E-commerce continues to grow with every passing day, with global sales surpassing $4.9 trillion in 2021. Online sales are creating record highs. However, brands that do not have robust e-commerce marketing strategies may get left behind with increasing competition. On the other hand, brands with a strong e-commerce marketing strategy can convert visitors into buyers and buyers into brand advocates regardless of the competition.
So, what are the e-commerce marketing strategies that can ensure success? Let’s find out.
Best e-commerce marketing strategies to boost sales
Make your e-commerce website SEO friendly
You have a great-looking e-commerce website. You have added high-quality images, detailed product descriptions, and more. Yet, sales are not that great. What could be wrong with your website?
Nowadays, when someone has to look up a product, they head straight to Google. Does your website show up on Google search engine result pages? More importantly, does it appear among the top results on the search results page? Did you know that only 25% of people ever go onto the second page of search result pages? So, if your website does not appear on the first page, you are missing out on 75% of buyers, and that’s a lot.
Optimizing your website for SEO is one of the most effective e-business marketing strategies. Having a comprehensive SEO strategy can help you make your brand visible to all online shoppers. You must include all relevant and popular keywords that your target audience is searching for. SEO is one of the most cost-efficient but high ROI ecommerce in marketing strategy you can implement.
Here are some simple tips to optimize your website for SEO:
- Use image alt text
- Ensure there are no broken links
- Ensure every page is mobile-friendly
- Implement structured markup language
- Remove duplicate content
- Improve page load time
- Create a layout that does not require more than 2 or 3 clicks to navigate
- Ensure that all your important pages are Google-indexed.
Use Google shopping ads
Using Google shopping is also an effective E-commerce advertising strategy. Google ads show users products relevant to their Google searches. Users are taken straight to the seller’s website by clicking on the image.
Targeted ads are one of the most cost-effective ways to boost sales for an e-commerce company. That is because these ads already show the users the product image and the price. The users who click on these ads are high-quality leads, genuinely interested in the product.
Google showcase shopping ads could help businesses attract top-of-the-funnel web traffic with minimal investment. Companies could even group similar or related products together for users searching with generic product terms. Showcase ads can be an exciting strategy since you can bid at a much lower price than traditional ads. However, your prospects would still be able to see a wide range of products. Even if your visitors do not make immediate purchases, you would have at least familiarized them with your brand.
According to Google, businesses that invest in Google ads can double their investment in earnings.
Leverage content marketing
Did you know content marketing creates three times more leads than traditional marketing? It also costs 64% less. Considering these statistics, not including content marketing in your e-commerce marketing strategies could be a costly mistake.
A strong content marketing strategy could help you garner more positive attention and create conversations and interactions that no other marketing method can. Creating and promoting original content can be an excellent way to ensure that your customers get informative content regularly. The primary focus of content marketing is giving the audience informative, helpful, relevant, and exciting content that adds value to their life. Content marketing can play a significant role in cultivating a loyal audience for your e-commerce brand. Did you know companies that blog regularly produce 67% more leads per month? Increased lead generation and inbound traffic can improve sales and a broader customer base.
You can offer different types of content to your customers, such as blogs, videos, social media posts, newsletters, and more. However, you may need some experimentation to figure out what format works best for your brand. Your content should answer questions effectively and do so in an authoritative manner. When your audience perceives you as an authority in your field, they are more likely to return to your website. Of course, you must also use SEO, social media, and other tactics to widen the reach of your website.
Include product reviews
Positive reviews are a potent tool to boost e-commerce sales. 89% of customers say that they read product reviews before buying anything online.
Google and other search engines also factor in online reviews in their search algorithms. Encourage your customers to leave online reviews because it can help strengthen your online presence. 58% of customers would not mind paying more to a company that has excellent reviews. Also, buyers spend nearly 31% more on great reviews companies. On the other hand, 94% of customers are turned off by negative reviews and avoid doing business with such companies.
You can bolster your e-commerce sales by including online reviews and client testimonials. Better still, you should have your online reviews linked directly to your product pages.
If your e-commerce website is built on Shopify or WordPress, several plugins are available that you can use to upload customer reviews. You can also include pictures and videos to your product pages, just like Amazon does.
Generate word of mouth
You are more likely to buy a product recommended by a good friend or family member. That’s true for 92% of people who trust recommendations from people they know. That’s why word-of-mouth marketing must be included in your list of e-commerce marketing strategies.
86% of consumers trust word-of-mouth marketing. It also brings in 5 times more sales than paid advertisements. What it means is that you could increase your sales five times, and that too for free. Also, the customers who buy from you due to word-of-mouth marketing are likely to spend 200% more than other customers.
So, how do you generate positive word of mouth? For starters, you need to give your customers an excellent customer experience. It starts with product quality but also extends to the entire shopping experience. It doesn’t end there. Your return policies and post-sale expertise also play a significant role in creating a positive customer experience.
Other wonderful ways to create positive word-of-mouth include:
- Creating a referral program
- Developing a loyal online community
- Highlighting client testimonials and reviews on your website
- Working for a social cause and highlighting that on your website
- Creating unique content not offered by others in your industry.
Focus on cart abandonment
Who is the biggest enemy of e-commerce business owners? Shopping cart abandonment. The e-commerce industry loses $18 billion in revenue every year due to cart abandonment.
If your e-commerce marketing strategies do not include minimizing cart abandonment, maybe you need to rethink them. Shopping cart abandonment could significantly impact your business because it means that you lost a customer at the checkout process. Although you may not be able to get back all your customers, you may be able to get some of that revenue back. How? By implementing automated abandoned cart marketing sequences.
For having a more personalized customer experience, 83% of customers are willing to share personal information. Data reveals that cart abandonment emails do work. 45% of these emails are opened, and 50% of the users who open the emails make the purchase. A cost-efficient and effective way to minimize your cart abandonment rates is by setting up automated cart abandonment emails.
Retargeted ads also bring 26% of the customers back to your website. Personalized retargeted ads offer a whopping ROI of more than 1300%.
Your cart abandonment emails should give your customers a solid reason to complete their purchase. For instance, you could offer free shipping. After all, extra costs, such as shipping and taxes, account for 49% of shopping cart abandonments.
Implement a personalized email e-commerce marketing strategy
Email marketing must be integral to your e-commerce marketing strategies. According to Accenture, 91% of customers will buy from companies that send personalized emails. A study shows that 88% of all customers favor personalized emails. Why is it so? When you use personalized emails, it helps your customers feel a meaningful connection with your company. Customers want to be treated as humans and not just numbers. You can strengthen your bond and create lasting relationships with your customer with something as simple as personalized emails.
You can create personalized email campaigns in many ways:
- You could send a recommendation email based on their previous purchase history
- Include the customer’s name in the subject line of your email
- On special occasions, such as birthdays or anniversaries, you could extend special offers or discounts to your customers.
- Use segmentation to create discrete groups on common characteristics, such as age, gender, location, and more.
- You could also use behavioral triggers, such as if a customer hasn’t bought anything from you in a long time.
You could think of many other different ways that could help in fostering genuine relationships with your customers.
ECARTIZE- To help you create the most effective e-commerce marketing strategies
When it comes to crafting effective e-commerce marketing strategies, no one is better than Ecartize. We offer a wide range of e-commerce marketing services to help you generate quality leads and boost sales.