Top eCommerce Marketing Strategies That Drive Growth

Every eCommerce retailer aims to establish an online presence; what else can make that possible than a solid eCommerce marketing strategy? This involves using an arsenal of digital tools to connect with your audience and encourage them to buy from you. 

eCommerce evolved a great deal over the past few years. As it keeps on growing, online marketing will only see more diversity and sophistication down the line. Being able to come up with a holistic strategy that harnesses the strengths of each channel is key to a thriving online business. 

What Is an eCommerce Marketing Strategy?

An eCommerce marketing strategy refers to a plan that a business uses to promote and sell its products or services on an online platform. It consists of a mixture of tactics for connecting with prospective customers, boosting conversions, driving traffic to the website, and ultimately helping the business grow. Implementing a solid B2C or B2B eCommerce marketing strategy can do wonders when it comes to establishing a brand and building customer loyalty. 

Common Types of eCommerce Digital Marketing Strategies

Content Marketing

One marketing tactic that can guarantee long-term results is content. This includes podcasts, videos, guides, blog articles, testimonials, and more. Content marketing aims to inform, answer questions, and boost the business narrative. It can also help customers choose the right product and even be entertaining.

It’s a great way to share your story and let your audience know that they’ve come to the right place. 

What’s best about content marketing is that, once it’s out there, it does the work for you. Optimized content that’s easy to find has the potential to drive your conversion rate through the roof. Plus, you can repurpose it for other eCommerce marketing campaigns like newsletters and organic social media. 

eCommerce SEO

Search engine optimization allows your website to be more visible and easier to find on Google. This eCommerce marketing strategy mainly involves reinforcing your content with keywords that your target audience would use to search for products and services such as yours. The search engine then sees that you provide what the users are searching for and boosts your place in the results. 

Suppose you have an online clothing store. SEO can help you reel in potential customers who may be actively searching for “men’s gray trench coat.” This essentially makes it a cost-free way to advertise your business and increase brand awareness. eCommerce SEO would ideally apply to everything from blogs to product page copies. 

Email Marketing

Although not as effective as text message marketing in terms of open rates, email still comes in handy for several purposes. This includes informing your audience about your other channels such as social media and directing them to those channels. It can be especially useful when you want to send longer messages to your loyal customers, allowing you to tell the full story.

Keep in mind that the 160-character limit of SMS texts may not be enough for conveying certain messages. Engage your contacts with welcome emails, newsletters, abandoned cart messages, win-backs, VIP offers, loyalty rewards, and more. Remember to keep an email list of contacts who have opted in to your campaign.

Website Marketing

As an online retailer, your top asset for marketing your brand is your website. It serves as a virtual storefront, which is especially important if you don’t have a physical location. Your eCommerce site should be able to not only catch but also maintain your audience’s attention. The landing pages should be easy to navigate and have a clean layout for the ultimate user experience.

Providing reliable and diverse payment options can also go a long way in ensuring customer retention. To make the most of this eCommerce digital marketing strategy, you must also consider other factors like website security and convenient shipping. 

SMS Marketing

Although SMS messaging isn’t exactly something new, it is making a huge comeback as one of the best eCommerce marketing strategies. The main reason behind this resurgence is that users are highly likely to open and read their SMS texts. It has been proven that SMS messages have a significantly higher open rate than emails. This makes it an effective tool for promoting your eCommerce business and reaching out to your customers promptly.

With text messaging for eCommerce, you can send out everything from SMS alerts about limited offers to abandoned shopping carts. It also comes in handy when you want to keep your customers up-to-date with SMS reminders.

And let’s not forget how great of a tool it can be for building customer loyalty. You can send a text message with a special discount to your customer on their birthday. Businesses often automate their SMS marketing strategy through SMS platforms, which can be especially useful for mass texting.  

Organic Social Media

Organic social media marketing refers to your unpaid presence on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. Being discoverable on these apps is more important than ever today. It lets your customers—current and prospective—know that you’re out there doing business and encourages them to head over to your online store. 

You can use this eCommerce digital marketing strategy for sharing company updates, promoting your brand values, informing about your products and services, and more. Your social media presence can even serve as an outlet store for your business. This means selling directly on Instagram, Facebook, and any other platform your customers are spending their time on. 

Paid Social Media

In many cases, organic social media reach may not be enough. This is where paid social media enters the scene—specifically ads and influencer campaigns. Depending on the app, your ads may appear in various formats.

When it comes to influencer marketing, you essentially pay popular people on social media to mention and promote your brand. This eCommerce marketing strategy can help you connect with niche audiences such as dedicated gaming enthusiasts. Influencers tend to represent products as a lifestyle, boosting your brand's image in the process. 

While some influencers accept a commission, others may charge a solid fee. This means you either pay for the sales you make through them or for the exposure. 

Affiliate Marketing

A strategy that often gets the job done is affiliate marketing. This is where you’ll have affiliates directing traffic to your website through blog posts. You pay them for each sale they help you make. These blog posts often involve talking about a certain product or listing favorite picks or “must-haves” in a certain category.

While influencers have become a more trendy source for promoting a business, affiliate marketing is still very common, especially for sellers on Amazon. 

Helpful Tips for the Best eCommerce Marketing Strategy

Determine Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience helps you find the right offers, voice, and channels. 

Observe Your Competition

There’s no point in creating an eCommerce marketing strategy from scratch if what your competition is doing works just fine. Consider adding your touch to have a competitive advantage.

Base Your Targets on Industry Standards

Setting your targets based on common benchmarks can provide you with a clear direction.

Automate Where Possible

Having sales come in on autopilot can help you scale your business. Aim to automate aspects such as bulk sms, administrative workflows, checkout processes, and more.

Expand to Other Marketing Channels As You Go

Once your initial marketing plan is on track, add more channels and strategies down the line.

Tailor Your Communication

Personalizing your ads, SMS messages, emails, and other forms of communication makes them more effective. Customers enjoy getting special treatment rather than receiving a generic message.

Build Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty has a long-term effect when it comes to boosting profits, enhancing your brand image, and attracting new ones through your audience.

Track Your Marketing Results and Adjust As Needed

Tracking your ROI can help you determine how your eCommerce marketing strategy is performing. From there, you can refine and reuse as necessary.