In the present-day economy, owing to its benefits, e-commerce stores are gaining popularity in droves. From startups and small businesses to mega-corporates, there are a huge number of businesses that are taking advantage of e-commerce stores to sell their products to their audience.
On the Internet, brands, irrespective of their size and kind, are using eye-catchy images, relevant content and user-friendly navigation to make their e-commerce sites more presentable. With the high competitiveness of e-commerce stores, it becomes imperative for businesses to make use of the right e-commerce tools and techniques to succeed.
In this blog, we will discuss ways in which businesses can use e-commerce marketing to effectively market the product offerings of e-commerce to their target audience.
- The Power of E-Commerce
- The Shopify Platform
- E-commerce Marketing
- Common E-commerce Marketing Tactics
The Power of E-Commerce
E-commerce refers to the process of buying or selling products or services through the internet. According to a recent report, the number of E-commerce buyers in 2020 is approximately 2 billion, which accounts for around a quarter of the world population. However, just a few years ago, in 2014, the number was 1.32 billion. Thanks to technological advancements, people around the world have embraced online shopping more than ever. Due to some of its characteristics like convenience, prompt service and cost-savings, customers are becoming more and more drawn to online shopping year after year. As current trends suggest, it is estimated that by 2021 the number of e-commerce buyers worldwide will reach 2.14 billion.
The Shopify Platform
E-commerce websites offer the opportunity to create a strong customer base conveniently and effortlessly. However, to experience the most out of an online store, you need to pick the right platform to host your e-commerce. Amongst several e-commerce platforms available, Shopify is one of the most celebrated and is known for its easy-to-use functionalities and advanced features and tools. Nowadays, there are over 820,000 e-commerce websites powered by Shopify. Here are a few of the main reasons why this platform is preferred by many businesses worldwide:
- Supports multiple languages
- Easy to use interface
- Affordable pricing
- Offers commendable technical support
- Includes marketing tools, analytics, shopping carts
- Offers option for blogging and content marketing
- Thousands of available themes
- Offers best of speed and security
- Mobile-friendly features
E-Commerce Marketing
Many people don’t realize that creating a great, or even perfect, online store is not enough to have e-commerce success. In order for your online store to attract and convert prospects, you need to create a smart e-commerce marketing strategy.
E-commerce marketing refers to improving the awareness and interest of your target audience in regard to the products offered in your online store. Here, marketers use different digital marketing tactics like SEO, content marketing, email marketing, social media platforms and more to connect with potential buyers and encourage them to purchase from their e-commerce.
Common E-Commerce Marketing Tactics
From focusing on maximizing your organic traffic through SEO to enhancing customer relationships through different social media platforms, no e-commerce marketing strategy is static. To stay ahead in the competition, it is imperative to evolve your marketing tactics based on the latest trends and your specific marketing goals. Here are some common yet effective e-commerce marketing tactics that can help you attract traffic and transform them into revenue-making customers.
Email Marketing
Though there are a number of modern marketing techniques to connect with your potential buyers, email marketing is still believed to be one of the most effective e-commerce marketing tactics. With e-commerce hosting platforms like Shopify, emails to your audience can be automated. They can also be targeted based on segments such as customer interests and demographics. From the many benefits email marketing has to offer, here are a few of the most important for e-commerce marketing.
- Send targeted and personalized product offers to your target audience
- Reach a large number of customers in an inexpensive way
- Strengthen relationships with current e-commerce clients
As we know, email marketing is an easy and cost-effective way to reach your audience. Here are two common examples of ways email marketing can be used for e-commerce marketing.
Post-Purchase Follow-Ups
Post-purchase follow-up emails are another common email marketing tactic used by e-commerce providers. It is a great way to help retain your customers and encourage them to become repeat purchasers. To do this, the business would send strategic email product offers to encourage customers to purchase other products that would interest them.
Contacting Users Who Abandon Their Cart
When it comes to online shopping, many users abandon their cart before making a purchase. There are many reasons why this could happen, they may have been overwhelmed by the price, they may have changed their mind, they may have technical issues, etc. This said it is often a good idea to reach out to those customers through email to learn about the reason for this behaviour. By doing this you may be able to better diagnose the problem and therefore save a valuable customer.
To learn about email marketing and how it can help your e-commerce website, visit myMarketing’s email marketing page.
Social Media Marketing
With around 42% of the world population using different social media platforms, businesses too are creating accounts on these platforms to connect with their target audience. Being active on social media and creating effective social media marketing campaigns has a direct positive impact on e-commerce sales. Here, businesses can use visuals, content and hashtags to attract your customers and encourage them to purchase. Here are a few of the benefits your e-commerce can enjoy from using social media marketing techniques:
- Authentic engagement and traffic for your online store
- Increase brand and product awareness and perception
- Create a relationship with prospects and current clients
Now that you know some of the benefits of using Social Media Marketing to improve the performance of your e-commerce store, let’s see a few examples of how it can be used.
Staying in Contact with Existing Customers
Just like for any business, it’s important for e-commerce websites to focus on retaining existing customers. Social media platforms can help businesses do just this. By posting content, sending messages, liking and commenting on relative content, businesses are able to connect with customers and create a stronger relationship with them. By doing this effectively, you can improve the chances of these customers being repeat purchasers. Social media activities such as product launches and promotional offers are common tactics that are likely to help your online store.
Requesting Reviews, Feedback, Surveys or Testimonials
Another post-purchase activity where social media marketing can be used is when requesting customer reviews, feedback, surveys or testimonials. Since many of your clients are surely on social media, it becomes a good tool to approach customers for post-purchase discussions. This technique can also be used to increase sales by offering promotions to users who participate in the given activity.
To learn about social media marketing and how it can help your e-commerce website, visit myMarketing’s social media marketing page.
Website Design
The success of your e-commerce site depends on many factors, and one of them is its design. To execute an effective marketing strategy, it is essential to have a website that not only looks attractive but also functions well. When a potential customer visits your website, your website’s design gives them the first impression of your store. So, to create a positive impact on your customer and convert them into leads, it’s very important to optimize your Shopify e-commerce’s web design. Website design comes with many benefits for the success of e-commerce, here are a few:
Improved user experience and user interface to increase satisfactions
Increase the credibility and reputation of your e-commerce
Improves the online store’s search engine ranking performance
Website designing can be very tricky, especially when it comes to e-commerce sites. You need to make sure that your website is not only aesthetically pleasing but that it is also designed to yield results. Here are a few common examples of ways your website design can help your online store’s performance.
Ensuring Easy Navigation
To retain customers, you need to make sure it is easy for your customer to navigate your e-commerce website. Businesses often invest in website design in order to provide the absolute best user experience and user interface for their e-commerce. This includes having well-defined product categories, a search box, search filters and much more. This allows customers to search and browse through your e-commerce seamlessly.
Building A Sense of Security
Customers only want to buy from e-commerce stores that they believe are safe and private. This is why many businesses use website design to improve the security and legitimacy of their e-commerce. By doing so, customers will be more likely to make purchases as they know their privacy and security are protected. Elements of website design that help customers develop trust in your e-commerce are sections such as about us, contact us, reviews, testimonials, policies and more.
Perfecting Your Product Page
A strong product page is very important to attract and convert your target audience. As online shoppers cannot touch, feel, or try out the product, it is very important to effectively exhibit each and every aspect of the product being sold. By using high-quality images or video along with a strong product description that effectively display the features of the product, customers will be much more likely to purchase from your online store.
To learn about website design and how it can help your e-commerce website, visit myMarketing’s website designing page.
Search Engine Optimization
Just like any other e-commerce marketing tactic, search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in bringing organic traffic to your website. As per the latest trend, people tend to search for their desired products on Google. If your target audience is looking for a product that you offer, it is imperative that your online store ranks highly in the google search engine result pages for related search queries. Here are a few benefits you can enjoy from implementing SEO in your e-commerce marketing strategy:
- Helps customers find your online store and the products they desire with ease
- Generate traffic from users searching for keywords related to your products
- Build brand credibility and awareness by being highly ranked by google
SEO is often considered the best way for online stores to generate organic traffic. Here are a few examples of common ways SEO is used to increase e-commerce performance.
Target The Right Keywords
Businesses often do keyword research in order to improve their search ranking performance. By knowing which keywords and long-tail keywords to include and to focus on in your product name and description, your e-commerce products will see an increase in the search ranking performance. This will help users find your products in search engines when writing-related search terms.
Reach Your Audience Through Blogs
Businesses often write blogs related to their online store in order to improve SEO ranking. By writing relevant blogs brands can succeed at ranking on search engines for keywords related to their products and therefore increase their organic traffic. Blogs also allow your audience to learn more about your e-commerce and encourages them to visit the products they are looking for by clicking internal links.
To learn about search engine optimization and how it can help your e-commerce website, visit myMarketing’s Search Engine Optimization page.
Pay Per Click Ads
PPC or Pay Per Click advertising is yet another effective e-commerce marketing method to connect with your prospective customers. Some of the most popular pay per click ads types are search ads and display ads. Just like SEO, pay per click search ads is used to enhance your visibility on search engines. On the other hand, display ads are image-based advertisements shown on third party websites, apps or social media. All PPC ads are paid advertisements for which you need to pay the search engine or third party for every click on your advertisement. PPC advertising comes with many benefits, here are a few:
- Provides complete control over your budget and schedule
- Attract users who are searching or are likely to be interested in your products
- Increase brand and product awareness and knowledge
Pay-per-click advertising is one of the best ways to generate a boost to your online traffic quickly. Here are a few examples of ways PPC advertising campaign is used to promote online stores.
Be on Google’s First Page
One of the most used PPC ads methods for e-commerce stores is Google search ads. These ads allow businesses to place their ads on Google’s first page for specific keywords. By using relevant keywords and content, your business can make sure your e-commerce is among the first websites on Google when users search for keywords relevant to your product.
Remarketing to Warm Leads
Many businesses use PPC advertising to target their advertising to prospects that have already shown interest in their products. These advertisements are generally image-based advertisements that are placed on other websites, apps or social media. Say a user views a product on your e-commerce but decides not to buy it, remarketing allows you to advertise that product to that exact user in the future. Businesses often advertise discounts on this item to entice the user to buy.
To learn about pay per click advertising and how it can help your e-commerce website, visit myMarketing’s Pay Per Click advertising page.
Final Words Of Advice
Once you launch your Shopify e-commerce store the last thing you should do is kick back, relax and assume that your products will sell themselves. Unless you already have a very high number of customers visiting your website for these exact products daily, you’re unlikely to make many sales. To attract, convert and retain your target audience you will need an effective digital marketing strategy. By using the right digital marketing tools for your industry, target audience and goals you’ll be able to maximize your traffic and sales on your online store!
