eCommerce Marketing Strategy 2022
Last Update: 04 May 2022
What is an eCommerce marketing strategy
eCommerce marketing is the process of driving traffic to your online store or brand, converting traffic to sales and making your brand visible to the masses. eCommerce marketing ideas are dynamic- as the industry evolves and audiences change, your strategy must too, so that you always achieve the best ROI rates. Picking the right strategy and customizing it to bring in the results you want to see is half the battle won.
With over 1 billion websites on the internet (and more being created every day), trying to get visitors to your site can be a daunting task. For any eCommerce business, having an effective marketing plan in place that drives new visitors and keeps existing customers coming back is essential for success.
What’s the most effective strategy for my eCommerce entity?
To build the right marketing strategy for your eCommerce business, put down precisely what your brand’s goal and objectives are and what your mission is. Analyze your journey so far- successes and failures- so you can pinpoint what sector needs a boost. Is it your website? Or maybe you want to be found higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)? Whatever your issue, it’s likely that a few eCommerce marketing best practices may bail you out.
The problem, though, is that the internet is inundated with suggestions, eCommerce marketing tips, even ‘quick fixes’ with tall claims of immediate changes. In reality, eCommerce marketing techniques take time to perfect and even more time to implement. The sheer number of eCommerce marketing tactics that one can apply to a brand can be quite dizzying, so here’s a breakdown of the main strategies.
1. Email marketing
is one of the most effective ways to engage customers. It offers you a high potential for repeat exposure if done correctly and consistently. If you have personal data about your clients’ preferences and interests, you can send them personalized emails based on these criteria. You can also send emails promoting new products or special offers or inviting them to events or sales.
One of the main advantages of email marketing is that it is relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing. However, it will not be effective unless you have a list of quality subscribers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.
Here are some tips for getting more out of your email marketing:
- Build up a subscriber base by getting people to sign up through a variety of methods, including social media and online surveys.
- Use a double opt-in system so that people confirm their subscription via email before being added to the list (this is required by law in many countries). Keep an eye out for non-responsive addresses and remove them from future mailings after a few attempts at contact with no response; this will improve your deliverability rate overall because ISPs tend to blacklist servers that send too much spammy email back out into the world again (and they will consider yours as such)
- Identify the best time to send emails so that they go out when people are most likely to be checking their inboxes. Don’t bombard subscribers with offers—keep it light, fun, and interesting while keeping the focus on your brand and products.
- Design your emails in an aesthetically pleasing way that is also easy to navigate. Include links in every message so you give subscribers opportunities to click through for more info about what you’re selling.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy which involves the creation and usage of content to drive traffic, convert leads to sales and establish you as a frontrunner of the segment, both in terms of knowledge and reach. This strategy has become a priority for both B2B and B2C businesses.
The idea behind this strategy is that search engines are now more concerned with the quality of content than ever before. If your website has high quality, original content on it, you will rank higher in search results and hence increase traffic to your website.
Ecommerce websites can use content marketing in a number of ways. Here are some common ways:
- Blogging – Start an eCommerce blog and create posts related to products sold by the website
- Articles – Write articles which solve problems faced by customers and then post them on article directories
- Infographics – Create infographics which talks about statistics and facts related to the industry
- Video Marketing – Create videos which educates people about products or services you sell
3. Social Media
Social media marketing can be very helpful for your eCommerce business. To put it simply, the more people who engage with your brand on social media, the better. This can lead to increased brand awareness, better customer relations and even sales. The most popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, there are dozens of other platforms to choose from. You can find a complete list of social networks here.
Generating user engagement is an important part of any eCommerce marketing strategy because it helps to cement your brand in people’s minds. It’s also crucial for word-of-mouth marketing since it’s very easy to share information within and between platforms (even from blog to platform!). Social media marketing is also great for driving traffic back to your website where you can convert customers into paying ones!, Check this post How to Grow your Social Media Effectively
One thing I want to note here is that you must be careful when using hashtags in your posts. There are many different types of hashtags: trending topics, geographic locations, product categories etc. Using these incorrectly or too often could result in less engagement (or worse).
4. Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is one of the most popular ways to get your eCommerce business into a search engine. When you open your browser and search for something, you’ll find that most of the results returned are ads on top of the page. These ads are SEMs.
SEM advertises your business to a search engine user at the time they need it the most. This is done through keywords- advertisers pick the best keywords they think represents the eCommerce business, put a price they’re willing to pay for click-throughs on these keywords, then enter an ad auction with other advertisers when a user searches for one of their keywords on a search engine. Based on the maximum bid, quality, and other factors, the ad auction ‘winner’ is chosen, all in a matter of seconds.
5. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is an eCommerce marketing strategy that brings customers to your site naturally, and when used correctly, it can be a really powerful way to get traffic. The great thing about search engines is that people use them when they’re looking for something specific—your keyword research helps you narrow down what people are searching for and how you can cater to their needs, which means the click-throughs you get from SEO are already prequalified: They’re the people who are most likely to buy your products.
You can extend your search engine optimization efforts by incorporating keywords into your URLs, image file names, page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text. You should also optimize your content so that it flows well in the eyes of search engine crawlers–this will help you rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages). Check on 9 SEO Best Pratices to improve your website rankings.
6. Influencer Marketing Strategies
Influencers are popular non-celebrity individuals with a large following on social media or blogs and who can affect the purchasing decisions of their audience. This is why they’ve become such an important part of marketing today- influencers have a niche and a target audience they actively engage and are now considered by many as more trustworthy than celebrities.
The influencer marketing strategies for eCommerce that you should try include:
1. Influencer Giveaways
2. Co-Marketing with Influencers
3. Sponsoring an Event/Blog Post
4. Promotional Content (Reviews/How to Use)
5. Influencer Instagram Takeovers
When done right, this marketing strategy can be extremely successful. In fact, according to a recent study by Tomoson, influencer marketing is responsible for an 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of digital advertising!
7. User Experience Strategies
One of the most important aspects of a good eCommerce store is a great user experience. If your users can’t find what they want, they won’t be spending any money. When you combine that with the fact that the human attention span is getting shorter by the day, you have a recipe for disaster. It’s important to make things as easy as possible for your customers to navigate your site and make purchases.
A seamless process will also lead to more repeat customers. Your loyal fans will be much more likely to come back if they know they can trust that their purchasing experience will be smooth and easy each time.
Make sure that your checkout process is as simple and straight-forward as possible to avoid cart abandonment during the final step before purchase. Users need to be able to get through the checkout in only a few steps so that you don’t lose them at the end of the process.
8. Personalization Strategies
Personalization is a great way to increase your sales by targeting customers with tailored and dynamic offers that make them feel understood and also helps them find what they may need. You can obtain these by observing and analyzing customer-specific site behavior, cart items, purchase history or demographic-specific history and data.
In terms of marketing strategy, personalization is a very strong tool for increasing sales. It allows you to target customers with tailored and dynamic offers that make them feel understood, and also helps them find products they may not have been looking for. This can be done by observing and analyzing customer-specific site behavior, cart items and purchase history or demographic-specific history and data.
9. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based advertising where you receive commission for promoting someone else’s products or services on your website. The affiliate creates a unique link which is used for tracking. Simply put, affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products.
There are two ways to approach affiliate marketing: You can offer an affiliate program to others or you can sign up to be another business’s affiliate. As the business driving an affiliate program, you’ll pay your affiliates a commission fee for every lead or sale they drive to your website.
Your main goal should be to find affiliates who’ll reach untapped markets. For example, a company with an e-zine may make a good affiliate because its subscribers are hungry for resources. So introducing your offer through a “trusted” company can grab the attention of prospects you might not have otherwise reached.
You could also work with bloggers and create an affiliate program where they promote your product in exchange for payment. Affiliate programs can help turn bloggers and influencers into sales reps, expanding your reach through their followers and social networks.
Final Thought
With this information in mind, it’s easy to see how important it is for you to invest in eCommerce marketing. Not only is it a great way to help your business attract new buyers, but it’s also a valuable way to help you secure repeat customers. By staying active online, you’ll have the opportunity to generate brand awareness with potential consumers, which in turn will lead to increased traffic on your site and more sales. And remember—Neu Entity has experience with both eCommerce design and marketing services. If you’re looking for some help, feel free to reach out. We’d love to hear from you!
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