Suc­cess­ful e-commerce business: 8 tips for online shop 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 shop owners need 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 optimise 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 op­tim­isa­tion. SEO measures have a lasting effect on vis­ib­il­ity and traffic but every online marketer should make sure they adhere to Google’s guidelines. With close to 90% of search queries in the UK 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, as it has been gradually rising year on year and is predicted to represent over 40% of all UK e-commerce by 2017. In 2016, mobile commerce sales reached £25 billion, up 25.4% on the previous year. These figures prove that it is be­ne­fi­cial for a com­pet­it­ive online store to optimise 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 spread the word? 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 fi­nal­ising 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 basket and payment methods are two other frequent weak­nesses.

After you’ve optimised 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 and order pages show the visitor the quality and trust­wor­thi­ness of the store. Another be­ne­fi­cial element is HTTPS en­cryp­tion, which is easily re­cog­nised 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.