The e-commerce industry is more competitive than ever, with entrepreneurs falling over themselves to make their brands stand out.
Whether you are a new e-commerce business struggling to make its mark or an established online company that wants to stay one step ahead of the game, if you want to be a success, you need to take your marketing efforts to the next level.
When it comes to marketing for e-commerce businesses, or e-commerce marketing as it is often called, there are so many strategies to try, so how do you know which are the right ones for your brand?
Within the below blog, you will discover all the top marketing e-commerce marketing strategies for 2023, with some of the best-kept secrets in the industry. Ready to put your e-commerce business firmly on the map?
Let’s dive right in.
What is e-commerce marketing?
E-commerce marketing is a type of marketing that is used to drive traffic to an online store. It can also be used to boost brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, and, ultimately, lead to more sales. A wide range of e-commerce marketing strategies are available, some of which are designed to help you succeed in the short term and others which play the long game.
To be a successful e-commerce business, you must have a solid e-commerce marketing strategy.
What are the top e-commerce marketing strategies for 2023?
As mentioned briefly above, there are many e-commerce marketing strategies that you can adopt. Some of these are highly effective and offer a good return on investment, and others are not so worthwhile.
To make sure you are not throwing good money after bad and to ensure that you are making the most out of your marketing budget, below are the most powerful e-commerce marketing strategies for 2023 and beyond.
PPC advertising
PPC advertising, which stands for pay-per-click advertising, is a form of paid advertising that has proven to be highly effective for e-commerce businesses. PPC advertising is data-driven, easy to scale, and offers one of the best returns on investment out of all digital marketing techniques.
If you are new to PPC, then you may want to consider enlisting the services of a PPC management company that will be able to advise you on where and how to spend your budget.
Facebook and Google are the two most used platforms for PPC advertising, delivering huge audiences that are highly targeted and engaged. In particular, Google shopping ads can help e-commerce brands increase sales and reach new audiences.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization, SEO, is a digital marketing method that helps to drive organic traffic to a website. In terms of SEO for e-commerce business, this involves driving traffic to your online store.
Although many business owners and even some marketers fear search engine optimization, there is no denying that it is a highly effective and affordable marketing technique.
Some of the most crucial elements of SEO are keyword research, which helps your store show up for popular search terms related to your products. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites are also highly effective and can help increase your business’s trust.
SEO can be daunting for beginners, but there are lots of free online tools available that you can use to facilitate the process, such as Google Ads Keyword Planner and Google Search Console. Plus, you can find many useful guides. Experts are waiting there to help you if you need it, though.
Influencer marketing
If you are looking for a quick way to accelerate your e-commerce brand and attract new customers, then influencer marketing is your e-commerce marketing strategy.
As the name suggests, influencer marketing involves using the power and influence of a respected and trusted person within your sector to create interest in your products and your brand. It can be helpful to think of influencers as online celebrities who can act as ambassadors for your brand.
In some cases, businesses pay influencers to promote their products, which can lead to a quick influx of sales. However, if you are looking for a more long-term growth strategy, consider how you and your preferred influencer can benefit each other. Although many business owners think that you have to partner with mega-influencers to make an
TikTok strategy
TikTok is a platform that many businesses avoid as they don’t know how it works or how to use it. However, the e-commerce brands that are using this ever-growing channel are reaping the rewards.
TikTok has over one billion monthly active users, making it equally as powerful as other social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. The way to succeed on this platform is to focus on creating genuine and raw content that appeals to and engages with your target audience. The more authentic a video, the more exposure your brand will get and the more likely you are to make sales.
If you are new to TikTok, you are in a unique position to reach a larger audience as its algorithm prioritizes content from creators that it has not seen before. You can also use its discovery engine to help your videos go viral, even if you do not have many followers yet.
SMS marketing
SMS marketing involves sending promotional SMS messages to both existing and potential customers. These messages are designed to inform shoppers about special offers, weekly deals, seasonal promotions, and new product information.
Out of all the industries, e-commerce is the sector that benefits most from SMS marketing. In fact, an estimated 70% of consumers think that SMS messaging is a good way for e-commerce businesses to get their attention and sell them products.
SMS marketing can be used to great effect to recover abandoned shopping carts, cross-sell and upsell products, advertise special promotions, offer customer support, and ask for customer reviews.
The key to successful SMS marketing is to be consistent but not too pushy, as people don’t want to be bombarded with irrelevant text messages at all hours of the day and night. Instead, focus on sending out timely and personalized SMS messages that are useful for your customers.
Content marketing
Every business should have a content marketing strategy, especially businesses operating within the e-commerce sector. So much more than just writing a weekly blog, a comprehensive content marketing strategy can help you connect with your customers and rank better in search engine results.
If you are new to content marketing, a good place to start is by sitting down and brainstorming content ideas. These should be relevant to your business and the industry you operate within, but they do not need to be directly related to the products you sell.
Once you have a shortlist of content ideas, you then need to think about what format you are going to display your content in (video, podcast, blog, social media post, etc.) and where you are going to publish it (your website, social media, in emails, etc.).
Try to be as original and authentic as possible when creating content and aim to give the reader informational content rather than too salesy content.
Social media marketing
As well as TikTok, there are many other powerful social media platforms that you can utilize to promote your e-commerce store. For example, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are all highly visual channels making them ideal for businesses in the e-commerce sector.
To make the most out of your next social media marketing campaign, you need to make sure that you maintain a consistent tone and style on each channel, as this will ensure you build trust with your target audience.
You should also make sure you are tracking your efforts so that you can see what works and what doesn’t. You can do this in several ways, such as using a web analytics tool or a funnel optimization tool that enables you to monitor the performance of your social referral journey.
Social media can also be used to collate valuable customer feedback and to generate customer reviews which can be highly effective in attracting new customers.
Do I need to hire an e-commerce marketing agency?
If all of the above seems overwhelming, you should hire an e-commerce marketing agency. Although this can be a substantial investment, in some cases, it is worthwhile. For example, suppose you don’t have an in-house marketing team or you don’t have the knowledge and experience needed to create a solid e-commerce marketing strategy. In that case, hiring an agency can be highly beneficial.
However, if this is out of your budget, then take a look at each of the above strategies and determine which one is most relevant to your business and take it from there.
