Marketing Tips for E-Commerce Websites
E-Commerce has experienced an explosion of traffic in recent years partly due to the fact that people are now more comfortable buying online than ever. With retailers recognizing this demand, this means that the landscape is more competitive, making it more critical for e-commerce websites to consider the best practices for marketing their websites.
Start with a Content Marketing Strategy First
Far too many websites get overwhelmed by all the information out there telling them that they need be doing content marketing. While content marketing should be the cornerstone of your efforts to gain highly-converting traffic, throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is one of the most detrimental and expensive things you can do. You need to, instead, find out where your audience is and how they like to receive information in advance of starting a full-blown content plan.
If your audience loves beautiful pictures on Pinterest, for example, it makes more sense to spend the time creating beautiful images. If your audience is mostly blog readers, however, it’s worth doing the necessary research to find the right keywords. “We found that many of our customers are in research mode, so we help them find the answers to their questions by providing unbiased, informative content on our site.” says Alex Pina, President of ComfortUp.com, a leading e-commerce platform in the HVAC industry.
Always Track Your Data
As Catalin Zorzini of ecommerce-platforms.com shares, it doesn’t stop there, either. You need to be regularly evaluating your content plan to ensure it’s accomplishing the goals you set out initially. The data can help drive your decisions. She says, “Make it a point to check in with this strategy every week or month, evaluating how the content creation and distribution process is going.”
As WeMakeWebsites shares, it’s easy to track your data using Google Analytics. “Each month you should measure what articles generated the most traffic to your site and which of those led to the most sales.”
This tactic allows you to double down on your marketing strategy and capitalize on what’s working. Remember that at the beginning you’ll be doing some research yourself to determine what you think your readers want to see, but from there you can use data to determine what you write about as well as the format of those pieces.
Use an Exit Pop-Up
If you’re like most people, you check something out on a website and then close that tab either accidentally or on purpose. If you find yourself trying to recall what you’re looking for, you’re scouring your history to find it. But most people aren’t that motivated. You need to capture your reader’s attention while they are already on your site- don’t count on them to come back and snag that item later. Give them a reason to take action now.
There are a few ways to do this. You can use retargeting ads, for example, where that item will appear in banners and sidebars for that reader from now going forward. You can also use an email that gives them a small incentive to come back and purchase that item. A great way to snag that email address or try to convert them directly on-site is to use an exit pop-up. Before they close their browser, this gives them one last chance to snag that item. Uhuru says “Email marketing is the easiest way to start connecting with people.” Make sure you grab that email address!
These tips can help you capitalize on powerful marketing for your e-commerce site. What are some tips you’ve found successful?