Creating an e-commerce site is a great move. Without a doubt, it can prove to be a profitable move and can enhance your business – pushing it to the next level.
However, the mistake that many businesses make is not marketing their e-commerce site. If you don’t effectively market your e-commerce site, you won’t bring in new customers, and there is a chance that your website will fail.
Obviously, we won’t let this happen. Here are our top tips on how to promote your e-commerce site, even if you’re on a budget.
1. Create a Content Strategy
A content strategy is one of the most important things that you can do. Google ranks sites higher that continually post fresh content. This is the exact reason why a content strategy is so important.
The best way, in our opinion, is to create a blog. It’s so cost-effective and easy to implement into your site and marketing efforts. Make sure that you keep your blog relevant, though.
For instance, if your e-commerce site sells health and wellness products, make sure your blog publishes health and wellness products. Also, discover your target audience and make sure your content targets them, otherwise your efforts could be wasted.
Something that goes hand in hand with content is SEO. This is why a SEO strategy, connected to your content strategy is crucial. In fact, SEO is a must for all e-commerce sites.
SEO optimization means that you’ll rank higher on search results. This will almost always generate traffic, and create more sales. There is an array of ways that you can optimize your sites for search engines.
The best way to implement SEO into your content is through keywords. However, link building and a great, fast website also help.
With content and SEO, practice definitely makes perfect. It might be a slow process, so patience is critical. Keep exploring new ideas, and keep up to date with content and SEO trends.
2. Social Media
Sure, social media can be distracting. However, if you cross off the cat videos and start using it to market your business, you’re on the path to success.
Social media is a really wonderful, cost-effective way to advertise your business, help your name enter people’s brains, and gain new customers. The best thing about social media is that the potential is limitless. Some brands have entirely turned their business around using social media.
Social media isn’t easy to master. We’d say patience is key again, and keep engaging with your followers and posting quality content.
A great way to maximize social media for your business is by creating a campaign. A social media campaign brings in new followers, customers, and traffic to your site.
You’ve more than likely seen them before – a brand will run a competition or campaign. The rules of which often say something like, “follow, tag your friends, and share this for your chance to win.”
This will undoubtedly bring attention to your brand and will increase your following.
Promotions are also a great way to market your business. Things like coupon codes or exclusive deals. You can make promotions and deals exclusive to social media – this will give your followers an incentive to follow you, and keep following you.
With social media, quality is definitely better than quantity. Don’t focus on the number of followers and likes – focus on how many of those will be buying products from your site, and sharing your posts.
Our number one tip for social media is – give your followers a reason to follow. Don’t spam, post quality, and engage.
3. UGC
User-generated content (UGC) is also another great way to promote your e-commerce site, without breaking the budget.
UGC is, in its basic form, the act of your users or customers creating the content. Think reviews, blog posts, videos, and shout outs. The best thing is, it’s super effective and works in the same way that word of mouth marketing does.
You always trust your friend’s opinion on a product, more than a company’s view on themselves, right? That’s why UGC should be a significant consideration for you.
To get started with UGC, ask your customers to review your products, ask them to share on social media (even for a coupon code or deal), and offer them deals for blog posts and video content.
A great UGC campaign was performed by Aerie, using a hashtag to bring attention to their site. Their powerful campaign, #AerieReal, encouraged their female followers to feel confident with unretouched photos.
It was an effective campaign, as it promoted body positivity, gave their followers a chance to be featured, and also brought attention to a worthy cause.
If you’re looking for a way to get your UGC marketing off the ground, free samples could be your answer.
Send your products to vloggers or influencers, and they might just feature them or review them. It has the potential to bring visibility to your site.
4. Email Marketing
This is a low-cost method that will promote your business in one of the best ways.
However, to really make the most of email marketing, you have to make sure you have the right customers, and your content is worth clicking on. We would say you shouldn’t jump right into selling with email marketing.
Provide your subscribers with infographics, blogs, and deals – this will make them feel like signing up was the right choice. Add a few selling points every now and then, and you might get a few more sales.
5. Paid Advertising
Of course, we have to mention the advertising that you pay for. Make no mistake, organic promotion is always much better – but if you want to reach new people, attract new customers, and have a higher conversion rate – it could be an option for you.
The best option is the pay per click advertising option. This means that you only pay when someone directly clicks onto the link to your site. Once users are on your website, it’s your job to make sure that you make a sale.
This is why a quick website, a fantastic product or service, and beautiful design is crucial. If you provide excellent user experience, you’ll see returns quickly.
So, although it is paid, it can prove to be profitable for your business. Positive returns are something you should focus on, not the initial investment.
6. Influencer Marketing
This is another paid option for you to consider, but it does reap many returns. You see, traditional forms of advertising are on the way out. Billboards, television adverts, and radio adverts just don’t have the same effect anymore. So, you should try to focus on the people that your customers experience every day.
Influencer marketing is basically the act of paying somebody online that has a lot of followers to advertise your product. You see big celebrities like the Kardashians advertising products on Instagram – this is influencer marketing.
Many fast fashion e-commerce sites focus the entirety of their marketing on influencer marketing. It does really work.
Make sure that the influencers you reach out to are relevant to your business. For instance, if you have a fitness e-commerce site, reach out to fitness influencers.
7. Videos
If you want to reach a larger and more engaged audience, videos are an excellent option for you.
Video tutorials, posted on sites like YouTube, always do really well. This will teach your audience how to do something, keep them engaged, and might just compel them to go to your site.
Video tutorials help your brand gain loyal customers, help to build an audience, and bring in the right demographic. Consider this – somebody searches “how to make your own tea,” and, if they see a high-quality video, they will probably click on it. Again, this could provide a high conversion rate as well.
Whatever your product or service, you could more than likely provide video tutorials, even if it means thinking outside of the box.
Conclusion
These were just a handful of cost-effective ideas for promoting your e-commerce brand. In the world of marketing and e-commerce, there are countless ways to promote your brand, and you’ll often think of creative ideas for yourself.
If you keep exploring ways to connect with customers and promote yourself, you will undoubtedly see an increase in sales and traffic.
