The ability to promote your products effectively on your online store isn’t simply promoting or selling a product or service. Instead, it also involves tapping various types of marketing channels for your promotion to reach your target audience directly. This, in a nutshell, is what ecommerce marketing is all about.
An effective E-commerce Marketing strategy encompasses popular social media platforms, since they play a big part as far as determining where most of your potential customers thrive and interact daily. Getting your marketing campaigns up and running also involves efficient search engine optimization or SEO strategies.
Let’s dig deeper, however: What is ecommerce marketing, and how will it help your business? In this blog, we’ll discuss the different types of ecommerce marketing, the recommended ecommerce marketing platforms, how it differs from ecommerce advertising, and its benefits for your venture.
What is Ecommerce Marketing All About?
If you’re wondering what its purpose is, ecommerce marketing mainly involves driving significant traffic to your online shop by using effective promotional tactics. To do this, however, you need to come up with a foolproof strategy so that you can build brand awareness, get new customers, foster customer loyalty, and increase the sales of the product or service that you offer in your online store.
Whether you are a direct-to-consumer business selling your products or an ecommerce online shop that sells other brands, you need to capture your target audience’s attention. If you do not put much significance on this type of marketing, then it’s likely you will not acquire sales.
Types of Ecommerce Marketing That You Can Do
As an online business owner, you have the advantage to pull-off effective marketing campaigns by using various methods. It’s better to use marketing channels that you are most familiar with.
Email Marketing
One of the earliest forms of digital marketing is email marketing. According to Statista, there are over four billion email users globally and it is bound to grow up to 4.6 billion users by the year 2025.
Since this is a specific channel that you own as a business owner, it is a cheaper and more reliable way to promote your online shop. You can even automate your email marketing campaigns. It’s a significant advantage that there is also more space and content that you can place in an email compared to other marketing channels.
Utilize your email campaigns by also sending purchase and shipping updates, post-sale follow-ups, and even abandoned cart reminders. Sending these emails can make your target audience feel more important.
Expert Tip:
Make sure that when someone signs up on your online store’s email list, send a warm introduction email to make your customers feel immediately welcomed. You can also use this to get newcomers on your site acquainted with what your product pages offer.
Influencer Marketing
If you want a quicker way to accelerate brand awareness, influencer marketing is the way to go! This is a popular ecommerce marketing strategy due to the rise of influencers on various social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Influencers are powerful on social media as they are like celebrities, but are more relatable to common social media users. Hence, your target audience is most likely following at least one.
Keep in mind that influencer marketing works hand in hand with social media marketing, since influencers post their content on popular social media platforms. Make sure, though, that when you pick influencers, consider which platform your customers usually use. Utilize the power of hashtags while searching for influencers who fit your brand’s voice.
In addition, consider using micro-influencers for your ecommerce marketing promotions as well. Even if they have a lesser number of followers, they can reach your target audience in a more personalized approach. That’s why micro-influencers have a more loyal fanbase that you can tap to become potential customers who can also be loyal to your brand.
Social Media Marketing
What is ecommerce marketing without social media channels? As mentioned earlier, these two digital marketing strategies directly work hand in hand. Running marketing campaigns on social media platforms can be done both organically and through paid approaches. Thanks to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, you can easily make your online store discoverable.
One proven and effective ecommerce marketing strategy is by posting updates about your brand, product, or service through a social media post. Whether it may be a Facebook post or a TikTok video, it keeps your target audience informed—especially since most of them are always online through their mobile devices.
Since it’s now easier to post content online, create short-form videos. Most online users prefer short-length but video-heavy content nowadays. So have fun hopping on popular trends or feature real customer reviews to highlight your product or service. You can also set up extra online sales channels on these social media platforms so your target market can also have additional online buying options that they can choose from.
Expert Tip:
Build a community using these popular social media platforms! Ask questions, swap stories, and even engage with your customers in real time. Building engagement is a social media marketing strategy that can help amplify your brand, make a positive impression in the market, and gain new customers.
Content Marketing
Another ecommerce marketing strategy that can bring long-term results is content marketing. The main purposes of this marketing approach are to educate your audience, answer questions, help customers choose their preferred product or service, and even provide entertainment. Content is important for ecommerce marketing as it mainly drives traffic and increases conversion rates.
According to a study conducted by global communications firm Edelman, 54% of decision-makers spend more than an hour each week reading and reviewing thought-leadership content. This is a positive indicator that “content is (still) king,” as it has the power to persuade people about their choices. Content marketing has various forms that you can utilize to your advantage.
Publishing blog posts and articles can provide your target audience with the information that they are seeking about your brand. Quoting from an article by Brevo, a full CRM suite brand, Content Marketing gives you “the chance to tell your story, share your expertise and values, overcome potential objections, and reassure potential or current customers you’re a good business to shop from.”
Guest posting is another content marketing strategy that can give you positive conversion rates for your brand’s website. Writing blog posts for external websites will add more exposure and credibility to your brand, as well as get an addition to your backlink list. Always remember that once you create content, it will work for you long-term as long as it is live online. It can be reused for other marketing campaigns. When optimized properly, a well-executed content marketing strategy boosts conversion rates for your online store.
Expert Tip:
Don’t skip out on improving your website’s product pages as well! Make sure to clearly explain the product or service you are offering or better yet, create separate product pages for each. Add testimonials, demo videos, and other interesting page features to sustain your customers’ attention as well.
What Ecommerce Marketing Platforms Should You Use?
According to the leading IT social network called Spiceworks, the six leading ecommerce platforms being used right now are Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Wix, and Squarespace. Make sure to choose the ecommerce marketing platform that will suit your brand and will cater to your online shop’s needs.
Shopify
This ecommerce marketing platform or SaaS (Software as a service) is perfect for small businesses, artists who produce their creations, and curated boutique shops. The platform of Shopify is beginner-friendly so it’s easy to set up your online store in no time.
WooCommerce
If you are looking for an open-source E-commerce plugin, WooCommerce is perfect for you! It runs on WordPress. Online shop owners can manage business operations alongside developers who are comfortable with using WordPress.
BigCommerce
Searching for an ecommerce platform that you can easily integrate social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, eBay, and more? Then BigCommerce is the one for you! Though not beginner-friendly compared to other marketing channels, it’s packed with vast features. You can even choose between two categories: Essentials or Enterprise.
Magento
Also called Adobe Commerce, Magento is free to start and is non-hosted. So, you have free reign over the customization of your online shop. However, this open-source ecommerce marketing platform works well for you if you have advanced coding and web development skills.
Wix
For an individual seller who’s running on a tight budget, Wix is the ecommerce marketing platform that you need! You can build your online store’s website for free using its drag-and-drop website builder. This already includes choosing from a selection of customizable templates, domain name registration, and web hosting. This is highly recommended for those who offer only a limited product or service selection as it doesn’t have a low-stock inventory alert.
Squarespace
If you are more of the do-it-yourself type, Squarespace is the digital marketing platform for you! This is essentially a website builder that has professionally designed templates and drag-and-drop functionality as well, so you’ll enjoy customizing your online shop website. Although this platform requires more time and patience from your end, the result of your in-depth customization will be worth it!
Ecommerce Marketing over Ecommerce Advertising
What is ecommerce marketing’s advantage over ecommerce advertising? Simply put: The former covers all aspects of engagement and awareness of your brand. It allows your target audience to get to know your brand and what it offers to them.
Conversely, the latter is a part of ecommerce marketing that focuses on driving positive conversion rates via the promotion of a specific product or service. This includes putting up banners and display ads.
Bringing Benefits to Your Business with Ecommerce Marketing
Semrush, the leading authority on content marketing SaaS surmised what is ecommerce Marketing’s significance in your business into four key benefits:
- It lowers transaction costs
- Maintains an accurate customer database
- Improves customer experience, and
- Allows you to reach more people.
Through ecommerce marketing, you can use low-cost marketing channels to reach your target audience. You simply need a logo, a website for your online shop, and an ecommerce marketing strategy to grow. This may sound easy, but getting help from reliable digital marketing outsourcing companies is one way of lowering your transaction costs while boosting your sales. Every penny you’ll spend goes directly to effective ecommerce marketing strategy initiatives, minus the costly trial and error approach.
Partner with Outsource-Philippines for All Your Ecommerce Marketing Needs
Always make it a point to monitor your potential and current customers’ habits. This is key to accurately generating content marketing practices that are more customized; which, in turn, improves overall customer experience. Amplify your reach further by creating blog posts and email campaigns, adding interesting content on product pages, and interacting constantly with your target audience through social media platforms.
As mentioned, don’t fret to ask for assistance when it comes to what works for email marketing, how to effectively implement ecommerce marketing strategy techniques, and boosting search engine optimization for your website. With companies Outsource-Philippines’ digital marketing services, you’re assured that your brand will reach more people—without the headache of guesswork! Contact us today to get a free quote.
