You may have an awesome product, but your eCommerce business won’t succeed if you fail to market it properly. Validating the market is one thing, but truly connecting with it is another. In a world where anybody can set up an eCommerce business, those that market the most effectively are those who stand out.
Here are five great tips for marketing your eCommerce business and increasing your sales.
Create relevant and interesting content
Perhaps the most fundamental tool you should be using for your eCommerce business is content. This is particularly true as your business exists solely within the digital space, where "content is king".
Content marketing involves creating genuinely engaging content for your website, which provides value to your target market and encourages them to engage further with your business. It is also an important part of optimising your website for search engines.
Think about what questions your target market might be asking - whether they are directly related to your products or not. Answer these questions with in-depth and well written blog posts. Providing this sort of content will draw people into your website, and hopefully then encourage them to convert. If your posts are super interesting, they will share it on social media and provide free promotion for your website.
Good content also helps to enhance your rankings on Google. Search engines rank websites which provide high-quality content more favourably. Ranking highly on Google is a great way to secure natural traffic to your website and thereby increase sales.
Use email marketing and generate leads
Email marketing has been an effective strategy for more than a decade, and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Building a large and responsive mailing list allows you to stay in touch with your consumers and encourage them to continue to purchase from you in the future.
Sign consumers up on checkout, but also make use of pop-ups and other lead generation strategies to build your list. An effective tactic is to offer discounts and coupon codes for those who subscribe to your newsletter. That way, both parties benefit.
Make sure that you treat your email list with respect. Spamming their mailbox with a plethora of posts will only turn them off your newsletter and even your brand. Stay in contact regularly, but don’t nag.
Provide value with your emails, rather than using it as a sales pitch. Share useful information and links to your content. Use this content as the first step in your inbound sales funnel. This way, you will be able to convert your readers into customers without feeling like you are forcing them to checkout.
Highlight your “best sellers”
Implementing a “best sellers” category on your eCommerce store is a simple step that can dramatically improve conversions. Consumers naturally tend towards following the crowd, so highlighting what other people are buying helps guide their purchasing direction. It also provides social validation for your website, proving to potential customers that other people buy from your website and that you are legitimate.
Get to the point in the "About" section
Your "About" section matters more than you may realise! The eCommerce market is so saturated that customers are extremely interested in who they are buying from and why that separates you from the clutter. It’s important, therefore, to really sell yourself with your "About" section.
However, few eCommerce stores find the right balance in this section. Many write generic, uninteresting stories, while others waffle on. Your story is important, but it has to be digestible, otherwise consumers will move on to the next. Use short, sharp sentences that cut to the chase and truly differentiate yourself.
Be clear about your shipping policies
Particularly when shipping globally, or in a time sensitive manner, shipping costs can have a big impact on your value proposition. In most cases, it’s important not to hide your shipping policies, before springing them on the consumer at checkout. This exudes a sense of deception and can leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone shopping at your store.
It may seem tempting to bury your expensive shipping charges, however, studies have shown that when shipping costs are stated up front, customers are less likely to abandon cart.
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Succeeding in the world of eCommerce is about standing out from the heavily populated crowd with clever marketing decisions. Go forth and implement these strategies in your online business today!