Do you have a website where you offer your products for sale? Ecommerce Marketing Guide Explains to you how to market and how to promote your store. Marketing allows you to set a sequence of tasks for selling products.
Here’s all you need to know and it’s worth it.
What is E-Commerce Marketing?
E-commerce website marketing, online store marketing, online digital store marketing – or whatever you call it – is a system of actions and methods in which your business reaches from the target audience to the potential customer and the actual sales process.
In all businesses, the marketing process includes all the ways to reach our customers (marketing channels), the means by which we do it, the promotion factor, and the messages conveyed to those people. At the end of the process comes the sales process in which we sell our product to the customer after he has gone through the stage and all the stages as part of a marketing funnel.
In businesses that are e-commerce sites or similar, the line between marketing and sales is a very thin line. This means that the same marketing actions can bring you actual sales – which realizes your business goal.
To better understand the actions to be taken in the marketing process, it is imperative to set a marketing strategy, marketing plan, and of course, set clear goals and objectives to achieve. For small businesses among you – no, this beautiful sentence is not only for big businesses but also for you, small and medium-sized businesses.
E-Commerce Website Marketing Process
In addition to what we wrote before, the strategy, the plan, and the goals – we need to understand the marketing process on an e-commerce site (online digital store). That is, these are topics that they come up with even before the actual marketing process.
The steps in the process are standard, and known to the business owner (hopefully of course). Here they are:
1. Awareness
The most initial and basic stage is cognition and awareness. The target audience must know that your business exists, your digital store, of course, otherwise – they will not know that if they exist at all.
Awareness can be carried out through various marketing channels such as social networks, search engines, newsletters, other content sites, and more. What this means is that you must create such a presence in those marketing channels.
2. Marketing message
With the presence, you need to convey the marketing message to your target audience. A marketing message is a huge topic in itself, what to convey, how to convey, in what way, and the like.
The marketing message needs to be accurate and tailored to your audience, and it must include motivation for action. So that the same potential customer knows what to do next: enter the website, leave an email, write a private message, call, etc.
3. Traffic to the website
Your e-commerce site is your “marketing person and salesperson”. He is responsible for very necessary steps in the process where the potential customer becomes a customer of the business, a paying customer.
In order for him (your digital store) to be able to do his job, he needs to get a stream of traffic and site visits. Therefore, it is recommended that the promotional message be included in the promotional offer on your website.
It’s time to say, that the people who need to land on the site are not everyone, but only ideal customers. There is no need to pay money or even bring free traffic for there to be traffic on the site.
4. Website conversion
Conversion is turning a prospect into a paying customer. This is a complex issue in itself and it is important to know how to do it right.
Conversion and becoming a paying customer, affect everything on the website and landing page (a page where the user lands after clicking on a post or link or ad).
Included topics are title, images, colors, user experience, site speed, order, presentation clearly, enough information to make a decision, information and tools from the world of sales and more.
How to market and promote an e-commerce site?
So maybe everything is nice, descriptive, and clear – but here the question arises, so how to really market my site and how to increase online sales? As we wrote earlier, marketing in general or e-commerce marketing in particular is a system of actions.
These are the methods and types that enable the marketing and promotion of e-commerce sites:
1. Search Engine Marketing
Search engines are the best tool for many businesses, especially e-commerce sites (online stores). Users search for your products, conduct market research, do a price comparison, and then go to your site and perform the actual purchasing process.
However, the search engines (Google, Bing, Yandex, etc.) rank the results according to indices and data, in order to offer and present the user with the best result that suits his search – according to the type of search.
Here the goal is to give appropriate titles and descriptions to the products on the site, check that your site is fast, clear, and easy to browse, allows for a relatively simple purchase, and more.
It is also very important to implement advanced search engine optimization tools as well as tools for interfacing with search engine e-commerce systems for the purpose of presenting products in a professional manner.
2. Marketing on social networks
Social networks are very important tools, sometimes even more so than search engines. Users also surf social networking sites to get to know the brands and businesses, and they learn well about the business and the products or services visually.
However, social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Tiktok, YouTube, etc.) work according to formulas so that they determine which information is most relevant to the target audience and user – according to their area of interest.
Here, the goal is to focus on increasing engagement, adding appropriate content to the target audience, designing and branding posts, using different content (photos, videos, stories, etc.), and more.
In addition, it is very worthwhile to use the tools of social networks to present your products in a friendly way, through e-commerce systems.
3. Paid sponsored advertising
Although advertising is an integral part of the “marketing” umbrella, it was important for us to emphasize it and not as a short sentence in the various marketing channels.
Unlike many marketing channels, where the information is also provided without any payment directly to the system (unless you work with a marketing and promotion agency) – advertising is paid advertising directly to the system in which you buy the advertising space.
The biggest advantage of sponsored advertising is that the tool allows faster reach to audiences, to present the marketing message as well as point-by-point reach a specific target audience that we want.
The marketing channels in which you can advertise, allow the use of certain ads, and it is important to emphasize shopping ads. Ads that display your products on the site or in the catalog. Of course additional ads can also be used.
4. Remarketing
Remarketing or retargeting – is usually an action aimed at reaching audiences that we have previously marketed and advertised to, and now we offer them another offer.
For example, if you have created advertising for a particular audience, only a few will decide to purchase. But it is very possible that they did not buy the product for some reason, for example – because of the price. In this case, you can offer the customer a coupon as a gift, a discount on the product, or any other benefit that may be suitable for them.
The advantage is that these are usually an audience that already knows you and it will probably be easier to convince them to buy on your website.
To do this, it is important to add a certain code on the site that is designed to measure traffic and then market it as part of sponsored advertising.
5. Content-based marketing
The Internet world includes only content, this is perhaps one of the words that are talked about quite a bit at all. Content can be displayed as text, image, video, sound clip, a particular tool or application, survey, and the like.
This marketing can be effective because it is designed to promote sales, and it allows for the presentation of information that aims, directly or indirectly, to get the potential customer to buy your product and become a paying customer.
You can do this by marketing through your blog, writing an article, or marketing it on content and news sites, or other channels.
6. Marketing through personal messages
Most of us have an e-mail address or a phone number, so we can receive emails, WhatsApp messages, Telegram or Messenger messages, or text messages (SMS).
Marketing through personal messages allows you to reach your target audience in person, by sending information and marketing messages directly as a private message. The opening percentages are relatively high which contributes to high efficiency.
You can ask customers to join a mailing order or receive marketing trades by creating a customer or consumer club, joining for promotions or coupons, joining when offered for information on guides or tips, joining when making a purchase on the site, and more.
Marketing with this method can be email marketing, WhatsApp marketing, telegram or messenger marketing, bot-based marketing, automated chat, and more.
Most importantly, the consent of the recipient must be obtained before sending these messages, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant law.
7. Word of mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing may be less popular today, especially due to the fact that there are more digital tools that add to its place, but it still has importance. When word of mouth marketing, we agree with the information of our friends or family, no matter how they told us the information (physically or digitally).
We can recommend products we liked, a store where we bought a good product or a good service we received, which brings in more customers and customers who are willing to purchase.
Contrary to popular belief, your client will not always recommend a friend or relative. This is not passive marketing, but active. We need to remind our customers that they can recommend us to those other people.
8. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing or influential marketing, are marketing channels that are a bit reminiscent of the word of mouth marketing, but this is not about a customer, but about a business or influential partner, as the case may be.
A partner or influencer can recommend and influence their target audience to actually purchase your products. But you have to give him a reason. Most often the reason is financial in the form of payment for advertising or payment for the actual sale of a transaction.
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That’s all .. these are the methods with which you can promote and also market your e-commerce site (your online store). Most methods can be performed alone without the presence of another party, but you can always enlist the help of a professional or company that specializes in digital internet marketing.
If you do not have a website where you sell your products, it is very worthwhile to do so. it’s never too late. Like we said – an e-commerce site is also your salesperson so it can definitely sell more and streamline your work process.
Therefore, if you are interested in setting up a store or e-commerce site, or marketing services – at a high level, with proven results, and on a reasonable budget – we are here to help you and allow you to sell more.