The current competitive online business environment is highly dynamic, and effective marketing is no longer a choice; it is a necessity. The trouble is that there are so many brands all vying to gain attention, businesses must find innovative e-commerce marketing ideas to increase visibility and sales. However, this is the twist: the digital marketplace is constantly undergoing rapid development, and what was successful yesterday may die tomorrow.
This is why it is so important to be on the edge of the drive and implement strategies that will not only attract people to the place but also make them loyal customers. Are you ready to give a winning edge to your online store? Jump into the 15 awesome e-commerce marketing tactics that will boost your brand and make your customers come back for more.
A marketing strategy is a description of how a company is going to express its main value proposition to its customers. A marketing strategy generally defines elements such as target market, buyer personas, competitors, and customer value. It offers a longer-term perspective on marketing in general and can look several years into the future.
You can take it or leave it, but gaining more customers is not the only marketing goal to think about. One company might be interested in a number of leads and new customers, and another might be interested in standing out amidst brands and industry presence. Other ones can focus on customer involvement and recommendations.
It is always advisable every time to plan or design your marketing goals and then work on your strategy. Why? Since the rest of the plan will be based on your goals, the budget and content creation process will be organized around them.
Be as detailed as you can be with each goal. Instead of creating one large goal, strive to make SMART marketing objectives broken down by channel, the reason being that you can always come back later to edit your goal, as your priorities change.
The first step is the marketing mix, or the so-called four Ps of marketing: the framework you have to develop when you start to get an idea of what you are going to market, how you will market it, and where you will market it.
These are the following Ps that constitute this framework:
Product: What do you sell?
Price: How much is it?
Place: What will be the address of the location where you will sell the product?
Promotion: In which areas will you advertise the product?
By having this rough sketch, you can then draw up this information into a complete marketing plan per promotional channel.
Another key part of your strategy is a marketing budget. Your marketing strategy cannot work without spending money to acquire the right talent, use the right software, advert in the right channels, and produce the right content. In the bid to have returns on investment, you need to invest.
Insider tip: You can always start small, of course, hyper-focus your budget on one or two things, and expand on it after you get some ROI.
When developing a marketing strategy, it is important to know your competition. Competitive analysis will give you an idea of where you are as far as marketing and positioning are concerned within the market.
You may already have a picture of your competition, but still, it is crucial to sit down and review them. The result could be that you will unveil a surprise competitor who is also competing to attract your target buyers and win them.
You are able to put forth your brand with this analysis alongside other brands. What are you doing better than your competitors? When coming up with a marketing strategy, it is important to map out this information.
Let’s be honest, we are no longer into the one-size-fits-all marketing idea. You do not simply go and shoot dry campaigns in the hope that someone will take the bait; you identify your real audience and come up with messages that resonate with it. It is as if you are talking to a friend rather than screaming at a room full of people.
And this is where things are getting exciting: personalised marketing has never been as important as it is now. You can now customise and send the right message to the right person at the right time, thanks to smart AI-driven segmentation.
This is an absolute game-changer for the B2B marketers. It implies even more conversions and eventually, even better relations with your customers. Why, then, be generic when you can come up with experiences that really work and connect?
In this process, you will go through three steps:
Well then, you have your budget now, you have done your competitive research, you know who it is exactly you are targeting, now the fun part- developing your content strategy.
Begin by reflecting on the marketing channels you select. And then question yourself: Which content will my audience get hooked on? Are they funny videos, informative blogs, or smart posts?
You need to spell this out in your content plan. Consider it your blueprint for coming up with stories that not only attract but also inspire people to take action.
And finally, but not least, your marketing plan should also comprise measures and performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success rate of your performance.
Your KPIs will depend on the nature of your business and the channels through which you want to acquire customers. Examples of KPIs are:
The success can be measured with the help of marketing strategies. CoSchedule surveyed in 2022, collecting 3,599 replies from marketers and bloggers to determine the most effective marketing practices. They discovered that 331 percent of the marketers, who had a written marketing plan, reported that they were able to achieve success compared to the 68 percent who did not record their plan. Moreover, the most organized marketers were 674 per cent more likely to claim that they were successful.
Social media marketing strategy means what sort of platforms and content this part of your audience prefers reading and how you will use it to market your goods. You should also have strategies on how you will find some of the trending topics that you wish to use and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will target to indicate that the plan is successful.
SEO marketing helps to reach the customer who is actively searching for your products. When you optimize your website, you have a higher probability of appearing at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
Some of the prime SEO strategies to address in your e-commerce marketing plan are:
When using the PPC advertising model, you only pay when your advertisement is clicked. You can use PPC advertising on Google, Meta, and Microsoft. This is a very flexible e-commerce marketing strategy that even fits tight budgets. Specify the audience to whom you want to show your ads and only pay when you see results. It is important to remember that once you have gotten your leads to click your advertisement, you will require a well-optimized site to turn them into customers.
Email marketing is a way that links you to potential customers in their inboxes. According to Shopify, 87 per cent of marketers use this market development strategy, and 14 per cent indicate that it is the strategy with the best ROI among e-commerce marketing strategies.
The best-known forms of email marketing are:
Affiliate marketing is very close to influencer marketing, except that your partners do not necessarily have a large number of followers on social media. You, in turn, pay commissions to affiliates, that is, bloggers, creators, and regular customers, to promote your products.
Influencer marketing has allowed content creators to make a living via social media. This is one of the reasons why many marketers collaborate with influencers since consumers trust creators as credible sources of product suggestions. Influencer marketing means the free stuff, the commission, or the paid post. The cost of nano-influencers with less than 10,000 followers depends on the rate; however, the average rate ranges between 5 dollars to 100 dollars based on the post.
One of the greatest digital marketing strategies is email. Segment your user base and send them emails based on their past purchase and interests.
SMS marketing for e-commerce is having a boom. Text messages are fast, direct, and also have high open rates that make announcements of flash sales, cart abandonments, and special offers.
Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook are gold mines as far as e-commerce marketing is concerned. Employ reels, stories, and user-generated content to remind people about your brand.
Post blogs, videos, and manuals. Content is a market development strategy that will never go away, and it is a long-term strategy.
Search engine optimization of product descriptions, product images, and link building is a marketing strategy that is underestimated. This assists in organic traffic without massive advertisement spending. Here’s Dresma for you to assist in optimizing your product images for the Shopify store perfectly.
Collaboration with influencers is important as you can gain access to new audiences. Select those that have followers who are also your target customers to have the right marketing tactics.
Traditional marketing strategy examples include paid advertisement. Use different modes of advertising to establish what will generate the best ROI.
Reward customers who make a repeat purchase. Special discounts, rewards, or previews of new items ensure customers will come back.
See to it that the customers add related products. This is among the easiest types of marketing strategies to enhance average order value.
Free shipping is an effective e-commerce marketing strategy to mitigate shopping cart abandonment and increase conversions.
Social proof is important. To establish credibility, point out the reviews on pages of products and in your advertisements.
Retarget the visitors who did not make purchases. These digital marketing strategies are used to reactivate warm leads so that they can make their purchases.
It would be surprising to know that mobile devices have over half of the e-commerce traffic. A good e-commerce marketing priority is a smooth mobile experience.
Always measure and adjust. See what is and what is not working by accessing tools such as Google Analytics, and make changes to your e-commerce marketing strategies as per such findings.
Catch the leaving visitors by offering them last-minute discounts or email enrolment. It is a slight adjustment that can win back lost sales.
It doesn’t matter whether you learn some new marketing strategy examples or double down on the tested marketing tactics; these concepts can change your business. Begin by implementing two to three strategies that are relevant to your objectives, test, and scale through what works.
It is important to keep in mind that the making of a smart e-commerce marketing strategy does not imply doing everything all at once, nor does it mean doing the right things once. Cheers to selling!