6 Best Digital Practices When Marketing Your E-Commerce Store
Every ecommerce store, new or old, big or small, has one goal, to increase conversions and sales. But not all ecommerce stores are successful in achieving this objective.
According to multiple sources including HuffPost and Forbes, 90% of ecommerce startups fail within 120 days. One of the top reasons why ecommerce businesses fail is poor online marketing leading to a lack of online search visibility.
This summarises the significance of marketing your ecommerce store the right way. If you want to be a part of that 10% cohort that runs a profitable ecommerce business, read through and implement the tactics shared below.
1. Invest in Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing involves SEO and paid advertising. By investing in SEM, you are optimising your store for Google’s algorithms and securing a top spot on the SERPs. SEM plays a critical role in the ecommerce industry as it helps marketers shape and control their brand’s narrative and online reputation.
If a prospect wants to assess whether or not a brand is reputable, they’ll search online. So, the links and content that appear on the first page of Google when your name is searched help people gauge your reputation. Simply put, if you want to improve your online reputation, it’s critical to prioritise search marketing.
Focus on these core areas to boost your ranking and reputation.
a. Keywords
Ecommerce SEO begins with keyword research. Look for the relevant keywords in your niche and monitor the search volume. Use tools like Google AdWords, Ubersuggest, Moz Keyword Explorer to find profitable keywords that can help your business rank.
Analysing competitor content is also a great way to plan your targeted keywords. List down the top keywords that drive traffic to their websites will give you an idea of what’s working for them. Tools like SEMrush can help you discover the keywords that bring the highest traffic to your rivals.
b. Content
Create content that answers the trending queries and topics. Moreover, incorporate long-tail keywords and apply schema markups to help the search engines understand the context of your pages. This will improve your ranking in the SERPs.
Besides, having an active blog will help your customers and prospects learn more about your brand. Blog content that answers customer concerns contributes to more clicks in the SERPs, thereby boosting your ranking. Make sure your blog has a good mix of top-ranking keywords, infographics, videos, and links to the other relevant pages on your website.
Check out how Bavarian Clockworks offers a robust collection of resources that relate to their products. This helps buyers make an informed buying decision and is fantastic for SEO.
c. Technical
Take care of the technical aspects of your website, namely site architecture, indexation, code reviews, sitemaps, mobile-friendliness, and web accessibility. Check for coding errors as they can negatively affect the crawlability of your website. Also, reduce your website’s load time.
It’s best to conduct a website audit to spot and fix technical issues that could impact your ranking.
d. Backlinks
Backlinks are like a ‘vote of confidence’ given by other websites. Google’s algorithms use backlinks as a ranking signal to assess your site’s expertise. Moreover, these algorithms are programmed to use links to understand what content on your site is related to the search and the value of that content. Hence, it’s critical to have a solid link-building strategy in place.
Also, build a sound internal linking infrastructure to help the bots crawl and render your pages with ease. Relevant internal links help bots understand the relationships between pages and the most important pages on your website.
e. Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
PPC campaigns guarantee that prospects will see your page link on Google when the relevant search terms are entered. Each time a person clicks on your paid result, the payoff will be high. Hence, all ecommerce marketers should register with Google AdWords and promote their pages through this campaign.
2. Tap Social Shopping
As of April 2021, 55.1% of the global population is on social media. In the graph shared below, most of these users access social platforms to shop or find inspiration for things to buy.
Hence, it’s critical to improve your organic social presence. Use these quick tactics to improve your business’s social presence and engagement.
a. Boost Your Social Engagement
One of the sure-shot ways to achieve this is by sharing kick-ass content on your social media page. We love the way Ferrero Rocher has stocked its Instagram page with vibrant and engaging images and videos. The gorgeous content does tempt you to pick a few goodies!
b. Encourage UGC
If you already enjoy a great following on social media, it’s time to build on that. Expand your brand awareness and trust by encouraging your followers to share content related to your products. User-generated content can help you engage your followers and boost your online visibility and reputation.
I’ll discuss this in detail in the next point.
c. Enable Customers to Purchase from the Social Channel
Looking into social shopping trends, most social channels have developed social commerce capabilities. To begin with, you should focus on the three major ones, namely Instagram Shops, Facebook Shops, and Pinterest.
Use the shoppable features offered by these platforms to help customers shop without having to leave the social commerce website they are on.
For instance, Instagram Shops allows visitors to visit an online store from a company’s profile, or through their feed or stories. Check out how Crocs uses the feature to its advantage.
3. Leverage User-Generated Content
UGC is a great way to collect social proof for your brand. 91% of customers read and trust online reviews and product experiences as much as personal recommendations. When prospects see that others like them are using the product, they are more likely to purchase it.
Whether in the form of product reviews or social media posts, user-generated content can help gain customer trust and boost conversions.
When your followers post pictures or videos of using your products on Instagram or Facebook, ask permission and repost them. Building a new ecommerce brand is all about trust. UGC can help you earn that trust and increase your sales.
4. Partner with Influencers
Building customer trust in a new ecommerce store is tough. However, working with an influencer who can vouch for your brand can ‘influence’ audience behavior in your favor.
Influencers are people who have a large online following and authority in a specific domain. They can share content related to your brand to evoke trust in your products. Influencers don’t have to be celebrities with millions of followers. People with smaller accounts and an engaged audience also can help you achieve high conversion rates.
If you are looking for a micro-influencer in your niche look for hashtags and interests related to your brand and then filter the posts that are receiving maximum engagement. Once you have found the top-performing ones, invite potential partners to collaborate for social media content reviewing or demonstrating your product.
5. Capture Email Leads
Believe it or not, email marketing is the most effective channel at your disposal today! Statistics reveal that email marketing can return $38 for every $1 spent.
That’s an astounding 3,800% ROI.
Emails offer a more intimate and personable interaction in comparison to tweets and social posts. They allow you to say things that otherwise do not fit into a social media post.
Get hold of your email subscribers and actively promote your newsletter, blog, and other emails. Make signing up to your newsletter or email list central when anyone visits your store.
6. Leverage Brick-And-Mortar to Support Your Online Efforts
If your offline store has sound recognition, encourage your loyal customers to visit your new online store. For instance, you can ask them to sign up for your newsletter or a loyalty program you’ve recently launched.
Also, inform them about a special offer you are running on social channels. Such efforts will encourage them to go online, thereby driving traffic to your online store.
Ecommerce giants like Walmart and Target have been using their offline goodwill to support their ecommerce business. These brands are giving tough competition to Amazon.
The ecommerce realm is highly competitive. With a large number of players out there, a new online store has to do something different to stand out and convert high-quality leads. That being said, creating a solid ecommerce marketing strategy can help new businesses be successful in the marketplace.
Now you have a bunch of powerful and actionable tactics to generate more traffic and sales for your new online store. Put them into practice and see your ecommerce store soar!
Jade Bartholomew Director, Sierra Six Media.
Benefits of Link Building
Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO. By creating links to your website from other websites, you can improve your website’s ranking in SERPs and increase traffic to your site. There are many benefits to link building, but one of the most important is that it can improve your SEO. Link building helps search engines find and index your website, which can lead to higher rankings in SERPs. Additionally, link building can help increase traffic to your website by making it more visible to potential visitors. Another benefit of link building is that it can improve your rankings. Linking to high-quality websites can help to improve the rankings of your own site in search engine results pages. This is because search engines view links as votes of confidence, and the more votes you have, the higher you will rank. Link building also increases the traffic you receive. By improving your rankings in search results, you can also increase the amount of traffic that your website receives as more people will be able to find your site when they search for keywords related to your business or website. Link building can also improve your authority. Linking to high authority websites can also help to improve the overall authority of your own site. This is because search engines view links as a signal of trust, and the more trustworthy your site is, the higher it will rank.
Here are 8 Powerful SEO Link Building Strategies To Improve Your Website’s Ranking and Traffic:
- Reach out to other websites in your industry ask if they would be interested in linking to your site. You can also submit your website to directories and search engines, which can help increase its visibility.
- Offer to guest post. This is a great way to get high-quality backlinks from authority sites in your industry.
- Participate in forums and online communities related to your industry and offer helpful advice or insights. You can include a link back to your website in your signature, which will help to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your site.
- Submit your website to directories and search engines. This will help increase the visibility of your site and make it easier for people to find.
- Create high-quality content on your website. This will encourage other websites to link to your site, as they will want to share your informative and useful content with their readers.
- Guest blog on other websites in your industry. This is a great way to get your name and website out there, as well as build relationships with other bloggers.
- Conduct interviews with experts in your industry and post them on your website. You can then reach out to the interviewees and ask if they would be willing to link back to your site.
- Write testimonials for other businesses in your industry and include a link back to your website. This is a great way to get exposure for your site while also helping out another business.
Overall, link building is an important part of any SEO strategy and can provide many benefits for your website. If you’re looking to improve your SEO, then link building should definitely be a part of your plan! If you need help getting started with link building, contact your local SEO agency today to help you improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search results. Get in touch, we would love to answer any questions you might have!
Emma Meech, Digital Marketing Executive, Sierra Six Media.
