Running an e-commerce business means you must possess the art of building a solid marketing strategy that backs your organization. However, coming up with a plan that never fails can be very challenging as the industry is one of the most dynamic ones.
Whatever plans you make, problems like competition with big brands, unpredictable buying behavior of customers, etc., are inevitable. Therefore, to devise an ecommerce marketing strategy that works against all those odds, you need to know the essentials of ecommerce marketing.
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We have compiled a list of the essential ecommerce marketing strategies to help you devise an all-rounder marketing plan for your business.
Essential Strategies For Ecommerce Marketing
1. Improving UI/ UX
As the internet keeps flooding with new e-commerce sellers joining the industry every other day, emphasizing the business’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) aspects is essential.
Improving the UI/ UX of the website helps a business stand out in the crowd, providing a competitive edge. Besides, having a UI/ UX of particular aesthetics or color palate adds to the voice and image of the business.
Apart from all this, elements like website layout, content placement, language, etc., play an essential role in ensuring that customers visiting the website can easily navigate through it and get the information they need.
2. Optimizing The Website Content
All hard work can be unsuccessful if the website fails to reach the targeted audience. To prevent that, an e-commerce business must focus on website and content optimization.
SEO, aka search engine optimization, helps generate free and organic traffic with the help of keywords widely searched on search engines like Google. Optimizing a website’s content ensures that it ranks higher in Google search results.
Doing keyword research and implementing good SEO practices can drastically increase any website’s reach. Some businesses resort to posting blogs as they are more comprehensible to optimize and usually get better reach on Google.
3. Being Original
Nothing can entice a customer more than original content. A well-curated and well-managed website will always ace in retaining its audience. Hence, it is vital to produce original content that helps the audience in one way or another.
Well-written content can often help create a loyal customer base and boost the website. This massively contributes to customer conversions.
Therefore, if your business lacks a well-curated content strategy, this is one of the first things you should focus on. Well-performing contents are often the one that sports high quality and conveys the brand’s voice perfectly.
4. Marketing The Content Right
SEO is essential, but you cannot rely on one solution when running a business. The marketing industry is dynamic and demands keeping up with ever-changing trends. Therefore, curating an efficient marketing strategy is essential.
Sticking to evergreen marketing strategies, such as tying up products with informative content, is some of the safest options out there.
Also, publishing content consistently and promoting it after it’s published are some of the must-dos. This is why hiring a team of SEO and social media experts has become a staple for e-commerce marketing.
5. Utilizing The Power Of Social Media
Social media’s influence and prowess have grown immensely. So when the business is based on the internet, it makes the most sense to utilize social media tools for maximum reach.
Social media can support a business in many ways, from being the medium of communication with customers to promoting the business and influencing their buying behavior.
Besides, popular social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram have paid ad features where a business can post an advertisement to reach, generate leads and achieve better conversion rates.
6. Implementing Mobile-Friendly Marketing
Mobile is a leading gadget that receives most of a customer’s screen time. Therefore, marketing strategies that are mobile-friendly are a must.
Your website design should be mobile-friendly. For that, you may need to tweak the UI /UX accordingly. Marketers improving their ecommerce website must resort to a responsive design for their website.
Besides adjusting the website layout, investing in a mobile app is always a better idea as it significantly increases the chances of customer retention. People may not visit your website often, but if they have the app installed on their mobiles, the chances are higher that they’ll open it again.
7. Tapping Onto VR and AR
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) market comprises huge potential but is mostly untapped. However, now that Metverse and platforms are gaining popularity, this industry will open new doors for marketing and e-commerce.
One of the prevalent ways adopted by bigger businesses like IKEA and famous fashion houses like Balenciaga is to give virtual tours. However, to make it happen, users need to have a VR device handy to them.
This type of marketing is pricier and might not work for all e-commerce businesses, but businesses can indulge in this tactic if it suits their target customer base.
8. Retargeting Existing Customers
E-commerce businesses often focus more on targeting new customers than retargeting the old ones. When in fact, the latter is easier as the existing customers are already well aware of your business.
Therefore, creating a unique marketing strategy for existing customers is more impactful than developing strategies for introducing your business to a new audience.
Paid ads are considered one of the most effective retargeting techniques where your ads appear on your customer’s browser. The ads will ensure you remain relevant to them while assuring that your business stays in their subconscious while looking for related services.
9. Utilizing Customer Database
This marketing strategy somewhat sets the grounds for other ecommerce marketing strategy like customer retargeting, sending offers, and reconnecting with dormant shoppers.
The customer database is usually filled with crucial information, such as how much they shop and which categories they shop the most. These are great for influencing customer buying behavior.
Besides, it includes demographic information such as age and location, which can help a business understand its customer base better and develop improved customer segmentation and targeting strategies.
10 Leveraging User-Generated Content
Nowadays, user-generated content, such as reviews and testimonials, plays a considerable role in ecommerce marketing. They not only add credibility to your business, but in recent times they also take a major part in SEO.
Having reviews and FAQs on your website can significantly help increase the ranking of your website. Therefore, having a review section on your website is a must.
Besides that, a review and questions section on your website depicts that the business cares about interacting with the customers. Along with that, it most definitely helps in gaining insights about the customer’s pain points, likes, and dislikes.
11. Sending Offers and Sale Pop-ups
Who does not like making a profitable decision? This ecommerce digital marketing technique ensures the customers feel great about their purchasing decision. The other way of looking at this ecommerce marketing technique can be it leverages FOMO (fear of missing out).
Customers often add products to their cart but do not check out. In that case, if an offer of a 25% discount pops up in their notification, they would want to utilize the chance.
This is a part of a tried-and-tested method called a sales page. If customers see that your website often gives such sales and offers, they will visit your page more often.
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12. Reconnecting With Dormant Shoppers
Dormant shoppers have shopped with you quite a few times before, but in recent times their purchases have been null.
To reconnect with them, one of the most used ecommerce digital marketing techniques is email marketing. Sending your customers personalized emails with offers and product suggestions can be a game changer.
Customers love when a brand gives them priority and acknowledgment. Therefore, seeing a personalized message works better than a generalized newsletter.
This may take up more time than circulating a traditional email, but you could save a lot of falling leads and retain sales traffic.
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Takeaway
Before making the marketing strategy, analyzing the customer base is a must. However, this requires quite a skillset to master.
But skillsets can be achieved with the right support. upGrad’s Advanced Certification in Digital Marketing and Communication offered by MICA is an online course that empowers aspiring and professional marketers with fundamental and in-demand ecommerce marketing skills.
Check out the course to learn more.
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You can also check out our free courses offered by upGrad in Management, Data Science, Machine Learning, Digital Marketing, and Technology. All of these courses have top-notch learning resources, weekly live lectures, industry assignments, and a certificate of course completion – all free of cost!
