10 simple e-commerce marketing tips to boost sales

Congratulations! You've finally set up that e-commerce store you've been thinking about for a long time. Hopefully it wasn't too difficult. Even if it was, the effort will be totally worth it when you start seeing some orders come through.

Now that the store is live, let's take a look at some marketing tips you can apply for sales growth.

1. Avoid cart abandonment

If you've ever shopped online, you might have added a product to the cart but then decided not to purchase it. This is known as cart abandonment.

How to fight cart abandonment:

• Build trust — Web users aren’t always comfortable providing credit card info online. Improve conversions by building more trust. For example, show some security compliance badges to assure users that transactions are safe.
  
• Offer discounted or free shipping — Customers get sticker shock after seeing how much the shipping cost adds to their order. Avoid this by offering discounted or free shipping promos.
  
• Make checkout simple — Online shoppers have a short attention span and will abandon the checkout flow if it is too complex or time-consuming. Avoid this by making the checkout process as easy and painless as possible—cart to shipping address to the payment page. Don't give-in to the temptation to include anything that disrupts that flow.
  
• Turn browsers into buyers — Many users who add items to the cart but don’t complete the purchase are just browsing with low buying intent. Incentivize these users to buy immediately by offering limited-time promos.
  
• Offer popular payment options — Customers often have strong payment preferences and only complete a purchase if their preferred method is presented. Reduce this problem by offering the most popular payment methods for your target audience.
  

2. Attract visitors with content marketing

Smart, catchy phrases on store pages can influence site visitors to buy. So, how do you get visitors to your site in the first place? While paid ads, social media posts, event sponsorship, and brochures might work, nothing generates traffic like an awesome SEO.

Optimizing your content for SEO increases the probability that search engines will show your website as the first result when somebody searches for the type of product you're selling. It's FREE, rewarding, and easy to do.

First, choose the right keywords and phrases (long-tail keywords) for your business. Think, "If I were looking for this product, what search phrases would I use in Google?" Then start writing relevant content using these, maybe in the form of informative blogs like this one;). The goal isn't to talk up your product. No one wants to feel like they're being sold to. Building trust with quality insight will improve the likelihood of a customer purchasing from you.

When you have a good 40-50 blogs, you should start seeing some organic traffic on your site. But don't stop there. Share your blog on social media. Post it everywhere. Tag people if you want, but don't spam them. That's the last thing you should do in marketing.

3. Optimize for mobile

Almost 40% of all eCommerce purchases during the 2018 holiday season were made on a smartphone, so make sure your website is optimized for mobile screens. There's no reason that the desktop version of your site should be popping up on mobile devices.

You don't want to lose out on people who do not like the way your store looks and operates on a mobile screen. Ask your website developer about mobile optimization. Alternatively, if you've built it yourself, make sure to choose a theme that is optimized for mobile devices.

4. Cultivate leads with exit-intent pop-ups

There are marketing tools to help you create pop-ups that appear when visitors try to leave your website. These can be pretty effective if used wisely—such as, giving them offers and discounts in exchange for subscribing to your email list. They track your visitor's mouse point movement, and, as soon they hover over the address bar, prompt a pop-up form on the screen.

This exit-intent pop-up offers a discount in exchange for an email address.

5. Leverage social media

As I mentioned earlier, don't shy away from social media. In fact, post as much as you can. That said, you'll get the most out of social media if you're strategic with your posting.

Make a plan. For instance, this plan could be to post four tweets, a Facebook post, four Instagram posts, two Pinterest posts, and a LinkedIn post, all this in a day. Keep in mind that you don't want to spam feeds with content that feels repetitive. It's a tricky balance to achieve—one that'll likely take some trial and error.

Using hashtags effectively will also help, especially if they're popular tags relevant to your posts. Check the trending hashtags and see if you can ride one. For instance, if you're a fashion store and you see #ThrowbackThursday is trending, share some retro fashion design and use the hashtag. This is sure to get you more impressions. You can also use GIFs or try creating some funny memes (be careful with copyright issues though).

6. Invest in Google AdWords re-marketing

If you can put some budget towards your online marketing, try Google AdWords with re-marketing. The re-marketing feature shows your online ads to your website visitors even when they leave your website.

When someone visits your site and then leaves, Google tracks their IP address. They then strategically place your ads on their partner websites that are visited from the same IP address. When your prospect sees your ad multiple times, it gives you more chances to convert.

7. Choose the right price

Pricing is probably the trickiest part of your e-commerce strategy. According to a classic study, a 1% improvement in pricing results in an average increase in profits of 11.1%. It is that huge.

Cost-based pricing is the most popular strategy. Take your cost of goods sold and add a margin that you believe the market will bear. During the initial phase of your business, you may need to work on thin margins since you'll need to provide attractive discounts and offers. Treat the discount as your marketing cost and continue with this strategy until you hit your target numbers for a month.

In fact, for the first few months, you should measure success by your number of orders rather than your total revenue.

8. Assist the customer with a live chat

An interactive live chat support widget on your site can help in many ways.

Guide a customer to the right product or ask a departing customer for their contact details so you can send them an email with the best solution and an attractive price quote.

You can also talk to a customer (who remains anonymous) ready to make a purchase and guide them through the buying experience—product navigation, adding to the cart, and the payment process.

9. Reward your loyal customers

Surprise your loyal customers with a gift on special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. You can also set aside a fraction of your marketing budget to send surprise gifts. People love when they are treated special. Your gift might make someone's day and win you a customer for life.

10. Solicit and share customer reviews and testimonials

Find your best customers and ask for their experience shopping on your website or a review of the product they bought. Post it on your website. The more testimonials you publish, the more trust you generate for your store, which also means more sales. Feel free to post the testimonials on social media as well.

These are just a handful of ways to get your e-commerce site to flourish. If you want to dive further, there are many other marketing secrets you might want to check out.

We hope you found these tips helpful. Let us know if you applied any and if you saw any positive results.

• Topic Participants

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