When it comes to being a business owner, you’ve got to be on your game. The competition in fierce, customers have an infinite selection to choose from, and you’ve got to somehow manage to stay afloat.

Have you been implementing proven E-Commerce marketing strategies into your business model? If not, there is no better time than the present.

In this piece I will walk you through the top, most effective E-Commerce marketing strategies that you can begin to implement to see improvement in your business.

From products, branding, and social media to collaborations, user generated content, and your website, these strategies should help set you on your way to E-Commerce marketing success.

 

PRODUCTS

1. Content Marketing

First thing is first. Creating a content marketing strategy is crucial to the success of your business. This is a task that is better completed before the actual marketing begins.

To create a content marketing strategy, begin by getting clear on your goals. What do you hope to accomplish with your future marketing initiatives? Get back to the basics and create a marketing mission statement in order to simplify your goals and get your thought process ready to go. Think about who your audience is, what you are doing to get their attention, and the benefits that they will receive as a result.

When determining your audience, get specific. Who exactly are you catering to? Whose problem can you solve with your product or service? This is your target audience. Spend some time learning about them. Determine their age, income, location, and other demographics, in order to accurately target them.

In addition, you must figure out what you want to measure. It is hard to discover whether something was successful if you aren’t measuring it! Put together KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitor the improvements as you go along. If you aren’t sure what to measure, you could consider site traffic, email sign ups, or revenue.

Once you have this information figured out, you can begin to implement new measurable marketing campaigns that are suited for your audience!

 

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is crucial. If done correctly, it can be a BIG source of income, so why not take advantage of it? Be sure to invest the proper resources and time into it. Hire a copywriter to be sure that your sales pitches are in tip top shape, do research for scheduling times, and measure your analytics!

Determine whether your email marketing initiatives are helping you get closer to your goals. If they are not, strategically decide what you should change or update, and try it out. Continue with this iterative method until you get into a system that truly works and benefits your brand. This goes for automated campaigns as well! 

 

3. Loyalty/Rewards Programs

Have you heard the old saying “it is much easier to keep an existing customer than it is to bring in a new one?” It’s true! It is much cheaper and takes way less time to create a repeat customer than it is to solidify a new one.

One of the ways to create repeat customers is through implementing a loyalty program. If your customer loves your brand, this gives them a whole new and exciting reason to come back and shop again! By implementing a loyalty program, you say “thanks” to your customers and give them a little something for supporting your business.

Here are some reward ideas:

• A $10 gift card for every $200 spent
• A freebie such as a tote bag, drawstring bag, etc.
• 25% off of an item when they spend $200+
• Exclusive discounts

No matter the reward you choose to implement, be sure it aligns with your brand and presents something of excitement and value to your customer.

 

BRANDING

4. Consistency

When it comes to branding, keeping everything consistent is key. This mean that on your website, social media channels, marketing materials, and anything else your business puts out to an audience, you need to be presenting your user with material that flows in an understandable way.

If you are inconsistent with your content, you will confuse users. Create consistency and flow by continuously providing branded content that is all styled identically. Market to your audience in the same ways, and keep everything consistent across the board. Stick to one logo, one color scheme, one style, etc.

Give your brand a memorable image.

 

5. Brand Personality

Developing a brand personality for your company is so important. It is nice to put a personality to a business to build trust, as customers are able to resonate with that. 

Some brands choose to take to social media to build their brand personality, as it is a great way to interact with customers and give the brand a “real” voice. Some brands that are doing a fantastic job with this include Wendy’s, Moon Pie, and MTV. All three brands use Twitter to talk with their fans, produce funny, engaging content, and give their brands personalities.

In doing this, these brands have been able to build fun reputations that get users involved. Finding their tweets humorous, users often “retweet” and share the content with their friends. This expands the brands’ reaches and allows for increased involvement from users, ultimately helping them in their marketing efforts.

 

6. Customer Service

Customer service is quite literally free marketing.

Think about it. When a customer has a bad experience with your brand, what is the first thing that they do? Typically, they go online or to their friends and family, and they talk about their experience. If that experience was subpar, this can be detrimental to your brand.

However, people also like to share really great experiences. People truly value others’ opinions, so word-of-mouth sharing can be great exposure for your brand.

To ensure that conversations stay on the good side and bad experiences are minimized, be sure to keep your customer service in check and provide the best experience possible. Help customers in their product search, answer their questions, and be ready to take helpful action should a problem arise.

With great customer service, you can build a wonderful reputation for your brand that works as marketing all on its own.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

7. Pinterest

Pinterest has become a great tool for social media marketing. One way to optimize your Pinterest is through utilizing Buyable Pins by connecting your account to your E-Commerce store. Buyable Pins feature an “Add to bag” button that allow users to do just that – add your item to their bag! In doing so, users are able to purchase your content upon locating it on Pinterest.

This is a great tool to reach new customers. Not only are you creating sales, you are also expanding your reach. Users will pin your items for all of their followers to see, and this can truly benefit your brand! Be sure to use nice, crisp imagery that will look great on Pinterest accounts, as a huge part of Pinterest is the aesthetic. Optimize your images by using ratios of 2:3 or 1:3.5, and make sure everything is at least 600 pixels.

Be sure to remain active on the website and post regularly, just like you would on any other platform! Feel free to post more than just your products. Work on your company’s personality by sharing anything that resonates and aligns with your brand image.

 

8. Instagram

Ahhh, Instagram! The holy grail of all things social media influencing, Instagram is a beast in its own right. Though a huge source of Instagram marketing comes from working with influencers and using user generated content (more on those strategies in a few minutes), Instagram in itself is a great marketing tool.

Through regularly posting, interacting with your audience, and sharing beautiful, on-brand imagery, you can create an account with a following and aesthetic to envy. Be sure to do your research and monitor account engagement and follower activity in order to best optimize your posts.

Keep it on brand, and keep it consistent.

 

9. Facebook

If you are not yet utilizing Facebook ads, what are you waiting for? A HUGE source of revenue for millions of E-Commerce retailers, Facebook ads are a great way to market your brand. The process is quite simple, and with proper research and strategizing, it can be so successful.

After narrowing down your target market and getting specific on who to advertise to, you can test out a couple of ad options to see what works best. With A/B testing, you can locate the most effective advertisements. With this method, you can test images, calls to action, copy, etc. Prepare two advertisements and then test whatever aspect you need insight on. After determining a winner, continue to present that ad to your market.

Facebook advertising is a fantastic marketing tool, and it is definitely worth the investment.

 

COLLABORATIONS

10. Referrals

Referrals are a FANTASTIC way to leverage your marketing efforts. So many companies have seen success multiply upon introducing referral programs. By providing your customers with personalized links, you can reward them for sharing the great news of your brand!

The options for rewards are quite endless, but here are some ideas:

• Free item when customers spend $100+ with a user’s referral link
• $10 gift card for every referral link purchase
• Exclusive discounts

Referral programs get your customer excited to share your brand, and it becomes a win-win for both parties!

 

11. Influencers

One of the greatest ways to leverage marketing is through the use of influencers. In today’s industry, influencers’ effects are undeniable. Some influencers boast followings that reach the multi-millions in number, and through that, your brand could gain an extraordinary amount of new customers.

Though working with influencers is a quite strategic process, it is worth it. Spend some time researching influencers whose missions align with your brand, and look for those that could potentially be within your budget. Check out who they have worked with in the past, and if it appears that they would be a good fit for your brand, consider giving it a try.

There are a bunch of different methods you can use when working with influencers, including affiliate marketing, shout outs, story posts, etc. Find out what you think will work best for your brand, and give it a go!

After implementing something, check in on the results. You can always tweak things based upon what worked and what didn’t.

 

USER GENERATED CONTENT

12. Features

If you want to get users involved, considering implementing user generated content into your social media profiles. This can mean sharing posts in which users have tagged your brand, or sharing other user generated content.

Featuring users is a great way to increase engagement. Users will tag your brand in their posts in the hopes of being chosen for a feature, and in turn, your company will gain exposure. You could feature a customer of the week or month, or feature content sporadically. It’s up to you and depends on your brand mission and goal!

Vans and Glossier both do a great job of featuring user content on their Instagram pages. By encouraging users to tag their photos with #MyVans, Vans improves their reach while creating a fun way for brand loyalists to get involved. Glossier shares user posts and includes the products that they used to achieve their look, encouraging users to post specifics about their products!

 

13. Giveaways

Giveaways are one of THE most effective ways to market through user generated content. Completely free (less the price of the winning item), giveaways are a great way to pull in some new followers and extend your brand reach.

To pull off a successful giveaway that benefits the brand and the user, have the user tag a friend, follow the brand, and post about the giveaway on their story to enter. By requiring the user to do this to qualify, they will be sharing your brand with all of their followers, which benefits you.

WEBSITE

14. User Experience (UX)

When it comes to your website, you need to have a page that is functional, easy to use, and engaging. If it is not all of those things, it is going to bore or frustrate users, and they will in turn leave your page.

This is user experience. Rapidly gaining recognition as incredibly important, user experience is a huge factor in company success. If a user comes to your website to look for a particular item but cannot figure out how to get there or how to locate what they are looking for, they will simply leave your site.

User experience plays a huge role in your marketing, simply because a great website can incredibly help your brand’s success. Consider this when designing or evaluating your page.

Learn more about this topic in my post “The Importance of Website Design for your E-Commerce Store.”

 

15. Optimize the Checkout Process

This goes right along with user experience. You MUST have a smooth, easy checkout process in order for customers to finalize purchases rather than abandoning their carts.

An incredibly important part of your website, if you don’t have a solid checkout process, your website will be unsuccessful. In order to encourage users to purchase your products, you have to make that process easy. If a user can’t understand your checkout process, they will get frustrated and avoid returning.

 

16. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Are you familiar with search engine optimization? If not, it is worth learning right this second.

To put it simply, SEO is what Google or other various search engines use to pull content. When you perform a Google Search, the results that are presented to you depend upon that content’s SEO. The search engine scours the internet for specific content, and presents what it deems to be the most relevant.

In order for your content to be presented in that initial lineup, you need to be sure that your SEO is in tip-top shape. This means that you must take every little aspect of your content into consideration. Pay close attention to keywords, headings, item descriptions, website copy, and more.

For more information on how to best implement SEO, check out 7 Quick and Easy E-Commerce SEO Tips.

 

Final thoughts

Once you begin to implement various marketing initiatives, be sure to monitor them. Choose something to measure, whether it be sales, traffic, sign ups, etc., and pay attention to how your marketing strategies work toward those goals.

As you learn, you will be able to tweak your marketing tactics accordingly.

I can’t wait to see how you decide to implement these strategies!

Sarah

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. When do you want to begin to grow your E-Commerce business?  

Here are 3 options to start and scale your E-Commerce Brand with Sarah:

1.The E-Commerce Women In Business Mastermind – Your E-Commerce Membership Community with hands-on support with my dream team to start and scale your online store.

2. VIP 1:1 E-Commerce Coaching – My Blue Ribbon and Private 1:1 E-Commerce coaching for established brands looking for next level growth and support.

3. Facebook Ads for E-Commerce Stores. Learn or how to manage your own ads or employ our Facebook Ad Strategist to scale your brand.