To say the least, getting e-commerce startups to start is a complex task. The fine print details that make a business profitable require time and effort.
When formulating marketing strategies for e-commerce businesses, things such as time and attention are more important than ever. Establishing a strategy that applies to your business and target customers is crucial.
If your team is at a loss and not sure where to start attracting customers, they are not alone. So many new e-commerce companies will have the same elation and joy with the absolute overwhelmingness of starting their own business! Fortunately, this "Marketing 101" guide will tell you all about e-commerce marketing.
What is e-commerce marketing?
E-commerce marketing refers to online businesses attracting traffic to their websites through electronic advertising and other marketing ideas and strategies.
E-commerce marketing can attract new customers and advertise to existing customers in many ways. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, paid advertising on social media and search engines, email campaigns, SMS marketing and SEO blog posts can create e-commerce marketing strategies.
What types of e-commerce marketing are there?
E-commerce marketing is an overall strategy that can include many different marketing elements and direct marketing methods. There is no firm way to market your e-commerce business. Every business is different and requires various methods to reach the target audience. Your company can choose any of the following marketing techniques completely autonomously:
Social media marketing
Social media marketing means that your business mainly uses social media content to promote your products and/or services, thereby increasing brand awareness. This form of marketing even allows you to implement customer service into social media platforms. Facebook ads orMessenger marketingIt is a model of effective social media marketing.
Content marketing
The benefit of content marketing is that your strategy will cover many different platforms while maintaining continuity. In terms of content creation and sharing, some of the strengths of content marketing strategies include blogs, social media platforms, and email. It’s important to note that using a marketing calendar to plan content in advance can save time and ensure consistency across all campaigns.
Search engine market
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing will create high-quality traffic to your website, not just volume. SEO Marketing uses keywords to optimize content to help search the target market for products to find your brand.
Email marketing
Email marketing is an opportunity for your business to personalize the customer experience. The email marketing strategy is done well, and there is an opportunity to transform new customers into loyal customers while cultivating existing customers.
Influential marketing
By choosing influential marketing, companies can save a lot of cash. Letting customers with good social media follow your products to promote your products is much cheaper than paid advertising!
Affiliate marketing
Do you respect businesses that have the same value as you? You may have a great opportunity to approach them and become a member of your product. They use their own means of influence to promote your products. This is a payment agreement, but compared with traditional advertisers paying, it can promote a more organic advertising strategy.
Local marketing
Promote your products locally. The popularity of "small shops" and "local shops" is growing. Enter the person in charge of the strategy first, you may not be disappointed. This is admirable when a business promotes its local companion store or small business owner and humanitarian efforts. Local marketing can help the people you care about in your own backyard, while conveying a conscientious message of your business to distant customers.
SMS marketing
Before ringing SMS Marketing, just remember a mobile phone that we all have in common. SMS marketing must carefully formulate strategies, but if executed properly, it can indeed promote your business development. People often (to say the least) check their phones. If there are direct links to products, discounts and surveys, then your customer base will become more and more involved. At ManyChat, we have perfected SMS and how to do it effectively. If you want to explore SMS as an option, we can meet your requirements.
Develop your e-commerce marketing strategy
Which e-commerce marketing strategies are communicating with you? Is your business more compatible with certain strategies than other strategies? One thing to keep in mind is that once you are committed to your marketing strategy, you need to make some fine-tuning. Here are some useful tips on how to optimize your strategy:
Personalized customer experience
No matter which e-commerce marketing strategy you choose, personalization will take your content to the next level. Customers want to know that they are important and can hear their voices. Customers also want to know that your business is going all out. Your business can be personalized in many ways:
- Make the email warmer by including the recipient's name in the subject line and the greeting of the email. The same is true for SMS Marketing. Please include the person's name before cordial greetings.
- Personalize the shipment by including a thank you note in the person’s name. These can be printed in batches with the packing list.
Customer participation
Potential customers want to know that your business is approachable. There is no better way to show you to interact with your customers. When you are engaged in e-commerce, it can be difficult to establish a personable culture. There are many ways to attract your target audience and simulate your business being different.
- Implement chatbots on your website and Facebook Messenger. This allows customers to ask questions as needed and understand the fact that your business cares about responding in a timely manner.
- Respond to followers on social media. Even if this means publicly responding to complaints, other customers will notice that your company has addressed these issues head-on.
- Host a competition on social media and on your website. If you need customer sharing as part of the giveaway, then this will allow customers to understand your product, and this is also a small advertising opportunity.
Referral and Ambassador Program
Getting people to sign up for referral or ambassador programs is not as difficult as you think. Customers like your products, discounts. You like that your product is on sale. This is a win-win situation.
- For your product ambassador, your referral plan must be a realistic goal. For example, asking your customers to post five product reviews on social media and purchase three new products each month will not give you a high ambassador retention rate.
- Your referral plan must also be a realistic goal of your business. The goal must be to make money from the referral program. Providing 60% of ambassadors and 40% of new referrals will not bring you considerable profits.
Praise loyal customers
Your loyal customers are gems, and they should know exactly how precious they are. Don't let the things you are busy with running an e-commerce business hinder your customers' appreciation. If you find it difficult to be satisfied with loyal customers, please follow these simple steps:
- Arrange for customer appreciation. Literally. Thanking your loyal customers should be a normal part of your weekly plan and content calendar. Thank you for arranging to post. Email campaigns, YouTube videos, blog posts, and SMS work are also worth checking out!
- Inspire your loyal customers. Designed to provide loyal customers with a sneak peek of new products. Offering discounts and interesting gifts are other great ideas to show that you care.
Important points
Take the time to research your target audience, goals, and current financial situation. If you have been stuck on an e-commerce marketing strategy for a period of time and have not produced the desired results, then please convert and create a new marketing plan template! Now may be the best time for your business to transition to the referral program.
Remember, you can learn from other companies, but you cannot predict your own success from other companies. Comparison is not the best rule of thumb for making marketing decisions. Use the resources you have to understand your audience and what goals are currently feasible for you.
Source: https://manychat.com/blog/