eCommerce success requires the alignment of your eCommerce and marketing strategies. This can help drive brand awareness through website marketing and other cost-effective channels. To understand how to use effective strategies, the key is in knowing how eCommerce and digital marketing can help your brand. This form of marketing helps generate brand awareness, sales, and loyalty.
Ecommerce sales happen any time of day or night and requires an always-on approach that’s different from a brick-and-mortar store. You can remarket your products to those who have been to your site and add targeted recommendations, coupons, and specials. An eCommerce and digital marketing strategy enhances the effectiveness of your website with a broader customer base and more ways to reach and engage. If you’re wondering how to align the two, here are a few strategies that can help:
1. Landing pages
These aren’t just landing pages, they are personalized to attract and engage the buyers in your audience. Your demographics should be clear – if they are men, what types of men? What do they like? What makes them click? Each demographic group should have a personalized landing page with specific copy that speaks to them. This helps increase the effectiveness of your eCommerce digital marketing efforts.
2. Email
You may have heard it before, but it’s still a fact. Email reigns supreme in getting close to the people who’ve already engaged or made a purchase. They know your brand and don’t mind getting more information. These are the types of customers you want. Creating a newsletter is a great idea, as well as sending out coupons or “insider” incentives as part of your strategy. Once your email database has grown, you can segment audiences as you did with the landing pages to make sales more targeted.
Another great way to engage customers is to have an email funnel in place to nurture your audience and reach out to those customers who have abandoned their carts. This keeps them engaged and your brand at the top of their minds which may result in them going back to make the purchase.
3. Mobile-friendly sites
Most customers use the internet to make purchases on their mobile devices. Creating a responsive design site gives your customers the flexibility to browse and purchase from anywhere. This also helps with ranking and being able to locate your brand in the search engines. You can’t successfully partner eCommerce and digital marketing without one.
4. Social media
You should be using social media as part of your eCommerce digital marketing strategy for engagement and sales. Most social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer brands the opportunity to advertise to their customers. Facebook and Instagram also allow customers to purchase directly from the feed when they see items they like. Maintaining an active presence on social media is key, so you can share content, specials, photos, and more. This is an effective eCommerce digital marketing strategy to reach current and potential customers.
5. Share what you know
Ecommerce sites aren’t just about selling something, they can also serve as a great way to showcase your brand’s expertise. Use articles, blogs, videos and other information on the site as part of your digital marketing strategy. Customers love how-to videos showcasing how they can use the product. This also helps garner additional interest in your brand. It’s also helpful to publish articles on other sites that can link back to your eCommerce site. Make your site more than just a product listing. Create a hub that keeps consumers interested and engaged using relevant keywords and information.
6. Use Pinterest
While most people think about Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, brands who use the power of Pinterest are winning. Ecommerce sites do well when using this platform as part of the digital marketing strategy. Use the right product image and your product can instantaneously drive traffic to your site.
7. Let the site push your sales
Use your site as the go-to for recommendations. If someone is looking at pants, you should have suggestions on the different types of pants and styles you carry. Product suggestions work well, especially when the customer doesn’t really know what they want.
8. Reviews
An eCommerce and digital marketing strategy wouldn’t be complete without a strategy to generate and manage reviews. Reviews help you show up in searches, create trust among current and potential customers, and drive purchasing decisions. Make sure your team pays attention to all reviews and is quick about responding to negative reviews. Quick responses show how important customer opinion is and can turn a disgruntled shopper into a happy one.
9. Test
Your eCommerce digital marketing strategy is more than just driving traffic to your website – it’s about customer experience. Site design is key in ensuring your customers are pleasantly surprised, engaged, and want to see more. This means you must test different elements of your eCommerce site to ensure you’re delivering the best representation of your brand. There are a few tools on the market that can help understand where customers are clicking, which pages get the most traffic and traction, and what makes people abandon their carts.
Next Steps to Align Your eCommerce and Digital Marketing Strategy
Using an eCommerce and digital marketing strategy is a crucial part of your brand’s online success. While this may seem like a lot of work (it is), nothing beats getting close to the customers that want and need your products. Having a great marketing team behind your efforts is the first step in creating an eCommerce digital marketing strategy that gets results. Digilant’s marketing services help brands identify their target audiences, creating tactics that attract, engage and convert time and time again.
Having an eCommerce site is just the beginning. Having a team to successfully implement your strategy is the final piece of the puzzle. For more information on how Digilant can assist you, contact a team member today!