CleanPix Blog

What is Ecommerce Marketing?

First, let’s start with a definition. According to Shopify, ecommerce marketing is:

“The practice of using promotional tactics to drive traffic to your online store, converting that traffic into paying customers, and retaining those customers post-purchase.”

But how do you actually do ecommerce marketing? That’s what we’ll talk about in the next section when we share 9 ecommerce marketing tips you can implement and benefit from immediately after reading.

9 Ecommerce Marketing Tips

The 9 ecommerce marketing tips listed below will help you drive quality traffic and convert it into paying customers — as long as you implement them correctly, of course. We encourage you to read through and choose a few to begin experimenting with.

1. Use Social Media Strategically

Social media is an amazing marketing channel for ecommerce businesses. It will allow you to reach millions of people with product-oriented content and increase traffic to your site. But not all social sites are created equal.

In regards to online stores, visual social networks like Instagram tend to work best because potential customers can see products before clicking links to purchase them.

Savvy ecommerce marketers will also make use of hashtags to drive targeted Instagram traffic to their content and experiment with Shoppable Posts, which allow users to purchase products without ever leaving the site.

Of course, other sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can benefit ecommerce stores, too. Just choose a platform your audience uses and begin posting great content for them to view.

2. Jump on the Email Marketing Train

Email marketing is old school, but incredibly effective. In fact, recent studies show that it produces an average ROI of 3,800%! So if you can only implement a few of the ecommerce marketing tips in this article, make sure email is one of them.

Email marketing is a more intimate form of communication than social media, allows for a greater personalization and can be automated.

To get started with email for ecommerce, follow these three simple steps:

• Grow Your List: Email marketing will only benefit your ecommerce store if you have subscribers to send messages to. Grow your list by offering incentives to new subscribers such as a free guide or discount coupon.
• Send Great Content: Once a subscriber joins your list, you need to engage them. You can do this by sending them links to your best content, showcasing for-sale items, or highlighting glowing customer testimonials.
• Follow-Up With Customers: Follow-up emails include abandoned cart messages, post-purchase thank you notes, and upsell offers. Keep your customers engaged after a sale to increase the likelihood they buy again.

Don’t forget, most email communications can be automated using marketing software. This will save you countless hours and ensure your messages are always relevant.

3. Create Amazing, Must-See Content

Number three on our ecommerce marketing tips list is all about content marketing, a wide ranging field that includes blogging, YouTube videos, downloadable guides, product page copy, website FAQs, and more. These kinds of pieces can boost SEO efforts and drive amazing amounts of traffic to your website for free.

The key is to create highly engaging materials that share valuable information on topics your unique audience cares about. Then infuse them with targeted keywords.

For example, an ecommerce website selling wedding dresses might consider writing a blog post on “How to Plan a Wedding”. Or creating a downloadable “Wedding Checklist” that brides to be can use to keep track of wedding preparations.

While it’s important to write content for your own site, guest blogging can be beneficial as well. This will allow you to get your business in front of a captive audience and score backlinks that prove to Google and other search engines that your site is reliable.

We also need to spend some time talking about video marketing. Did you know that YouTube has over 2 billion active users and is the second largest search engine in the world?

Discover what your audience is interested in and how it relates to the products you sell. Then create videos on these topics. You might also consider shooting product demos and tutorial videos that show prospects and current customers how to use your offerings.

4. Shrink Your Cart Abandonment Rate

Abandoned carts are a HUGE problem for ecommerce companies. Research suggests that an average of 77.13% of carts are abandoned across all industries. That’s a lot of money being left on the table! As an ecommerce store owner, you need to win some of that back.

Start by understanding why your carts are abandoned. Common reasons include expensive or slow shipping options, a poor checkout process, and customers who were just browsing.

Once you know why customers aren’t checking out, you can develop strategies to encourage them to complete purchases. For instance, you may decide to implement a free shipping policy, or a money back guarantee, or immediate access to customer support.

Another way to reduce the frequency of abandoned carts is to use email marketing.

Set up an automated sequence that triggers whenever a customer leaves your site without completing the checkout process. Doing so will remind them about their orders and encourage them to actually purchase the products they added to their carts.

5. Introduce Live Chat to Your Store

Believe it or not, live chat can have a huge impact on your ecommerce store, which is why we’ve included it in our top 9 ecommerce marketing tips.

There are two ways to deploy live chat: hire a real, flesh and blood human to answer potential customer questions, or invest in chatbot software. The route you choose will likely depend on your business size and available budget.

Either way, you’ll be able to increase your conversion rate by addressing concerns before customers get too overwhelmed and leave your site.

6. Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

Another way to market your ecommerce store is via user-generated content (UGC). If you’re not familiar with the term, UGC is any piece of content created by your customers. This includes social posts related to your business, reviews, and testimonials.

User-generated content is effective because it’s more trusted by audience members, can greatly extend a company’s reach, and is usually free or low cost.

Help encourage user-generated content amongst your following by:

• Creating Competitions: Have customers create content of themselves with your products in order to win prizes.
• Rewarding UGC: Give customers some kind of reward for posting about your company on social media or review sites. A discount coupon usually works well.
• Using Branded Hashtags: Ask customers to use a branded hashtag on social media every time they post about themselves using one of your products.

While 86% of companies use UGC, only 16% of them have a dedicated strategy in place. That means you have an opportunity to propel yourself past the competition with this tactic!

7. Work With Influencers in Your Niche

The internet allows anyone from anywhere to build a loyal following. As an ecommerce store owner, you can tap into these followings by investing in influencer marketing, which essentially means you pay influencers to rep your products.

By partnering with a well-known and loved personality, you can easily get your products in front of a targeted audience. The key is choosing the right influencer to partner with.

Work with folks who have engaged followings. One million followers on Instagram won’t benefit your business if they’re all bots or dormant accounts. Also, make sure the influencer you partner with serves a similar audience to you. Finally, keep your budget in mind. Top influencers command hefty price tags for sponsored posts.

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to influencer marketing, but the potential benefits from a successful campaign are huge. That’s why it makes our ecommerce marketing tips list.

8. Make Sure Your Website is up to Snuff

When’s the last time you updated your website? Your digital storefront needs to utilize a responsive design, be mobile friendly, and have optimized product pages.

A responsive design will ensure your site is easily viewable on any device — computer, tablet, or smartphone. Mobile friendliness will guarantee that potential customers enjoy using your site on their cell phones. This is incredibly important since 67% of consumers say a mobile friendly makes them more likely to purchase a product or service. And optimized product pages will increase your ecommerce store’s conversion rate, which will lead to higher profits.

Before implementing the other ecommerce marketing tips mentioned in this article, make sure your website has been built for the modern marketplace.

9. Learn the Art of the Upsell

Finally, upsells can have a huge impact on a store’s bottom line. It’s why fast food restaurants ask you if you want to supersize your order, and technology companies almost always offer higher-end versions of their flagship products.

If you’re not able to create an upsell offer, cross-selling might be a viable option for you. A cross-sell is when you offer customers a related product to compliment the one they just bought. If you sold digital cameras, for example, you could try and sell additional lenses, memory cards, and carrying cases as well.

According to PredictiveIntent, 4% of customers will take you up on your upsell offer and 0.2 will agree to a cross-sell. These numbers may seem small, but they really add up over time.

Build a Better Ecommerce Store

To run a successful online store, you have to know how to effectively market products to your target audience. The ecommerce marketing tips listed above are a great place to start!

We encourage you to choose one or two and implement them. Then work on additional tips when you’re able. If you do, you’ll see your traffic and conversions increase and your store’s profitability shoot through the roof. Good luck!