Introduction
Similar to shopping malls that are chock-a-block with dozens of stores, it’s no different on the Internet. There are tons of brands belonging to the same industry and targeting the same subset of customers. So how can you stand out among the pack? That’s when eCommerce marketing services come in handy!
Nowadays, there are various eCommerce marketing services available that open online merchants to a wide range of choices. However, by the same token, you might also feel overwhelmed due to a glut of options out there.
To help you decide which eCommerce marketing services are worth your investment, we have created this detailed review. Please bear in mind that beside these following services, you can consider make use of eCommerce marketing automation.
Before digging deeper into our list of top 6 best eCommerce marketing services, let’s figure out the benefits of those marketing strategies first!
eCommerce Marketing Services: What Are The Benefits?
Improve Conversion Rates
Perhaps, one of the most notable benefits of eCommerce marketing services is the improvement of conversion rates. This is thanks to the ability to target more specific leads.
We now have access to online tools which can keep track of demographic information and online activities of an individual. Based on this kind of statistic, we can offer users specific products and services that they may need. For instance, once a visitor clicks on a brand’s ad, the brand can then target that visitor with subsequent and relevant ads.
Conversions take place when targeted traffic meets relevant offers. Hence, your job is to make good use of available eCommerce marketing services to find the right sources of traffic and ensure your site is relevant for your potential clients.
Enhance Customer Loyalty with Frequent Communications
It’s great to close a sale with your new customers, but it’s even greater when your customers come back after their first purchase. Customer loyalty might be difficult to achieve, but it’s worth your efforts.
In order to retain customers, you need to keep in touch with them regularly and eCommerce marketing services make that easier than ever.
Here are some proven tactics:
- eCommerce marketing strategy: As you’ve already learnt about your customers before, you can send them personalized email offers such as discount codes for relevant items or an exclusive offer on their birthday. This, in return, will not only make your clients feel valued but also drive repeat sales.
- Social media engagement: You can encourage customers to follow you on social media channels (join your Facebook community, follow your Twitter account…). Remember to maintain a good balance between your promotional content and the educational value you provide to your clients.
Find out more ways to gain a market advantage by leveraging social media and omnichannel loyalty programs.
Increase Brand Credibility
Sometimes, credibility comes from how long a brand has been around. But if your brand doesn’t have a century of experience under your belt, you need to invest more time and effort to implement proper strategies to enhance your brand prestige.
Of course, there are several ways your brand can do to maintain a good reputation. Besides providing high-quality offerings and superior customer service, you can also invest in eCommerce marketing services.
For example, content curation is a medium that can help to position your brand as a thought leader, thus, gain trust of your customers as well as that of industry experts. You can consider getting your brand involved in these forms of content:
- Host webinars with topics related to your business
- Run an informative blog site
- Create and circulate white papers
Top 5 Best eCommerce Marketing Services in 2021
Now, you have grasped the benefits of eCommerce marketing services to your brand. Let’s scroll down for an honest, detailed review of trending eCommerce marketing services!
Content Marketing
It goes without saying how crucial it is for a brand to produce compelling content. High-quality, educational and engaging content will add visibility to your brand and bolster your image.
You can start a blog site by researching the topics and keywords relevant to your audience and create valuable content around these. If you’re selling beauty products, for example, you can write about skincare tips, makeup tutorials or product reviews. Site visitors will associate your brand with skincare and makeup knowledge first, then move toward purchasing the associated products.
Besides, make sure that your content is written in a simple language that reflects your brand values and speaks to your audience. To engage different clienteles, you can also try out multiple types of content like infographics, videos, PowerPoint slides, white papers.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your online content so that it appears at the top of unpaid search results. Research suggests that the top 3 listings get as much as 75% of all-click throughs. That’s the reason why you should invest in SEO!
With organic search methods, your site will be accessible to anyone who searches for topics or keywords relevant to your products, and you can constantly accumulate results. Of course, you’ll have to make some adjustments to your website, like outsourcing link building, product descriptions, alt text, tags. But once you’ve earned your spot, it’s well worth your time and effort investment.
If you’re looking for a definite how-to SEO guide, check out our suggestion of effective eCommerce SEO strategies for better ranking.
Google Ads
Needless to say, Google Ads still remains as one of the most powerful eCommerce marketing services in 2021. The key is using the proper Google Ads types for your own business and having the optimization tools to tweak them to peak performance.
If you’re a newbie just starting out, we suggest you take Google Shopping Ads into account. Researches show that Google Shopping Ads generate 26% higher conversion rates and have a 23% lower cost-per-click than Text Ads. And while Text Ads require advertisers to select and bid on the keywords they want to target, Google Shopping Ads eliminate the keyword process entirely.
Since Google Shopping Ads choose the keywords for which to showcase your products, there might be relevant keywords that you may not have guessed before. An exact match is no longer compulsory and Google is getting smarter about using synonyms properly. The search for “heels” will pull up a couple of items with the word “heels” in the name, but also “pumps” and “mules”.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the use of email within your eCommerce marketing services to promote a business’s products and services, as well as incentivize customer loyalty. It can also be a softer sell to stay in touch with customers between purchases.
In a nutshell, email marketing is a powerful marketing channel, playing a crucial role in your marketing strategy with lead generation, brand awareness, or building relationships.
However, email marketing is only efficient if you follow a proper strategy – one that doesn’t include sending sales pitch after sales pitch. Instead, it should involve as much of customers’ email engagement as possible.
Here are some tried-and-true methods you can implement to revamp your email marketing strategies:
- Craft a personalized subject line
- Design an attractive presence
- Optimize your emails for mobile devices
Also, email marketing is responsible for 24% of sales during the holiday season, meaning that it’s the top secret to a high-converting holiday season. Hence, if you’re aiming to boost sales during the holiday season, check out this essential checklist for a profitable holiday email marketing campaign.
Social Media
If you’re dismissing social media as irrelevant for your business, it’s high time you rethought that stance as you’re getting left behind!
There are 3.4 billion active users on Facebook and Instagram, meaning that these are fertile land for merchants to grow business. What’s even more? Over 81% of UK consumers surveyed admitted to buying a product after seeing it on social media platforms. Without a doubt, social media is increasingly influential and is now a central element of all marketing and sales plans.
Social media should be fun and there’s no need to be overly casual. Nevertheless, you should pay attention to every piece of content you’re about to publish. This is because each social network has different purpose as well as subset of users. While Facebook is particularly good for entertainment content, LinkedIn is a more formal network – suitable for B2B audiences.
Let’s discover the tips and tricks on Facebook for eCommerce marketing.
1. Build an online community
Moreover, it’s a good idea to build an online community, whether it’s a Facebook group or branded hashtag. The advantage of running an online community is while it takes lots of care and feeding, it opens another channel for you to connect with your customers.
LitExtension is also running an eCommerce community on Facebook where store owners, eCommerce lovers and developers can share knowledge and get support for all eCommerce-related issues. By joining our Facebook community, you can discover more eCommerce tips and news. Also, you can learn something about how to run an online community. It might come from how we interact with our members or various types of content we are sharing daily.
2. Stay up to date with social media trends
Lastly, you’d better keep up with trends in social media. If you know what your audience is searching as they sign in to their social channels, you can create content that easily connects with them.
In June 2019, Starbucks launched “Extra Shot of Pride” campaign to celebrate Pride month and support the LGBTQ community. As a part of the campaign, Starbucks posted colorful pics of people from the community and their inspiring stories.
The best part about this campaign was that it successfully took advantage of the current social sentiment of people celebrating Pride month. As many people were already talking about this, this campaign was able to garner high levels of interest and engagement.
Final Words
The COVID-19 pandemic has sent a shockwave affecting people and business on a global scale. Despite all the doom and gloom, there is still a bright spot for eCommerce merchants on the horizon. These days, consumers are browsing more online today than they did pre-pandemic and more of them are converting, too.
Therefore, if you can make good use of the current situation and implement proper eCommerce marketing services, you can still reap benefits and further expand your business.
And as a matter of fact, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for every business or marketing campaign. You’ll need to experiment with each approach by yourself to find out the perfect eCommerce marketing services for your brand.
Hopefully, this write-up has provided you with some useful information on your journey with eCommerce. Thank you for reading!