E-Commerce Marketing Strategies That Turn Prospective Clients Into Consumers

It’s a competitive world out there for most businesses in ecommerce. The steep competition will have any business owner pondering the ways on how to get ahead, especially if you have a shop dedicated to a niche that already has other businesses selling the same things with the same ideas.

With how things are today, building an online shop and stocking it up with products for an established target market isn’t enough to get the customers through the door and to the checkout counter. In order to get a leg up and have an advantage in the game, you need to have a solid marketing strategy.

Your marketing strategy is everything that you do as a business to attract new customers and to maintain a relationship with them. Ecommerce marketing includes the strategies that you implement to promote your store, drive traffic to your shop, convert your leads into sales, and turning your clients into loyal customers. You may already have an established marketing strategy for your store and a client base, but there’s always some room for improvements and changes. You might want to implement some new strategies now and again to stay ahead.

This article is here to give you an overview of the big and little things that you can do for your ecommerce business that will make all the difference. Keep on reading to identify some strategies you’re already doing right for your online shop and to find some new strategies that you may want to incorporate.

1. Personalize customer experience

Nothing says service quite like a personalized experience does. And what better way for you to connect with your consumers is there, if not to add a bit of a personalized touch?

Personalization in ecommerce can mean showing your consumers product recommendations and other content that is relevant to them based on their previous browsing behavior on your site.

You can add personalization to your online shop by:

• Suggesting complementary products to go with whatever your customer is currently viewing.
• Remind shoppers of items they have previously viewed or bought.
• Product recommendations that show consumers similar products on your site.
• Providing special offers to returning visitors.
• Sending out personalized emails for items that consumers have shown interest in or reminding them of the items still in their carts.

Your consumers are more likely to stick with your company if you are able to offer them a personalized experience. You can track your visitor’s action from your site and show them relevant items that you know they will be interested in based on their behavioral data.

2. Make your store easy to access from any device

Your prospective consumers are going online every day with more than one type of device, whether it is from their laptop, mobile phone, or tablet devices. Chances are they might even own all three kinds of devices, so if your website doesn’t work for whatever devices your consumers prefer to use, you’re definitely losing revenue.

What you need is a website with a responsive design that can adjust to whatever device your consumers prefer to use. A responsive interface will allow your ecommerce website to transform itself to suit the devices your customers wish to view your site from, giving them a completely user-friendly experience from any devices.

Consider all the possible avenues that your consumers are using to get in touch with your products and implement a responsive interface to serve them better.

3. Upsell your products

Upselling is something that fast food restaurants do well. It’s when they offer you an upgrade on the meal you originally asked for, for a few extra bucks of course. The same concept can be applied to your online store.

Upselling is a marketing strategy wherein you show your customer a product that has better features to the one they are currently viewing. For instance, if you have a customer who is looking at a mobile device, you may want to take this as your chance to offer them a phone that has a bigger memory for a slightly higher price.

As long as what you are offering your customers is a product that is relevant and along the lines of what they are looking for, and as long as the product adds value and enhances their shopping experience, then upselling should not come off as intrusive. Upselling might even be a way to help your consumers get the best while you generate more revenue in the long run.

4. Integrate cross-selling

While upselling is a strategy wherein you offer consumers more value for a price, cross-selling is the act of offering your customers products in addition to the item that they are viewing right now.

Let’s say that you have an online business in selling outdoor gear and you have a customer viewing a pair of hiking boots, it may provide you and your customer some benefit to offer them another product that might interest them, like a waterproof jacket.

5. Use Instagram and influencer marketing

If you are not using social media to target your audience then you are definitely missing out. Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform and has up to 500 million active users every day. We are sure that your target market is using Instagram and following hashtags and influencers that are related to your niche.

Influencers are a kind of lifestyle guru and small-time celebrity who have a sizeable following of people who trust and value their opinions because they are considered experts in some type of category. These are the beauty, fitness, diet, and tech gurus that you see on the internet.

Influencer marketing on Instagram is one of the most popular forms of product marketing to date. Businesses who have tried influencer marketing have reported 92% improvement in their sales.

If you want to get your brand and products noticed, integrating influencer marketing into your strategy is one of the best ways to do that. If you want to find out more about marketing your products on Instagram, we have dedicated an article on the topic to act as a complete guide.

6. Connect with content marketing

Content marketing is something completely different from the traditional product marketing strategies that we have mentioned above. The key to great content marketing is providing value to your consumers by solving their problems or providing them with educational posts that interest them through blogs, videos, infographics, webinars, podcasts and more.

Content marketing not only helps you create more engagement with your consumers, but it’s also a great way for you to establish yourself as an authority and as an expert source on the topics that matter the most to your consumers. It is a way for your customers to trust you and a way for you to bring your business and products above your competition by strengthening your bond and relationship with your customers. If done right, you might even gain an active following for your content.

An example of how you may want to do this is if you have a shop specializing in keto diet snack foods, don’t just focus on pushing your products, you can also run a blog providing your consumers with ketogenic food recipes. You can also go on social media and post pictures of your favorite keto meal featuring your food products from your blog so that people who are interested in this topic can benefit from your content.

The objective of content marketing is to help your consumers by providing them content that adds value to their lives, it is not meant to be seen as an explicit selling tactic, but it can be one of the most effective ways to convert your viewers into your loyal customers.

7. Build trust with social proof

One thing that the most successful businesses and companies around the world know is that what their consumers are saying about their products and services has all the power to determine their success. Today’s consumers are doing their research about your product before they make a purchase, and one of the most powerful ways for you to convince them to hit the buy button is product reviews and testimonials.

More than half of online shoppers are scrolling down to read your reviews, and the more reviews you have, especially in the form of positive feedback, the more likely people will be to trust you and your product and make a purchase. People just love to read what your past and present consumers have to say.

One thing that you can do is encourage your customers to come back to your site and to make a product review as soon as your product arrives in their hands. This is another way for you to add value to your products and services by allowing people to share their experiences with your services.

8. Provide your customers with live chat support

Your marketing scheme will not be complete without providing your customers with some form of customer support. Offering your consumers live chat through your website is a convenient avenue for your consumers to get in touch with your company and to get a response fast, while their interest in your product is still hot.

This type of customer support isn’t just for providing assistance to the people who have already made a purchase and have product-related inquiries, live chat is also an excellent lead nurturing device for you to turn your prospective clients into buyers.

9. Capture consumer emails with email popups

Growing your mailing list can be a great way for you to boost sales. Email is one of the most effective ways for you to engage your visitors and turn them into active customers. It’s also a way for you to promote your newsletters, your blog, and other areas of your content marketing scheme.

You can make your website visitors sign up for your mailing list by integrating email popups or sliders and providing them with incentives to sign up, like a discount. If you get your customer’s email, you will be able to successfully retarget them, remind them of abandoned carts, and share with them your latest offers or your latest blog posts.

10. Track the trends

Every year is defined by new trends. You may be riding on the wave of a product and business model that is profitable now, but staying on top of business can mean that you have to be flexible and sensitive to the ever-changing landscape of what’s trending, especially with how things can go viral overnight on social media.

It’s important for you to monitor trends to see what your target market might be turning their heads to, just in case you might want to update your product list to serve your customers better. For instance, if you own an online shop that specializes in tech, you might want to track consumer interest in smartwatches in 2019 or if you are selling apparel, you might want to update your athleisure and shapewear section. Who knows, they might become your next bestselling category this year.

Back to you

There you have it. We’ve given you some tips that you might want to incorporate into your online shop and marketing strategy to help you stay ahead of the business. Are you using some of these strategies? Are you thinking of implementing new ones from our list?

Let us know. Here at Ecommerce Pro, we love to hear your ideas and to share practical solutions for your ecommerce website. Please feel free to start a conversation with us today.

Originally published at https://ecommercepro.com on December 15, 2019.