If you’re searching for effective e-commerce marketing strategies, you’re not alone. Every online business is searching for the key to unlocking the potential of their business, especially around the holiday shopping season. However, it’s worth noting that good marketing in e-commerce means taking advantage of multiple channels and opportunities simultaneously—in other words, there is no perfect solution for all businesses. You will need to try strategies that work for others, adapt them to your business, and continually adjust to get optimal results.
With that being said, there are many e-commerce marketing strategies that many online businesses use to improve their results. You can take advantage of some or all of these strategies to determine what approach offers the best path forward for your company.
1. Automate your marketing efforts
Automation has come a long way in recent years, making it more accessible and more powerful than ever before. You will still need to do the planning and set up the tasks you want automated, but once you have those steps taken care of you can let your system take care of the day-to-day details. E-commerce businesses are marketing numerous tasks nowadays, including email marketing, requesting customer reviews, and more.
Don’t be intimidated by automation. Today’s software solutions are designed to help create better connections with customers, rather than seem robotic. Modern automation is also intended to be used by business people, not tech geniuses.
Your shipping, order, and customer data fuels automation in marketing through a series of IF/THEN statements. This information then allows you to send the right message at the right time to encourage repeat business and increase sales.
Further Reading: Learn how to automate campaigns better. Grow Your Business With Email Marketing Automation
2. Take advantage of your shipping system to deliver a marketing message
In an ideal world, a customer that buys something from your company will come back again and again to purchase more products. While you can wait around and hope for the best, it is more useful to utilize your shipping system to market to customers after they have purchased something from your store. A gentle reminder is more likely to keep them coming back.
Things like confirmation emails, packing slips and even branding on your boxes all add incrementally to encourage customers to buy from you again. There is no guarantee, of course, but always worth including them.
At a minimum, you should be taking advantage of product recommendations (more on that below) on packing slips and in confirmation emails whenever possible to keep the conversation and shopping mindset going with your customers.
3. Request reviews from previous customers
For most customers, researching reviews from others you have purchased a product from is a standard part of the shopping process. Reviews are usually easy to find and help to give a clearer picture of what the product and the company selling the product are like. Since reviews are inevitable, many e-commerce businesses strive to encourage customers to leave reviews so they can get a little ahead of the curve. After all, if the business is asking you to leave a review, they must care about what you think. This kind of attention makes customers feel important and increases the likelihood of getting positive reviews. The more positive reviews your company has, the better you look.
Automation makes it possible to request reviews a specific amount of time after an order arrives. Give customers a week (or whatever is most appropriate for your product) to enjoy their purchase, then have your system send over a review request. You only have to set up the system once and leave the rest to automation.
4. Use quality pictures
Whether you are displaying products on your site or sending out a marketing promotion, the quality of the photography you use matters. When people go online they are usually short on time and looking for the quickest, most obvious solution to their dilemma. Online marketers utilize pictures so often because they are effective at conveying information and setting a mood almost immediately. People respond to visuals and will generally steer towards content with images over content without.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on photography, but you should try to source pictures that are good quality. The better your images, the easier it is to attract attention to your marketing and your products.
5. Send personalized product recommendations
Although email marketing is still quite powerful for generating conversions, it needs to be used correctly to get the best outcomes. It is worth remembering that the modern customer is resistant to random, unsolicited advertising. Spamming mailboxes with promotions is not going to endear your company to anyone, even a previous customer. That is why savvy e-commerce businesses take the time to customize their marketing messages to the individual. Someone is much more likely to read an email from your company if it offers something useful like targeted recommendations that the reader is likely to be interested in.
Luckily, when using a platform like ShippingEasy, your order and shipping data can feed product recommendations with ease. When you know what people have purchased, when, and whether it was for them or a gift, you can customize outreach to them at the right times with the right products. When offers feel customized and personalized, people are more willing to buy.
Conclusion
When it comes to e-commerce marketing strategies, it is important to realize that there are rarely one-size-fits-all marketing solutions. Your business is unique, as are your customers. To effectively market your products you will need to take an individualized approach that accounts for your strengths and your weaknesses. Fortunately, there are tools available—like shipping and email marketing automation tools—that make finding and implementing your personalized marketing plan much easier to do.
At ShippingEasy, we put all your shipping and order data in the same platform as your customer marketing. Our drag-and-drop template builder, robust automation, and easy customer list management make it simple to create high-converting e-commerce marketing campaigns.
Rob Zaleski
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