When you launch your online business, the way to draw customers into your store will differ vastly from that of a brick-and-mortar store.
One of the biggest misconceptions that new online business owners have is that, by just launching their beautifully designed website, the virtual crowds will simply be pouring in and the sales would just flow without much effort on your part. However, this is not exactly how it works.
Your first order of business is to drive traffic to your site. In order for that to happen, you need to make it easy for new customers to find your site. This is where spending your advertising budget wisely in order to draw in “high-intent traffic” comes in. Then you will also need to promote your website to your existing customers. Here are more ways to market your e-Commerce site.
10 Ways To Market Your E-Commerce Site
The aforementioned strategies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to drawing new customers to your e-Commerce website. Let’s dive deeper and explore 10 additional marketing tactics to promote your site.
1. Build Your E-Mail List
Having a robust e-mail marketing strategy ensures that you always have access to your customer base. Collect as many e-mail addresses as you possibly can including prospective customers, current customers, and people that have shown interest in your products at events.
When you launch your store and or have a new product or service to offer, you can turn to your e-mail list to make this announcement, knowing that these people have already expressed an interest in hearing more about your product and your company.
2. Increase Your Digital Engagement
One of the best ways to maintain your customer base and draw new customers is to nurture your social media channels. Have plenty of new and engaging content, complete with exciting announcements, engaging videos, and striking images.
To keep interest and engagement high, consider doing giveaways, working with bloggers in a similar niche, and using the right hashtags. By increasing engagement, you are also increasing brand awareness. And this is always a good thing.
3. Optimize For SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a bit intimidating and can lead to confusion. The best tip is to keep it simple. Find out how your target audience talks about your products. What language do they use? What other information are they interested in?
Look closely at your “on-page content”. On-page content has to do with product titles, images, descriptions, and other content you use. You need to ensure that all of your content is using the same language that your customers may use when they are searching for similar products.
4. Create Valuable Content
Another great way to draw traffic to your website is to provide useful information, establishing your brand as an authority in its given niche. By providing informative and valuable content, you are educating, equipping, and empowering the customer well enough to help them make an informed decision.
5. Google Ads
By using Google Ads, you are able to “bid on keywords” to ensure that your site shows up first in the search engine results. Even though SEO is essentially trying to do the same thing, holding the “top spot”, a Google Ad is truly what will always show first.
6. Social Media Advertising
You really can’t go wrong spending advertising dollars on social media platforms, especially if you know for a fact that your target audience spends a lot of time there. If your target audience spends more time on Facebook instead of Instagram, then this is a no-brainer. You pour your advertising dollars on Facebook.
You can start by posting videos and photos in your ads. A photo ad works well so that a new audience can be introduced to your product. You can always modify your tactic and see what works and what doesn’t.
7. Partnerships
You should also consider forming partnerships with other businesses that have a similar target audience that sells a product that is complementary. This is an excellent opportunity to “cross-promote”. This way, both businesses benefit as they are reaching new customers.
Some methods of cross-promoting can involve co-sponsoring a blog or even a podcast. You could also offer a discount on one product when you purchase another product.
8. Online Events
Since the pandemic, there has been a surge in online events and webinars. Launching such an event will give you the opportunity to truly leverage this technology in order to showcase your expertise.
9. Work With Influencers
The power of influencer marketing has really taken social media by storm and many businesses have taken advantage of such partnerships. An influencer is an individual who has a significantly larger online audience, such as on Instagram. They are called “Influencers” since they essentially use their power to influence the purchasing behavior of their followers.
By partnering up with the right influencer, you can display your product directly in front of a massive number of potential customers. This boosts your brand awareness. You have to make sure that your influencer’s following actually relates to your brand, in terms of your company’s values and target audience.
10. Use Your Brick-And-Mortar Store
If your physical store is doing well and has a loyal customer base, encourage your customers to sign up for e-mail alerts and newsletters on your company website. This can drive more traffic to your online store. You can ask them to sign up for your customer loyalty program. In addition, inform them of your social media platforms so they can also follow you to know more about upcoming launches and promotions.
Promoting Your E-Commerce Site Should Not Be Difficult
Although promoting your e-Commerce store is vastly different from promoting a brick-and-mortar business, you can leverage the power of online tools and social media platforms to get the word out and build a robot brand.
Simply start incorporating one of these tactics at a time and build from there.
