“How do I encourage my visitors to place orders on my site and increase sales?”
Does this question sound familiar? You’re not alone! In today’s digital market it can be difficult to stand out from the competition, especially since there are an estimated 12 to 24 million e-commerce sites worldwide with more being created every single day.
E-commerce is the future of any business. It is forecasted to grow by 56% annually to reach about 8.1 trillion dollars by 2026.
Source: Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/288487/forecast-of-global-b2c-e-commerce-growth/
E-commerce has definitely revolutionized the way we shop. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, shopping online was far from common. The global pandemic and increased internet access sped up the digitalization of several companies and made buying goods on the web easier and more accessible. In 2021, e-commerce accounted for nearly 19% of retail sales worldwide, amounting to approximately 5.2 trillion U.S. dollars. It is forecasted to grow by 56% annually to reach about 8.1 trillion dollars by 2026.
Every business needs a plan for success that includes an effective e-commerce marketing strategy. Fortunately, there are many tactics to boost your online business performance and reach more potential customers.
In this blog article, we discuss four effective strategies to expand your e-commerce traffic and convert visitors into customers.
1. Invest In Lead Acquisition Strategies
With e-commerce on the rise, it’s crucial for businesses to stay ahead of the curve with their lead acquisition strategies. There are a number of initiatives you can employ to successfully convert visitors into customers.
Targeting Based On Audience’s Interests And Location
Leveraging third-party data and analytics programs provides marketers with powerful insights, enabling them to create user profiles, target customers based on interests, location and demographics and ultimately drive leads, conversions and engagement.
Google, for example, has a wide range of products available for e-commerce marketers to research their target audiences such as:
- Google Trends
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads (Shopping campaigns)
- Google Business Profile (location-based targeting and insighting)
Knowing the factors influencing website visits helps them tailor their online campaigns more accurately and increase conversion rates. By capitalizing on advancements in analytics technology, marketers have the potential to grow brand loyalty, improve customer engagement and build a lifelong customer base.
Additionally, digital advertising and ad tech platforms are effective in generating traffic to your e-commerce website. These platforms allow for more tailored campaigns to specific audiences. There are multiple platforms in which you can run effective ad campaigns and measure their results in real-time, such as:
Regularly Updating Your SEO Strategy
If your business wishes to stay ahead in this fast-paced industry, you need to embrace new technologies and constantly stay up to date with everything in the marketing sphere. For lead acquisition and other commercial objectives, SEO is one of the most important aspects of any successful e-commerce marketing strategy.
Optimizing product descriptions and creating highly relevant and well-researched SEO content and keywords will drastically improve your visibility across major search engines. Similarly, targeted online advertisements and utilizing advanced tactics for organic search and content distribution are invaluable for obtaining quality leads for your online store.
Developing An Effective Email Marketing Program
Email marketing is one of the best tools for achieving better lead acquisition and keeping both new and current customers engaged. Not only is email marketing cost-effective, but if done correctly and efficiently it can lead to higher customer loyalty and garner more return on investment.
This article is a great resource to learn tips and tricks to successfully build an engaging email marketing program to expand your customer base and transform dormant shoppers into loyal brand advocates.
Incorporating Social Media Channels And Creating Engaging Content
Your social media platforms are an essential piece of your strategy! Social media channels are powerful tools to increase brand awareness, quickly connect with customers and gain valuable insights about where your audience lives online and what topics they care about.
Investing in high-quality content and exceptional customer service not only draws potential customers in but creates engaging experiences for people who come into contact with your business.
Offering Reward Systems To Potential And Existing Customers
Offering personalized e-commerce promos can entice your prospective customers to keep coming back!
Who doesn’t love a good discount or interest-free payment option? When you offer flexible payment options, discounts and coupons (or even free samples) as incentives, you hit two birds with one stone. You attract new customers (or the lurkers) and retarget inactive ones! These are proven to be effective ways to delight customers and drive sales, which eventually fosters loyalty and creates an even bigger return on investment.
Lead acquisition strategies for your e-commerce business offer the chance to identify customers and prioritize resources in an efficient way. A combination of the tactics mentioned above has been fundamental in the success of e-commerce giants like eBay and Walmart, so if you want your business to reach those heights of success, investing in a solid e-commerce strategy is essential!
eBay
With 138 million active users in 2022, eBay is one of the largest online shopping platforms to find great deals on all kinds of items — from vintage cars to the latest fashion trends.
In order to increase e-commerce traffic and improve performance, eBay relies on leveraging organic and paid search, effective keyword research and optimized content distribution on various digital media platforms to increase brand awareness and visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, they also offer exclusive offers and discounts to encourage visitors to sign up. By utilizing smart marketing tactics, eBay has been able to increase its e-commerce traffic and sales.
Walmart
As one of the largest retailers in the world, Walmart offers an excellent example of how effective execution of a lead acquisition plan can increase online traffic and sales.
One case study illustrating Walmart’s success is their use of programmatic display advertising. This type of advertising allows marketers to target specific audiences with tailored ads in real-time, making it much easier to maximize resources and increase conversions. Utilizing native ads via Google Display Network (GDN), Criteo, Outbrain and Taboola for content distribution helps them reach new customers and increase their brand awareness.
Another way Walmart was able to increase e-commerce performance was through remarketing strategies. Personalized deals are sent via email or app notifications to previous visitors who had engaged with their website or app, enticing them back to make (or finalize) their purchase. This also enables the brand to track customer behavior and trends across multiple devices in order to better understand user journeys and optimize their marketing efforts accordingly.
Both eBay and Walmart employ proven e-commerce marketing strategies to improve their traffic and leads. When you invest in worthwhile tactics such as SEO, effective customer targeting, email campaigns and social media marketing, brands ultimately drive online visibility, increase trust and improve their conversion rate.
2. Provide An Easy-To-Navigate Website
Taking the time to make sure your website is easy to navigate is essential if you want to create a good user experience that builds your reputation and helps generate more sales. Without a user-friendly e-commerce website, you run the risk of potential customers becoming frustrated and abandoning their purchase.
The key to creating an optimized website lies in understanding the needs of your target audience and considering how best to meet them. This includes ensuring your site is easy to navigate on any device, as well as providing relevant content and features to improve engagement and conversions. An effective website should ultimately be designed with e-commerce in mind, making it easier for customers to complete their transactions without any unnecessary steps or roadblocks. It also ensures visitors find the information they are looking for as quickly and effectively as possible.
Looking for best practices in website design optimization? Take a cue from these successful online retailers!
Amazon
Amazon, one of the world’s largest online retailers, is an exemplary example of a well-optimized website which enables customers to find exactly what they’re looking.
Amazon prioritizes user experience to increase visitor satisfaction and sales. Their UX (user experience) strategy consists of adding features such as personalized recommendations based on past purchases, split-testing to determine which product images and descriptions increase conversions and intuitive product categorization to make finding relevant items easier. To establish credibility and reliability, Amazon also offers customer reviews, so shoppers can learn more about a product before purchasing it.
Zappos
Zappos has been extremely successful in their website optimization efforts. Their focus on visuals and personalization creates an easy-to-navigate e-commerce website that encourages shoppers to return again and again for their various shoe needs. Whether it’s through curated collections tailored to specific customer preferences or premium product photos or videos, shoppers can find the shoes they need in no time!
Adding a touch of extra service for easier access, each listed product includes a detailed size guide to help customers get the perfect fit, as well as video tutorials on how to navigate the site.
When building a successful e-commerce website, keep in mind that optimized pages, search engine visibility and an interface that is easy to browse will guarantee your visitors receiving a quality experience, thus increasing engagement. You can ensure your business’s e-commerce strategy is designed for success if you give equal importance to user experience through design and website content updates tailored for your audience.
3. Employ Customer Retention Strategies
Once businesses are able to hook their visitors to the site, the next step is to make sure they keep coming back for more!
E-commerce marketers need to invest in developing strategies to improve customer retention and loyalty, such as creating an engaging user experience and a well-defined and holistic e-commerce marketing plan. Fortunately, the same strategies you used for lead acquisition, like retargeting, running an email marketing campaign and providing exclusive offers, can be used to entice existing customers.
Joining global e-commerce marketing campaigns such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday can entice both new and existing customers and improve conversion rates.
Another way to improve customer retention is by creating promotional programs within special days of the year relevant to your business or joining special online campaigns such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Singles Day (also known as 11.11). Not only does this get your customers excited, but it also improves digital visibility!
Of course, any strategy is not one-size-fits-all. Businesses need to understand each customer’s needs before they put anything into action. Companies should take the time to understand their customers better and develop e-commerce strategies around customer retention in order to secure a long-term competitive advantage. After all, customer loyalty can lead to increased website traffic, higher e-commerce conversion rates and ultimately improved business performance!
4. Leverage Reviews And Testimonials
Customer reviews, feedback and testimonials can increase your e-commerce website’s credibility.
Marketers and business owners often underestimate the importance of gathering customer feedback as a way to shape your e-commerce strategy and lead to enhanced online visibility.
Using a variety of online tools such as surveys and polls to collect information about customer preferences and reviews provides marketers and businesses with trend patterns used to leverage a better marketing plan. This in turn helps to improve your conversion rate. Not only does collecting feedback create an engaging experience for visitors, but it also reinforces the trustworthiness, credibility and value of your e-commerce website.
Don’t Forget To Build And Partner With A Reliable E-commerce Team!
E-commerce websites are becoming ever more prevalent, as are the number of developers and experts who specialize in creating personalized experiences for customers across multiple platforms. Their services exist solely to help businesses utilize technology to acquire leads, engage customers, drive sales, track progress and create wealth out of their website investments. If you need an e-commerce marketing strategy for your business, our team at Three Girls Media is ready to help you get started!
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help elevate your online business and boost your ROI.
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