Ecommerce Marketing Tips: 5 Essential Strategies For 2024
More than 60 percent of U.S. consumers with internet access now shop online at least once a month. If you’re an owner looking to grow your online business, there are plenty of opportunities, but you have to find new ecommerce marketing tips for your marketing campaigns to stand out amidst all the digital competition.
Knowing how to experiment with the right processes, technology, and marketing tactics is essential to boost brand awareness and increase your revenue.
In this article, I’ll show you five effective ecommerce marketing tips that will help you break away from your online competitors.
Ecommerce marketing tips to boost your online store
As an ecommerce manager, you need to learn the latest digital marketing tips that can help you grow your customer base, extend your reach, and boost your online sales.
Below are each of these tips, why you need them, and how you can use them as a manager of your ecommerce business:
Tip #1: Add customer reviews and user-generated content to your ecommerce marketing strategy
What it is?
Customer reviews are feedback your audience shares about your business.
User-generated content, meanwhile, is any form of content created by users of a company’s product or service. This type of content can come in the form of social media posts or blog posts.
Why do you need to use it in your marketing efforts?
Audiences love when their favorite ecommerce brands build and display a stronger relationship with them. It makes their experience more meaningful.
Additionally, having customer reviews on display allows you to harness the power of social proof—one of the best ways to display the customer experience, improve customer loyalty, and encourage buy-in from potential customers.
How to use it for your ecommerce business?
Here’s a checklist you can use to incorporate reviews and user-generated content into your marketing strategy:
- Place a designated review section on your website. A review section tells people they can share their thoughts on your products/services. It also displays how your customers used your product in a meaningful way and encourages others to do the same.
PM PrepCast offers project management certification preparation services. The following section on their website showcases various user reviews. These reviews establish strong social proof, with the potential to increase sales of their services.
- Share the audience’s user-generated content. Sharing fan creations on your personal social media pages and tagging their creators show that you appreciate the time and effort they’ve put into this content. This makes them feel rewarded for supporting your brand.
McDonald’s Canada made good use of user-generated content by using fan illustrations to supplement their mystery activity. Adding these illustrations to the already engaging activity creates better immersion and inclusion for the audience.
Tip #2: Use blogs to advertise your products
What it is?
A blog is an online journal or diary that details certain facts and opinions about certain topics. Depending on the writer, a blog’s tone of voice can be serious, funny, or anything in between.
Why do you need to use it in your marketing efforts?
Writing a blog for your business is a must because it can help you:
- Connect with your audience. Blogs are one of the best and most inexpensive ways to provide valuable information for free, promote your brand, and improve ecommerce SEO. And, since blogs are typically less formal and sales-y, people find themselves returning to this content.
- Drive sales to your website. Since blogs have so much value, people can’t help but visit your website to learn more. As a result, your site traffic increases, improving your ecommerce business’ chances of making more sales.
- Builds brand awareness. Should you frequently maintain a high-quality blog, expect more people to talk about your brand. Since your products are at the center of your posts, expect more people to be aware of them—making you a household name.
How to use it for your ecommerce business?
Starting a blog for your ecommerce business is relatively easy. Here’s a quick how-to checklist:
- Add a blog page to your website. Creating a convenient home for your blog is the first step to converting with a blog. By having a blog page, your users can easily find your content again for future use—increasing traffic to your site.
- Use a content marketing platform to host your blog. If you’ve yet to build a website of your own, content marketing platforms like HubSpot or Contently are a great idea for marketing. Since these platforms get high traffic, your brand can snag some of that attention as well.
- Research industry-relevant topics for your blog. Don’t just write about your products: Make people come back by having valuable content based on all the latest stories in your industry.
- Create high-quality, keyword-rich content. By having engaging blog posts that expertly use trending keywords, it becomes more likely that your efforts will be discovered when people research a topic on Google. Take the time to not only improve your writing skills but also know what keywords may be of interest to potential customers.
- Add a call-to-action (CTA) leading to your store. Once customers are done reading your blog, they’re sure to be pumped up and ready to buy what you have to offer. Strike while the iron is hot by placing a CTA that leads them to your featured products’ pages. After all, visitors buying your products is the goal for all this effort.
Tip #3: Use influencer marketing to improve your sales
What it is?
Influencers are people who can encourage the buying decisions of others. These people are traditionally experts or celebrities whose opinions are shared by a large number of followers on social media.
Why do you need to use it in your marketing efforts?
You need to team up with an influencer because their insights are sure to grab people’s attention. Your brand being exposed to a wider audience also improves your chance to grow your business.
How to use it for your ecommerce business?
Boost sales through ecommerce influencer marketing by following these steps:
- Search for relevant influencers in your industry. In this day and age, there are influencers in every industry. Because of this, there’s surely someone online who shares the same values and brand tone as your business.
- Conduct social listening. To discover your influencers, conduct social listening. This process has you use tools like Hootsuite, so you know where your audiences are most active.
- Talk to the influencer. Once you’ve chosen the right influencer, it’s time to discuss what both of you will get out of a potential partnership. Be sure to establish a mutually beneficial contract to encourage them to work with you.
- Set up content with them. Now that you’re working with your ideal influencer, you can build content for your ecommerce site together. During this session, remember to allow the influencer to be creative without straying from your goals. Focus on a mutually beneficial relationship that has a high chance of creating conversions.
Tip #4: Build a customer email list
What it is?
A customer email list is a collection of email addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients.
Why do you need to use it in your marketing efforts?
Despite what most people may think, email is still a powerful method of advertising. As popular as social media is, social media ads are scattered to the winds and, unless they’re targeted, are often seen by people who don’t even need your product.
Meanwhile, email blasts are more focused on your potential or existing customers, which increases the likelihood of a purchase. So remember to collect your customer data to nurture future sales.
How to use it for your ecommerce business?
To use email lists for your ecommerce business, you need to follow these steps:
- Give something valuable in exchange for their email address. Users are sure to work with you should you offer something valuable to them, such as a learning resource, an ebook, discount codes, etc. Get people to sign up for your newsletter to build a list of potential customers.
- Create new content to nurture your email list. To grow your number of potential customers, and keep all those old ones, make sure you have something new in the bag for them to enjoy regularly.
- Repurpose content. If you require more content, you can always reuse what you already have but reformat it as infographics, tipsheets, or videos. By doing this, you’re sure to give your email list recipients something valuable.
Tip #5: Use effective sales copy on your product pages
What it is?
Sales copy is writing designed to persuade potential customers to purchase a product or service. Sales copy should include elements such as persuasive language, testimonials, and calls to action.
Why you need to use it in your marketing efforts
Effective sales copy makes full use of the power of words. When you create clear, concise copy that outlines the features and benefits of your product, you earn your stand to grab your customers’ attention and earn their trust.
How to use it for your ecommerce business?
To implement effective sales copy on your ecommerce pages, follow these steps:
- Begin by learning how to write clearly and concisely. This means using the least number of words but still being able to portray a clear message your audience needs. You want your product description to grab your audience’s attention and make a sale instantly.
The Apple Pencil sales copy below works because it paints a picture of exactly what you’ll get from it. By saying that it’s “incredibly easy to use and ready when inspiration strikes,” the copy encourages creatives to add the Apple Pencil to their lifestyle.
- Use persuasive language throughout your copy. Persuasive language is characterized by words that appeal to your reader's needs and desires. Remember to choose words that activate the emotional centers of the mind to increase the likelihood of sales.
By painting a picture of magic and adventure, the copy from Disney Vacations below connects with the inner child in every reader and gives people a glimpse of what’s in store.
- Add a call to action (CTA). Now that you’ve grabbed people's attention and made them long for your product, they need to know what to do next. Because no matter how incredible your sales copy is, don’t expect customers to convert unless you prompt them to. Some good CTAs you should add include “Buy now”, “Learn more,” or “Contact us.”
The Old Navy CTA below works because it comes directly after an exciting offer. As a result, visitors would be encouraged to sign up since they’re getting an attractive discount.
Try these ecommerce marketing tips—and try again
Ecommerce success is a never-ending journey defined by experimenting and testing new techniques. Here are some things to remember:
- Experimentation leads to success. If you want your business to get ahead, you need to offer something different from your competitors. Experiment with user-generated content, blog posts, influencer outreach, mailing list, and sales copy, and discover what helps you stand out.
- Focus on what provides the most business value. Whenever you intend to try a new marketing technique for your business, don’t just choose something for the sake of trying something new. Instead, pick the tip that provides the most value to you and your ecommerce business.
- Keep testing. Don’t be afraid to test these tips, analyze the results, and pivot if you have to. You’re bound to find something that works for you.
Want to learn more? Check out our guide to ecommerce best practices to boost your ecommerce marketing plan and share your thoughts below.
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