E-commerce businesses are characterised by high competition and a saturated market. More likely than not, your e-commerce business will have to market itself strategically to get its name out there. Unique e-commerce marketing strategies are key in ensuring that your business sets itself apart and positions itself at the forefront of your target audience. They should focus on capturing people looking for products, and use several outbound strategies to get people to find you.
Broadly, e-commerce marketing involves driving awareness and action toward any business that transacts online. E-commerce marketing strategies usually involve a variety of channels both online and offline. These include marketing through social media, content, search engines, and billboard campaigns to attract visitors online. In this article, Team Luxeveda outline some e-commerce marketing strategies that can elevate your business to the next level.
Social Media Marketing
The most commonly used, and most powerful, marketing tool for e-commerce businesses is social media marketing. From brands, to publishers, to growing businesses, almost every business today engages on social networks to connect with their audience. Social media marketing allows your business to stay in touch with existing customers while engaging with new, potential customers.
Leveraging social media is especially useful for e-commerce marketing strategies as e-commerce websites tend to be highly visual. Just like you showcase products on a website, you can use imagery on social media to drive traffic to your product pages. Instagram is a useful platform for as it enables you to post product photography and expand your product’s reach. By reaching out to potential customers who may not have heard of your website, Instagram promotes engagement. Furthermore, Instagram Shop also allows visitors to make a purchase right away.
Another channel which is relatively untapped is social selling. Today, there are tools to create momentum and ease such as sales analytics, customer data and inventory and order management. These help to build customer relationships and social proof for your business and product offering.
Content Strategy
E-commerce marketing strategies are incomplete without a comprehensive content strategy. A full-fledged content marketing plan involves much more than blogging and video marketing, though these are foundational. Instead, you should focus on other aspects that can give your business an edge over your competitors. For example, it is essential to optimise your product pages by using short and relevant keywords that include the name of the product. Simply put, your product should be visible to people who are searching for it. Most times, poor product page copy leads to reduced traffic (and consequently, reduced conversions.)
For blogging, keep in mind what your customer is looking for and how your blog can help them. As visitors start engaging, you should create content that will move them into considering your product, by writing posts that have a strong call to action (CTA.) In addition, invite your guests to share content and posts. Guest posts can get your business in front of relevant audiences and build brand reliability, often for free! Guest posts also help in telling search engines that you have a reliable site.
Engagement and Automation
To get traffic to your e-commerce website, you should build a reliable reputation amongst customers. Your best bet here is to get users as involved with your business and product as possible. A fun way to get people involved is by creating custom, unique filters on social media (like Snapchat and Instagram.) For example, Levi’s allowed Snapchat users to scan QR codes in-store to virtually try on a jacket they could then buy online. Even Kylie Jenner’s makeup brand Kylie Cosmetics used Instagram filters to let users see what her new lipsticks looked like.
Similar to filters, your business should use QR codes in print ads so that customers can instantly access your website and add products to their cart (or even check out!) These QR codes can also be dynamic, allowing users to unlock new offers at different times of the day.
Furthermore, understanding your target audiences’ behavioural patterns can help you build personalised communications and lead to higher conversion. Through an automation platform, you can find out customer touchpoints on your site and allow for deeper audience segmentation. Using segmented data, your brand can send highly personalised messages with greater power to convert. Sending appropriately timed campaigns during the holiday season can yield spectacular results.
Clearly, there is so much more to e-commerce marketing strategies than basic social media marketing and communications. Indeed, technology is playing an increasingly important role in creating meaningful conversions. Social media and content marketing aid in engaging with a variety of audiences. If your e-commerce business is looking for a marketing solution, Team Luxeveda offer an array of services tailored to your needs. Contact us to know more.
