Creating your own e-commerce site is one of the smartest business moves an entrepreneur can make and it can also be one of the most profitable moves too! Even with that, one of the big issues that entrepreneurs face is marketing their business. If you can’t properly and effectively market your business, then your business will fail.
This rule of having an effective marketing strategy applies to any e-commerce business. Whether you have a business that has an established customer base or if you are in the beginning stages of creating your business brand, it’s very important to stay current and up to date with the evolving marketing trends for your e-commerce business.
The goal at the beginning stages of starting your business is to finally launch your business and share it with the world, right? Of course! In order to do that, it’s detrimental that you invest in an effective marketing strategy. If you are thinking about or considering starting your own e-commerce business, here are a few marketing strategies that will be crucial to the success of your business.
Utilize SEO to Your Benefit
SEO (search engine optimization) is crucial to the success of any type of website. The more optimized your e-commerce site is, the higher your chances are of getting more traffic to your site (which means more customers) and you’ll get more sales and rank higher on search engines.
Another aspect of SEO is the speed of your website. You want your website to be able to load as fast as possible! Why? Because customers are very demanding! They want what they want when they want it! If it takes your website too long to load, they’re going to leave your site and go to another site to get what they want.
Your site being able to load fast is essential. Did you know that customers expect websites to load in two seconds or less? Oddballmarketing.com.au states that 47% of web consumers have this expectation and they will leave a site if it takes longer than that!
Take Full Advantage of Social Media
When it comes to marketing strategies for your business, the right social media sites can promote your business and take it to the next level! Billions of people have social media sites, and if your business has a social media page, your promoting potential is limitless!
Let’s say you create a business page on a social media site… you could see amazing results in a very short time! That just goes to show you that social media isn’t just for watching funny cat videos! Some of the more popular social media sites include:
If you have a business page on any of these platforms, you’ll want to use those sites as a way to post original content that will attract your target audience. You’ll also want to post links within that content that will lead them back to your website. There are several different ways that you can use social media as a marketing strategy, you just have to play around with it and see which one works best for you.
Have Your Products Reviewed by Bloggers
So, one marketing strategy that not too many people think about is getting your products reviewed. You want to reach out to bloggers who specifically write product reviews, and ask them if they are will to test your products and write a review about them. If they write a good review, their target audience will get exposure to your brand and products, which could possibly drive more traffic to your site as well.
Provide Free Samples of Your Product
A lot of businesses tend to avoid this particular marketing strategy but it can actually be very effective and beneficial to your business. If you know that your products are, you sometimes need to “put your money where your mouth is” and prove it! Give some of your products away and ask for feedback.
Some business owners shy away from feedback but feedback can actually be one of the most helpful aspects to your business; it gives you a real perspective on how good your products are and will tell you what you need to improve or if everything is great as it is. If your product is as great as you know it to be, the people who you gave free samples to will spread the word and they may even promote your product on their social media pages! You never know!
Invest in Paid Advertising
Paid advertising does cost you money but with the right paid to advertise, it can be money well-spent, especially for brand new sites! Effective paid advertising can lead you to high conversion rates.
If you opt for pay per click advertising, this allows you to pay whenever someone clicks a link to your site. From there, it’s up to you to convert them to a customer. You do this by having your page optimized to load in 2 seconds or less and by having a well-designed and user-friendly site. If you have that, you’ll begin to see positive returns coming back to you!
Use the Power of Promotions
For many years, promotions have been an essential part of marketing for any business but especially for new businesses! Even before the era of e-commerce businesses, you would see storefronts with big “Grand Opening” sales or different percentages off, type of sales… anytime the word “sale” was placed at the end of some type of promotion, people would flock from anywhere just to see what the sale entailed.
This same method can be applied to your e-commerce site as well. When you offer a promotion or some type of sale, you will appeal to a larger audience. Some sites like to have their promotion pop up as soon as a potential customer comes to their site. So make your customers an offer they can’t refuse and just watch the sales start coming in!
