So, finally, you have created your e-commerce webstore and set-up your social media profile. Now what? No audience seems to be flocking to your site with cash in hand as you might have expected. In fact, creating your website and social media presence is only the first and most probably the easiest step towards driving traffic to your store.
The rest is a long and tiring journey that can take ages to complete, extracting a large chunk out of your investments along the way.
Just kidding…
But it isn’t piece of cake either, simply knowing where to start while creating a winning digital marketing strategy for ecommerce can get pretty tricky in itself and the only thing harder than marketing your e-commerce store effectively is trying to do it with outdated ineffective techniques.
One thing to understand here is, when it comes to ecommerce marketing tactics, there are good ways and there are better ways. There are also bad ways that should be avoided at all costs. Don’t worry, here we will try to cover every possible tactic to help you along your journey to success. Let’s get started.
Craft your Content as Best as You can
As high-quality content entices users to continue clicking, reading and exploring, therefore creating and distributing content that is entertaining, informative and helpful to potential customers help build positive associations with your brand. Its various benefits include-
- Content adds value to your brand
- Helps you know your customers through feedback
- Establishes your brand as an authority
- Helps build a loyal customer base
Always remember, a well written, appealing content that is error-free, structured and reader-friendly demonstrates your business’s competence.
Never Underestimate the Power of Influencers
I assume you are familiar with the saying, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know that counts’. That maxim is the age-old secret for marketers trying to build awareness and loyalty for their products and services. It also safeguards your website from cynicism associated with traditional marketing and advertising methods.
Since you can back your product or services with glowing reviews from influential bloggers or with stellar celebrity endorsement, the chances of people making a purchase increase tenfold as they are often seen as genuine and authentic. Targeting influencers also let you reach out to their loyal followers or audiences.
Use KPIs to your Advantage
Establishing KPI or Key Performance Indicators should perhaps be the most important stage for your digital marketing strategy as it helps in setting strategic goals and ensures those goals remain aligned with the company’s interests. Some of the most important KPIs for digital marketing include-
- Number of unique site visitors
- CTR or Click Through Rate
- Return visits to websites
- CLV or Customer Lifetime Value
- Total Revenue
- ROI or Return On Investment
- Total conversions
- CPA or Cost Per Acquisition
Ditch the dot-com Domain Name
As the dot-com domain is getting more and more crowded these days due to the influx of online businesses with their long and confusing URLs, it only seems viable to carve out your own digital nook by ditching the dot-com domain and going for something that’s more in compliance with what you do such as dot-me (.me), dot-lifestyle (.lifestyle), dot-boutique (.boutique) etc. It’s also a great way of telling the world who you are and what you do.
Abstain from Two/Three-word Key Phrases
The problem with going for two or three-word key ranking phrases is that they are highly competitive since they tend to have high search volumes and because everybody wants a piece of the action. Unless and until, you have months to spare on it, going after key phrases that you may not stand a chance of ranking is a futile effort.For e.g. it’s useless to rank for the term ‘web development’ because you are a web development company as you will never be able to crack the competition among giants fighting for it. Instead, narrow it down using ‘ecommerce web development’ or even better, providing a location such as ‘ecommerce web development Los Angeles’. it will ultimately bring more targeted and organic traffic to your site compared to ‘web development’.
Unleash the Power of SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of your website through search engines. SEO is single-handedly one of the biggest factor responsible for the success of your e-commerce store, apart from generating traffic, it also enables you to turn this driving traffic into potential customers or subscribers.Below are mentioned some such tips to improve your SEO rankings (apart from the ones mentioned above)
- Avoid duplicity while publishing content as you can get penalized by search engines.
- Do not forget to add product reviews.
- Instead of copy-pasting manufacturer’s product descriptions, create a unique and search engine friendly description for each product.
- Optimizing product images by adding related keywords into the ALT tags of every image.
- Keep product content only a link away from your homepage in order to make it easy for users to find products.
- Create unique meta-descriptions for every webpage
Getting Started
If earlier you were clueless about where to begin, now you have learned some creative and uniquely practical tactics to drive traffic to your webstore. Always remember, you should never take ecommerce marketing lightly as your sales and the overall success of your company depends on it.