Now more than ever, E-commerce websites can benefit from a diverse landscape of digital marketing campaigns. While each business should choose marketing efforts that are well-paired to their audiences and other metrics, in most cases, testing more than one type of campaign will be important to your overall success. We’ve created a cheat-sheet for you, aimed to help you in identifying some of the most successful types of campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Still a favorite for many, SEO campaigns aren’t the fastest to generate return on investment, but they can drive some of your healthiest sales and provide really great long-term returns. SEO helps you to earn rankings at the top of organic / natural search engine results, displaying you as one of a short list of stores that search engines like Google recommend for your targeted keyword phrases.
Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)
One of the most trackable and optimizable campaign types, PPC allows you to show text, banner, and video ads in mediums like search results, news sites and blogs, and video sites like YouTube. These campaigns are highly targeted and trackable, and allow for ongoing optimization as you collect data on which ads and targets are generating the best sales. E-commerce website owners often find great results with Shopping Ads such as Google Shopping and ReMarketing ads, which help re-engage shoppers who left a site without making a purchase.
Email Marketing
Once you’ve attracted a prospect or customer, it’s important to keep them engaged in order to earn more sales and referrals. E-mail Marketing is one of the best ways to generate better lifetime values out of your traffic, and your customer relationships. Whether it’s sending messages about new products and sales, telling your brand’s story, or even sending abandoned cart messages to drive shoppers who left mid-purchase back to your site, E-mails can help keep customers active and more loyal.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media allows you to engage with audiences where they spend the majority of their time. This includes traditional mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, and more visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. Social networks generate a lot of buzz for you very quickly, sometimes virally, but they’re also great for highly targeted ad campaigns. Platforms like Facebook have a wealth of data on user demographics and interests that can work to your advantage.
Content Submissions
Whether Press Releases, Guest Blog Posts, Articles in news websites, or even YouTube videos, consider authoring high-quality content that will expose others to your brand and reflect well on you as industry experts. It can help put you in front of a whole new audience.
Feed Marketing
Your E-commerce websites may contain everything that you need to sell through additional shopping engines and marketplaces. It may be possible to set up a feed, allowing you to list your products on major websites, getting you in front of a much wider audience. These feeds will serve you best if they’re being actively monitored and optimized – just like PPC Ads.
Affiliate Marketing
There may be bloggers, social influencers, digital publishers, and others that are willing to promote your website for a commission on the sales that they help to generate. By joining a major affiliate network, you can connect with potential affiliates, offering them referral fees to attract them to focus their efforts on sending shoppers your way.
Text Messages & Push Notifications
Many shoppers are inundated by Emails, but, if they’re willing to accept occasional text messages from you, these can be a very effective way of staying in touch. Additionally, E-commerce mobile apps, powered by the data in your main E-commerce website, can allow you to send push notifications, engaging with shoppers on the device where they spend the most time.
Local Directory Marketing
If you have physical store locations, you should consider optimizing your local listings with platforms ranging from Google to Yelp, to YellowPages, to hundreds of other sites. This cuts down on misinformation that could cost you sales and allows you to be found through these mediums, and for shoppers researching you to see that you’re well established in through listings in major websites.
Not sure which campaigns are right for you? The Rand Marketing team can provide a complimentary consult, getting to know you and your business, and helping to suggest the marketing campaigns that pair the best with your organization.
About the Author
Robert Rand of RandMarketing.com was educated at NYU Poly and has managed the development and marketing of hundreds of websites. Along with Rand’s award winning team, he helps clients take their businesses to the next level by employing best practices, while staying at the forefront of the eCommerce and internet marketing industries. From technical issues to traditional marketing efforts, Robert takes pride in providing our clients with services that will make a difference in their bottom lines.
