You have successfully developed your e-commerce store and now you have become part of a massive e-commerce industry that has been projected to reach the valuation of $3.9 trillion in 2020 and $4.5 trillion in 2021. There are a lot of opportunities for your business when you go online. But success is not here. There are hundreds of other brands that are selling the same products as you do. Hence, to be successful you have to maximize the visibility of your brand on the web so that targeted traffic will reach your e-commerce store and drive sales. There are many different ways of doing this.
However, you need to know the right e-commerce marketing channels which we will be mentioned in this article. We will outline what we feel are the best e-commerce marketing channels for new online store owners based on factors such as simplicity, effectiveness, and how much time it will take to give results. Let’s begin…
1. Video Marketing:
You must have heard this adage that a picture can speak thousands of words so a moving image or a video can speak a million words. You should know that nearly 90% of the information processed by our brain is in a visual format. A human brain can process an image 60,000 times faster than a piece of content. Therefore, you should show the visual content to your audience as it will result in getting their attention. You can demonstrate through a video how your products look like, how it works, what are its features, and much more.
By using this channel, you are capitalizing on a medium that is already preferred by the users. As per a study, by 2020, online videos will constitute more than 80% of the overall internet traffic. 78% of the users stream online videos at least once a week, and 55% watch online videos every day.
Hence, video marketing is one of the best ways to make a splash when you are entering the e-commerce industry.
2. Content Marketing:
Technically speaking, even video marketing is a sub-category of content marketing, but it is highly specific. It is quite a long-term approach with steady results. It will help in driving relevant traffic onto your e-commerce store. There are many different ways by which you can use content marketing for improving the ranking of your e-commerce store on search engines. Some of the popular ones are:
· Blog posts
· Guest posts
· How-to articles
· Infographics
· Guides
· eBooks
· Interviews
· Checklists
· Podcasts
· Stories
You can even use GIFs and memes as they are also part of content marketing. One of the key methods of content marketing is to optimize the product page copy. E.g. if you are selling shoes, then having “black sneakers” on the page will increase the ranking of the page when it is looked upon by the search engine. You have to use the right keywords or phrases in the product name, product description, image text, features, etc. so that the search engine will understand when to bring up that product page for a query.
Content marketing is not just limited to a better SEO but it will also help in keeping your customer engaged in your store. E.g. a blog is a great way to entertain and provide info. of your store or products to the customers. If you are selling beauty products then if you regularly publish a blog about tips for skincare, dietary plans, exercise for better skin, etc. then your customers are going to experience a give and take relationship with your company.
3. Influencer Marketing:
These days the influencers are not limited to celebrities that we see in sports, movies, or daily soaps but a great number of influencers can be found on many different platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. These influencers are embraced by the people for their content, work, lifestyle, habits, etc. Influencer marketing can deliver results and a solid ROI – both are essential in an e-commerce marketing campaign.
This is a form of marketing focused on targeting key industry leaders to drive brand message and awareness to a specific market of customers. E.g. a YouTube with a great following can endorse your product in one of his/her video or an Instagram influencer who show off your products in one of the posts. It is proven to give results.
If we consider Return on Investment (ROI), then every dollar spent on influencer marketing results in $6.50 in sales which is a great return.
4. PPC Marketing:
Pay-per-click or PPC marketing is a straightforward approach of marketing where you generally pay a search engine or a website to showcase ads and you have to pay whenever a user will click on your ad. The ROI on PPC is not so lucrative as influencer marketing but still respectable with an average rate of 200 percent.
You must take this into account that the traffic brought by PPC advertising yields 50% more conversions through organic advertising. Since the buyers who click on ad having more need and interest in comparison to those who are just casually browsing. It is mostly seen on search engines such as Google or Bing but is now also available on popular websites like Facebook. Let’s discuss the two important search engines for PPC:
Google Adwords:
Google Adwords is one of the efficient tools for marketing if you are looking for client acquisition and retention. If anyone searches for a similar product or business to yours, Google Adwords will show up the ad which will help in your business growth. More than 3.5 billion searches are made on Google every day, that’s why there is a huge competition on Google leading to higher ad prices.
Facebook Ad:
Advertising on Facebook is completely different from Google Adwords advertising. On Facebook, the ads are native and appear within the user feed. As a business owner, you will get tools to target the ads to users based on interests, demographics, behavior, etc. You will also get access to Instagram advertising.
5. E-mail Marketing:
This is another marketing method that is highly effective to generate more leads when used appropriately. It is one of the oldest forms of marketing and still in use due to its great benefits for e-commerce business. You can create automate e-mails and campaigns which work slowly over time.
For an effective e-mail marketing strategy, you have to grow the subscriber’s list which you can do by asking for their e-mail address on the site Homepage or landing page. You also have to monitor and update the e-mail database with valid e-mail addresses. Here are some of the methods by which you can improve the engagement rate for your e-mail campaigns such as:
· New arrival campaigns (giving exciting discounts or offers on exclusive sale)
· Promotional E-mail campaigns (e.g. Festival sale)
· Triggered e-mail campaigns (e.g. shopping cart abandonment, wishlist, etc.)
· Transactions e-mails (order confirmation, receipt, etc.)
6. Social Media Marketing:
An average person spends 43,800 hours on social media platforms which is equivalent to 5 years
There is a particular set of audience for each social media platform. Hence, you must have to do proper research before choosing a social media platform for your marketing purposes. If used correctly, there are many benefits of social networks for your online business. You can also leverage social media platforms to sell your products which will also result in brand advertising.
Social media is not just limited to connecting people across the world but is also providing opportunities for e-commerce businesses as well. You can use social media marketing not just for selling products but also for marketing purposes. There is a huge growth in social media platforms for the last two decades and the users are only increasing on these platforms. The social media traffic includes all visitors who come from popular social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
7. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate marketing is not highly reputed as it was earlier used by some unscrupulous people for marketing their products. But slowly and gradually things got changed and now there are many reputable and successful affiliate marketing programs out there.
In affiliate marketing, you can reward one or more affiliates based on their traffic and quality of visitors. You have to also pay a commission if the buyers come from that affiliate.
For launching an affiliate program of your e-commerce store, you can find many different popular networks available depending upon your industry niche and type of business.
8. Re-Targeting:
When a customer visits your site, there are many different touchpoints by which the customer will interact with your site. He may look for a pair of shoes, will enter the size, and then add them into the cart. But then don’t proceed with the payment due to any reason and the order remains incomplete. Now, it is also possible that the customer will forget to complete that order in the future. But you will try to not let this happen. You can send a mail to the customer reminding him/her to complete the purchase. This is re-targeting and the method is abandoned cart recovery emails.
You can also re-target customers by up-selling or cross-selling. Suppose a customer buys an electronic mouse then you can suggest a mouse pad to purchase. The different types of Re-targeting method are:
· Site retargeting: Targeting through ads or Google search results
· Dynamic retargeting: Dynamic retargeting sends specific ads to users who have visited specific pages
· Email retargeting: Email retargeting is sending personalized emails or autoresponder emails depending on the user interactions.
Wrapping Up:
In this article, we have discussed and explained all the important types of e-commerce marketing channels. You shouldn’t leave any of them to practice. These channels will drive up your sales, and increase your brand reputation. If you are planning to take your business online, then don’t wait for more as we can help you with that. We, at Emizentech, are having expertise in ecommerce development services from scratch. Please let us know your requirements.
