Ecommerce trends are going up and up. In fact, experts predict that online retail purchases will make up nearly 30% of all shopping activities by 2026, with the global ecommerce market valuing at approximately $8.1 trillion.
This goes to show that more and more people are turning to online stores when considering a purchase. And it’s not a trend that’s likely to disappear.
According to a research conducted by Morgan Stanley, key trends such as the increasing adoption of ecommerce across the globe and the opening of new markets, among others, are a massive driving force towards the steady growth of ecommerce worldwide.
Consequently, if you want to make it in today’s competitive market, you have to have a strong online presence–or your business goes kaput. Just like that.
With the ecommerce market value only ever increasing, these are definitely exciting times for online businesses. This also means that the competition is fiercer.
To even be noticed at all among the hundreds, if not thousands, of stores and brands that pop up every day on the Internet, you need a strong ecommerce marketing strategy that will make you stand out, bring you right in front of your customers, and drive traffic that gets converted into sales.
Easier said than done, right?
Let’s help you figure out how digital marketing services like ecommerce marketing can get you ahead of the game.
What is Ecommerce Marketing?
Ecommerce marketing is the use of any promotional strategy that aims to drive traffic to an online store or website, convert traffic into sales, and keep customers coming back.
It’s a long-term strategy that involves both on and off-website activities. It’s also targeted at not just the short-term benefits of gaining customers right now, but more importantly, building a loyal customer base.
Tips for Creating Effective Ecommerce Campaigns
The goal of ecommerce marketing is straightforward, but the tactics a marketer employs to boost conversion rates are pretty much endless.
Back in the day, people used to think of email marketing as the thing. Not anymore. At least not for every business–and definitely not as a sole strategy. The ways we reach customers have changed dramatically and continue to change as trends come and go.
A winning ecommerce campaign, therefore, takes a lot of time and brainstorming.
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make is running campaigns blindly, without an understanding of where they’re going, how, and why, thus wasting time and resources.
So how do you avoid this pitfall?
Define Your Goals
Before even starting a campaign, define where you want to go and what you want to do.
Look back on your history, and use it as a benchmark of what you’re realistically able to achieve. This is not to say, however, that you should limit yourself to past achievements. Use data moving forward, too.
Your history will help you figure out what your current capabilities are. This will also bring your team’s strengths and weaknesses to your attention, so that if you want to push for growth, you’ll know where to make adjustments.
Set the right goals by keeping targets measurable: conversion rates, click-through-rates, and other quantifiable metrics for accurate insights on how business is doing.
Know Your Competition
Aside from looking inward, you should also pay attention to industry benchmarks. How are similar businesses doing?
This involves doing plenty of research into your competitors.
Here are some ways you can do that:
- Check their social media activities. What kind of campaigns are they running? Are they getting more engagement than you are?
- Know their brand advocates. Find out how successful their influencers are at getting people to pay attention to their brand.
- Go to their websites. Find out your competition’s strengths and weaknesses by browsing through their site.
- Sample their products. Browse through their product listings and try them out to compare them with what you currently offer.
Understand Your Market
It’s impossible for an ecommerce marketing campaign to succeed without a deep understanding of the target audience and market.
This takes lots of hours and resources researching your market. The goal is to know who you’re selling to so that you’re able to create accurate personas.
These will help you make targeted product recommendations through personalized messaging on channels where they show up the most.
Some of the ways you can understand your market are:
- Building a profile of your existing customer base. Know their age, location, buying activities, and even which pages they spend the most time on your website.
- Look to your competition. Pay attention to the market that your competitors target.
- Analyze traffic. Make use of web analytics and tools that will allow you to gain insights on visitor behavior on your website.
Best Practices for Ecommerce Website Optimization
Ecommerce website optimization is vital for a campaign to succeed. Here are some optimization practices that can turn your website into a money machine:
Implement SEO Best Practices
Utilize SEO best practices to drive traffic to your website. These involve thorough keyword research and utilization, gaining credibility through backlinking to authority sites, and churning out compelling, informative content through blogs and guest posts on reliable websites.
If your business offers local services, make sure to use local SEO and optimize web content through geolocal content. This will help local customers find you quicker.
Optimize for Mobile
Majority of consumers today purchase goods through their mobile devices. To capture this vast market, make sure that your website runs smoothly on mobile.
This means:
- Optimizing and compressing photos
- Going for a clean, simple design that easily fits a smaller screen
- Checking for mobile compatibility
Have a Cart Recovery Plan
According to research conducted by the Baymard Institute, nearly 70% of online shoppers add items to their carts but leave them without proceeding to make a purchase. This is a massive lost opportunity for any online store.
To address shopping cart abandonment, make sure that you have a cart recovery plan in place that fits your business and brand.
An effective plan is following up through personalized emails. You can take it even further by using text messaging to connect with shoppers, resolve issues, and help them proceed to checkout.
Improve User Experience
Making constant improvements on your landing pages help a great deal in ensuring that customers seamlessly navigate your website and meet little to no distractions on their way to the checkout page.
A clunky website that takes ages to load makes for an unpleasant experience. In today’s get-it-now era, customers have no patience for sites that don’t give information that they want right away.
Build a Winning Campaign
It’s not enough that you have a great product. You have to first find a way to get people to pay attention to you.
And that can be a challenge.