In today’s digital age, eCommerce has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their customers. With the vast potential of the online marketplace, it has become imperative for companies to adopt effective eCommerce marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
In this guide, we will discover in detail 20 best eCommerce marketing strategies within 7 main approaches, including:
- Content marketing strategies
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies
- eCommerce email marketing strategies
- Social media marketing strategies
- PPC marketing strategies
- User experience strategies
- “Boosting sales” strategies
What Is eCommerce Marketing?
eCommerce marketing involves employing various promotional methods to:
- Attract visitors to your online store
- Convert those visitors into paying customers
- Keep those visitors engaged even after they make a purchase
Comprehensive eCommerce marketing strategies consist of tactics implemented on and off your website. A Well-planned eCommerce marketing strategy can aid in:
- Establishing brand recognition
- Fostering customer loyalty
- Boosting online sales
20 Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Try
There are numerous eCommerce marketing strategies that can help drive traffic, increase conversions, and retain customers. In this response, we will explore some of the best marketing strategies for eCommerce to try, including:
Content marketing strategies
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on making and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. Its objective is to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. We have many content marketing strategies for eCommerce , the most prominent of which include:
Create fun and valuable content
Fun and valuable content is one of the eCommerce marketing strategies since:
- People are more likely to pay attention to and interact with content that is fun and interesting.
- It allows you to showcase your brand’s personality and unique selling points. So, you can differentiate your brand from others.
When generating content, you ought to focus on relevant topics to your target audience and that provide value. For example, if you sell clothes, you could write blog posts about fashion trends, how to style different outfits, or how to care for your clothes. You could also create infographics about the latest fashion trends or the most popular items in your store.
In short, creating fun and valuable content takes a lot of time and effort, but it is a worthwhile investment for eCommerce businesses.
Use video marketing
Video marketing is one of the best marketing strategies for eCommerce because it allows you to:
- Show your items in a visually appealing way: Videos can give potential customers a better understanding of how your products work and what they look like in action. This may be especially useful for complex items that are difficult to visualize from photos alone.
- Increase engagement and brand awareness: People are more likely to watch and share videos, which can help you grow brand awareness and reach a wider audience.
Of course, for video marketing to play its role well, you should follow these suggestions:
- Create product demos and explainer videos: They can demonstrate to potential customers the functionality of your products and the advantages they provide. Utilizing some of the best AI video generators can streamline this process, offering innovative and efficient ways to create impactful videos.
- Create customer testimonial videos: These videos can help to build trust with potential customers.
- Create behind-the-scenes videos: These videos can give potential customers a glimpse into your business culture and help them connect with your brand on a deeper level.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies
When it comes to marketing for eCommerce, search engine optimization (SEO) is a method that we cannot ignore. In simple terms, SEO involves enhancing the visibility and position of a website or webpage in search engine results pages (SERPs). When a website or webpage ranks higher in the SERPs, it has a better chance of being noticed by users and attracting more traffic.
SEO is important because it can help businesses reach their target audience as well as achieve their marketing goals. By improving their SEO, you can:
- Increase website traffic
- Generate leads and sales
- Build brand awareness
- Establish thought leadership
- Improve customer retention
There are a number of eCommerce marketing strategies related to SEO that you can apply, which are:
Optimize your product pages
Optimizing your item pages is one of the most important eCommerce marketing strategies you can implement. Well-optimized product pages can help you to:
- Drive more visitors to your website: Optimizing your product pages for search engines boosts their ranking in search results, attracting more visitors searching for relevant keywords.
- Improve your customer satisfaction: Well-optimized product pages are easy to navigate and provide customers with the information they need.
There are several specific tips for optimizing your product pages you should refer:
- Use relevant keywords throughout your product pages: This includes the product title, description, and meta tags.
- Write concise and clear item descriptions: Your product descriptions should highlight the strengths of your items. This action also answers any wonders from potential customers.
- Use high-quality images and videos: Your items’ images should be clear and well-lit. Videos can also be a great way to showcase your products and explain their work.
Significantly, optimizing your product pages is an ongoing process. You should regularly review your product pages and make necessary adjustments to ensure they perform at their best.
Employ both internal and external links
Employing both internal and external links in your eCommerce digital marketing has several benefits:
- Internal links: They connect pages on your website, aiding visitor navigation and enhancing search engine understanding. This can result in improving search rankings and increased traffic.
- External links: They join your site to others, serving as citations, providing extra information, and recommending websites. They also enhance your website’s authority and credibility.
Here are some ways to use internal and external links for eCommerce marketing strategies:
- Internal links:
- Connect product pages to homepage and relevant pages.
- Cross-sell and upsell related products.
- Create a breadcrumb trail for easy navigation.
- Create a sitemap for search engine optimization.
- External links:
- Cite sources in blog posts and content.
- Provide additional information and resources.
- Recommend helpful websites to visitors.
- Just link to high-quality websites that are relevant to your site.
Regularly conduct site-wide audits
To continue, regularly conducting site-wide audits is an essential part of eCommerce marketing strategies. A site-wide audit is a comprehensive review of your website to identify any areas that need improvement. Site-wide audits can help you to:
- Identify and fix any technical problems with your website.
- Improve the user experience of your website.
- Identify any opportunities to improve your website’s performance.
Here are some specific tips for conducting a site-wide audit:
- Start by reviewing your website’s analytics data: You need to look for things like traffic levels, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
- Check your website’s technical performance: This includes things like page loading times, broken links, and security vulnerabilities.
- Review your website’s content: Your content must be high-quality, provide valuable information, and be relevant to your target audience. You should also check for any duplicate content or plagiarism.
- Audit your website’s SEO: It would be better to check title tags, meta descriptions, and keyword usage thoroughly.
Once you have completed your site-wide audit, you can create a list of recommendations for improvement.
Align your content with search intent
Next, aligning your content with search intent is an important marketing strategy for eCommerce for a number of reasons:
- Attract more visitors to your website store: Because more people will see your content when they search for relevant keywords, they will click to visit your website.
- Build trust and credibility: With high-quality content that is aligned with search intent, you demonstrate your expertise in your industry and generate trust with potential customers.
Here are some specific tips for aligning your content with search intent:
- Understand the different types of search intent:
- Informational searchers are looking for information
- Navigational searchers are looking for a specific website
- Transactional searchers are looking to make a purchase
- Commercial searchers are researching products or services before making a purchase decision.
- Create content that fulfills the search intent of your target keywords: For example, if you are targeting a keyword with informational intent, you should write a blog post or article that provides information on that topic. If you are targeting a keyword with transactional intent, you should create a product page or landing page that sells the items or services that the searcher is looking for.
Incorporate the primary keyword into your URL
In the list of eCommerce marketing strategies related to the SEO approach, we highly recommend you incorporate the primary keyword into your URL because:
- If you include your primary keyword in your URL, it can help your pages rank higher in search results for that keyword.
- URLs with relevant keywords are more accessible for people to read and remember. This can be helpful for both visitors and search engines.
- It can increase click-through rates (CTRs). People are more likely to click on links that will lead them to the information they seek.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind when incorporating keywords into your URLs:
- Don’t keyword stuff: Keyword stuffing is the practice of overloading your URLs with keywords unnaturally. This can actually hurt your SEO.
- Keep your URLs short and concise: Long and complex URLs can be difficult for people to read and remember.
eCommerce email marketing strategies
Email is an established and reliable tool for eCommerce digital marketing, delivering an average return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every dollar invested, surpassing the performance of any other marketing channel.
Marketers employ email marketing to:
- Advertise products or services
- Establish connections with customers
- Stimulate purchases
- Foster customer loyalty
There are 2 eCommerce marketing strategies in terms of email you can refer to:
Cultivate potential email leads
Nurturing email leads is an essential eCommerce marketing strategy for some reasons:
- Email nurturing allows you to stay connected with leads who have shown interest in your brand but may not be ready to make a purchase yet.
- By providing relevant information, addressing pain points, and offering incentives, you can guide leads through the buyer’s journey and encourage them to make a purchase.
- By giving targeted and personalized emails based on previous purchases and customer behavior, you can upsell, cross-sell, and encourage customer loyalty.
Here are some specific guides for cultivating potential email leads as one of the best eCommerce marketing strategies:
- Utilize tools such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor to design, send, and track your campaigns.
- Leverage CRM software such as Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Hubspot to manage customer data, track lead interactions, and create targeted email campaigns.
Tailor your email campaigns
Along with nurturing email leads, customizing your email campaigns is one of the most valuable eCommerce marketing strategies in terms of email because it allows you to:
- Increase open rates and engagement: When people receive an email that is relevant to their interests, they are more likely to open it and read it.
- Improve click-through rates and conversion rates: Once people click on the links in your emails, they are more likely to take the desired action, such as making a purchase or visiting your website.
Several types of customized email can help improve your odds and increase audience engagement, including:
- Welcome emails
- Birthday emails
- Thank you emails
- Promotional emails and gifts
- Abandoned cart emails
- Referral emails
- Shopping cart drop-out emails
Social media marketing strategies
Social media marketing involves utilizing social media platforms to join with your audience, boost sales, and generate traffic to your website. It is a powerful digital marketing for eCommerce that can help you:
- Reach a large audience
- Build relationships with potential and existing customers
Some of the most prominent social media marketing strategies include:
Embrace user-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) is various content created by users. It can be product reviews, review social media post, and blog posts. UGC is one of the best eCommerce marketing strategies because it is:
- Authentic and trustworthy: Consumers trust UGC more than brand-created content. This is because UGC is seen as being more unbiased and honest.
- Social proof: UGC can provide social proof for your products and services. When potential customers see others using and enjoying your items, they are more likely to make a purchase.
- Cost-effective: UGC is a cost-effective way to market your eCommerce business. You don’t have to pay to create UGC; all you have to do is encourage your buyer to build and share content about your brand.
Here are some specific tips for embracing UGC as an eCommerce marketing strategy:
- Create curated UGC galleries on your website and social media pages: This is a great way to showcase the best UGC about your brand.
- Respond to UGC: When customers create and share UGC, be sure to respond to it. This shows that you appreciate their feedback and that you are listening to them.
Collaborate with influencers
According to Hubspot, 1 in 4 marketers currently use influencer marketing, with 72% of Gen Z and Millennials following them on social media. Social media influencers can use their following and credibility to promote your products or services, reaching new customers and boosting brand awareness. And you pay them to promote products through incentives like free products, lifetime discounts, and fees.
Here are some specific tips for collaborating with influencers on social media pages:
- Identify relevant influencers: As per the Attrock in-depth influencer marketing guide, when choosing influencers to collaborate with, it is important to identify influencers who are suitable to your target audience and who have a good reputation. You can use tools like BuzzSumo and BuzzStream to find influencers in your niche.
- Create a collaboration agreement: After agreeing to collaborate with an influencer, it’s essential to create a collaboration agreement that specifies the collaboration terms, including deliverables, compensation, and usage rights.
Host both live and virtual events
Live and virtual events become increasingly popular because they provide a more personal and interactive experience. This strategy lets your businesses:
- Generate leads and sales
- Increase brand awareness
- Networking opportunities with other businesses in your industry
Here are some tips for hosting live and virtual events effectively:
- Choose the right event format: There are multiple types of events that you can host, such as webinars, conferences, workshops, and product demos.
- Promote your event: You can promote your event through your website, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
- Offer exclusive content and discounts to event attendees: This will incentivize people to attend your events and engage with your brand.
Integrate shopping profiles
The Influencer Marketing Factory announced that 40% of people prefer online shopping, while only 13% prefer in-store shopping. With more people using social media to discover and buy products, many social media platforms are adding shopping features.
As an eCommerce seller, you should pay attention to this feature because shopping profiles make it easy for customers to shop directly from your social media pages. Customers can browse your products, add them to their cart, and checkout without leaving the social media platform.
PPC marketing strategies
PPC marketing, or pay-per-click marketing, is a type of online advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. PPC ads typically appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) and other websites. PPC is one of the greatest digital marketing strategies for eCommerce as it can:
- Drive traffic to your online store
- Generate leads and sales
- Retarget abandoned shoppers
There are 2 best eCommerce marketing strategies in terms of PPC we want to recommend for you, which are:
Implement PPC campaigns
PPC advertising campaigns offer the ability to tailor both the content of the ads and the intended audience. By focusing on particular demographics and interests, you can ensure that your ads are shown to the most relevant individuals at the moment. With targeting options such as location, age, gender, and even device preference, businesses can guarantee that their advertisements reach the appropriate audience at the most suitable time.
Here are some tips for running effective PPC campaigns for your eCommerce business:
- Choose the right keywords: It’s crucial to select the right keywords to target the right audience. You should research and identify potential customers’ terms and phrases when searching for similar items.
- Write compelling ad copy: Your ad copy should be clear, concise, and persuasive.
- Set a budget: You can start by setting a daily or monthly budget that aligns with your business goals and financial resources. Moreover, please consider factors like the average cost per click (CPC) for your chosen keywords and the expected conversion rate.
- Track your results: It would be better to use tools like Google Analytics or the tracking features provided by your PPC platform to monitor key metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Retargeting your customers
Retargeting is one of the most effective eCommerce marketing strategies that involves showing ads to people who have already interacted with your business. It increases the likelihood of customers making a purchase because they are familiar with your brand and products.
To implement retargeting as an ad strategy for eCommerce, you can:
- Consider using social media platform ads on Facebook and Instagram to target audiences based on their interests, behaviors, and demographics.
- Utilize Google Ads and other search engines to target users who have previously searched for relevant keywords or visited specific pages on your website.
User experience strategies
User experience (UX) marketing strategies for eCommerce focus on creating a positive and engaging experience for users throughout their journey on your website or eCommerce store. This includes everything from the moment they land on your homepage to the moment they complete a purchase and beyond.
Here are some eCommerce marketing strategies related to UX:
Ensure mobile optimization
Have you heard of the concept of Mobile Commerce (mCommerce)? Ecommerce is a term used to describe transactions conducted on mobile devices. According to eMarketer’s Insider Intelligence, retail mCommerce sales are projected to represent 43.4% of total retail eCommerce sales in 2023, an increase from 41.8% in 2022. The report also predicts that global retail eCommerce sales will reach nearly $4.5 trillion by 2024, accounting for 69.9% of total retail eCommerce sales.
These statistics emphasize the importance of prioritizing mobile optimization as one of the top eCommerce marketing strategies. But how to optimize for mobile? Here are some tips for you:
- Responsive web design: This technique allows your website to automatically adjust its layout and content to fit the screen size of the device it is being viewed on.
- Optimize images: Large and unoptimized images can significantly slow the loading speed, leading to frustrating user experiences. Thus, it is essential to compress and optimize images to reduce file sizes without compromising quality.
- Use large fonts and buttons: Small fonts and buttons can be difficult to see and tap on mobile devices. To make your website more mobile-friendly, you should use large fonts and buttons.
- Ensure fast-loading: Slow-loading pages can lead to high bounce rates and a negative perception of your brand. To optimize your website for fast-loading speeds, you can minimize code and script usage, leverage browser caching, and optimize server response times.
Start a wish list
Starting a wish list is one of the best eCommerce marketing strategies for a few reasons:
- Provides valuable customer data: Wish lists offer insights into customers’ interests and preferences. This data can be used to develop targeted marketing campaigns and improve your product selection.
- Tracks customer behavior: Wish lists help you monitor how customers interact with your website and which products they’re interested in. This information can be used to enhance the customer experience and increase conversions.
Here are some tips for starting a wish list on your eCommerce website:
- Allow customers to add products to their wish list without having to create an account.
- Make it easy for customers to share their wish lists with others.
- Send customers targeted marketing campaigns based on their wish lists. For example, you could send customers an email notification when a product on their wish list goes on sale.
Highlight similar products
By providing customers with alternative products while they browse, you can incentivize them to stay engaged and continue interacting with your eCommerce website. This approach is far more preferable than them venturing to rival websites for comparison shopping.
For instance, take a look at the “You may also like” section prominently displayed above the fold of a listing on Etsy. Not only does it showcase related products, but it also cleverly incorporates the number of items left in the cart to create a sense of scarcity.
Moreover, this strategy proves particularly effective for brands that utilize Google Shopping ads, as visitors arriving from a Google listing are often in the midst of comparison shopping.
“Boosting Sales” Strategies
In fact, boosting sales is the ultimate goal of any eCommerce business. There are a number of marketing strategies that can be used to achieve this goal. However, there are a few that help stimulate sales faster, such as:
Cross-sell or upsell to customers
Cross-selling and upselling are two eCommerce marketing strategies that can help you increase sales and average order value.
- Cross-selling involves recommending related products to customers who are already interested in purchasing a particular product.
- Upselling refers to encouraging customers to purchase a more expensive or upgraded version of the product they are already interested in.
There are three crucial opportunities within the sales process to employ cross-selling and upselling techniques:
- Before purchase: Incorporate cross-selling and upselling suggestions on the product page just before customers add an item to their shopping cart.
- During purchase: Integrate cross-selling and upselling options during checkout or when customers review the items in their cart.
- After purchase: Utilize email, SMS, or encourage customers to revisit your store to present them with cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Send abandoned cart reminders
Abandoned cart messaging is a crucial strategy for eCommerce businesses to recover lost sales and increase conversion rates. Customers may add items to their shopping carts but leave the website without completing the purchase. Then, abandoned cart messaging aims to bring them back and encourage them to complete the transaction.
Here are some key steps to implement abandoned cart messaging as one of eCommerce marketing strategies:
- Timing: It’s important to strike a balance between sending reminders promptly and not overwhelming customers with too many messages. A common approach is to send the first message within 1-2 hours of cart abandonment, followed by a series of reminders over the next few days.
- Compelling content: Highlight the benefits of the products, offer incentives like discounts or free shipping, and generate a sense of urgency to encourage customers to complete their purchases.
- A clear call-to-action: The CTA should direct customers back to their cart or provide an easy way to complete the purchase.
- Multichannel approach: It is important to use multiple channels to reach customers with abandoned cart messages. Besides email, you can also utilize SMS or messenger marketing to engage with customers who have abandoned their carts.
How to Choose eCommerce Marketing Strategies for Business Growth
When it comes to choosing eCommerce marketing strategies, there are several steps to consider before determining the best strategy for your business :
Define your marketing goals
The first step in choosing eCommerce marketing strategies for business growth is to define your marketing goals by answering these questions:
- What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts?
- Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales?
Once you know your goals, you can choose the marketing strategies that are most likely to help you achieve them. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might focus on content marketing and social media marketing. If you want to generate leads, you might focus on email marketing and paid advertising. And if your goal is to drive sales, you might focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
Know your target audience
Once you know your marketing goals, you need to know your target audience. The better you understand your target user, the more effective your marketing campaigns will be.
There are a number of ways to learn more about your target audience, such as:
- Conduct surveys
- Interview customers
- Analyze your website traffic.
- Take advantage of social media listening tools to see what people are saying about your brand and your industry
Research your competitors
Another important step in choosing eCommerce marketing strategies is to research your competitors. By understanding your competitors’ marketing strategies, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your brand and reach your target audience more effectively.
To research your competitors, you can:
- Visit their websites
- Read their blog posts
- Follow them on social media
- Sign up for their email lists.
- Use tools like SEMrush and SimilarWeb to analyze their website traffic and search engine rankings.
Consider that
eCommerce marketing can be expensive, so it’s important to consider your budget when choosing marketing strategies. Some marketing strategies, such as paid advertising and content marketing, can be very costly. Others, such as social media marketing and email marketing, can be more affordable.
When choosing marketing strategies, it’s important to be realistic about your budget. It’s better to focus on a few well-executed strategies than to spread yourself too thin and not be able to do any of them well.
Monitor and analyze results
Once you’ve implemented your marketing strategies, it’s important to monitor and analyze your results. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not so that you can adjust your strategies accordingly.
There are a number of ways to monitor and analyze your marketing results:
- Leverage social media analytics tools to track engagement on your social media posts.
- Use Google Analytics to track website traffic, sales, and conversions
eCommerce Marketing Strategies: FAQs
- What are marketing strategies in eCommerce?
eCommerce marketing strategies are methods used to promote and sell products or services online. Some examples include content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
- What are the 4 P's of marketing in eCommerce?
The 4 P’s of marketing in eCommerce are:
- Product: refers to the item being sold
- Price: the cost at which it is offered
- Place: the platform or channel through which it is sold
- Promotion: involves the marketing and advertising efforts to attract customers.
The 5 C’s of eCommerce marketing are:
- Customers
- Competition
- Company
- Collaborators
- Context.
Understanding these factors is crucial for developing a successful marketing strategy in the eCommerce industry.
Let’s Start Your eCommerce Marketing Strategies!
In a nutshell, eCommerce marketing strategies can help you drive traffic, sell more, and keep customers. However, most importantly, you need to have a suitable strategy. With the help of this guide, we hope that you can create effective campaigns to achieve greater success for your eCommerce business.
To read more interesting information and helpful guides about the eCommerce industry, follow our blog and join our Facebook community as soon as possible!
As a final word, if you wish to scale your online store into multiple marketplaces, LitCommerce may be a great supporter for you in terms of inventory issues. Let’s get in touch with us to learn about this tool!