With a constantly growing international e-commerce market, both in the number of online stores and the value of online shopping, you need a well-established marketing strategy to reach your target audience and to convert the website visitors into actual buyers. 

Here are the 6 most important marketing strategies, which you can use to increase the sales of your online store:

1. growing your Email database

Building a database with people interested in the products you sell and your brand is essential no matter the size of the business and industry you operate in - because not everyone who first visits your online store is ready to buy, and also because through Email Marketing you can generate repeated sales - which is where “the money” is. 

If you haven't been collecting your visitors' email addresses yet, it's time to put it on your priority list - here are some effective strategies you can apply:

• Pop-up notifications for opt-in:

If you want to improve your e-commerce conversion rate, use one of the most effective ways to build a list of potential customers - the pop-ups that encourage visitors to sign up for the newsletter list.

This will not only increase your contact list, but also your sales. In exchange for the registration, you can offer, for example, a 10% discount on the first purchase or free shipping regardless of the value of the first order. Even if the transaction will not be completed in the same session, the fact that they now belong to your database means that you can regularly send them product offers of their interest category and that you can have them return to the website to complete the purchase.

Alternatively, you can display a pop-up only when the visitor intends to leave the website - by giving a reason to subscribe to your newsletter, you can attract the attention of a person you would otherwise have lost. You can offer a free guide, a discount, free delivery or whatever else you think is right and aligns with your brand image.

Be sure to test every aspect of the pop-up so that it is very well optimised. Also, you should run an A / B test with different offers to see which of them is most effective for making contacts.

Pro Tip: When you go for the traditional pop-up option, it gives the visitor a chance to browse the website before "pausing" the session with a pop-up; You can set a timer on page scroll or time spent on the page. Thus, he / she will enjoy a pleasant experience on the website and will have the chance to decide before seeing your proposal if what you offer is really relevant to his / her interests, and will be more likely to leave their contact data in exchange for a discount, if the products are of interest.

• Organise a Giveaway

One thing is for sure - people like to receive things for free! Imagine how successful you would be if you offered a super cool product or even a collection of such products. Giveaways increase the visibility of your brand, bringing it in front of a new audience - the perfect opportunity to expand your email marketing contact list and keep up to date with your news. For a giveaway to be truly effective, consider both the micro-communities in which you promote it and how you monitor performance - to make sure your message reaches the relevant audience and you can make adjustments over time.

• Live chat

Through this tool, website visitors can quickly get answers to questions about the products sold by you, or complementary services that come with them - it is contributing to increasing visitors’ conversion rate and ensuring a better experience with the brand.

2. Email Marketing

Although it is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, Email Marketing remains the channel with the highest Return on Investment (ROI). The best part about email marketing is that it can be automated - you can be successful by setting up campaigns to generate conversions that are being sent to your subscribers, segmented based on certain interests or the stage in their buying process.

Because the era of 100% commercial emails is gone, it is important to pay attention to the topics covered and continue to gain the trust of your subscribers - below we are going to tell you about two ways you can use email marketing in this regard:

• Follow-up post-purchase Emails

If a user has already purchased a product from your site and has agreed to receive marketing messages from you, sending a follow-up email a few days after the product is delivered indicates that a customer is important to you - not only when he buys, but also after - it gives you the opportunity to get his feedback on the shopping experience from your online store - which will help you optimise certain aspects of the website or the products themselves.

It is standard practice for this type of email to ask the users to write a product review or offer original content (either a blog article, Instagram story or a video on Youtube) about how to use the purchased product. Moreover, you can use this opportunity to offer a discount on your next purchase or to invite a friend to become a buyer - thus increasing what is called "Lifetime Customer Value".

• Abandoned shopping cart Emails

There are numerous reasons why a visitor leaves the shopping cart, and emails trying to resolve the issue and complete the purchase can make the difference between a sale and a lost customer.

If a user does not complete the purchase of a product after adding it to the shopping cart, send them an email within 24 hours to remind them to complete the transaction and offer your support in case who needs more details or, why not, give him ideas of complementary products in the same category - so you will show him that you want him to make the best decision.

3. Implementation of Cross-sell strategies

Artificial intelligence has, of course, also arrived in the E-commerce space. The technology offers the opportunity to promote products that are complementary to each product a visitor views on the site, in real-time, using either data from similar previous visits (analysing the behaviour of previous visitors), or promoting products chosen by retailers themselves. Thus, it is easy to sell a pair of shoes that perfectly suits an outfit, a fitting accessory for a shirt or a face mask often bought with a lipstick. The idea behind these cross-selling mechanisms is to increase the average value of a purchase. Thus, the cost you had to bring that visitor to the site can be drastically reduced, making online promotion efforts even more profitable. Moreover, it is an excellent way to capture the attention of visitors with alternative products, in case those they were originally after when entering your site were not necessarily to their liking.

4. Content Marketing

Content Marketing is a great way for any business to communicate with its target audience. A perfect way to attract more traffic, build a community, and interact with your customers is by developing a blog - articles can address issues your target audience is facing, provide tips on using or taking care of products or news from the industry in which you operate. Such articles help potential customers learn more about your brand and your products, but they are also an effective way to increase your awareness, position you as a leader in your field of activity, and improve your position in search results, through SEO-optimised content.

Imagine a company that is constantly publishing articles about the latest trends, frequently asked questions, or product usage experiences. Such articles are favoured by Google's algorithms if they are well optimised for SEO, therefore positioning them higher on the results page for specific keywords and being organically visible among the first results - so the company would have more relevant visitors and, consequently, an increase in sales (or conversions). Popular examples that have good Content Marketing Strategies are brands such as Smashbox, Garnier or Mac Cosmetics.

Youtube is your best friend

Youtube has over 1 billion active users, among which you will surely find part of your target audience. In addition, it is considered the second largest search engine after Google. Before you start filming, do some research and find out which keywords are most relevant to your field of activity in order to determine the topics you will be addressing. You can unbox products, film tutorials or tell the story of a product you market - but keep in mind that videos need to be helpful to your audience, in order to build a long-term relationship and earn their trust. Moreover, because Youtube and Google are integrated, video results also appear in Google searches - a double chance, therefore, of being discovered by your ideal consumers, directly interested in the products offered by you!

5. Affiliate Marketing & Influencers

81% of all brands use Affiliate Marketing, and online stores are no exception - they are actually among the best candidates. Affiliates are individuals, or even other businesses, that help you sell your products online in exchange for a commission. Unlike influencers in Social Media, affiliates generate interest by using traditional, yet effective, means of marketing to attract traffic to the pages on which your products are included - especially content marketing and paid advertising. Think of affiliates as a sales team, each member having a unique target audience.

Influencers are people who already have a community of several thousand people around them, a community built of people who recognise, appreciate and trust them - so it's easy for them to draw attention to your product through a recommendation. Interested in Influencer Marketing? Do some research to find the influencers or celebrities your target audience is following and consider all possible channels: blogs, vlogs, Instagram or even LinkedIn.

6. Social Media Marketing

Online stores are highly visual - you need to highlight the product, after all - so success in Social Media depends a lot on the images you use to attract relevant attention and traffic to the product pages. This is why Instagram is the perfect platform for an Ecommerce business, because it allows you to post attractive photos that illustrate the products and helps you extend brand awareness to the young segment by using strategic hashtags and postings at the right time. The key to an organic Instagram strategy, however, is to generate interaction with your followers - you can do this for example, by running contests, by posting behind-the-scenes photos or videos or by creating interactive stories.

Take a step forward and create content specifically to sale - allow users to see product specifications, add to the shopping cart and even pay from the platform.

Pro tip: Instagram is especially effective for young audiences, under 30, so if your target audience is in this age category, educated, and is shopping online, consider promoting through this platform.

• Facebook Shop

Although Facebook has been through a lot of changes lately, it remains an appropriate social media platform for Ecommerce businesses - especially for audiences over 30 years old.

• Paid Advertising

Promoting via Facebook, Instagram or Google Ads is a great way to reach your ideal buyers. By implementing campaigns on these channels, you become proactive about the success of your store and take control of sales, having the opportunity to specifically promote the most profitable or the most popular categories, but also the special offers or offers that bring you uniqueness in the market. However, Social Media Marketing campaigns and promotion through Google need to be integrated with a back strategy and implemented by a specialist to ensure a good Return on Investment. Of course, if you want to know more, you can explore more about what we do for customers, and if it is of interest we would be happy to help.

Bonus: Use the smart checkout page

Once the purchase decision is made, the customer must enter their personal information required for invoicing and delivery - from names, to email address, physical addresses and phone numbers. So you have access to a lot of information about your customers that you can use not only to get back in touch with them, but also to extract demographic and geographical insights that you can then use in shaping the ideal and implicit customer profile. This can help in more accurate targeting through online advertising.

If you find it overwhelming to apply all the marketing techniques for an e-commerce business, we would be happy to help. Our team has experience in many industries and whether you want to increase sales through Google Ads, reach your target audience through Social Media or refresh your Marketing Strategy, we are always open to discuss - contact us at hello@marketiu.com.