To effectively grow an e-commerce business, you need a well-thought-out E-Commerce marketing plan which can help you build brand awareness and increase traffic to your webpage. So here we have put together an overview of some effective E-Commerce marketing strategies which can help you in building your brand awareness, and generate increased online sales, and customer loyalty.
- Paid Ad campaigns
Paid Ad campaigns are great tools for some quick results. These ads may be in the form of display ads, banner ads, Social media ads, PPC (Pay Per Click) ads, etc. To be effective the ads created for different online platforms need to be different. For example, google ads must be more specific and clear as people are already looking for something that you are selling. But social media ads need to be more compelling since you are interrupting your target audience’s browsing experience with your products. But whatever the case might be online advertising comes for a price that can also wreak havoc on a company’s marketing budget. Also, there are possibilities of click fraud. This happens when PPC advertisers blast their competitor’s ads with fake clicks.
So your E-Commerce marketing plan must make sure that you spend your budget wisely and carefully assess what type of search and campaigns can support your business objectives helping in the growth of your brand.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
All of the successful companies have prioritized SEOs to optimize their websites thereby improving the organic search visibility. Largely all customers know what they are looking for and search engines (for example –Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) will help them reach what they want. According to statistics, 43% of e-commerce websites come organically from Google searches. The higher your rank on a search engine research page (SERP), the more likely prospects will see you and visit your site.
- Content marketing
Content marketing is creating content specifically meant for your audience to keep them updated continuously. This can be done through blogs, videos, tutorials, and newsletters and then sharing the same with your target audience to attract more visitors to your website. According to DemandGen Report, almost 82% of buyers viewed 5-8 pieces of content before buying. The key to a good content marketing strategy is consistently creating and optimizing high-value content around relevant keywords that has the potential to drive traffic to your SEO.
- Guest posting
In simple words is writing content that will be uploaded to another website and hence it gives you access to a broader audience. It allows your brand to be mentioned outside of your brand giving you more visibility. Placing high-quality content which is useful and entertaining for the readers, will boost your site’s rankings. When people write comments, share, like, or save your posts it raises its ranking and the chances of its appearing first on Google increases when someone searches for the same or similar topic.
There are tons of sites that allow you free guest posting and others where you have to pay for the same. A good combination of free and paid guest posting can work wonders for the company.
- Email Marketing
Although it is one of the oldest e-commerce marketing methods, it remains one of the most effective ways to promote your products and services. The success of such a marketing tool exerts pressure on its user to take some action (as the email will keep sitting in the inbox until it is read, deleted, or archived). You must make a list of Email Ids of all your target leads and buyers. Also, there are various tips and techniques you can use to generate a better response to your Emails. For E.g. emails sent on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday generally have a better response than the ones sent on Monday and Friday.
- Social Media Marketing
Your e-commerce marketing plan must connect to the popular target audience through popular social networks (like Instagram, Facebook, etc.). You can post a relevant post about your products with sharp graphics. You can also create content that will take the users directly to the shopping cart enabling them to shop right away. Using social media tools to share product reviews and ratings is also a great e-commerce marketing strategy to reach out to people in a positive way.
- Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM)
WOM is seen to generate 2 times more sales than paid ads. When a real unbiased happy customer speaks well about your product/service, it surely is going attract more business. It can be in the form of Online reviews, a detailed post about the product or the service, or influencer marketing as well. Around 63% of visitors will only buy when a website has a review/rating and hence it clearly shows that customer reviews are highly rated than any performance promises by the brands themselves
To effectively generate content by the existing customers (also known as User Generated Content) you can have a unique hashtag where the users can post their experience with your products or offer some incentives, gifts, etc. for sharing pic or videos on social media. You can also connect with industry influencers with strong followings their recommendations are heavily relied upon by their followers.
- Affiliate marketing/Referral marketing
This essentially refers to incentivizing your existing customers to refer new people to your product/service. And when your existing customers refer to some friends or family, it is a win-win situation.
Your referral program will succeed more if you target your regular customers to spread your brand’s name in their social circles. They are the ones who know your products well and have they have immense trust in your brand.
You can have an embedded signup page and feedback pop up post-purchase. And then a “refer a friend” link with some cashback reward or something they can use on their next purchase on your website.
- Selling on multiple platforms like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.
There are countless platforms and channels where you can sell your products so that you can create more sales opportunities since have access to a wider audience. You can use this to your benefit while shipping by adding a flyer or business card along with the product. But along with increased sales, it has its share of challenges as well. Each platform has its own rules and regulations, their listing fees, and transaction fees can all vary. You must choose the platform wisely looking into what your business requirements are. You must always follow platforms’ safety protocols well.
- Upselling and Cross-Selling
Upselling means encouraging the customer to upgrade or include some additional products to the product/service they are buying. For example, when you are buying a smartphone, the website might show upsells through different warranties or protection plans.
Cross-selling on the other hand encourages the customers to buy products and services in addition to what they are buying (mostly complimentary). For example, if a buyer is buying a smartphone, he is likely to need headphones or a Phone cover.
Both these e-commerce marketing strategies help you drive more sales and increased revenues on one hand and improve your customer’s experience and their lifetime value on the other hand. Though upselling and cross-selling are great marketing strategies for e-commerce to increase the business you can’t be too pushy as they can alienate your buyers. A balanced approach can certainly be achieved to foster repeat purchases, brand loyalty, and brand advocacy from the customers.
- Retargeting
Retargeting allows you to reach those potential buyers who left your website abruptly aiming to bring them back to the shopping cart. Facebook’s remarketing tool can use dynamic ads of products and services which your potential buyer is most interested in. with this you are retaining your existing customers with chances of more sales conversions. They also serve as the ready market for any newer items you introduce in the market and save on a lot of expenditure in acquiring new customers.
Acquiring a new customer costs 5-25 times more than keeping an existing customer (Harvard Business Review)
No matter which e-commerce launch strategy you employ, make sure that it’s dynamic, multifaceted, and well maintained. When you use these e-commerce marketing plans alone or in combination with each other (whatever suits your business the best) you’ll be in a position to succeed in a competitive marketplace.
Final words
Most e-Commerce platforms come with built-in marketing capabilities, some more than others. However, if you are a VAR then VARStreet can be a perfect solution to meet your e-commerce marketing goals. VARStreet comes with a powerful e-commerce platform that can help you set up an E-Commerce store that will have all the modern-day bells and whistles. The marketing applications offered within the application ensure that you have all the power to market your store and increase traffic on your website. VARStreet comes with a built-in SEO utility, you can run paid campaigns, export catalogs to shopping engines like amazon, google shopping, eBay, etc. to increase your sales, and create unlimited landing pages with result-oriented CTA (Call to action). You also use features like upselling/cross-sell, ratings, and reviews, abandoned cart notifications and follow-ups, email marketing integrations, etc. to increase traffic to your e-Commerce store.
So VARStreet is one software all Resellers must consider before buying any e-Commerce store for their business. With built-in integration with 45+ IT & office supplies distributors you will be able to almost automate your entire catalog and pricing functionality. Rich content which can cost thousands comes free with VARStreet as well so that savings itself pays for VARStreet so essentially everything else comes at almost zero cost to you.
