The world of e-commerce is booming. Entire businesses have been set up completely online and retailers have shifted online to reach new markets. With sales expected to hit $1 trillion in the U.S. in 2022, the competition can get fierce, and crafting a successful marketing strategy is key if you want to catch the eyes of consumers.
Why E-Commerce Brands Need Marketing Strategies
A good and effective marketing strategy is what differentiates a thriving e-commerce brand from a struggling one.
Crafting a strong content marketing strategy allows brands to focus on their goals and be efficient with their resources. Brands should be able to conceptualize a well-mapped marketing plan with defined communication channels and a clear conversion funnel.
When in the planning stage of your marketing strategy, resist the urge to cut corners or skip steps. Be thorough with your strategy. Get it down on paper now so it runs on auto-pilot when it launches.
When executed right, the brand can catch the attention of potential customers in their customer journey, prioritize their marketing efforts on the right target customers, and captivate them with a remarkable after-sales experience after their purchase. This creates a snowball effect that increases sales and improves customer retention.
Top Growth Marketing Tactics for E-Commerce Companies
A Solid E-Commerce Marketing Plan
When creating your marketing plan,set goals based on industry benchmarks. Implement the SMART framework and make these goals specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Get to know your competitors by conducting a competitor analysis. Never underestimate the power of data analytics in marketing. Study your own data and your competitors’. Link your competitor analysis with your goals and see how it can help you define your benchmarks and even your budget distribution.
After understanding your own brand and your competitors’, get to know your target audience as well. Who is your ideal customer? How can you reach them? Select specific e-commerce marketing tactics that fit the online activities of your target audience so you can invest in the right tools to meet the goals you have established.
Think Like Your Customers
It doesn’t matter how brilliant you think your marketing strategy is, how out-of-the-box your ads are, or how well-crafted your brand story is. If it doesn’t resonate with the right people, it won’t work..
Give your customers something to care about—and talk about. Word-of-mouth messaging is the most powerful tool in your arsenal because buyers trust the word of other buyers, William Harris of Elumynt explained.
Showcase your customers’ product opinions by encouraging buyers to leave reviews on your online store. From product-specific reviews to business ratings, show your potential customers how happy your existing customers are with your business. Wherever relevant, highlight testimonials. It is a more engaging story about the customer’s positive experience. You can include excerpts from these in your ads and email newsletters.
Encourage customers to post on social media using your product or talking about your product. User-generated content are more powerful than your own posts because they feature everyday people and the establishment of social proof can make it easier to convert potential customers to buyers.
A/B Testing Your Product Pages
E-commerce marketing is incredibly dynamic, with new things constantly popping up and changing. Mayple suggests running tests to see what modifications you can make to your layout, messaging, product descriptions, overall user experience, and other factors and details that could improve your customer’s interaction with your brand.
Retarget and Remarket
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your potential customers and contact your existing customers again.
Remember, when launching a marketing campaign, you’re casting your line hoping to get a bite. Even with the best line, tackle, and bait, there are still a multitude of external factors that can affect why you didn’t land a sale. Maybe your potential buyers weren’t ready to make the purchase just yet; perhaps they couldn’t complete the payment at this very moment; or they want to compare their options for now. Whatever their reason, commit to remaining on their mind so you can present your offers when they’re in a buying frame of mind.
Send emails reminding potential customers of their abandoned cart or retarget them with Facebook ads that remind them to finish purchasing the items they looked into. You can even contact past customers with “buy again” emails. Utilize exit-intent pop-ups that gently let customers know that they’re leaving your site without checking out. Change their mind by offering a discount or asking for their email address so you can nurture them through your sales funnel.
Be Informational
Create content that educates your audience. These can be how-to content about your products or even comparison guides that can help your customers make their buying decisions.
You’re bridging the gap customers usually have with online shopping: being face to face with a product. The more you educate your potential customers about your product, they better equipped they’ll be to decide to purchase your products even if they haven’t seen them in real life.
Assess, Learn, and Adjust
There are so many strategies you can implement to create your winning marketing plan. Take the time to study your strategy’s performance and see where you need to adjust. It is perfectly fine to shift your strategy to hone in on your target audience or even relaunch your entire campaign if it doesn’t succeed the first time around. Always be willing to implement new ideas.
Want to build a powerful marketing strategy with the help of top business experts? With Cansulta, we can connect you to any of our 60+ consultants from 30+ different industries to help you create your winning plan.
Not yet sure how we can be of help? No problem! Book a free call with our Concierge to discover how our strategic consulting and advisory services can benefit your business.
