4 Ecommerce marketing strategy and best practices
Now that you’ve got a wealth of ideas to work with on your ecommerce marketing efforts, let’s run through some general strategy and best practices that will help you make the most out of your plans.
Define your marketing goals
Every business has different priorities at different times. Understanding what you want to get out of your marketing efforts will help you better tailor what those efforts look like.
Begin by establishing your goals and create benchmark key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure against to understand your success. Then, choose the platform or platforms that will best help you tackle those goals.
If you’re a new business, working on awareness may be best for your efforts, and tapping an existing influencer or thought leader’s audience may help broaden your reach. Have low conversions? Consider providing useful content to your audience so they can see exactly what they’ll get out of your products.
Prioritize authenticity
Today’s buyer is not just buying a product. They are often buying a story or making an investment in a brand, and that’s usually because there’s an alignment in values or a belief in the narrative or people behind it. A great way to make an impression in a busy ecommerce space is to lead with authenticity in your marketing efforts.
Tell a founder’s story on your website. Post a behind-the-scenes video of a product’s life from idea to a customer’s hands. Curate your link in bio to the essentials of your business’ story. Whatever feels authentic to you and your brand’s story, run with it.
Cross-sell and upsell products where you can
As your business grows, you’ll find that some products naturally complement each other or are often bought together. This presents an opportunity to cross-sell or upsell products or services wherever possible. This is a tactic to increase your sales, where you either promote a product with a complementary one (cross-selling) or promote an upgraded version of a product (upselling).
Not every channel or tactic will be the best way to cross-sell and upsell your offerings, but it’s common to use in email marketing or even in the content you post. With that same soap and bath products example, one message could talk about the benefits of a specific ingredient in one product while mentioning all of the other products featuring it as well—a cross-sell. The same message could link to a bundle of those products to make it easy for readers to make a purchase if they want—an upsell.
Monitor results and adjust your strategy
It’s important and useful to collect data on your marketing efforts. Over time, those results can tell you what channels or types of messaging were a success or where you might need to pivot for better results.
Once you’ve set your benchmark numbers and understand your goals, set a regular reminder to check how well paid ads are doing, what the traffic to your website is week-over-week, what the click-through-rate (CTR) is on emails, or if there are any trends in video engagement and drop-off.
If the numbers aren’t exactly where you want them to be, don’t fret. They tell you a valuable story about what you might need to do next and how to pivot accordingly. Don’t forget to make note of your successes either. These can help you identify where to lean in on or repeat a strategy.
AHD Consulting Solution is here to help you with tools and insights to not just deal with these challenges but turn them into opportunities for innovation success. Accessible to corporations of any size, our sprints and programs include interactive workflows, videos, pre-structured workspaces, and much more. If you want to discuss a potential project, you can email on services@ahdconsultingsolution.com or get in touch with us here. Alternatively, you can book in a free 15-minute consultation call here.
