Today's e commerce marketing practices must hit on multiple touchpoints during the customer's journey. From the initial, online discovery of your product or service to making that final decision to purchase, your company will have many opportunities to get your brand's message out to new and current customers alike. This is what your ecommerce marketing strategy should do - engage the customer, beat out the competition, and convert leads to sales.
If you don't know the answer to what is ecommerce marketing, then continue reading to discover the ins and outs of a successful digital marketing campaign. Digital and ecommerce marketing uses the power of these 5 online marketing strategies to overcome the challenges of competition and conversion:
- Email marketing that is automated and targets your customers by their interests and in stages
- Optimized Website (SEM and SEO) that takes advantage of Google's latest ranking algorithm
- Digital content that enhances the customer experience and boosts your website's ranking with product-driven keywords
- Social media posts that are current and relevant to drive attention and traffic to your ecommerce store
- Referral marketing (refer a friend, reviews, word-of-mouth) to drive hesitant and new consumers to your marketplace
If your ecommerce advertising doesn' t take advantage of these 5 platforms that feature personalized messages, informative videos, helpful website content, social media feeds, along with product or service images, then your company is missing out on the power of the internet to connect with your target audience.
A truly effective ecomm strategy will be based on market research and your competition, along with a detailed knowledge of your company's ideal customer. Ecommerce marketing should also include follow-up or post-purchase strategies. Some of these include getting feedback from customers to let them know that you care about their shopping experience with your company. This is a powerful way to increase trust and loyalty beyond the sale.
Digital, Online, and Ecommerce Marketing
The terms ecommerce marketing, digital marketing, and your store's online campaign are often used interchangeably. The difference between ecommerce and digital marketing is your digital marketing strategies are meant to bring traffic to your website, but your ecommerce efforts will focus on selling your products and/or services. An online campaign meaning includes the identification of your target customer's demographic and choosing which customers you want to drive to your ecommerce site, and how you will convert them.
Many ecommerce brands have mastered the importance of digital marketing in ecommerce. After the targeted customer is clearly defined by demographics such as age, gender, income, geographic location, or education level - then a coordinated, online campaign is defined that uses both ecommerce marketing and digital marketing to increase your customer base and keep current customers loyal to your brand.
Create a digital marketing channels definition for your company that leverages the power of the following digital marketing tools:
- Google Adwords
- PPC advertising (Pay-per-click)
- Inbound Email campaigns
- Social media posts
- Influencer marketing
- Informational blogs
- An engaging website design
- An optimized product page
Best Digital Marketing Campaign Examples
Some of the best digital marketing campaigns 2018 were launched by established brands and took center stage in the advertising world. Consider the buzz when the International House of Pancakes flipped its logo upside down from IHOp to IHOb - to announce its new selection of tasty burgers. Eventually, the company admitted the name change was a hoax, but it certainly garnered everyone's attention.
Nike went out on a limb by hiring controversial quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, to narrate its inspirational Dream Crazy video. Nike sales increased 31%, even while some sports fans decided to burn their Nike gear. Weight Watchers went so far as to partner with power-influencer DJ Khaled and they changed their name to WW to reflect the company's new focus on overall health and wellness. Each of these television and online campaign examples used the power of social media to generate an enormous amount of buzz about the brand.
Each of these online campaign ideas used the power of integrated marketing campaigns 2018. For instance, each of these successful marketing campaign examples likely used some of the following retail marketing campaigns 2018 strategies to get the word out to the public, boost public engagement, and make sure their website could handle the increased traffic:
- Using social media influencers to earn and leverage media attention
- An improved website design to provide the user with a positive experience
- Optimized webpages for faster loading and mobile responsiveness
- Strategically-placed backlinks on other reputable sites
To achieve the best digital marketing campaigns 2019, partner with a company that can make your brand shine and connects you with a new wave of online consumers using current digital technologies integrated with the best mobile campaigns 2018 and best practices for creating an e-commerce marketing strategy.
Best Ecommerce Marketing Campaign Examples
The best ecommerce campaigns 2018 drove consumers to make a purchase with brands they may have already been familiar with through the company's digital marketing campaigns. For a small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the best way to market online store is to use one of the best ecommerce marketing channels for online stores which include:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Wix eCommerce
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
- 3dCart
These platforms can provide a wider customer reach to increase your overall sales. They come set with 24/7 shopping capability for your customers which will bring a better conversion rate because people can make a purchase immediately. When it comes to driving people to your ecommerce site, it takes the power of multiple ecommerce campaigns that can advertise your business in a unique way or can tell your story about your product and why the customer should buy.
Many brands will leverage the power of social media to fill the consumer's need for 'proof before buying'. Facebook and Instagram are leading the industry as the most powerful platforms for ecommerce advertising campaigns that connect with a targeted persona and drive traffic to your online store. Some of the best e commerce marketing examples include:
- Uber - #BeyondFiveStars
- Weight Watchers – #WWFreestyle
- Nike - #AirMaxDay & On Air
- Olay - #FaceAnything
- Spotify – #2018Wrapped
Your ecommerce marketing campaigns give your customers more ways to engage with your company and encourages them to share their positive experiences via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Your brand starts to look as if it is accessible and connected to its audiences. Successful ecommerce advertising platforms are also used to fascinate new clients and increase your company’s visibility with search engines.
Strategies to Learn Ecommerce Marketing
To implement your ecommerce marketing strategy 2019 requires learning about advanced ecommerce marketing strategies and the differences between the many marketing channels and platforms that are available. You will need to understand how your customer moves through your sales cycle to know which platforms you should be advertising on. Consider an ecommerce and digital marketing course or ecommerce marketing strategy pdf that also teaches you the following:
- How to optimize and simplify the customer checkout process
- Writing product descriptions suited for both the customer and SEO
- Best ways to handle fulfillment and shipping costs
- Decide on the best forms of payment to accept
You can find an ecommerce marketing guide on platforms like Shopify and eCommerce. For more in-depth learning, check out free or low cost learning platforms like Lynda.com, Udemy.com, or Skillshare. Or you can always rely on one of the many online marketing strategy gurus like Neil Patel to guide you. His ebook, Digital Marketing Made Simple takes you from creating landing pages to best practices for making online product demo videos, to the multiple ways you can drive customers to your ecommerce store with discounts, deals, and coupons.
Also, consider a guide that explains ecommerce performance marketing to learn the principles for tracking your marketing efforts and optimizing your results. Some channels allow you to leverage the power of their platform to evaluate and measure your marketing success in real-time. These include Facebook, Google Ads, and Instagram, along with others. This way your ecommerce marketing strategy 2018 and 2019 can give you concrete data on ways to improve for 2020.
Creating An Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
Successful e commerce strategies are multifaceted and require that you know your target audience and your competition. Only then can you effectively know how to promote ecommerce website. Your goal is to provide the best shopping experience for the customer that you possibly can. At the same time, you must be willing to adapt to changing customer behaviors and market sectors. You can rely on customer feedback to improve your Shopify marketing strategy, but here is a step-by-step map to plan and create a marketing strategy for your ecommerce store:
- Know the strength and weaknesses of your business
- List everything you know about your targeted buyer persona
- Analyze what the competition is doing, both the good and the bad
- Set goals to know what you want to accomplish short-term and in the long run
- Outline a marketing strategy for an ecommerce startup or your existing online store
- Set a budget where you reach your goals in stages with specific action items
For instance, marketing a Shopify store begins with attracting customers by implementing those features that attract customers such as:
- Revenue-generating Order status emails
- Auto-calculate Shipping Prices
- Point-of-Sale Payment Systems
- Offering Discount Codes and Gift Cards
- Integrating Shopify with Facebook
Partner with Malomo to discover how our platforms allow you to take control of each part of the customer journey from creating an exciting online presence to taking control of the shipping experience. We offer powerful tools that can also measure your customer's post-shopping experience so you can market and sell more products with targeted ecommerce campaigns.
