A few short years ago, e-commerce businesses had to pitch themselves with lengthily to buyers. Nowadays, they have to fight for attention among the countless online stores looking to sell similar items and steal away potential customers.
E-commerce business owners need to find new ways of standing out in crowded marketplaces and achieving greater visibility in order to grow their business.
By employing a few marketing strategies, e-commerce business owners can scale their company and increase both brand awareness and sales. To do this, you’ll need to keep the following online marketing practices in mind:
1. Offer Competitive Shipping Options
Including free or flat-rate shipping heavily incentivizes customers from exploring other online shops beyond your own. This tactic works especially well for retailers who sell higher-priced items like electronics, jewelry, and furniture.
Even if you do not offer free or flat-rate shipping on all of your products, market the flat rates that you do offer to attract customers quickly. For example, offering free shipping on orders over $50 works great as it allows your customers to feel like they’re getting a great deal, and with most e-commerce stores requiring $50 minimum-order quantities, this is an easy way for retailers to increase revenue and promote their store as a one-stop shop.
Once you’ve established the prices for your shipping methods, make sure they are prominently displayed on your product pages, so customers know the costs before they decided to purchase.
2. Protect Your Assets
Your business cannot scale if your assets, especially cash flow, are vulnerable to many things ranging from natural disasters to even death.
One of the ways to grow your e-commerce is to do estate planning. This process ensures that your assets are passed on to the right parties even when you are no longer alive.
Another way to ensure your business can scale is by setting up a buyout clause in case something happens to you during your operation. A buyout clause enables another party to purchase your store’s assets at an agreed-upon price upon death or incapacity. This is a great way for you or your family to ensure that the business will not be lost if something were to happen and allows the new owner to take over without any hiccups from day one.
3. Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media offers an incredible platform for e-commerce business owners to reach their customers and engage with them directly. Social media allows you to build a strong customer base by establishing a rapport with your audience, creating brand loyalty, and encouraging shoppers to share deals on your products with their friends.
To use social media, e-commerce business owners can post product deals, in addition to behind-the-scene footage of the company’s culture and personnel. This helps you stay connected with your customer base.
Further, e-commerce business owners can use social media to expand their reach. One of the best ways to do this is through Facebook advertising, which allows you to target specific demographics on the website by interests, keywords, age, gender, locations, etc.
4. Utilize E-mail Marketing Campaigns
You can also take advantage of email marketing campaigns to increase sales and brand awareness. Email marketing is a great method for reaching out to the specific customers who have shown interest in your products.
To succeed in e-mail marketing, stay top of mind with your audience. Make sure you send emails frequently, but not so many that they are annoyed by them or unsubscribe. A good rule of thumb is one email per week.
Another tip for successful e-mail marketing campaigns is sending out mailers on busy shopping days like Black Friday and the holiday season. This will remind your customers of the great deals they can find on your website and encourage them to make a purchase.
5. Employ a Blog Strategy
Finally, blogging is a great way to generate more organic traffic to your website, and it’s often free. Blogs are a fantastic resource for consumers who want additional information about your products and industry.
Blogging also provides you with an opportunity to reach out to other bloggers in your industry, which will further increase traffic to your blog posts and website.
Blog posts should detail insights about products or information that can be beneficial to consumers, such as tutorials for DIY projects related to your product line. For example, if you sell outdoor equipment like camping gear, write an article about how to pick the best sleeping bag for your needs.
These are just a few of the many successful online marketing strategies that e-commerce business owners can use to successfully scale their businesses. Utilize these tips and watch your company grow.