Nasdaq, in its reports, stated that 95% of all purchases will be through e-commerce by 2040.  There are hundreds of e-commerce brands launching every day. This makes it a competitive domain where you need to know how to market your products in order to generate profitable ROI. Here are the Ways to Market your e-commerce website that you can implement to increase the visibility and reach of your online store.

1. Cross-promote your brand
2. Engage better with push notifications
3. Influencer promotion campaign
4. Focus on product images
5. Utilize review marketing
6. Make blogging an integral part of your digital marketing strategy

  1. Cross-promote your brand

Growing your brand could be difficult as online visibility can not be achieved on the first day of the launch itself. 

Cross-promotion is a process of promoting other brands’ products on your platforms and vice versa.

For example, if there are three brands A, B, and C.
Brand A promotes brands B and C, whereas brands B and C promote brand A. This is what a cross-promotion looks like.

With whom you can collaborate?

Collaborate with existing brands in different niches and if you want to collaborate with brands of your niche, then pick up the one with different products than yours. This collaboration will make your brand visible to the relevant audience of your partner brands. 

For example, if you are an e-commerce platform for accessories like belts, ties, hats, shoes, and boots, etc. Then, collaborate with an apparel brand selling clothing for varied audience segments. 

This will add to revenue generation for both brands and can be shared. 

Some of the important queries you can discuss with partners before agreeing to any partnerships are- 

  • What volumes can you handle?
  • How do you measure the campaign’s success?
  • What kind of support options do you provide?
  • Do you offer any detailed analytics for the collaboration?
  • What features do you have on the roadmap?

    2. Engage better with push notifications

There are a lot of engagement channels e-commerce platforms use like SMS, email, push notifications, etc. As emails and SMS exist for a long time, push notifications are recently getting attention from e-commerce brands.

Push notifications are clickable and brief announcements that you can send straight to your user’s desktop or mobile.  

Some of the benefits that push notifications have over other engagement channels are engaging your specific audience segments in real-time, bringing quick repeat traffic to your site, 10 x better open rates, and more. 

What type of notifications can you send to your users? 

a) Sales and offers

All e-commerce brands use sales and offers from time to time to urge users in making purchases, be it the new year, Christmas, or any other festival.

You can send sale alerts a few days before the actual sale day to gather your audience’s interest. 

Below is an example from the men’s grooming brand ‘Bombay Shaving Company’ which sends Diwali notification alerts. 

b) Cart abandonment

Send notifications to users who added products to their cart, but left your website without making a purchase.

At an average rate of 70% of abandoned carts, e-commerce companies could lose about $3 billion dollars in one year.

Sending cart abandonment alerts could become your major source of user engagement at the right time, which potentially increases conversions.

c) Blog updates

If you have a new blog coming about your products, then make sure to push it to the relevant audience. Sending blog push notifications can increase the dwell time of users on your site. As a result, your site can gain better visibility on search engines.

Below is an example of sending blog push notifications:

You can use Truepush for free and send unlimited push notification campaigns to unlimited subscribers. 

3. Influencer promotion campaign

According to Statista’s 2019 reports on ad spending, Amazon spent over $3.38 Billion on ads. However, it’s not possible for growing e-commerce brands to spend this hefty amount. 

There are still ways e-commerce brands can do promotions and gain conversions with limited budgets. One such way is to use influencer marketing. It’s an effective way to get your brand recognized by mass audiences.  

Influencer marketing is a part of marketing where brands collaborate with industry-specific leaders and influencers and drive profits from their audience base.

According to Influencer Marketing 2019 reports, e-commerce platforms can expect a return of $18 for each $1 spent on influencer marketing campaigns.  

How do you find the right influencer for brand promotions?

a)Target the right audience

While building your influencer marketing, the first and foremost task is to define your niche audience that an influencer might have. The benefit of this campaign can only be visible if you target the right audience, as they are most probably to make purchases on your site.

For example, if you are a clothing brand, then search for an influencer in the apparel domain with a high number of followers on their social media profiles.

These followers are your direct audience you will reach out through influencer campaigns.
 

b) Find the right influencer through Google search and influencer meetups

To search for influencers on Google, type in a query, for example, “Influencer for clothing”.

You will see the resources for the list of influencers. Go through these lists and you’ll find detailed information on your preferred influencers.

When it comes to building a network of influencers for your brand, it’s suggested to meet them through local events as well. You can use Meetup to find relevant events nearby. You can also use Instameet to find like-minded influencers from Instagram.

c)Make use of influencer marketing platforms

Influencer marketing platforms provide you with the right influencer based on your requirements.

Some of the tools you can use to find the right influencers are:

Influence.co
Upfluence
AspireIQ
Post for Rent
HypeAuditor – Top Instagram Influencers Ranking
Alltop
Discover.ly


Once promotions are on, the audience would start visiting the tagged pages and links in the influence’s post description and make a purchase through your brand.  

4. Focus on product images

Your product images are the first impression for your site visitors before buying any product. It is not possible for users to feel the product in their hands. They can only visualize it by seeing the product images. 

Some of the key parameters you can focus on for product images are:

a) Add larger photos

Online retailers have increased conversions by 63% with a 28% increment in the product image size. As this might vary from product to product, however, it’s a good practice to use larger images that give clear and detailed information about your products.

b) Use high-quality images

A study found out that shoppers are three times more likely to make a purchase if the product images are of higher resolution and quality and can be zoomed in easily.


Source: Truepush/ Freepik

c) Add more images

The more images you display in the product’s portfolio, the higher the conversion you receive.

In a study done by eBay, when an online store increased the product’s image from zero to one, it received double conversions, and from one to two images, the conversions doubled again.
Therefore, add the product images from all the possible angles.

Read our more detailed guide on how to use product images for e-commerce websites.  

5. Utilize review marketing

User reviews and testimonials are a great source of credibility when it comes to building trust in your users. Online e-commerce websites use extensive review marketing to build their user base.

You would be surprised to know that 90% of online shoppers read reviews before making any purchase and probably you too.

Every time a user makes a purchase, send them emails and push notifications to take reviews and feedback. As the user’s experience on an e-commerce site would be fresh in their mind, they would be more willing to write a review.


Here’s how you can use review marketing to manifold your sales. 

a) Use reviews on your website

Never hesitate to use user reviews on your website. If you ever notice, almost all websites include testimonial sections on their home pages. The reason is simple- brands want you to know how good your product is through the user’s voice
For example, we use our reviews on the home page as shown in the image below.

You can use multiple reviews to add to the website’s aesthetics.

b) To boost SEO

User-generated reviews are visible in the meta descriptions of e-commerce sites. For example, check the image below which shows a review of the Amazon user in the meta description. 

Search engines love new and unique content. By collecting reviews from your users, you can leverage user-generated content to boost SEO and visibility.

c) To build your social media

If you are receiving good reviews, don’t limit it to your website, but publish on social media handles as well. Social media is a place for your fellow users to hang around as most of us are on it.

Publishing your product reviews socially can boost your conversions as one positive review brings in more buyers.

d) Respond to all reviews be they positive or negative

Responding to your user’s comments on your products can go a long way in retaining a user. 

Reply to each and every review on your e-commerce site.

If it’s a positive review,  you can thank your users for the purchase and suggest them to new arrivals.

If it’s a negative review, address the users and show your brand’s leadership by making their experience better the next time they make a purchase. You can also offer them complimentary gifts to lessen the impact of the bad experience.   This way, the user would be willing to make more purchases.

6. Make blogging an integral part of your digital marketing strategy

61% of online consumers in the United States have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog. (Source- Content Marketing Institute).

Blogging is an integral part of any website. It builds awareness among your audience. You can hook your potential audience through blogs that cover much larger aspects of your products.

For example, if your online store sells outdoor sports gear, then write about outdoor sports on your blog. Once the user reads a blog, you can further talk about types of outdoor sports gear, benefits, history, and also a direct link to the product’s page.

Including e-commerce, blogs will make sure your users stay updated on what they consume and establish your brand identity this way.

Here’s how Meesho provides information on varied topics that relate to their products and reap conversions from them. 
   

Conclusion

Marketing your e-commerce brands could be a tedious task as there are countless competitors in the market. However, implementing the above strategies consistently will show results. Try not to indulge in all the activities at once, but slowly become active in each of these strategies.

Let us know which strategy worked the best for your e-commerce platform?