Your business is special, and it deserves special treatment. If only it were that easy, right? For the longest time, e-commerce businesses have been in a race to secure their spot at the top. With various e-commerce marketing strategies surging up every day, you have a lot of options to drive your business to success.

But if you find yourself juggling through all these strategies, unable to figure out which ones to choose from, this blog is for you. Let's cover some strategies that you can use to unlock higher returns from your campaigns.

A Brief Intro to E-Commerce Marketing

E-commerce marketing refers to a set of promotional strategies used by advertisers and business owners to promote their products or services. The goal can be anything- spreading brand awareness, getting more visitors to your online store, or making more conversions and sales.

A successful marketing strategy depends on your ability to understand your audience and design ads that speak to them. Potential buyers are always careful when it comes to spending their hard-earned cash. They recognize their need, speak to their friends, search for them, and compare all the options before making a purchase. And if you can get your e-commerce marketing campaigns to speak the buyer's language at every stage, higher ROI is sure to follow.

Strategies That Contribute To Successful E-Commerce Marketing

Recognize the power of PPC

The best way to promote an e-commerce site is through PPC. You already know that when someone needs something, the first thing they do is search for it. Wouldn't it be so much better if the first thing they see is your ad? E-commerce PPC gives them the solution to their problem right away!

But what's in it for you? As an advertiser, you can target individuals who are actively searching for products you have to offer. Targeted e-commerce ads not only increase your chances of finding quality leads and making sales but also make things much more cost-effective. Moreover, you can also run display and retargeting ads that remind users of your continuous presence.

Opting for an e-commerce ad agency like 7Search PPC can help you reach a broad number of targeted customers at the right time and place.

Build up your SEO

SEO is your key to organic promotions. You cannot solely depend on paid advertising to promote your business. In the long run, it's only the businesses with high-authority websites that survive.

Investing in SEO will give your e-commerce website a significant boost, making it appear at the top. You can make this happen by:

Performing keyword research to find high-performing short-tail and long-tail keywords

Placing keywords strategically in your website URL, landing pages, blog posts, image alt texts, product descriptions, etc.

Building up backlinks from other high-authority websites

Improving the website's structure and ensuring a smooth user experience

Get Influencers on Board

Your e-commerce marketing is incomplete if you don't have influencers on board. Nowadays, shoppers trust the words and recommendations of influencers more than they do of brands. They would rather have someone they already know and trust suggest them something.

This surely sounds appealing, right? You can get influencers on board for your e-commerce marketing by paying them for sponsored posts, reviews, giveaways, PR stunts, ambassador roles, and account takeovers. Just make sure that the influencers you choose fall within your niche and have a decent number of engaged followers.

Send out Emails

If you want to build long-term relationships with your audience under a budget, emails are your best bet. The first step would be to collect email addresses through a lead form. You can then send over a sequence of emails based on what they're looking for and the buyer stage they are at.

Here's an email sequence that you can follow:

Welcome Emails

Informational Emails

Website Abandonment

Cart Abandonment

Thank you for Your Purchase

Cross-sell and Upsell Emails

Customer Winback

The key here is knowing what to include in each email. For instance, cart abandonment emails often include attractive discount codes and offers.

Win your audience on Social Media

Social media can be included in your e-commerce marketing strategy in two ways: organic and paid. Organic social media marketing is when you connect with your audience through postings and interactions. You build up your followers based on the content you post by utilizing SEO, hashtags, and viral marketing strategies. You don't have to pay a single penny here.

When it comes down to running paid ads on social media, the process is similar to PPC. You decide your audience based on the demographics, behavior, location, and interests that your audience follows. This way, you can smoothly reach your audience within a short span of time to promote your products.

Tap into Content Marketing

Since content is king, how can we integrate it into our e-commerce marketing? Content marketing essentially involves creating content that echoes with your audience and provides value to them. It can be in the form of blog posts, videos, product guides, e-books, newsletters, infographics, case studies, and white papers.

The goal with them is not to make a sale, though. It's about educating your audience in a way that can provide value to them. Whatever you put out as content, just make sure your brand's personality is reflected in it.

Tune into UGC

The number of times people have bought something after watching someone else use it is uncountable. It's the authenticity and genuineness that comes from unpaid reviews that make UGC so reliable.

UGC (user-generated content) is at the core of all social proof that you provide. It generally involves a user of your product talking about how they feel about it. Usually, it's in the form of video and textual reviews. So, if you've got people talking about business on the internet, listen. Highlight the best parts, solve the queries, and answer hateful comments graciously.

Take up Affiliates

Do you know what makes affiliate programs such a win-win situation? You only need to pay the affiliates once they bring you a successful conversion. For instance, you can start an affiliate program where the affiliates earn a 10% commission once their referral makes a purchase using their code. This way, your budget won't be lost in futile promotions.

Affiliates work by promoting your business services and products to their own connections. They can do this by posting on their social media or placing affiliate links on their website.

Hang around with Communities

Communities are where you find people with similar interests to yours and build relationships with them. And when it comes to e-commerce marketing, communities can be utilized in two ways.

First is where you can connect with business owners who work in a similar or related niche as yours. By networking and interacting with them, you can gain a lot of insights into recent trends and create a sense of identity for yourself.

Second is the communities where your target audience resides. Tapping into them can help you gain insights and establish direct contact with your audience- making your future ten times more effective.

Optimize your landing and product pages

Just a critical analysis of your landing or product pages can tell you a lot of things. If you're dropping on sales, what could be the reason? If viewers are reverting from your site, what's putting them off? Analyzing can help you understand the reasons behind it all.

You can work to:

Enhance the user's experience by making the pages more structured and connected

Achieve the highest possible conversion rate by providing more value to the targeted visitors

So, get a clear-cut view of what needs to be updated and let your landing pages reflect your personality.

Video Marketing

If you aren't using videos to promote your business yet, something has to change. Video marketing has been gaining extreme importance lately, trending like never before. Both people and businesses are completely obsessed with it. So, to stay in the game, you need to level up too.

Here's how you can utilize videos in your e-commerce marketing.

Product videos that show off your product

Social proof in the form of testimonials

Informational and educational videos on your social media

Live videos to engage with your followers

Promote Locally

If you feel like a major proportion of your audience is limited to a local area, what you can do is promote locally. Run your ad campaigns only in that area and around the time people there are most active online. Take a look at what products your audience is buying and push forward a sale. You can also work on your local SEO to build organic reach.

Promoting within locals can be extremely cost-effective since you're targeting an area with possibly less competition and more conversions.

After-Sales Care Campaigns

As an e-commerce business, your marketing doesn't end with a sale. You need to keep your customers satisfied and engaged somehow. To make them have an overall positive experience and keep them coming back for more, running after-sales care campaigns is a must.

Take a look at the activities that you can employ to provide your customers with the best experience.

Personalized thank-you messages

Dependable support services

Feedback and review forms

Cross-sell complementary products

Establish loyalty programs

Conclusion

Now that you know the best e-commerce marketing strategies out there, it's time to pick ones that fit your business. Generally speaking, pairs of organic and paid marketing work the best. You don't fixate all your budget under one strategy, and give room for others to cope up in case something goes wrong. Just stay patient and remember that it takes time for actual results to show up. Keep on working, testing, and analyzing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is e-commerce marketing?

Ans. E-commerce marketing refers to a set of promotional strategies used by e-commerce business owners and advertisers to promote their products. These work for a specific goal that businesses want to achieve.

What is the most effective e-commerce marketing strategy?

Ans. PPC and Social Media Advertising are considered to be the best advertising strategies as they help you gain targeted exposure to a broad audience in a short time.

How can I ensure my e-commerce marketing strategies reap the best results?

Ans. To ensure that your strategies reap the best results, fix your goals first. Make them realistic and relevant, and then create strategies that work in that direction.

How can I find the best mix of marketing strategies?

Ans. To find the best mix of strategies, consider your budget, requirements, and objectives first. Generally, pairs of organic and paid marketing tactics work best for e-commerce businesses.

What are the major components of a successful marketing strategy?

Ans. A successful e-commerce marketing strategy follows a specific goal, is catered to your audience, and efficiently utilizes your budget.