E-Commerce Marketing: 3 Benefits for E-Commerce Brands
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Mar 17, 2022 • 3 min read
E-commerce marketing can increase website traffic and guide buyers to complete their purchasing journey. Learn more about the diverse channels of an e-commerce strategy and some of their potential benefits.
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E-Commerce Marketing Definition
E-commerce (or ecommerce) marketing campaigns utilize diverse online advertising channels to improve online sales for e-commerce website. Most traditional marketing tips and templates aim to attract attention and drive interest, but these only cover the initial customer interaction. E-commerce marketing tools can provide more interaction throughout the buying process, ranging from optimized search engine results to follow-up messaging after the customer’s checkout process.
3 Benefits of E-Commerce Marketing
For the right company, an e-commerce marketing strategy can prove to have advantages. A successful e-commerce marketing strategy can:
- Boost lead generation: You can filter and funnel your advertisements to specific demographics to optimize your return on investment (ROI). Average online customers have become blind to random or broad-net banner ads, but you can combat ad blindness by using customer data to focus your online marketing dollars on a target audience.
- Increase brand awareness: Once legions of loyal customers depend on your company’s e-commerce services, your business can become a household brand. For example, some people refer to cotton swabs or tissues by a trusted brand name. The first step toward this level of success is building brand awareness. Use e-commerce marketing strategies to get your name into the public eye and provide a memorable customer experience to keep them coming back.
- Improve user experience and customer loyalty: E-commerce marketing can help your company stay connected to a loyal customer base and increase the flow of return customers to your website. Loyalty programs can further help e-commerce brands to become fixtures in a customer’s lifestyle. This type of close connection enables you to begin cross-selling complementary products or upselling your loyal subscribers on premium services.
6 Useful E-Commerce Marketing Channels
Consider implementing one or more of these channels into your e-commerce marketing plan:
- 1. Content marketing: E-commerce content marketing is an intentional and subtle process that companies can use to tell their story. This is in contrast to traditional marketing tactics, which aim to wow and entice prospective customers. Relevant content marketing efforts can utilize blogs or podcasts to craft long-form discussions and build a customer base through personal connections and shared values.
- 2. Email campaigns: Small businesses and online retailers can use email marketing automation to assemble specific email lists and inform current customers of new deals and products. Email notifications with concise subject lines can also help your company solve conversion issues, such as cart abandonment. Abandoned cart emails are call-to-action reminders for customers who have not completed sales on your e-commerce platform.
- 3. Influencer marketing: A social media marketing strategy can effectively advertise a new product or service to a specific target audience or niche personas. An influencer can endorse your product in their content, broadcasting your message to thousands of followers on multiple social media platforms. Your affiliate marketing message will often include a referral code with discount incentives to entice new customers and track the conversion rate. The influencer might earn a commission for bringing new customers to your brand. Meanwhile, these notable customer reviews and testimonials will grow your brand community.
- 4. Pay-per-click: This e-commerce marketing plan will help your company track the ROI of your online advertisements. In a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy, a company bids for top search engines to connect their specific product or service with relevant keywords and phrases. When a potential customer clicks on pop-ups or website links, the company pays that search engine company for increased organic traffic.
- 5. Retargeting: Website visitors who arrive at the landing pages or product pages of your online store will collect an anonymous browser cookie. This cookie tracks visitors to help your company focus digital marketing energy toward these interested shoppers; retargeting them can increase conversions and boost e-commerce sales.
- 6. Search engine optimization: An essential component of online shopping is researching comparable products on a search engine to find the highest-quality product at the best price. There is a significant customer interaction dropoff after the first results page since shoppers are less likely to continue scrolling after finding multiple options. For this reason, the implementation of a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can be useful. The more keywords you can link to your home page or product pages on your e-commerce site, the more eyes you will attract to your e-commerce business.
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