Suc­cess­ful e-commerce business: 8 tips for online store marketing

What is the perfect marketing strategy? Online marketing experts still can’t agree; every year new strate­gies enter the mix and old ideas are given a makeover. Online store owners needs to find the ideal marketing mix that works for them. Whether the focus is on search engines (SEO and SEA), on social media marketing, or combines more con­ven­tion­al banner ad­ver­tis­ing and display network together with large e-mail marketing campaigns: with our tips you can optimize your future strate­gies.

Search engine traffic is one of the most important ways for online shops to receive visitors. When it comes to SEO, many different factors play a part: technical im­ple­men­ta­tion, con­cep­tu­al site structure, content, link profile, and keyword op­ti­miza­tion. SEO measures have a lasting effect on vis­i­bil­i­ty and traffic but every online marketer should make sure they adhere to Google’s guide­lines. With over 75% of search queries in the USA being carried out by Google, it is by far the leading search engine. If you don’t stick to the guide­lines, you may end up with a lower ranking and a decreased volume of traffic.

Mobile shopping has become so sig­nif­i­cant that for many, a life without it is unimag­in­able. Mobile commerce is prin­ci­pal­ly re­spon­si­ble for the strong sales growth in e-commerce since it accounted for 30% of all US commerce in 2015. In the same year, mobile commerce sales reached $104 billion, which was 39% more than the previous year. These figures prove that it is ben­e­fi­cial for a com­pet­i­tive online store to optimize its website for mobile users. More in­for­ma­tion on this subject can be found in the article on mobile e-commerce.

The world of e-commerce is dog eat dog. An analysis of the com­pe­ti­tion is the first step to be able to place yourself suc­cess­ful­ly on the market. This analysis is a cor­ner­stone of online store marketing. Stores should keep their USP (unique selling point) in the forefront since it’s the most per­sua­sive unique feature. You don’t have to offer the lowest price to win customers over. To stand out from your com­pe­ti­tion, you could offer free or quicker dispatch or excellent customer service.

Have you already defined your USP and want your customers to pass it on? This is where referral marketing comes into play. Through in­ter­link­ing your shop with social media channels and ratings platforms, you give the customers the pos­si­bil­i­ty to rate the business and act as a spokesper­son. It is not unusual for busi­ness­es to actively ask their customers to share their opinion, for example, via a CTA (call to action) during a trans­ac­tion. This shows trans­paren­cy and strength­ens trust. Ratings aren’t just an in­stru­ment for customer retention; they are also shown in the search results. Rich Snippets (extra in­for­ma­tion in the SERPS like ratings and contact details) are a free means of winning over potential customers by showing your products in Google’s search results.

Online marketing doesn’t always have to end with fi­nal­iz­ing a contract or the purchase of a product. Sometimes it can be more relevant to generate leads (customer contacts), es­pe­cial­ly when the customer is seeking in­for­ma­tion at the start of the process. This is how to speak to people who haven’t made a pur­chas­ing decision yet but are in­ter­est­ed in a product or service. You can gain contacts, for example, by offering potential customers the option to register for a newslet­ter. You can try to address them with tailored ad­ver­tis­ing material and content at a later date.

Your marketing tech­niques should work to entice potential customers to your store and prevent them from getting frus­trat­ed and leaving the site without buying anything. Online store owners should thus check their site and processes for usability. Common frus­tra­tion factors include excessive loading times, unclear and poorly struc­tured sites, and un­ful­filled ex­pec­ta­tions, which occurs when the user can’t find what they’re looking for. The shopping cart and payment methods are two other frequent weak­ness­es.

After you’ve optimized your store’s usability, you can go one step further and integrate targeted elements, which encourage con­ver­sions. It’s also a good idea to have a security badge as well as customer ratings and reviews. Placing seals and symbols on the home page order pages show the visitor the quality and trust­wor­thi­ness of the store. Another ben­e­fi­cial element is HTTPS en­cryp­tion, which is easily rec­og­nized by the small lock symbol in the browser window.

Before you set more traffic or a high con­ver­sion rate as your goal, as a store owner you first have to make sure that your e-commerce marketing measures will work. As well as a solid shop system and optimal per­for­mance, your store also needs to be user-friendly. If you spend your budget on different SEO, SEA, or social media marketing without proper prepa­ra­tion, you won’t achieve any con­sid­er­able results. The store’s content and quality are top priority. Only when these are in place can the concrete marketing strategy follow.