Amazon may account for 40% of all ecommerce revenue, but there’s still plenty of opportunity for startups and other ecommerce brands. In 2017, U.S. ecommerce grew by 16%.
But it’s getting harder to be successful at ecommerce.
If you’re trying to build a new ecommerce marketing strategy, keep reading to learn how to start.
Identify Your Position in the Market
Without market research, you’ll have a hard time defining your ecommerce strategy. There are millions of ecommerce sites. Chances are, someone else is selling what you’re selling.
Before anything, you need to determine your position in the market.
What makes you different? Is it your pricing or the quality of your products? Many of the most successful ecommerce sites target a niche audience.
You should create buyer personas for all your buyers. The more you know about who you’re marketing to, the better you can tailor your campaigns to their interests.
Define Your Goals
At the end of the day, your most important goal will be your revenue goal. But you should also set secondary goals to help you get there.
Some of the most common goals for ecommerce marketing strategies are:
- Increase monthly visitors
- Increase conversion rates
- Increase sales
- Grow your contact database
- Increase social media followers
Most ecommerce websites can determine what percentage of their visitors become sales. One of the most common goals among ecommerce businesses is to increase website visitors to increase those sales numbers. However, it may not be the visitor numbers you need to focus on.
Many ecommerce websites struggle to convert visitors. They also struggle with abandoned online shopping carts. In 2017, 60% of consumers abandoned their ecommerce carts.
So, it may not be that you need to increase your visitors. Maybe you need to increase your conversion rate.
For example, if your conversion rate is 1%, you can expect 1 customer from every 100 visitors. If you want to convert 100 customers, you’ll need 10,000 visitors.
Ecommerce has an average conversion rate of 1.84%. Try to set a tangible, realistic goal for yourself, such as a conversion rate of 1.5%. Then, build a marketing strategy that helps you get there.
Choose Your Marketing Channels
You may wish to use every marketing channel available, but the channels you choose should reflect your goals.
For example, if you’re getting plenty of traffic but need to increase conversion rates, your strategy should revolve around conversion opportunities. Maybe your website needs a redesign, or you need to update your product pages with fresh images.
Maybe you need to rethink your pricing strategy.
Some of the most prominent marketing channels for ecommerce strategies include:
- Website design
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing and display ads
- PPC search ads
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Affiliate marketing
- Content marketing
- Landing pages and microsites
Many of these strategies can combine to form a more powerful strategy. For example, content marketing and organic social media marketing work well together. And you can’t run a PPC ad campaign if you don’t have landing pages.
Together, your marketing strategies should form a funnel for your prospects. There should be clear steps for attracting customers, converting them, and getting them through the sales process.
Build Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
There is no universal strategy that works for every ecommerce company. But by identifying your niche and choosing the best channels to reach your target customers, you’ll be able to boost your webs traffic, increase conversions, and draw more revenue from sales.
Are you ready to launch your new ecommerce marketing strategy? North Lake Digital can help.
Register today to learn more about our marketing plan options.
