Electronic commerce worldwide will generate over $4.3 trillion in sales in 2025. Needless to say, such a large volume of sales is dictated by a huge number of companies operating in this field, which means an incredibly tough competition. An abundance of brands and products makes it hard for new or small stores to compete for buyers’ attention. Thus, it now takes extra effort to get into this field and thrive in it.
If you are wondering how to start an eCommerce business that thrives or wants to stimulate conversions and growth for an existing store, we have you covered! In this guide, we’ll walk you through the top 10 tips for promoting your product like a pro.
1. Define Your Ideal Buyer
Whether you’re just getting started with eCommerce development or already have an operating store, the very first thing you need to understand is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing your product. Understanding the pain points, needs, and preferences of your target audience is the backbone of a winning strategy, so before you start, you have to create detailed buyer personas.
You can analyze your past sales and watch direct competitors see the shared traits and behavior patterns of people who might be interested in buying your product. Apart from collecting general information, such as the demographics of your TA, you also need to outline their buying journeys to see all the touchpoints where you can acquire, nurture, and convert them.
2. Enhance Product Pages to Stimulate Conversions
If you are wondering how to increase conversion rate and drive sales, your product pages are what you want to focus on in the first place. These pages are what generate revenue, and you want to use them to the fullest to make your business grow. Basically, your product pages should serve the following purposes:
- Capture buyers’ attention
- Inform about your product
- Encourage an action
To meet these goals and increase website conversion, optimize your product pages using the following tips:
- Use high-quality images that look appealing and capture attention.
- Where possible, add videos of your product–surveys show that 73% of buyers confirm they are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.
- Create captivating and unique product titles.
- Optimize URLs so that they are descriptive and memorable.
- Write product descriptions that educate buyers on your items, using the language of the benefits they get.
- Strategically place strong calls to action on your product pages to encourage more purchases.
3. Make Your Store Visible and Trusted With SEO
Search engine optimization is a must-have for eCommerce website development. Apart from the obvious–SEO helps take you to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs) and, thus, boost your visibility–there are also many additional benefits, such as:
- Well-optimized content that brings true value and leaves your potential buyers happy.
- Higher ROIs thanks to a synergy of SEO and marketing.
- Better website performance that doesn’t increase your bounce rate and doesn’t hinder user experience.
- Greater trust and overall better brand image.
- Ability to stay competitive in the long run.
To gain all these benefits, you need to start by detecting relevant and high-converting keywords and place them strategically into your meta titles and descriptions, URLs, image alt text, product names and descriptions, etc. You can find keyword planning tools with large software review sites like Top10seosoftware.com and simplify keyword research.
Other SEO strategies you should adopt include:
- Developing a logical network of internal links.
- Improving technical performance.
- Ensuring mobile-friendliness.
- Implementing long-term link-building strategies to gain backlinks and boost trust.
You can handle this all on your own or team up with trusted eCommerce SEO services that will help you achieve greater outcomes.
4. Nurture Repeat Sales via Email
While ensuring initial website conversion is important, repeat sales are what create a steady flow of revenue. Email remains an excellent channel for brand marketing. By creating personalized campaigns, you can ensure that your brand stays on top of buyers’ minds and creates lasting relationships that create repeat sales.
To get the most out of it, offer your existing and potential customers to opt into your mailing list and segment your subscribers according to their needs and current location in your funnel. Then, create effective email campaigns that nurture leads and make personalized suggestions to drive sales.
5. Get on Social Media
Social media is one of the most massive platforms for entertainment, communication, and other purposes. What’s more, it’s also a hub where many consumers are exploring new brands and products and interacting with companies they like. And missing out on this opportunity is a mistake that can hold back your growth.
To get started, define where your customers are on social media and create branded accounts that align with your vision. Then, focus on delivering high-quality, share-worthy content that educates, engages, and converts users. Don’t hesitate to team up with influencers to spread your outreach and increase your trust level.
6. Don’t Neglect Paid Advertising
Marketing strategies that facilitate organic growth, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, and email campaigns, can help you grow brand awareness and secure long-term results. However, sometimes, you may just need an instant surge in traffic and conversions or want to fine-tune your targeting and ensure that your message gets in front of the right people. In these cases, paid ads can greatly help.
The big perks of paid advertising in eCommerce are as follows:
- More targeted reach. Most advertising platforms allow you to meticulously set up every advertisement for different audiences based on a huge number of factors.
- Fast traffic boost, which can potentially bring conversions.
- An opportunity to get quick results, for example, during your product’s high season.
- A chance to capture leads who weren’t considering a purchase but may make an impulse buy.
When you have a solid understanding of your ideal buyer, paid advertising in Google, Facebook, TikTok, and other channels can help you market your products to the right people. Set your targeting meticulously and optimize your message to get the most out of paid ads.
7. Build Trust With Social Proof and User-Generated Content
When we talk about eCommerce development, trust is everything. The majority of new buyers will go past a store or product that lacks social proof. However, when they see high ratings, positive reviews, and customer-generated content, all these things can encourage them to buy from you.
To use this to your benefit, all you need is to encourage your existing customers to share their experiences. First and foremost, you need to give them a chance to rate you and leave a comment in your store. You can even send them follow-up emails asking them to rate you after they make a purchase.
To give people additional stimuli, you can also offer various incentives. Personal bonuses, discounts, and free items can encourage people to share their experiences more actively and create the social proof you need to increase your sales!
8. Website Conversion Optimization
In eCommerce, conversion rate optimization most often means stimulating prospects to make a purchase.
There are a few ways to use CRO to encourage prospects to buy:
- Optimize images and videos on product pages so that they look appealing.
- Provide detailed, user-centered, and original content on your product pages so that potential customers don’t have any questions left.
- Offer occasional promotions, such as welcome bonuses, coupon codes, and discounts to encourage people to buy.
- Offer free shipping to encourage faster buying decisions.
- Make the checkout process as simple and quick as possible to prevent people from bouncing.
- Use email and other channels to set up automated abandoned cart messages to encourage people to complete their checkout.
- Allow guest checkout so that buyers who are limited in time (or just don’t want to register) don’t leave.
9. Build Loyalty With Special Programs
Earlier, we already mentioned that retaining existing customers is no less important than acquiring new ones. The concept behind this is simple–old customers bring repeated sales and act as brand advocates, which, in turn, helps attract more new clients through trust.
One of the ways to build loyalty is by establishing special programs, such as referral and loyalty. These programs help you accomplish two big goals:
- Loyalty programs offer exclusive opportunities to existing customers to stay longer with you, which results in loyalty and brand advocacy.
- Referral programs let you passively drive new clients while also rewarding your loyal clients for their help.
10. Use Analytics to Assess and Amplify the Results
Growing a business without analytics is like being blindfolded–it makes your path long and twisted, whereas measuring your results regularly can streamline it.
There are many tools that can collect, analyze, and organize data for you so that you inform your strategy. Picking a suitable tool can be somewhat frustrating.
The good news, though, is that if your store is built on the basis of the best eCommerce platform for small business, such as Shopify or OpenCart, most of them have analytics either built into the platform or available as a separate plugin for your convenience. All you need is to align your goals to specific metrics, let’s say, traffic, rankings, conversions, and others, and keep an eye on them to notice any opportunities for growth and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Conclusion
Breaking into and thriving in competitive markets like eCommerce can feel challenging and overwhelming. However, with a wise marketing approach, it’s possible to meet and exceed your business goals.
A combination of marketing strategies we shared with you on this guide, can make a powerful synergy that facilitates sustainable growth. Start using the tips you now have to set up your online store for success and thrive in a competitive market!
To read more content like this, explore The Brand Hopper
Subscribe to our newsletter