Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned professional, marketing an eCommerce site can be very challenging to do. Saturated markets and highly competitive niches require eCommerce site owners to adopt intelligent strategies that will continually drive new traffic and conversions.
Hoping Google will pick up your website or making a few self-promoting posts to Facebook isn’t a viable marketing strategy anymore. Before you look at social media or SEO, there are a few things you should take into consideration that can help create a solid foundation for future growth.
We’re going to show you our five favorite eCommerce marketing strategies that you can immediately begin to use to help jumpstart your sales and create a viable marketing strategy for your online business.
- Having a Mobile-Friendly Website
Is your site mobile-friendly? If not, you could be losing out on a flood of organic traffic from Google. A mobile-friendly website is one that looks and works perfectly on the small screen of today’s smartphones and tablets. Older eCommerce sites weren’t built with mobile phones in mind, and as such can look weird, or outright break when someone tries to visit or buy something on their phone.Google has also repeatedly stated that websites should be optimized for mobile as they will send more organic traffic to them. To help people out, they put out a free tool called the Mobile-Friendly Test. Simply enter in the URL of your website, and it will tell you if it’s optimized for mobile or not.
- Social Media Management
Social media can drive a flood of new sales and conversions to an eCommerce site. However, many businesses are struggling to reach the right audience and grow user engagement. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to create self-promoting social media posts that offer no value other than to sell products.Consumers nowadays are looking for a more personalized experience. They don’t want to feel like they’re being blatantly sold to. This is why you need to create social media posts that are engaging and will add value to your readers. A social media management company can help you not only grow your accounts but increase reach and engagement as well.
- Adding Live Chat to your Website
Have you ever visited a website and seen a little chat box pop up in the bottom right-hand corner?That’s called “live chat,” and it’s beneficial to help increase conversions on an eCommerce website. Sometimes people will have questions that aren’t answered by the content on a particular product page. Adding a live chat box will enable them to reach out to you or one of your employees in real-time. This can help increase your conversion rates exponentially.
Live chat doesn’t necessarily require you to be by a computer 24/7. Some live chat boxes use computer-controlled bots and artificial intelligence to help answer some of the more common questions asked by people.
Other services employ English-speaking people in such countries as India, Ukraine, and the Philippines. They will monitor your live chat box and interact with your customers in real-time if they have any questions. While these services do cost money, the return on investment is well worth it, as it can really increase your conversion rate.
- Content Marketing Strategy for your Website
A good content marketing strategy can not only help drive new traffic but increase brand awareness and goodwill as well. User success stories and product “how-to” manuals are just two of many different ways to engage your audience with valuable content.eCommerce companies who post thought-provoking content to their blogs often see an uptick in sales and conversions. The content can then be repurposed into emails, social media posts, or even printed materials such as catalogs and brochures.
Google tends to look with favor upon websites that regularly post valuable content to their blogs. The content also stands a good chance at ranking in the organic search results and driving even more targeted traffic. If you don’t have the time to create your own articles and blog posts, or you’d instead let the experts handle it, a content marketing agency can help.
- SEO and Website Audit
If Google isn’t sending your eCommerce website a lot of traffic, or if you’re not ranking on page 1 for your desired keywords, an SEO website audit can help diagnose what’s wrong. There can be a wide variety of reasons as to why Google isn’t sending traffic to your site. Some of them can include:- Poor, duplicate, or no content.
- Poor site architecture.
- Mobile pages cannibalizing desktop pages (or vice versa).
- Stock descriptions instead of unique ones.
- Poor or spammy inbound links.
Once your site is audited, you’ll be given a comprehensive report along with a game plan on how to fix what’s wrong. These types of audits are critical, even for websites that are getting a lot of traffic.
This is because websites can sometimes break when new features or things are added. It pays to audit your site at least twice a year to ensure it’s running and working as it should.
eCommerce Website Design and Marketing
Are you considering starting an eCommerce website or are you looking to improve the marketing of your current one? Give us a call at 512-993-9993 or contact us via our website. At Adapting Online, we are website design and marketing experts who can help you and your business grow!
Monica Thomason, Web Marketing Specialist
Monica Thomason has been involved in all aspects of internet marketing for over 15 years. She loves all things internet and truly appreciates what the internet can do for businesses. Whether you need help with content and SEO, ecommerce optimization, social media or reputation management she would love to help you!
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