Whether you’ve been operating your online business for some time or just starting, it is essential to market your business continuously. Competition is high in the e-commerce industry as new online stores come up often.
Digital marketing is particularly critical due to increased competition from other brands who can also build a strong brand presence. If your online store is not taking advantage of being on social media, implementing email marketing, sending text alerts or engaging in clients through other marketing channels, it can be difficult to grow. In this case, it is imperative to devise creative marketing strategies to increase brand visibility regardless of competition within your niche. Below are strategies you can implement to help drive sales.
Implement Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective channel to help you draw sales for your online store. Statistics show that over 4.2 million people use emails to send and receive information. To get started with email marketing, capture email addresses of your target audience from your website, existing customers, newsletter sign up on your website, or offer free tutorial videos and run frequent contests.
Once you acquire emails, create quality content that speaks to the needs of your audience and send out the information. Let your audience know they can visit your store online and check out your services. Sometimes, you can run a referral program where your customers and audience get discounts or gifts if they share your site with their family, friends, and colleagues.
Invest in Search Engine Optimization
SEO helps your site appear on top of result pages on Google or other search engines. This quickly draws the attention of your target audience to open your site. Below are key elements to improve SEO for your website and drive sales.
- Use targeted keywords for the search engine
- Create a high-loading site
- Optimize the site for mobile
- The website should be user-friendly
- Publish relevant content
- Include links on your website
- Update content regularly
Including quality images on your site can also improve SEO. Let the images speak about your brand using a language your target audience understands. You want to ensure that your site stands out from the crowd on the search engine and draws more traffic to your business.
Build Your Online Reputation
A good reputation for your online store is a vital element that can help you generate more leads and sales because most customers check reviews and testimonials before deciding whether to buy from you or not. When customers know you are a trustworthy business, they will prefer you over your competitors and will always come for more sales.
Offer satisfactory and quality customers to build a good reputation for your business. Customers who are satisfied with your services will likely leave positive reviews, attracting and prompting more people to buy from you.
Advertise on Social Media Platforms
With millions of social media users, you can drive sales and achieve your online store’s goals in real-time if you apply effective digital marketing strategies. Use social media platforms to promote your business and let your followers know how they can benefit from your business. To succeed on social media, post quality content that speaks to the needs of your audience and create a schedule to keep posting your content.
You should also offer good customer service on your social media platforms by responding to comments positively, replying to your private chats promptly, and providing quality feedback to your audience. You can run ads on your social media platforms to target quality customers interested in your business.
You may also find that customers or prospects often use social media to ask questions about orders before and after they are placed. Make sure you are monitoring social media comments and messages on a daily basis to ensure you have not missed out on any sales or customer service opportunities.
Communicate With Customers After Orders Are Filled
Effective delivery for customer orders is a vital element that builds loyalty and trust. Order fulfillment should be a top priority as you look for ways to improve your operations and productivity. As it relates to marketing, not only fulfilling orders but ensuring you have the right technology in place to communicate with your customers after orders are filled is critical. For example, most online stores send out email or text confirmations once and order is complete. You can take that step and then go the extra mile by contacting your customer after each order is received and asking them to leave a review. Every investment you make toward marketing your company after an order is fulfilled can go a long way.
If order fufillment and follow up is not your company’s strength, then there are services that you can use to outsource the entire process. As you review your options, look for services that will integrate with your online store’s software, offer to manage your inventory and fulfill orders, and email or text customers to ensure their products have been received.
Enhance Your Online Business with Zip Ship
Applying effective marketing strategies is crucial in driving sales for your online store. But without effective order fulfillment, it may impact your overall customer experience because your customers will lose trust if products are marketed well but not delivered as expected.
As your business grows, it may be challenging to handle in-house fulfillment. A service like Zip Ship saves you time and improves your delivery process. Contact us for any questions, free quote or sign up.