Every eCommerce store wants to increase traffic and conversions for sales. eCommerce marketing is the best practice of driving top-of-funnel traffic to convert into sales and customers.

The main purpose of eCommerce marketing is to reach your product or service to your target audience, you need to know who you are designing for, how they will use it, and what their purchasing power is. Execution of marketing strategy is also a part of eCommerce marketing.

What is eCommerce marketing?

eCommerce marketing is the Internet marketing strategy that uses an existing eCommerce market to promote a businesses’ brand, products, and services. eCommerce marketing is a great way for stores and organizations to tap into that growing power, creating advertisements that guide consumers to an eCommerce store. This will open the consumer up to a new world of purchase opportunities that will help them become familiar with your particular brand in the meantime.

Who is eCommerce marketing for?

eCommerce marketing strategies are for everyone who wants to run a successful online store. It takes careful coordination of marketing actions, budgeting, timing, and the right strategy to come up with an eCommerce marketing plan that works for your business and industry.

The external environment plays an important role in your marketing strategy, so you need to be proactive. If you have an eCommerce store, you have to alert to opportunities and threats in the external environment, regardless of how well it’s performing.

How to design the best eCommerce marketing plan

It’s important that businesses should have an exact idea on investment in marketing because there are literally no spending limits.

Before we discuss various designing plan, you must make sure that product pages are all set. They must be perfect because the motive behind eCommerce marketing is to drive prospects to these pages and increase sales. If the eCommerce marketing efforts are top-notch, but product pages are not user-centric, you’ll not be able to sell products as per your deserved.

Things to Keep in Mind in Product Pages

• Make sure that your product pages are content rich and cover all the primary keywords.
• Customers should find all the necessary details covering all the attributes like color, size, brand name, manufacturer details, product variants, features, specifications, etc from product pages.
• Make sure that all the product pages are properly indexed so that search engines can crawl them and give rankings accordingly.
• Add quality images and videos to give out more details about your products.
• Check out the purchase process and make sure customers don’t face any difficulties.

Three Channels of eCommerce Marketing

1. Search Engines
2. Social Media and
3. Content

1. Search Engines

Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ask are the major search engines. According to the research by statcounter, Google rules the search engine market with the highest market share of 92.46%. Search engines are one of the most significant sources of getting relevant traffic to your eCommerce store.

There are mainly two ways to generate traffic from search engines:

● Organic
● Paid Visits

How To Get Organic Traffic From Search Engines?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the right way to get organic traffic from search engines. It is the process of a list of activities that show search engines that your product page is more suitable for the target audience compared to the other brands.

SEO is the unique process of generating engaging content and collecting references to get higher rank on certain queries related to your products.

As you can see in the above screenshot, Google has ranked the most relevant results from the internet by analyzing their content and references from other sites. Google has more than 200 factors to judge a page and rank them so that users can find the most suitable products.

If we see SEO as a separate industry, it has a bright future because of its vast importance. Though, Google has started displaying paid results, SEO is the best process every eCommerce store needs to build a brand. As a growing eCommerce store, SEO should be a priority, and you must include it in your marketing design.

How To Get Traffic From Search Engines by Paid Visits?

Every major eCommerce marketing companies/search engines offers paid services to get higher ranks where you literally have to pay per click.

Search engines have various ways to showcase your sponsored products where you can set up your budget and display your result without investing efforts in SEO. Here’s the example:

Pay Per Click (PPC) is an easy way to gain relevant traffic very quickly as your result will be displayed on top of search results, depending on the bid amount.

Since many competitors are running for the same type of products, they all will bid on various keywords. Your result in paid ads will be decided based on the competition and the amount you’re willing to spend on per click.

Not only Google but all eCommerce marketing services/search engines offer such services. So, you have to identify the right audience and set keywords to get relevant traffic to your store.

There are some guidelines for paid ads that you need to follow. You cannot sell all types of products using this platform like tobacco products, military equipment, recreational drugs, etc. You don’t need to be worried unless your products are generic and approved by Google.

2. Social Media

Social media can be a great source to get relevant traffic for your online store if marketed rightly. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat are extremely beneficial to extend your business and increase sales.

• Facebook & Instagram

Regular posting about your products on social platforms can increase your followers, and directly increase the chances of selling your products. Specifically, Facebook allows you to create your eCommerce store on the platform itself and redirect customers to your store.

Here’s an example of LG Electronics’ Facebook page where it posts about new products.

Here’s another example of One Plus – One of the Top Mobile Manufacturers in the world. They have created a Facebook shop page and listed their major products:

Just like Facebook, Instagram can also be a great platform to spread words about your brand and sell online as well. Here’s an example of Converse – A legendary brand in Sneakers.

If you take a look at the screenshot below, Converse has used product tagging feature to sell products on Instagram. Users can check out the pictures and go to the Converse main store directly, without leaving the app.

With high-quality images and right use of hashtags, you can gather like-minded people who are interested to see your products on Instagram.

Paid Advertisements On Facebook & Instagram

The most important social media, Facebook and Instagram both offer advertising options.

But on Facebook, you can not promote your products directly. You can create engaging content and build a brand value to gather more followers, and that eventually forms a solid platforms.

You can promote content, and also gather engagement using paid advertisements option. Here’s a example of Patrick Adair Designs:

With Instagram, you can promote your products through paid advertising, and target the most relevant visitors based on their interests.

Instagram ads can be a very effective channel for your brand for both – building a huge audience and redirecting them to your store. Here’s a example of Myntra – An Online Apparel Store.

• LinkedIn

It’s a professional network and can be an excellent channel for content promotion. LinkedIn would be a fine choice for B2B businesses, but it is expanding its spectrum to cover more niches. As an online store, you can definitely create your company profile and share valuable updates on LinkedIn network.

Paid Advertisements On LinkedIn

LinkedIn also offers paid advertisement services where you can reach your store to potential customers using various ways like sponsored content, personalized inbox ads, and ads on the sidebar. It can be a great platform to promote books, eBooks, themes, templates, plugins, add-ons, or graphics packages.

3. Content

Content is one of the oldest ways to promote your store and gather the audience who is/are interested to read your content. Compared to other channels, content can be a slow channel to generate leads. But, it is extremely important for brand building activities and storing faith in the visitor.

Useful content can also bring potential customers. You can also contribute your content to other social media platforms and promote your products. This content marketing activity will eventually increase your site rank on search engines as well.

4. Create a loyalty program

One of the most inarguable rules in marketing is that of reciprocity. You can’t expect customers to always support your brand and new product releases if you don’t show them the interest back. 

Setting up a loyalty program for your customers can encourage them to spend more at your online store because they know their purchases will add up into something beneficial for them.

Also, they can see that every dollar they spend with you counts toward acquiring a product if you have program tiers, like bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.

5. Set up pings for out-of-stock products

Are you running store with out of stock products? Don’t leave your customers with disappointed, and most importantly, don’t let them leave without taking their contact details. This way, you can ping them once your products are back in stock, which really makes your customers feel valued and appreciated. 

This way, you also manage to hold on to your potential customer.

Otherwise, the paid bid you set on Facebook ads for every engagement taking place would go to waste. After all, even if users don’t purchase at the end, you’ll still have earned new entries for your mailing list.

6. Set up wish-list reminder emails

Set up an automation email to the user who hasn’t viewed their wish-list for a month or longer. The email should contain with dynamic content and product recommendations similar to what they had viewed. 

Wish-list reminder emails are a great way to engage your new potential customers or existing customers. They’re not bad for business, since they increase average order value per customer and help boost conversions from time to time.

7. Offer product recommendations

Use artificial intelligence(AI) for product recommendation purposes. Because product recommendation systems make informed suggestions as recommendations for users, utilizing AI product recommendation can increase your sales greatly and thus expand your business.

8. Invest in Live Chat

Chatbots are one of the ways to employ a live chat strategy. Depending on your store size, you can have a live person available to chat with potential customers who visit your store.

Whether you decide to go the bot or human, live chat will prove especially effective while people are browsing your store so they can get answers right away and when they’re in the checkout process to mitigate any objections just before buying.

9. Cater to the Shopping Cart

The main reason why people abandon their shopping cart are: trust in your business, in the product, or in the delivery system. You want to give customers every reason to buy from you without hesitation by confronting their objections head on.

Some ways you can mitigate shopping cart abandonment are:

• Money back guarantees
• A clear and simple return policy
• Superior delivery options
• Immediate access to customer support

eCommerce Marketing Strategies

Putting together your eCommerce marketing stack is essential for all paid options. Make sure you’ve made the right choice by typing in your query in the search box.

1. Establish PPC strategy

Choosing a PPC strategy can be difficult, especially because there’s an ongoing clash between automatic versus manual bidders. Both have pros and cons, but always make sure you set a maximum CPC for your ads campaign and your keywords are high-quality while being very closely related to your topics.

To establish the bid’s worth, you’ll need to know what each click is worth to you, whether each click counts towards brand awareness, brand recognition, or conversions – and at what cost. 

2. Refresh social media

Another way to boost up your eCommerce marketing is by posting your latest products on social media as well as regular social updates. If you maintain consistent posting frequency, you will help your followers to establish the habit of engaging with you and your page.

Also, it’s good to show visitors that you’ve been updating your content, especially if they only visit your social media accounts every once in a while.

3. Craft relevant ads

Your ads are much more than just copy; they’re not just a cool photo or video. They’re a combination of all these and how relevant they are with the audience at the specific time you publish them. 

Boost your posts, promote your products page, engage with other accounts, share your content, and always keep in mind the users requirements.

4. Share user-generated content

You always expect some great things from your best friend. Actually, your customers are like your best friends. You can’t be on the receiving end forever and it never be like this. Sometimes, it’s as simple as engaging with your customers even more by sharing their content on your social media page. Sharing user-generated content makes them feel like valued brand ambassadors.

5. Map out your Instagram marketing and connect with your Facebook store

Your Facebook store connects to your Instagram shop since both Instagram and Facebook can be run from the same account. This way, you’ll get a strong combo of marketing actions and three eCommerce store. Facebook, Instagram, and WooCommerce (Dokan) all come together to supercharge your eCommerce marketing.

6. Reach out to influencers

Are you in a hurry to get people to talk about your products and wondering how to increase your website traffic? The easiest way to do so is by reaching out to influencers.

Major influencers are usually difficult to approach.

So what you need to do is prepare a pitch well in advance, include a deadline by which you’d need a final answer, and discuss the specifics of your collaboration very carefully, such as how they’d handle negative comments about your product from any of their followers. 

7. Get more with email marketing

You can increase conversions with cart abandonment emails. Take a look at your last month’s revenue. Now, estimate 40-50% increase in those numbers. According to a report, an average of 70% of carts are abandoned at every eCommerce store. You have two choices: first one, to set up auto-triggered cart abandonment emails which go off within a short period of time, or second option: continue leaving money on the table. Choice is yours.

8. Show new subscribers

Have you thought why people sign up for your newsletter but never take any action? Maybe it’s because you never showed their name around your store. A good approach would be taking new subscribers “around” your store and showing them everything they need to know.

For instance, anticipate the actions that a newly-subscribed user wants to take and design your on-boarding sequence for them accordingly.

If you own an eCommerce store, you should expect customers to know the product categories available on your store. The most popular products on your site based on your user reviews and the kind of things that influencers have been discussing.

9. Survey users to improve your offering

One of the better way to increase your sales is by improving your merchandise. Set up surveys on your website to find out what your buyers are looking for. This way, you can overhaul the entire customer experience on your online store and improve it accordingly. 

10. Drive loyal with “thank you” emails

Your customers love your products and show their loyalty to your products by making purchases on your store. But you have to show your gratefulness to your customers. Reciprocation and building positive relationships with your customer is the key. 

Something as simple as a personalized thank you email will help you to drive loyal, passionate partners and potential customers in the long run. When sending thank you emails, you may want to consider using an SMTP server, especially if you are receiving a lot of transaction to your eCommerce store.

11. Boost your average order value by up-selling or cross-selling

Part of the automation bundle are up-selling and cross-selling eCommerce marketing automation techniques. By using these automation tactics, you will be able to increase the average order value per converted customer.

As soon as they’re at checkout, they could receive an email to confirm their email address, which could be then enriched with products details that are either similar but more expensive (up-selling) or complementary to whatever they already intended on buying (cross-selling).

This is not the end of eCommerce marketing

eCommerce businesses have several marketing tools. Using digital and inbound marketing just the right way, you can create campaigns that are designed to help your online store attract more customers and grow better.