforms, or websites. These ads work well for ecommerce brands because they target ready-to-buy shoppers and can lead to higher sales than organic marketing.
The two most popular platforms to run PPC ads on are Facebook and Google. Google shopping ads are popular for ecommerce brands. You’ve seen these ads before. When you search for “men’s boots,” you’ll notice an ad that shows detailed information about various products related to your search.
Facebook ads, on the other hand, run on Facebook and Instagram. You can also target specific personas and leverage a variety of ad formats to promote your products.
The big benefit of PPC ads is how targeted you can get with campaigns. You can choose exactly who you’ll advertise to and the type of ad that’s shown. You can also run retargeting ads to people who’ve viewed specific landing pages or previous ads, and encourage them to shop on your site again.
Say you’re running a shoe store and you get a new line of boots in—you can create ads for those new boots. Maybe the boots are rubber and water-resistant. You can create a group of ads that target keywords like “best rain boots.” This means your ads are showing up in front of people who are looking to buy what you’re advertising.
6. Upsell your products
Most of us have heard some variation of the famous, “Would you like to super size your order?” It’s an example of upselling, or the approach of selling a slightly more premium product than the one the customer was originally considering.
For many ecommerce businesses, upselling and cross-selling can be more effective than acquiring a net new customer. Sometimes your customers don’t know that a premium product is available, or they may simply need more evidence to understand how an upgrade (or package) is a better fit for their needs.
For example, is one of your product models made of slightly better leather? Or does one carry a special component that’s handmade? Make sure to emphasize the difference and ask, in the right places, if the customer might want to upgrade.
There are two main considerations when using upselling to increase sales:
- Make sure your upsells are related to the original product
- Be sensitive to the anticipated price range of your customers
Your product has to fit the customer’s original needs, and they may not be enthusiastic about a higher price point once they have an anchor price in mind. An anchor price is often the first number a customer sees, and it’s the number against which they compare other price points. The new product must be a discernibly better fit than the original for it to be worth the additional cost.
Anyone who’s ever purchased a computer is familiar with the screen below. Once you’ve selected a particular model, companies will usually highlight upgrades for performance (upselling) or additional accessories (cross-selling) for you to consider.
Start marketing your ecommerce store today
There’s no doubt that the right marketing strategy can help reach potential customers, improve average order value, and increase sales. These are all things you definitely want to improve on. By following the ecommerce marketing tips above, you can build a successful store that creates a good customer experience for shoppers and is equally fulfilling and rewarding for you to run.
Wrapping up
We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, and more. With a successful track record of over 20,000 clients, we are sure to deliveryour orders requirements. Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow yourbusinesses.
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