We know that building an ecommerce website is not a simple task. The development of an online store is a process that involves dedication and learning of things that, perhaps, you didn't even know existed. There are a series of basic elements that we must select before starting developing an ecommerce site, for example: a web hosting service, a platform that allows us to create a shopping website, the domain or domains, among many others.
The web domain is particularly difficult to choose since it has to be consistent with our brand identity. Think of your domain as the virtual address of your store. Choosing it requires the use of a domain search tool, where we can verify that the one we want is available. In some cases we might have a hard time choosing one because some of them may not be available. This usually happens when the name we want to use is very common, so we might need to use some variations, but still, some of these variations could be very expensive.
If you already have an online store and went through all these complicated decisions, spending a lot of time generating it, you surely want it to be successful. This is possible with Digital Marketing.
As a reminder, Digital Marketing, refers to all the advertising strategies and actions that are carried out through the internet. These media are called digital marketing channels. There are many channels to choose from, this can be overwhelming for those who want to advertise and are just getting started. The reality is that, although there are several channels for conducting online marketing, not all are beneficial for the purpose of supporting your eCommerce website.
If you are thinking about starting to advertise and don't know where to start, don't worry. Today we are going to tell you which are the most effective online marketing channels for ecommerce.
1. Search Engine Marketing
One of the fastest ways to grow your eCommerce website is Search Engine Marketing. SEM allows you to create online campaigns so your ads appear in the search engines among the first results. This channel includes multiple possibilities to grow your ecommerce site and it’s one of the most effective digital marketing channels, because the ads are always shown to people who are looking for something related to your site.
The payment method of SEM campaigns is CPC, which stands for "cost per click". That is, a payment is established for each click that is made. Through the use of search keyword settings, you can create campaigns that show ads specifically to those who perform certain searches directly related to your keywords. An advantage of SEM is that you have full control of the audience and investment segmentation.
Having an online store allows you to make the appropriate settings to track conversions by keyword. This means that you can specifically measure which keywords have the most sales and how much conversion you get. Using these settings you can optimize your campaigns and keywords according to the conversion and the cost per conversion of each of them.
If you make the necessary changes to your settings, you can also carry out remarketing campaigns. This means that your ads will be shown to people who have already entered your site and showed some interest.
2. SMM
This is one of the most used channels, although you may not know it by that name. SMM is Social Media Marketing. These are all the strategies that are carried out through different social media that aim to increase ecommerce traffic. Although, when talking about Social Media, we think that it is only about social networks, it also involves other media like youtube and blogs. The main purpose is to create a link with customers and followers so that, in the future, a commercial relationship is established. In other words, achieve conversion.
This channel implies a new form of communication, where the relationship that is generated with our clients or followers is closer. In this channel, the user becomes a participant in the generation of content that is published. For this reason, the first step is to determine an audience or audience that will be the one you are targeting. It is not the same to speak to adolescents than to adults. This is why defining your buyer persona must be a priority.
3. Email Marketing
If you have an online store, you need to have a pop-up where visitors can subscribe to a newsletter. This will help you create a subscriber base to which you can send information every certain period of time. With email marketing you can specifically address each of those people who left their data in your eCommerce website to offer them something (they can be discounts, offers, information of interest, etc.). The important thing is that you can communicate particularly with each of them through an email campaign.
If you have purchase data, you can launch personalized campaigns according to the product they have purchased or you can send an automatic email to those who sign up for a newsletter. You can also automatically send an email to surfers who make a purchase. The possibilities are many, you just need to think of what is best for your business. Email marketing is also one of the channels that contributes to customer loyalty. Remember that it is less expensive to maintain a client than getting a new one.
4. Influencer Marketing
As of today, influencers marketing is one of the best options for those companies that want to advertise a product or a service. Influencers marketing is about making an agreement or contract with a person who has several followers on a social network such as Instagram, Facebook or YouTube to promote a certain product.
Many times, the promotion of the product is in exchange for other products or purchase vouchers. At other times it may be for a certain amount of money. A smart thing to do is give them a discount code for the person to share on their networks. Depending on the purchases made with this code, sometimes a commission system is established. This is the best way to measure profitability.
It is important that, when choosing an affiliate to promote your ecommerce, you select a person who is related to the field in which you are.That way you can make sure your product or service will be advertised in the right niche.
5. SEO positioning
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is used to increase the popularity of a page, in this case, an online store. The objective is that the website will be found organically among the first results without having to pay for it.
As you can see, it is "the opposite" to SEM. In the SEM we have to invest money since the printing modality is pay per click. In the case of SEO, it works organically and over time. This means that when you optimize your site to improve search engine rankings, you will not see immediate results, it will happen over time as you optimize your website and create more content.
SEO can be on-page or off-page. When we talk about on-page we are referring to all the measures taken within the site to improve SEO (for example, improve loading speed, image quality, relevance of content, use of keywords, etc. .). Off-page SEO is one that is done externally to the site (actions such as link building, social networks, registering the site on different platforms, among others).
All these channels are very useful to increase the popularity of your eCommerce site. Each of them bring something extra to your digital marketing strategy. Depending on the line of business you are in and the type of eCommerce website you have, you should definitely combine all or at least some of these strategies to bring in more traffic to your online store. We hope this blog helps you get a better understanding of some of the best channels to use for online stores. If you would like a consultation with our team to develop your eCommerce site or increase the traffic to your online store, let us know, we would be happy to assist you!