Ecommerce marketing is about getting customers to your online store and convincing them to purchase. Ecommerce marketing involves attracting attention and visitors, building awareness, and guiding prospects to purchase, repurchase, and become brand advocates.
Ecommerce marketing takes place wherever a customer is likely to be. It can be done on podcasts, social media, google ads, and through word-of-mouth.
Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
Ecommerce marketing strategy is a fairly broad field to delve into. It can be carried out on any number of channels and use a variety of tactics. Here’s an overview of common ecommerce marketing methods.
Social media marketing occurs on social media channels where a brand’s customer is present and will be receptive to marketing. Social media is an incredibly versatile ecommerce marketing medium. It’s perfect for PR, product education, customer engagement, and more. It can be used to trendjack and newsjack, that is, to gain attention by posting around trending hashtags, events, or news items. It can be used for direct commerce marketing that enables customers to shop on-site.
Influencer marketing leverages other people’s social capital —brands partner with influencers with an engaged and trusting audience.
Content marketing is primarily used to attract, nurture, and convert search engine browsers. It can be used to engage and inform interested prospects in order to turn them into customers. It should also be used to gain their email address and permission to market to them.
Email marketing is used to communicate one-on-one with customers. It should be highly personalized and used to build a relationship with them.
Video marketing uses long or short-form videos to promote. These videos can be created by the company, employees, customers, influencers, or other parties (like news footage). This strategy is good for drawing attention on social media, demonstrating products, and nurturing an active community.
Cause marketing refers to promoting charitable initiatives along with or in place of your brand’s specific offer.
Paid advertising means paying to be listed or promoted on various channels based on criteria like demographics, interests, and previous interactions. It includes paid search engine listings, display ads, sponsored YouTube videos, etc.
Seasonal digital marketing is run around holidays, seasons, events, and other time-based or cultural themes.
10 Ecommerce marketing examples to try
Cater to micro-influencers
Influencer marketing has gotten expensive. And it can be seen as inauthentic.
Micro-influencers have anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 followers. These influencers should still display characteristics of a great marketing partner, such as high engagement on their social media, consistent posting, a responsive audience, etc.
Find a qualified micro-influencer whose audience intersects with your customer base and whose posts fit your branding. The typical small following influencer marketing strategy focuses on more authentic, creative posts showing how they use and benefit from your product rather than sponsored ads.
This is a great way to show love to smaller communities and customer demographics, tap into ignored market segments, and win brand loyalty.
Seasonal and themed product bundles
Bundling is an ecommerce marketing strategy that boosts sales and average order value.
Seasonal or themed commerce marketing builds a campaign around holidays and other events. It leverages time sensitivity and capitalizes on the excitement and good feelings of the moment.
Combine these strategies with holiday-themed or seasonal bundles.
Have products that can be used during spring break, July 4th, or a weekend cabin getaway? Design different bundles showing customers how to pair these items and use them to enjoy their time more.
Offer educational items great for cramming during finals, parents trying to tutor, or keeping kids occupied during vacation? Bundle up packages that fit buyer personas and market away during key dates.
Run promotions via email marketing, social media, and influencer marketing. Have the brand or influencers create social media posts showing the bundles in use.
Post-purchase email marketing
The moments right after a sale happens on your ecommerce store are critical. Your new customer has just experienced a dopamine flood, but these feel-good emotions can either turn to disappointment and regret or develop into long-lasting satisfaction and enjoyment.
Don’t leave them alone during this timeframe. Reach out to customers with post-sale email marketing. Express appreciation for their purchase, find ways to reduce dissatisfaction, and consider upselling. You can boost satisfaction by showing them how to use the product and proactively guiding them through any potential issues. A little while after the purchase, check in with them to gauge their satisfaction rate. Then offer any upselling recommendations.
Flash sales
An unexpected flash sale is a great marketing tactic to rev up your customer base at a moment’s notice. Running unpredictable sales events for no particular reason is exciting and trains customers to pay attention to your ongoing marketing.
Promote flash sales via all your digital marketing channels. Send out emails and make social media posts to alert your past customers and target audience.
Make product videos
Showcase your product with videos posted on different social media channels. Show its physical characteristics such as what it looks like and its dimensions. Show it in use in various scenarios.
YouTube is the best place for this. It’s an Alphabet Inc. platform that’s optimized to rank on the Google search engine and get in front of your target audience.
Other social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, are good for connecting with your existing audience.
TikTok has been excellent for tapping into younger audiences and gaining popularity. However, it doesn’t have the advantage of being connected to Google, and the political environment is tilting against it.
Donation campaigns
Purpose-driven and socially responsible brands can engage in business for good by running charitable donation campaigns.
Donation-based ecommerce marketing allows customers to give money to charity while shopping online. Most are integrated with the checkout process and can offer multiple ways to donate to an array of charitable causes.
It’s easy to raise a significant sum of money when asking for small donations, such as asking customers to round up their final sale price to the next dollar and donate the difference. Brands can also prompt customers to give by matching their contributions or incentivizing them with a discount on a future order.
Personalization
Ecommerce is an ideal vehicle for personalized marketing. Personalization occurs when marketing is customized based on a user’s browsing history, online interactions, personal data, demographic profile, buying history, customer service interactions, and other online history.
Marketing messages, themes, content, recommendations, and offers can all be customized to suit individual shoppers.
Ecommerce personalization drives growth, performance, customer satisfaction, and other customer outcomes. 71% of consumers expect personalization, and 76% become frustrated if they don’t get it. Fast-growing companies drive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than slow-growing counterparts.
Leverage your marketing automation and other ecommerce technologies to send customers targeted promotions, personally address them, tailor marketing campaigns directly to them, deliver accurate recommendations, use behavior-triggered marketing, and align the shopping experience to them.
Localization
Do you have a sizable group of customers located within a particular region? Localize your ecommerce marketing strategy with regionally tailored messaging, seasonal campaigns, sales events, and promotions. Try these ideas:
- A contest or giveaway themed around a local event
- Localized social media engagement
- Personalized regional landing pages
Localization should be considered absolutely necessary if you’re expanding into international ecommerce.
Website chats
Use a chat feature to let customers easily interact with your brand while on its website. Chats can offer trigger-prompted personalized marketing, help resources, connect shoppers with customer service, and simply allow browsers to reach out.
Your chat can be run by a real person or an AI-powered chatbot. If you decide to go with a chatbot, make sure to let customers know it’s a bot and consider anthropomorphizing it. Don’t advertise it as a live chat with a real person, only to have customers interact with a clunky bot.
Cart abandonment emails
The Baymard Institute estimates an average ecommerce cart abandonment rate of 69.99%. Your ecommerce site might be a little better, but this is a persistent issue most brands have to deal with.
There are a few reasons this happens. Unexpected or excessive additional costs from shipping and taxes are prime culprits. Forced account creation is another one. Customers being unable to calculate their final upfront costs is another. Untrustworthy websites, lackluster delivery options, undesirable payment methods, or poor return policies can turn customers off. Performance issues can also lead customers to click away.
Address these issues and work to get customers back with cart abandonment email marketing. Plug a series of emails into your marketing automation.
Try Marketing for Good
Are you getting tired of running the same old kinds of ecommerce marketing campaigns? Switch things up with a marketing-for-good strategy. Your brand can raise money for worthy causes, initiatives, and charities by offering donation options during checkout.
It’s simple when using DailyKarma’s Shop for Good app. The app for your ecommerce store offers a suite of different charitable campaigns that engage customers, effect positive change, and keep your marketing fresh.
DailyKarma offers an effortless way to market your brand and build customer loyalty while engaging in business for good.
Get started with DailyKarma now. Book a personal demo or get a free trial.
