E-commerce is one of the most rapidly increasing economic sectors which has sped up even more intensely during the COVID-19 pandemic. This business sector solely relies on online marketing for its success.
Despite the fact that Amazon and the like have locked in a majority of the market share, there are endless opportunities for hyper-focused brands. A strong marketing strategy puts products and services in front of target audiences online. The rise of social media shopping and access to large platform shoppers is ideal for budding brands.
Consistency, focus, and strategy are key factors to a successful campaign. Here are 10 ways to improve your e-commerce marketing to get immediate results.
Identify your ideal customer in detail. Not all business owners love developing buyer personas as much as we do. It is a lengthy but rewarding exercise. There is nothing as valuable as identifying your ideal customer with their pain points, interests, demographic information, and the reasons why they want to buy right now. We get into much detail to be as focused as possible. It is valuable to refer back to your ideal customer when creating marketing messages to understand if they resonate.
Create brand consistency throughout. Brands are brands when they are recognizable. And no matter what state a brand is in, creating consistency is key. We love creating brand guides, identifying brand voices, and outlining brand values for our clients. It forces a creative process on how a brand wants to be perceived and the values it supports. It is important to know how to speak about a brand and if it resonates with the ideal customer. It’s exciting when customers talk about seeing a brand everywhere.
Optimize the online store for ultimate conversion. Marketing starts and ends with the online store. Clear messages for the call to action are as important as a clear path to checkout. Clearly organizing products highlights the most popular listings. We do not hesitate to build specific landing pages to focus our clients’ marketing messages even further, offering the customer the solution they seek and the reason for purchase.
Optimize your abandoned cart campaign. This is an obvious low-hanging fruit. Customers clearly have an intention to purchase a product. A multilevel sales message campaign prompts the customer to purchase the product that was already chosen. Successful abandoned cart campaigns close up to 50% or more of purchases, which immediately increases your revenue. We help our marketing clients to do just that.
Develop a solid email marketing strategy. With a strategic email marketing campaign, loyal customers or first-time customers are reminded of product selections and new arrivals. Conversions are generally high with a solid customer list. The trick is crafting email subject lines that achieve a successful open rate. With strategically positioned content, customers are enticed to execute the call to action. We have achieved consistent open rates of 30-50% with our clients.
Create a focused one-click social media advertising campaign. A solid, consistent, and focused social media marketing campaign is a given. The campaigns should be augmented with a pay-per-click advertising campaign. It is important to create an ideal customer audience and even better a look-alike audience. With a focused marketing message and only a one-click purchase process, new customers enter the various sales funnels. We have helped our e-commerce and service-based clients achieve higher clickthrough rates with this approach.
Create a brand following throughout your social media channels. Followers are a company’s best advertising: creating a community where they can share experiences with products; highlighting loyal customers on social media and giving them a forum to share positive reviews; giving them space in brand stories and highlighting their reviews. Opportunities to grow a following, and consequently influencers, are endless and can be executed highly creatively.
Listen to customers and listen on social media. Listening to customers is one of the most valuable opportunities that social media can contribute to a brand. AI technology can help with social listening for feedback on brands, products, and competition. Social media has also become a valuable platform for customer service. Brands respond to customer concerns and celebrations around products and services.
Analyze advanced stats and analytics. Never before have we had more access to advanced analytics. We help our clients to understand what is working and what is not. We understand customer behavior, how they found the online store, and what products they focus on. Social media platforms share the performance of social media marketing and advertising. In-depth analytics can help keep marketing messages focused.
Create a review strategy to gain customers’ trust. Reviews are one of the most important aspects to gain trust online. Most potential customers will seek out reviews from real customers. Reviews go a long way to making that sale, but they have to be managed properly. Encouraging loyal customers to leave an honest review online is priceless. And so is responding to negative reviews while taking customer concerns offline.
JumpStartNOW is a boutique marketing agency headquartered in Sacramento, California. The CEO, Veronika Monell, has helped pioneer the world of e-commerce in the video game industry and brings her strategic knowledge to the JumpStartNOW team. Connect with Veronika here.
