Top 50 Online Store Marketing Tips

Think about where you are in your current e-commerce adventure. Maybe you’ve just set up a nice little shop to sell your new running shoe designs, or maybe your dropshipping business is building a solid customer base, and you need to bring on a few employees to manage all of the orders. Maybe you just finished your stint on Shark Tank, or Oprah talked about your product being one of her “favorite things.”

Regardless of your situation, everyone gets to that point where e-commerce marketing becomes a huge factor: see my other post with top marketing tips from the top 50 online shops. How do you step back and evaluate your current marketing tactics? Are you doing everything right, or can you implement other marketing campaigns to bring in more devoted customers?

E-commerce marketing is a tricky subject because it’s tough to find all of the tips in one place. Luckily, we’ve done the work for you, guiding you on the path to marketing success and providing a list for you to stick on your wall and check off as you complete each e-commerce marketing method. Keep reading to learn more.

1. Create a Content Marketing Strategy Before Starting

Nothing good starts without building a plan. Just like a movie studio goes through the preproduction process, an e-commerce business needs a content marketing strategy. Write a list of all the methods you plan on using to reach out to customers, whether it be blog posts, videos, or newsletters.

Make it a point to check in with this strategy every week or month, evaluating how the content creation and distribution process is going.

Quick note: we’re trying a content-first approach with our first online shop, called matcha tea. So we’re going to sell matcha tea on it (doh!), but for the first 3 months, we want to build an audience and get some search traffic so that we actually have some potential customers when we’ll have the tea ready to ship. So far so good. Will keep you posted.

2. Generate an Email Marketing Campaign That’s Automated

Email marketing is the bedrock of effective e-commerce marketing strategies because it’s still one of the best methods for influencing your customers and convincing them to buy more.

Not to mention, consumers are known to open emails, even if they include simple advertisements. Use an email marketing campaign to keep in contact with your customers, send them helpful information, and sell your products.

We’ve also built a comparison website called WebAppMeister where you can find the best email marketing software for your specific needs.

3. With Social Media, Consider Diversifying Your Platforms

Social media is always a tough sell for e-commerce companies since it’s tough to figure out which platforms work best in certain markets. There’s a simple solution to this. Diversify, and eventually cut the platforms that don’t work well.

It’s just like investing in stocks. You spread out the risk and realize which options are making you the most money. Create Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus pages. Spread your content through these mediums, and use social media analytics tools to understand which ones work best. Even if one works better than another, spreading out your social media presence gives all of your customers a way to connect with your company.

Who knows? You may only have 100 followers on Facebook, but one of them may be your best customer. If you take away that Facebook presence you risk losing that person.

4. Put a Personalization Strategy into Action

Personalization is the best new form of marketing since no one wants to spend money on faceless companies. The idea is to brand your company along with a person, using one or two people as the “face” of your business.

Address people with their names in your emails, send out videos and images of your employees, and show how your products are made. Every little detail of personalization makes your customers feel special and take a peek into the inner workings of your business.

5. Make Your Own Original Content

Nothing builds a strong connection with your customers like original content. Tying into your content marketing strategy from above, you have the unique opportunity to choose between unoriginal or original content.

Many companies use content pulled from around the web in their e-commerce SEO strategies to free up time for other business tasks. This, however, doesn’t have the same effect as the original content. How would your customers respond if they knew an original company podcast came out every week?

Original content like videos, blog posts, audio segments, and eBooks help you build your e-commerce site as a knowledge base for those interested in learning more about your market.

6. Hit it Hard with Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing has various meanings, but what we mean is using your marketing in formats that connect with your demographics, and putting the messages in the right places at the right time.

The perfect example of contextual marketing is the famous Oreos Super Bowl tweet, where they played off the Super Bowl XLVII stadium lighting problem to show that “you can still dunk in the dark.” It was the perfect combination of timeliness and humor, to an audience that loves snacks during a game.

7. Opt for User Generated Content

User-generated content is a wonderful way to build interaction with your customers, while not having to put much money or time into the campaign on your end. Doritos is known for holding a Super Bowl commercial submission contest every year, meaning that they don’t have to pay for a production crew to design a video.

This gets Doritos fans excited, and Doritos ends up with a commercial to air. This works well when you ask for people to submit pictures, videos, or even blog posts.

8. Implement a Loyalty Program

A solid loyalty program brings people back to your store, and it makes them feel appreciated for spending money on your company. You convince your most loyal customers to spend a little extra money, and they receive a reward for doing so.

9. Automate Your Social Networks

Not all social content needs automation, but you’ll find that planning your social strategy frees up time for other tasks in your business.

For example, when you schedule a month of Facebook posts, you no longer have to think about it for the rest of the month. Moderating comments is still needed, but knocking out your social posts in one day means you don’t have to shift gears every week or day to post content on social networks.

10. Reach Out to Customers in Their Native Languages

It’s common for e-commerce stores to sell items to people all over the world. Just because you speak English doesn’t mean that you can’t sell a hat to someone who speaks Portuguese.

Reach out to foreign customers by providing translation features in your online store. Most e-commerce platforms, WordPress e-commerce themes, and WooCommerce templates provide translation settings so that you don’t exclude people in other countries who don’t understand your language.

11. A/B Test Your Checkout Process

The folks behind SimCity are known to test out their checkout process on a consistent basis, leading to improved sales, because they know exactly what types of buttons and words convince people to buy.

An e-commerce marketing plan without A/B testing is sailing blind, so it’s essential to run tests throughout the entire checkout process. This helps you see where people abandon their carts or find it tough to pay you.

12. Optimize for the Mobile World

This has nothing to do with creating an app or mobile site. Nowadays your customers crave mobile responsiveness. They don’t want to open a completely different mobile site to see a mobile-friendly interface.

Consider implementing a responsive interface so that your e-commerce website transforms for devices like tablets and smartphones.

13. Think About Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising combines geolocation and mobile-ready ads to connect your customers to your store while they are sitting on the train or in a doctor’s waiting room.

14. Start Targeting Wearable Technology

All the big tech companies are releasing wearable technology like watches and even glasses. How can you connect with these customers who have technology at their hands at all times? These interfaces look different than the average smartphone, so your company needs to adapt.

15. Hire Someone to Create Long Form Content

Long-form content is a nice way to stand out from all the regular blog posts out there. Long-form content takes lots of time, so you may need to hire someone, but it dives deep into (sometimes boring) topics, making them engaging and useful for the most interested users.(more)