“A failure to plan is a plan to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Congratulations!
Your e-commerce portal is now up and running, and all the products are listed with product details. The payment mechanism is working fine, and customer care numbers/email set up.
What next?
If you are assuming that the sales will start coming in automatically, and your new e-commerce portal will crash the web, you are mistaken. There are approximately 15-24 million eCommerce portals in the world right now, and the competition is increasing every second, even as you are reading this blog.
Some of these e-commerce portals are decades old, have made their founders the world’s richest person (Amazon, anyone?), and have dominated their niches, build a loyal customer base, and driving sales and profits every second.
Within this crowd, how will your ‘new’ and ‘shiny’ e-commerce portal make an impact?
The answer is an Ecommerce Marketing Strategy.
Ecommerce Marketing Strategy: The Requirement & The Purpose
The good news is that sky is the limit when it comes to online sales and e-commerce. There exist more than 4 billion Internet users as of March 2020, and approximately 1.8 billion people bought something or the other via online channels in the last year. The global e-commerce market has now touched a whopping $26 trillion (2018), almost 30% of the worldwide GDP.
And it’s growing, expanding, scaling fast.
So yes, there is a market for your new e-commerce portal as well, and there are customers who will love to buy your products and become your loyal customers.
But the question is, how?
This is where e-commerce marketing comes in.
To reach your targeted audience and showcase your online shop, you need a solid Business Strategy in Ecommerce. A dedicated and focussed e-commerce marketing blueprint that can create a ripple effect for your idea. There has to be a subtle combination of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing to create that impact, and this is very doable and very possible.
All you need to do is answer three questions:
- Who is your target customer?
- What are their pain points?
- Why should they buy from your e-commerce portal?
These three questions form your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy foundation, which can launch your new online store in the digital world and force people to take notice and click.
Step By Step Online Strategy For Your New Ecommerce Portal
Herein, we are sharing low cost, practical, and easy to implement e-commerce marketing strategies, which you can efficiently execute. There are various e-commerce agencies and Ecommerce and Digital Marketing firms which can do the same for you.
At the end of the post, we will share whether you should go for such professional agencies.
So, here we go.
Focus On SEO
The majority of online shoppers land on an e-commerce store via Google; hence it’s essential for you to optimize your site based on the SEO fundamentals. Find out the keywords that your targeted audience are most likely to search for in Google and use those keywords all across your portal, blog, and more.
You can outsource your SEO campaigns to an Ecommerce Digital Marketing firm, if you are finding it hard to execute.
Be Active On Social Media
Visual based social media platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, should be your focus. But again, it depends on your audience profile and where they hangout. If corporates and SMEs are your audiences, then Linkedin may also work. Facebook and Whatsapp are the world’s biggest social networks and a great platform to generate awareness about your e-commerce portal.
Pro Tip: Instagram now allows stores to sell your products. For an e-commerce portal, this is a brilliant platform.
Spread The Word via Content Marketing
Be vocal, and jump into the content marketing highway right away. Find out the blogs, websites where your target audience is located, and share your opinions via guest blogs. Create your blog, and update it daily. It helps in SEO as well.
Make an eBook (or outsource it), and give it for free to generate leads.
Use content and ideas to make a dent in the digital universe, and it doesn’t cost much money.
Seek Out Influencers & Make A Pitch
Some social media influencers have thousands, millions of fans in their respective niche. Contact them, and ask for help. Some of them may ask for money, but most of them will do it for free.
Can you pitch your e-commerce dream and make it happen? Yes, of course! Give it a try.
Refer here, For a webinar on How to Create a Magical Pitch Deck.
Don’t Miss Adding Product Reviews
As per a recent survey, as high as 84% of the online shopper’s trust product reviews. If your e-commerce portal doesn’t have reviews, add them right away. Contact your customers, plead them to give reviews.
Outreach to other product review sites and include your reviews there.
Don’t Ditch Good’Ol Emails
If you have stopped using emails for marketing, then start it right away. Emails are the most potent form of direct marketing medium ever created, and email still works.
Use your email database, send them useful, informative emails, and then see the magic.
Allocate A Budget For Paid Online Marketing
Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the two biggest, most influential digital ads platforms. It is here that an Ecommerce Agency can help you with running paid ads on either of these two platforms and both of them, depending on your niche and your audience.
Once a few campaigns are up and running, ask the experts to run Retargeting ads, which have even more conversion potential.
App Notifications Can Work Too, If…
If you have an app for your e-commerce business, then use app notifications, but intelligently. Use creative, humor-laden one-liners, and compel your app users to shop more.
We know: Such marketing strategies can be overwhelming and just too much information to process in a single day.
This is where we at MSMEx.in can help you. Our unique platform has some of the best minds from the e-commerce and digital marketing space, guiding you, mentoring you, and coaching you to increase sales, bring in more traffic, and generate more income.
Visit MSMEx, find out more about our E-commerce Experts, book a slot, and transform your e-commerce business forever!