By simply having an ecommerce website it doesn’t automatically mean that you will get the traffic and sales that you need to make your business work. It is important, as with any business or website to have a marketing plan, encompassing many different areas including social media, optimized content, email marketing and seo marketing to ensure that you are making the most of your website, driving traffic to your site and ultimately encouraging visitors to purchase your products.
We take a look some of the key areas of ecommerce marketing that are at your disposal, why they are used and what they can help you achieve with your ecommerce website in such a competitive arena.
Content Marketing and SEO
If you are trying to sell products, including articles and videos about your products on your website that are useful and relevant in terms of content as well as being optimised effectively, it can really help to engage visitors and encourage purchases as well as helping you to rank more highly. It also provides you with content that you can share on social platforms.
Social Media Marketing
With so many social media platforms out there it is important to identify which platform is most suitable for you, so that you can carefully create and execute a plan to engage interest as well as not wasting time on platforms that may not be as suitable. What platforms are your customers and target market using? More visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook might be more useful in showcasing and sharing what you have to offer in a more effective way. There are also paid advertising options that you might consider. With many people now active on social media is is often somewhere that visitors will engage in searching before search engines, so having a presence here is vital.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
You have more than likely invested in SEO to ensure that your content and website has been properly optimised to ensure that you are aiming for high search terms for your industry or product, but as this is a long-term process it may be that you want to invest in SEM techniques such as pay-per-click marketing, which will yield faster results. Paid-for marketing such as PPC campaigns give you the opportunity to feature at the top of Google results for the keywords that you are paying for. Competitive terms will cost more per click, but this may be worth the ROI. It allows you to get your business in front of more visitors, at the top of the search. By pairing SEM with SEO, you can aim for your website to also rank organically at the top of the search results.
Email Marketing
It is important to use email marketing very carefully, especially since the introduction of GDPR, however when used correctly it can provide a direct and powerful way of communicating with your visitors. For example, you may be alerted to abandoned carts and from this can send a gentle reminder email, encouraging the customer to complete their purchase. You can also follow up at a later date once a customer has purchased from you, perhaps encouraging feedback through a review, or letting them know what customers who bought the same items also went onto purchase. It’s important to remember that it is a privilege to be in someone’s inbox, so ensuring that your content and approach is correct is vital in giving your email a chance at being read and acted upon.
Making the most of your ecommerce website could be invaluable to your success. Utilise a variety of ecommerce marketing techniques, measure your success regularly and see which area is working most effectively for you.
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