Over the past decade, eCommerce has quickly become an indispensable part of the worldwide retail space. With advancements in the field, there have been significant transformations in how businesses conduct practices online and how customers shop for products and services.

Digitalization of commerce has made it possible for people to shop for anything and everything, regardless of their geographic location. Statista reports that two billion people purchased an online product or service in 2020. The e-retail sales crossed 4.2 trillion US dollars the same year.

Although the pandemic certainly catapulted growth in the eCommerce space, eCommerce marketing also played a substantial role. But what is eCommerce marketing? Here’s a peek.

What Is eCommerce Marketing and What Does It Consist Of?

eCommerce marketing refers to all the strategies and techniques used to market a business online. These include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media, remarketing ads, email marketing, conversion rate optimization (CRO), etc.

eCommerce marketers optimize web pages on popular eCommerce platforms, such as Amazon and eBay, to attract traffic and increase visibility on search engines. It’s bound to be even more important in the future since Nasdaq reports that by 2040 95% of global purchases may be conducted online.

Types of Marketing for eCommerce Businesses

An eCommerce marketing strategy has different facets, including social media, emails, and search engine ads.

Email Marketing

An eCommerce email marketing strategy helps businesses attract, engage, and retain customers through emails. Email marketing refers to using emails to market an online business to consumers. Retail marketers can design email campaigns based on their target audience’s interests and behavior patterns and the business goals they are trying to achieve.

Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to using informative, engaging, and relevant content to reach out to customers. DemandMetric reports that content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing while costing 62% less. 

In an eCommerce context, marketers design visual or textual content to help customers make more informed buying decisions by educating them on the benefits of a particular product/service or bringing them into the sales funnel.

Social Media Marketing

Another major part of eCommerce marketing is social media marketing. This involves creating an online presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote a company’s product, service, or brand value proposition to the target audience. Social media marketing is ideal for new businesses that want to establish their online footprint.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click is a type of eCommerce marketing plan in which advertisers pay a fee every time someone clicks on their ads. As a marketer or eCommerce marketing agency, you’d display ads online and pay a fee only when a visitor clicks the ad. It’s a non-organic way of getting people to your site since you’re paying to display ads rather than consumers finding you on their own.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization means that marketers rank website pages higher on search engines like Google and Bing to increase visibility. An eCommerce vertical has its own SEO strategies, such as developing keyword-heavy content and getting more backlinks from high-authority websites.

How to Create an eCommerce Marketing Strategy That Works

Here’s a brief look into creating an eCommerce marketing plan that works.

Define and Understand Your Target Customer

First and foremost, you need to identify your target customers. Who are they? What do they do? What are they interested in?

Defining your target audience will help you find where your customers are and approach them there. Young people are typically more approachable through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. On the other hand, if you’re marketing to corporate leaders, you’d want to use email marketing.

Create a Customer Persona

A customer persona is a fictional representation of your target customers that includes demographics, interests, and motivations. Creating a customer persona will help you understand who you’re marketing to and what kind of content they would want to see on their newsfeed or inbox.

Keep The Buying Process at Top of Mind

The buying process comprises four distinct stages: awareness, interest, decision, and action. As an eCommerce marketer, you need to be aware of which stage your customers are at during the buying process so that you can provide them with content relevant to their needs.

For instance, if a consumer is in the awareness stage, you’d want to focus on generating awareness. In the interest stage, you’d need to hone in on cultivating a sense of urgency, and so on.

Create a Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan is the advertising strategy you implement to sell your product or service. It helps you determine who your target audience is, the best way to approach them, the price they’re likely to pay for your product, and how you’ll measure the success of your efforts. It’s important to have this process planned before starting eCommerce marketing.

Develop KPIs to Measure Success

Key performance indicators are measured statistics that indicate the performance of your marketing plan. They help you know whether your marketing efforts are going according to plan or not. For instance, a simple eCommerce email marketing KPI could be the open rate, which indicates the number of emails opened by recipients.

Use an Analytics Tool to Track Progress

Several tools and technologies can support your eCommerce marketing strategy. For example, analytic tools can help you track the performance of your eCommerce marketing strategy and show you shortcomings you need to cover.

Tips for Getting Started with eCommerce Marketing in 2022

Here are some useful tips to get started with eCommerce marketing:

• Use an analytics tool to make tactical decisions about improving your eCommerce marketing strategy on the fly.
• Social media platforms are some of the best places to advertise your products and services. Use them as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy.
• Make sure you send personalized emails to get a positive response from your prospects and customers.
• Don’t ignore the importance of mobile compatibility in your eCommerce marketing efforts, as more and more people are using mobile phones for shopping.

Lastly, use a service like GrowthHit to get all your email marketing, social media ads, PPC, and copywriting needs met in one place.