Electronic commerce is becoming a basic element of many companies, and more so in times of COVID.
That is why it is important to have a digital marketing strategy that fits with your online sales.
If you want to gain new customers and increase your revenue, you need to have a solid eCommerce marketing strategy.
A targeted marketing strategy will help you attract the right types of customers and grow your revenue more effectively.
Because there are so many marketing strategies out there , it can be hard to know where to start.
In this Blog I will explain how to develop an eCommerce marketing strategy and give you some ideas to get you started.
How to develop an eCommerce marketing strategy?
Many people are interested in learning about individual marketing tactics, but fail to come up with an overall plan.
This is a mistake, because the plan is what will allow your tactics to work together to produce results over time.
Follow these four steps to develop an effective eCommerce marketing strategy.
Define and describe your goals clearly
Before you can come up with a marketing strategy, you need to define your goals for the year.
What are you trying to accomplish? Here are some examples of marketing objectives.
- Increase traffic to your site.
- Increase the number of regular customers.
- Add a number of new customers each month.
- Expand your product lines.
- Increase your overall income.
Once you identify a broad one-year goal, try to get more and more granular with your goals.
For example, if your goal is to gain new customers, you can specify that you want to convert 50 new customers each month.
Identify your target market
Once you've outlined your goals, it's time to define your target market.
You have to know who your ideal customer is, because it influences where and how you should focus your eCommerce marketing efforts.
If you skip this step, you may miss out on crucial information about your ideal customers and the problems they face.
If you already have an audience, the best way to get started is by sending out a survey.
If you don't already have an audience, start by defining your ideal customer.
When researching your target market, identify the following demographics:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Civil status
- Worked
- Entry
- Shopping behaviour
- Interests
- Social media preferences
Research your competitors
Next, identify your main competitors and look at their current strengths and weaknesses.
This analysis will help you find opportunities to gain a competitive advantage.
Examine your competitors' websites and the types of products they sell.
How detailed are your product descriptions? Do they promote their business with a blog, and if so, how often do they post?
If you sign up for an SEO tool like SEMrush , you can analyze your competitors' traffic and see where it's coming from.
Competitor research is an ongoing process. Continue to monitor what your competitors are doing so you can stay on top of changing trends in the market.
Subscribe to your competitors' newsletters and follow them on social media.
It's also a good idea to buy some of the competition's products to see what the shopping experience is like as a customer. You will be surprised how much you can learn.
Determine pricing and positioning
It's very easy for consumers to shop around these days, so it's important to work on this up front.
Now that you understand your ideal customers, you should have a better idea of how much money they are willing to spend and how much they are willing to pay for certain products.
You don't want your ideal customers to see your products as too expensive.
Ecommerce Marketing Strategy Ideas
Now that you've completed the initial steps in developing your eCommerce marketing strategy, it's time to start focusing on the components of your eCommerce marketing plan.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
As the term implies, SEO involves optimizing your website so that it ranks high in search engines. Learn more about how to optimize your website .
There are many facets to SEO, but an important component is paying due attention to certain keywords. The goal is for your site to rank well on search engines like Google, Bing, and You.com.
SEO is one of the best ways to increase organic traffic to your website. This is a powerful process, but SEO takes time and dedication .
Many business owners don't want to deal with SEO, because it requires a lot of work on your site.
But once your site starts to rank for certain high-traffic keywords, it will continue to drive a steady stream of free traffic to your website.
The first step is to establish the current SEO situation of your site. You can carry out a FREE Audit to know the current state of your site from the SEO point of view.
The second step is to conduct keyword research using an SEO tool.
When searching for keywords, make sure they meet two basic criteria:
- Keywords should have a high search volume and
- they should allow your site to rank high in search engine results
If you choose keywords with low search volumes, the reward will be minimal.
But if you select keywords that are already widely covered by more relevant sources, you will probably never make it to the first page of Google.
Once you know which keywords you're targeting, make sure you put them in the right places.
Focus your SEO efforts on these three areas:
- Your e-commerce blog.
- Your category pages.
- Your eCommerce product pages.
For best results, include your keywords in the URL, title, image alt text, body, and meta descriptions.
Learn more about how to improve your SEO on each page.
Content marketing
Content marketing involves creating various forms of content and sharing that content with your audience.
Implementing a content marketing strategy is one of the best ways to connect with your customers and build an engaged and loyal following.
Before you can launch your content marketing efforts, you need to decide what type of content you will create.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Blogging as ecommerce marketing
No, blogs are not dead, but they have evolved considerably over the years.
You can't just throw a 500-word blog post on your website and forget about it.
You need to create detailed posts that really address the problems your customers are trying to solve.
One of the advantages of blogs is that it goes hand in hand with SEO. Learn more about how to write a Blog here .
Your blog posts will benefit your business for years to come as they continue to appear in search engine results.
Videos as ecommerce marketing
Increasingly, consumers want video content from the brands they are considering buying from.
According to HubSpot research, 90% of consumers say that video helps their purchase decisions.
Adding the word "video" to the subject line of an email increases open rates by 19%.
There are many ways to use videos in your content.
For example, you can create how-to videos, product demos, or animations. Also, you can easily reuse the video on a wide variety of platforms.
For example, you can use the video transcript to create a blog post or social media posts, or use the audio to create a podcast episode.
Learn more about how to use video in eCommerce marketing .
Customer Recommendations
Today, customers are looking for social proof of the brands they buy from.
It's not enough for you to tell them how good your products are; they want to hear it from your customers.
That's why customer testimonials should be a key part of your content marketing strategy.
You can create a separate landing page that is dedicated solely to positive customer stories.
From time to time, you can include extensive product case studies on your blog and link to your product pages.
E-commerce email marketing
Email plays an important role in any marketing strategy.
An automated email campaign is one of the best ways to continue building a relationship with your audience and encourage people to buy your products.
You must take a strategic and thoughtful approach to email marketing.
A good way to start is by creating a weekly newsletter for your subscribers.
A newsletter is a great way to build rapport, share useful content, and notify your subscribers about current promotions for your products.
Social Media Ecommerce Marketing
According to Statista, 30% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 have made a purchase through social networks.
This shows that social networks are not only a place to share content, but also a way to convert followers into customers. You can learn more about digital social media marketing here .
These are the top social media platforms for eCommerce marketing.
Facebook as eCommerce Marketing
It is very likely that your ideal clients are on Facebook.
With over 2.4 billion monthly active users, this platform reaches a wide range of demographics.
When you set up your Facebook Business Page, you can create a Shop tab that displays at the top of your Facebook Page.
From there, you can list a variety of products and make it easy for followers to buy directly through Facebook.
In addition, your Facebook business page will provide you with a wealth of information about your visitors and your most popular products.
Facebook is a platform that also lends itself well to posting videos as part of your social media e-commerce marketing strategy .
Instagram as eCommerce Marketing
Instagram is owned by Facebook and provides a huge opportunity for e-commerce businesses.
Instagram is a very visual social media platform, so if you have a knack for taking beautiful photos, it might be the right strategy for you.
When you create a shoppable Instagram post, you can tag all the products in the image (you need to have 10k followers in order to have images with links).
When your followers click on a product in the image, they will be redirected to purchase on the platform.
Important: In order to sell directly on Instagram, your eCommerce site must be approved by Instagram and comply with its policies .
Pinterest as ecommerce marketing
Pinterest is another image-based platform and is a great option for e-commerce brands.
To get started, you'll need to set up a Pinterest business account. This will give you access to analytics and other features you'll need to sell items on Pinterest.
From there, you can start creating your pins and tag the products that are displayed within each pin. If you want to increase your traction faster, you can pay to promote specific pins.
Influencer marketing
As customers have grown increasingly weary of PPC advertising , many businesses have transitioned to influencer marketing.
This strategy involves partnering with an influencer who has a well-established audience within a specific niche.
Your business can partner with an influencer to promote your products to their audience. Typically, this is done through social media and other content marketing channels .
Influencer marketing can be very effective when done the right way.
This person has already built trust and credibility with their audience, so their audience will be more willing to try your products.
This makes influencer marketing a valuable tool for eCommerce brands.
User Generated Content
User-generated content is a great way to establish social proof for your business.
This is because customers like to see that other people like them are using and enjoying your products.
There are many ways to create user-generated content, and technically, a product review is considered user-generated content. Google with its algorithm change that will begin in December will give great importance to product reviews to increase your positioning.
But a good example of user-generated content is what sparkling water brand LaCroix has done on its Instagram page .
The company regularly shares visually appealing photos of its customers enjoying LaCroix beverages.
Paid advertising as eCommerce marketing
Paid advertising often gets a bad rap, but it's still one of the most effective marketing strategies.
Facebook's bad reputation is due to the manipulation of audience data to maximize its income and not that of its customers.
The two best advertising strategies for eCommerce are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
If you already use Facebook and Instagram as part of your social media strategy, you may want to incorporate Facebook ads about your products.
With Facebook ads, you can target users based on their interests and demographics.
By comparison, Google Ads works by targeting specific keywords .
When a user searches for a keyword or phrase, your ad will appear at the top of search results.
This is a great way to target users who are looking for something specifically related to your product.
Create your eCommerce marketing strategy today
Creating a solid eCommerce marketing strategy takes time, and you may not get it right on the first try.
The best way to start is to pick a strategy and test it to see how well it works for your business and products.
If that strategy isn't successful, you can move on to the next item on the list until you find a plan that works for your business.
The important thing is to have an ecommerce marketing strategy that includes more than one of the tactics in this blog and always consider the mobile aspect of ecommerce .
Each company and niche are different, so I recommend you try several and measure each one of them and identify the best one for your particular business. From there you can refine each step by emphasizing what works and discarding what doesn't.
Top comments (0)