Electronic commerce or eCommerce as it is popularly called, is the order of the day with promises of a glorious future wherein it will establish itself as a major tool of sale with e-shopping becoming more popular and natural by the day. Ecommerce growth means a shift towards the digital world for shopping. This means that even brick and mortar shops are building their presence in the online space either stand-alone or through strategic mergers with established eCommerce players. This is in addition to the number of pure play e-retail businesses popping up every day. But while it’s relatively easy to launch a webstore, scaling an online business is extremely difficult. So what is the best way for eCommerce entrepreneurs to promote their business – search engines (paid and organic), social media, email campaigns, print ads…? The answer is to have a sustainable, long term, and diversified marketing plan in place.
This article will help give you some ideas on how to market your e-commerce business whether you are just starting out or looking for more effective ways to boost your sales.
Social Media Sites: Social media marketing can take a lot of time and needs to be done consistently to reap rewards. You need to first zero in on the platforms you will use, the best ones for ecommerce being Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Don’t spread yourself thin and market across all platforms. Stay focused on 3 or 4 that work best for your business. Build a following on the select platforms by sharing interesting industry-related news or trends. You also need to share links to your website and feature specific products, but just remember to keep these far and few in between.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
Search engine optimization is a must for all websites, more so for e-commerce sites. The more optimized your site is, more is the chance for it to rank high in SERP, resulting in more traffic to your webstore and ultimately more sales. People who come to your online store because of a search query generally want to see what you have to offer. There is a huge difference in the kind of traffic you can get from organic listing because in this case they sought you out instead of the other way round. And because of the gravitational nature of search traffic, it generally converts into business better.
Search Engine Marketing: This refers to Search Engine paid advertising model usually referred to as
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – every time someone clicks on your ad, you are charged for the click. You start your PPC advertising campaign by choosing keywords related to your business that search engine users will potentially search for. When they do, your ad will be displayed somewhere on the results page. If your advertising content is compelling enough, chances are someone will click on your ad and will be taken to your online store. Once they are on your site, it’s your job to convert them. So if you have a well-designed user experience and conversion process, then you should start seeing positive returns rather quickly.
Blog advertising: Blogging is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to attract thousands of new customers. It is simply about creating valuable content for your readers related to your online business or regarding your niche and then attracting people to your blog. If you put the time and creative energy into blogging, it can pay dividends for years to come. Once you have created a great piece of timeless content, the search engines will bring traffic to that page for the lifetime that page exists. Another advice would be to try contacting a few blog owners in your industry and make them agree to review your products or website in a post. Simply by having your website featured in a post on a popular blog, you can drive thousands of targeted visitors to your ecommerce site.
Email marketing:
Email marketing is an effective way to print your name in your recipients’ minds. However to keep your email safe from being marked as spam and to be able to follow up with your potential customers over time, it is important to get permission or subscription. Work out the incentives or high quality content you can create in order to drive sign-ups. Once you've got people joining your list, focus on sending your subscribers a balanced mix of more high quality content with occasional sales and promotional messages mixed in.
Traditional Advertising: In an age of online advertising where you can accurately calculate the return on investment, suggesting traditional advertising methods like TV, radio, print media, billboards, tradeshows etc., seems quite unusual. However though more expensive than online marketing, traditional advertising proves to be quite effective to reach out to a mass audience thereby offering good value for money.
To summarise, constructive promotion of an eCommerce business requires a thorough and sustainable marketing strategy that ensures active presence in the online space as well as visibility in the offline space. Hence it is advisable to look for a company that specializes in all aspects of marketing and can help magnify your brand name. For example Brandhype
Digital Marketing Consultants, an agency based in Delhi, India, offers end-to-end digital marketing solutions to help build your online presence, increase online sales and drive highly targeted traffic to your website. Plus they can also support you on the offline advertising front thereby effecting a successful combination of online and offline marketing strategies to your benefit.