E-commerce is a $ 6.3 trillion money-minting machine that’s expected to churn out more than $10 trillion in sales by 2027, according to the Wall Street Journal. What these astronomical stats don’t tell you is that competition is cut-throat in the e-commerce space. This is especially true as ChatGPT, and other breakthrough AI technologies cause a seismic shift in customer expectations.
So, if you want to put your best foot forward, you must up your marketing game. But which e-commerce marketing strategies are worth your time and dollar spend? Read on to learn about the ten tried-and-true strategies to take your e-commerce marketing to the next level this year.
1- Start with a Clear, Well-Defined Marketing Plan
The first step is setting well-defined, measurable goals based on industry benchmarks and your unique business objectives. Consider metrics like leads, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and sales targets over the next 6-12 months. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound to keep your team accountable.
Analyzing the Competition
Thorough competitor research is imperative. Benchmark your goals against top performers in your industry vertical. Analyze competitors’ marketing mixes, product offerings, pricing strategies and customer pain points. Look for opportunities to differentiate your value proposition. Staying attuned to industry shifts will help you adapt your strategy accordingly.
Targeting the Right Audience
Careful audience segmentation allows for personalized outreach and experiences that resonate. Consider factors like demographics, geographics, behaviors, interests and past purchasing patterns. Develop audience profiles to craft tailored messaging that addresses specific needs and motivations. Over time, refine segments based on performance to optimize ROI.
Leveraging Omnichannel Marketing
An integrated marketing approach across paid, owned and earned media maximizes reach and mindshare. Some top-performing tactics may include search engine optimization, paid social campaigns, affiliate marketing, influencer partnerships, email nurturing sequences, blogging and community engagement. Test various combinations to see what generates the highest returns for your budget. For those looking to enhance their email and SMS marketing campaigns, partnering with an Omnisend partner like Enflow Digital can help optimize your marketing automation, drive sales, and maximize your marketing ROI.
Optimizing for Conversion
With the right mix of strategies in place, the next step is ensuring your digital properties are optimized for conversion. Conduct usability testing and analyze metrics like bounce rates, time on site and goal completion funnels. Continually refine site experiences, content and calls-to-action based on user behavior and feedback. Nurture leads with personalized messaging to improve sales.
Measuring Success and Refining Approach
Data-driven insights will be key to evaluating campaign performance and refining your approach over time. Track metrics like leads, clicks, CTR, conversion rates, average order value and customer lifetime value. Analyze qualitative and quantitative feedback as well. Make iterative improvements based on what resonates most with your audience to maximize ROI and achieve your business goals.
2- Generate Original Content
An e-commerce website is nothing without compelling content. Perking up your website and other digital assets with high-quality, original content will give you one leg up in the e-commerce game. You want to give content that resonates with your target customer.
We cannot overstate the importance of originality in your content. It helps make your content stand out and build authority. This way, your target audience will likely interact with your brand and do business with you.
Google and other search engines love original content, as well. This means a higher rank in search results pages (SERPs), helping drive web traffic to your e-commerce website. It’s a win-win.
3- Content Marketing
Sharing original content is an excellent way to stay on top of users’ minds and make a compelling impression on them. It helps you make a statement and differentiate your brand in an increasingly saturated e-commerce space. A few original and well-thought-out web pages can drive traffic and revenue for months, if not years.
How do you leverage content to boost everything across your e-commerce ecosystem?
Start on the right foot – There’s more to content marketing than just whipping up a good copy and posting it on your website. It would help if you brainstormed ideas with your entire gang. We’re not just talking about the sales and marketing departments – bring product development, executive, HR, customers, and other stakeholders to the fold. Consulting experts can also do the trick.
Cover all the bases – Once you have brainstormed ideas, create a list of content formats you want to hit. Don’t limit yourself to articles and blog posts. Other content types like email newsletters, videos, and infographics can work wonders. The same goes for web pages – don’t simply focus on the home and product pages. Ensure your website’s category pages, contact pages, policy pages, and other aspects have well-curated and compelling content.
Create an army of thought leaders – Content is as good as the author’s authority. That’s why you must work with industry thought leaders, influencers, and employees to paint your content in good light with the readers.
Take advantage of landing pages – Things evolve quickly in the e-commerce space. Landing pages will help you tap the latest marketing best practices and hype to drive traffic to your website and products.
Drive user-generated content – If there’s one type of content that doesn’t get enough attention, it’s user-generated content (UGC). It is a superb way to make your target audience feel appreciated and part of your brand. UGC can also help drive word-of-mouth marketing for your e-commerce. It helps build a loyal following of interested prospects while driving web traffic.
Try homepage quizzes - When it comes to e-commerce marketing, every tactic that improves user engagement and conversion rates is worth exploring. One effective strategy is incorporating an interactive quiz or assessment directly on the homepage. This provides an entertaining and informative way to capture visitors and start the buying process.
Well-designed quizzes allow users to learn more about a brand’s products and how they can personally benefit from them. Users who complete the quiz receive a customized recommendation, sparking interest and purchase intent. Placement on the homepage positions the quiz as the first interaction, capitalizing on early motivation.
When crafting your own homepage quiz, focus on questions that provide value to the user. Gather qualitative data points about needs, preferences and behaviors to output a tailored recommendation. Use a mix of multiple choice, sliding scales and image selection to keep it engaging.
Integrate calls-to-action throughout and at the end to seamlessly guide users into exploring recommendations and checkout. Consider follow up emails referencing their unique results. Track metrics like completion rates, time on page and conversion lifts to optimize over time.
Use competitions to encourage users to generate content for you. For instance, you can use promoted hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Give your followers giveaways, freebies, and prizes that will encourage them to promote your services or products. Whatever you do, user-generated content will help boost your trustworthiness and credibility.
4- Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool every e-commerce should have in its arsenal. It helps you market to your audience in a public yet personal way. As a communication tool, social media enables you to interact with customers and the industry.
There are plenty of ways to take advantage of social media. You can practice LinkedIn social selling or use platforms like Instagram and YouTube for influencer marketing. You can use it to generate more interactions and engagements, as well as bring more web traffic. Ultimately, social media is a game-changer when you want to create and nurture a large customer base.
Here’s how to leverage social media e-commerce marketing:
Be consistent – Consistency is crucial when you want to build trust and loyalty within your target audience. That’s why it pays to maintain your brand’s solid personality and tone through social media. Ensure your outreach campaigns on social media are cohesive by ensuring everyone on your team reads from the same script with your brand’s communication style. This will help you develop and maintain brand authority and recognition.
Monitor your social media performance – You should use an excellent funnel optimization tool to keep track of on-site social referrals and their performances, ensuring your referral tracking strategies are effectively capturing every lead.
Keep an eye out for user feedback – Ask your followers on social media to provide feedback. You can use pop-up chat features when they visit, stay, or try to leave your pages.
Analyze user behavior using heatmaps – This tool will help determine how deeply users read your social media content. Why do they click? Ultimately, this will help you tweak your campaign.
5- Leveraging Paid Social Amplification
While organic social media growth remains important, paid promotion allows you to significantly expand your reach. Boosting top performing posts is a highly effective tactic. When you sponsor relevant posts, the algorithms prioritize showing your content to interested audiences.
Some tips for successful boosted posts include:
Analyze your most engaging organic posts in terms of likes, comments and shares. These demonstrate interest from your followers.
Refine copy, hashtags and visuals based on previous performance.
Make sure the content will appeal broadly to your target demographic.
Set a modest daily budget (e.g. $5-10) to gradually expand your audience without breaking the bank.
Target lookalike audiences comprised of people with similar traits to your best customers. This helps you reach qualified new potential buyers.
Monitor insights like impressions, link clicks and conversions daily to optimize spending on top performing times and formats over time.
With some testing, post boosting can deliver quality leads and sales at an affordable cost per acquisition. Investing in effective sales training can further enhance the productivity and efficiency of your sales team, ensuring sustained growth and success. It’s a smart tactic for any e-commerce brand looking to efficiently grow awareness and sales in the competitive digital space.
6- Referral Marketing
Referral marketing brings the best of both worlds – the irresistible appeal of incentives and the power of word of mouth. Both can take your ecommerce marketing strategy to the next level. Studies have shown that word of mouth influences up to 90% of all e-commerce purchases. As if that isn’t impressive enough, it’s directly responsible for as much as 19% of all sales.
A robust e-commerce referral program taps into ongoing trends. This way, current customers and brand ambassadors can convey your brand messaging to prospective customers.
7- SEO E-commerce Marketing
Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand. It encompassed techniques and efforts to help improve the visibility of your e-commerce website in SERPs. The latest SEO best practices call for a multi-strategy approach to e-commerce marketing. It’s more crucial than ever to ensure your site is optimized for mobile use, offers a pleasant user experience (UX), and is constantly revamped with relevant and rich content.
8- Leverage Influencer Marketing for E-Commerce Success
Influencer marketing has become a highly effective strategy for growing an e-commerce brand. Potential customers are increasingly relying on the recommendations of social media personalities and bloggers in their purchasing decisions. By partnering with the right influencers, you can authentically reach new audiences at scale.
Start by researching micro- and nano-influencers in your industry or niche with engaged relevant follower bases. Look for those creating high-quality, on-brand content you think would appeal to your target customer. Reach out and provide them with complimentary products in exchange for a sponsored post or stories mentioned. Provide them creative freedom while aligning on messaging.
When selecting influencers, focus on engagement rate over follower count. Micro-influencers with smaller but highly engaged audiences tend to see higher conversion results. Ask potential partners to share a recent campaign report to evaluate performance. Offer tiered compensation based on deliverables like link clicks, purchases or coupon code usage.
Provide influencers with promotional assets like images, copy, hashtags and link details for a cohesive campaign. Ask that they tag your brand and include a call-to-action for followers. Consider offering additional perks like early product access or discounts to cultivate long-term relationships.
Monitor each influencer’s posts and stories closely. Engage with their followers by commenting and sharing their grids or stories as well. This will help boost visibility further. After the campaign ends, be sure to thank influencers publicly with a highlight or blog post recap for future collaboration opportunities.
With the right execution, influencer marketing can deliver huge returns on your e-commerce marketing investment. The authentic endorsements help boost brand awareness while driving highly qualified traffic and sales.
9- Optimizing the On-Site Search Experience for Increased Conversions
Too often, e-commerce stores overlook opportunities to improve one of the most important touchpoints - the search function. Yet users who take the time to search have demonstrated high purchase intent, ready to buy with the right results. It’s crucial then to design an interactive search optimized for conversion. When developing your e-commerce marketing strategies for the coming year, don’t overlook the importance of landing page optimization. To effectively reach and convert your audience, you need to regularly optimize landing pages by refining the design, user experience, and content. Tools like A/B testing can provide valuable insights into what resonates most with visitors. Additionally, ensuring your landing pages load quickly and are mobile-friendly will contribute significantly to your online success.
Displaying relevant product images alongside partial search terms allows users to quickly browse options as they type. This live auto-complete builds confidence in the results and keeps users engaged on your site.
Advanced filtering by attributes like size, color, material and other specifications gives shoppers granular control over their search. Allow filtering search results in addition to just the catalog. This ensures only suitable options appear, removing frustration from the process.
Going beyond text filters, incorporate visual swatches, dropdowns and sliders where possible. Users today expect intuitive, image-driven interactions across channels. Visual filters allow for rapid browsing and comparing without needing to click multiple pages.
Always surface the most popular or best-matching items first based on your catalog data and search analytics. Prioritize converting users by putting top sellers and add-to-cart items at the top of the list.
Test different layouts like grid, list and image-only views. Track which optimize key metrics like time on page, add-to-carts and purchases. An optimized interactive search experience can boost conversion rates by eliminating friction from the path to purchase.
10- Use Customer Reviews and Testimonials Across Channels
In the digital age, nothing sells like social proof. Potential buyers rely heavily on the real-world experiences of other customers when making purchase decisions. That’s why strategically incorporating reviews and testimonials across your marketing is so effective.
On product pages, integrate an inline review module that auto-populates the most relevant 5-star reviews. This builds credibility and addresses any concerns from the user’s perspective.
Category pages should feature a testimonial carousel highlighting top reviews. Pull compelling quotes that showcase customer benefits to inspire others.
The homepage is prime real estate to feature your highest-rated, most engaging reviews prominently. Consider a live feed that auto-updates or a curated selection of your favorites.
Within email campaigns, weave in well-written reviews that complement your promotional messaging. This could be within the header, footer or inline content blocks.
Social media is another must for circulating customer-submitted photos and videos showcasing real usage. Ask permission first and always credit the reviewer.
Analytics will show which review-integrated pages see lifts. A/B test different review formats, placements, and selection criteria to continually optimize.
A consistent customer testimonial strategy builds trust and social proof across all touchpoints. It’s a powerful purchase driver for any e-commerce operation.
Wrap-Up
With the right blend of e-commerce marketing strategies, you can attract high-quality prospects, improve conversions, and build trust in an ever-changing digital space.
About the author: Christal Westbrook works as an eCommerce Fractional CMO at Digital Authority Partners, an eCommerce digital marketing agency with officers in San Diego, Las Vegas and Chicago.