Ecommerce is rapidly taking over the market. It is estimated that in the next 30 years, over 90% of purchases will be through eCommerce. It should come as no surprise when we consider how much of our life is online. This creates an environment where you need to stand out to sell your product. Just blending in will not generate enough sales, so you need to focus more on marketing.
What is eCommerce marketing?
You might think that any digital marketing is eCommerce marketing but you’d be wrong. The key element of eCommerce marketing is sales. If the ad is posted without the intention to sell, it’s not eCommerce marketing. This distinct feature makes marketing your eCommerce business somewhat different from the usual digital marketing. However, the tools, platforms and some general strategies can be applied for both. Today, we’re going to talk about strategies. How to adequately market your eCommerce business and we’re going to make it as simple as possible so it’s easy for beginners to learn and apply these methods, too.
1. Identify with your customers
First of all, you have to know who your targeted audience is. There is no general rule of thumb on how to approach things from a marketing perspective that is going to give out the same positive results no matter who the audience is. It’s just not possible. Think about whom is it that needs your product? Try and identify with them as much as you can. That will allow you to see things from a different perspective, from their perspective. That way you can gain insight on what your audience needs and how to appeal to them.
2. Show the problem, sell the solution
Think about the so-called angle of the ad. We’re not talking about the angle of the camera while you’re shooting an ad or taking a picture, we’re talking about the approach. It would be easy just to print out ‘buy now’ and spam the ad everywhere, but it wouldn’t be as effective. Earlier we’ve mentioned identifying with the buyer. Use that. Show the audience a problem or remind them of it and show them how you’re going to solve it. We’ll give you an example. Let’s say you’re selling training wheels for bikes. You’re not going to target kids, you’re targeting parents. Show them how their kids aren’t going to fall off and skin their knees, how they’re not going to cry or rip the new pair of jeans every time they sit on a bike. Show the problem, sell the solution.
3. Email marketing
Now that we’ve covered the basic of marketing itself, let’s focus a little more on the methods themselves. Email marketing is one of the most popular and efficient ways of marketing itself. You can do a lot of stuff here, it’s just spamming with newsletters. Many leading experts in the field such as Optimum7.com use their extensive knowledge to make this method as effective as possible.
First of all, you’re going to need customers’ email addresses. Usually, how this is done is by setting up a login on your page. Then, based on what the site visitors do, you can tailor the emails just for them. Remind them of products that can add to the value of the product they’ve purchased or we’re interested in, show them their benefits and so on. You can even send automated instruction messages or videos on the product they’ve purchased. However, always allow for the unsubscribe option, it’ll show you care about the customers and aren’t just pushing for sales.
4. Influencer marketing
This has become one of the most popular forms of marketing because of one simple thing – trust. People trust the opinion of certain individuals. This could be especially helpful in you’re new to this. No matter how good your product is, you haven’t been around too long for people to realize how good and relevant you are. That’s where influencers come in handy. It’s pretty straightforward what they do – they influence people.
What you need here is to find an influencer that does stuff relevant to your product. If you’re selling workout supplements you should contact fitness models and coaches, rather than fashion bloggers even if they have fewer followers. It’s not about the numbers here, it’s about the interests of said audience. Contact them and offer something in return for their marketing services. You can offer money or free product, it’s up to you and the influencer to strike a deal.
However, make sure that an influencer is a relevant person online. Inquire about their engagement and activity, because that’s important. You don’t want a person with 2000 followers where 500 of them are inactive.
5. Social media marketing
While this seems fairly similar to the previous one, it’s not. This is about the things you do on your own. It’s about your page, your social media accounts and, of course, the social media paid advertising. There are billions of people that use Facebook and Instagram every day. Engaging with just a fraction of them is a win.
First of all, make sure your page is well-though-out, de-cluttered and up to date with current trends. After all, people use social media to have fun, not so much to shop. You want your posts to be funny, engaging and highlight the best of your products.
Also, it’s important to understand social media platforms. Not everything is suitable for Instagram, there are other platforms such as LinkedIn or Pinterest as well.
6. Coupon marketing
Coupons and discounts are always a good way to get noticed. Giving out coupons, redeem codes or anything else that makes the product cheaper is always a win for you. However, don’t go overboard and cut your prices a lot, it may cause people to doubt the quality of the product. However, a 1% discount isn’t going to achieve anything other than alienate people. Keep them standard, from 10% to 20% and try and hand them out around the holidays, because that’s when the people are shopping the most.
Hopefully, these 6 strategies were helpful enough and you can see the positive results very soon.
