E-commerce businesses face a particular issue: unlike mall retail establishments, their storefronts don’t draw customers on their own. To build your brand awareness, you must therefore go above and beyond by implementing various ecommerce marketing techniques.

The good news is that it’s not as hard as it seems. By implementing effective practices, you can enhance your brand’s recognition and foster customer loyalty in addition to increasing inbound sales.

However, using the appropriate tactics is important. You simply cannot spend hours on ineffective strategies in this fierce competition.

Thus, without wasting any more time, we’ve put together the top marketing techniques you can employ to advance your online store. You can use the brand examples to see how you can use them on your own in real life.

Table of Contents

Create social media contests

63% of social media contest participants share it with a friend to encourage them to participate.

This is not a difficult task given that people enjoy participating in activities where they can demonstrate their skills or talent and receive something in return.

This also allows you to promote your brand to a larger audience and generate interest in your contest.

These online contests can be run in a variety of ways. You could, for example, host event-based contests such as Halloween contests, voting or poll-based contests, quizzes or trivia about your niche, and giveaways.

Here’s one idea from Lands’ End to get you started.

The best competitions are always those that allow participants to express their creativity and give them a platform to showcase their skills.

Use these contest tools to help organize and run these contests if you choose to employ this e-commerce marketing strategy.

Make use of live shopping

Live shopping is similar to television’s home shopping channels. The only difference is that instead of watching television, consumers now shop for products on their mobile phones through real-time video broadcasts on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Taobao.

According to a McKinsey report, while still in its early stages, live shopping could account for up to 20% of ecommerce sales by 2026.

To get the most out of it, combine your influencer marketing efforts with live shopping. For example, you could have a fashion influencer endorse your clothing products during a live broadcast, along with some styling advice. This will also assist you in gaining initial traction for your live videos.

CAIA Cosmetics’ first-ever live stream had a conversion rate of 5%, which is higher than the brand’s average website conversions.

Make gift guises

Any occasion—birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, Mother’s Day, or something else entirely—can be celebrated with gifts throughout the year.

Not only that, but selling gifts also increases your earnings per sale. Gift buyers exhibit higher purchase frequency, engage in more cross-buying, and spend more money each shopping trip.

There is a catch, though: buyers frequently don’t know what to give. You must implement an effective e-commerce marketing strategy in order to take advantage of this consumer behavior.

Begin by compiling gift guides with products that assist your target market in selecting gifts. In this manner, you position your products as the answer to an issue rather than as something you’re trying to sell.

While many e-commerce companies employ this tactic during well-known holidays like Christmas and New Year’s, you can encourage people to make thoughtful purchases by providing gift guides for events like “celebrating someone’s first job” or “gift guides for anniversaries.”

This is how Tarte set up a quick online test to recommend the ideal presents for its customers.

Utilize UGC

Prospective buyers feel more comfortable making the same purchases from your store when they observe others using and enjoying your products. User-generated content (UGC) works so well because of this.

Frank Body has employed this e-commerce marketing tactic to its fullest by coming up with the original hashtag #thefrankeffect for user-generated content.

They also started providing exciting monthly prizes to their fans who created original posts.

Make use of the interactive site search

Entering relevant keywords into the site search helps users find the exact products they want to buy. Additionally, customers who use the search function have a twice higher conversion rate.

The rationale is that these customers frequently have strong buying intent and are prepared to buy.

For e-commerce businesses, consider the following site search best practices:

1. Locate the search box in a prominent area where users are used to seeing it.
2. Give in to mistakes and autocorrect. For instance, your search engine should be tuned to detect typing errors such as “erphones” instead of “earphones” and direct the user to the appropriate page.
3. Give users the option to filter results based on characteristics like occasion, color, and size.

Focus on email retargeting campaigns.

You’re losing a lot of money if you’re not making an effort to win back customers who demonstrated a strong desire to buy by having them add items to their wishlists or carts.

Your leads may come back to your store and finish their purchases with the aid of this e-commerce marketing technique.

Retargeting can be done in two different ways: through creative retargeting email campaigns or by using retargeting ads.

What does this email teach you?

• Make your introduction and heading shine. This email’s header grabs your attention right away and forces you to read the introduction in its entirety.
• Make sure your CTAs are visible. The email has the CTAs “Shop now” and “Customize” prominently displayed.
• Include societal evidence. The customer is more likely to buy the shoes after reading the testimonials.

Start advertising campaigns on Google Shopping

Google shopping ads, also referred to as Product Listing Ads or PLAs, show up immediately above search results when a user types a product phrase, such as “organic tea.”

Other locations for your product include YouTube, Google Display Network, price comparison services, shopping tabs, and partner search websites.

The most prominent positions on Google’s Shopping tab go to paid listings, even though you can still get a good amount of traffic from free listings.

In order to utilize Google Shopping, you must:

• Make an account in Google Merchant Center.
• Connect your AdWords account to Google
• Make your product pages more efficient.
• Begin utilizing a campaign.

Get access to transparent reporting data that aids in campaign analysis and optimization if you want your Google campaigns to be successful.

Make use of video marketing

People are becoming more and more drawn to interesting video content as a result of the introduction of shorter video formats like reels and stories. According to a recent survey, 91% of consumers want to see more online video content produced and shared by brands.

The reasons are straightforward: they humanize your brand, are easier to consume, and are better at narrating a story and evoking feelings.

The following three strategies will help you develop video campaigns for your online store:

Describe the features and functionalities of the product in detail

If you sell high-end fitness watches, for instance, you might want to display a comprehensive video that goes over all the things a customer can do with the watch.

Make use of product tutorials

On their product pages, a lot of cosmetics brands now feature videos that demonstrate how users can use their products to create various looks.

Post testimonies in video form

from your clients on key landing pages or your homepage.

Increase the size of your email list

Email campaigns for e-commerce companies run in parallel, ranging from welcome to retargeting.

Obtaining more email subscribers is necessary if you want to make the most of these campaigns.

Here are four approaches to that end:

1. Provide a discount in return for registration. You can even boost sales and encourage new subscribers in this way.
2. Use social media to actively promote your email capture or newsletter campaigns.
3. Create a captivating article or quiz to distribute via email.
4. Hold giveaways and competitions that require registration in order to enter.

Make use of SMS marketing

Within 30 minutes, 86% of recipients check their text notifications. It is reasonable to anticipate increased engagement with such high open rates.

This is how Judy, a provider of emergency kits, requests cell phone numbers in return for important data.

The following are some best practices for SMS marketing:

• Use tools like Omnisend to automate customer communications for crucial updates like order confirmation, dispatch details, and a reminder to leave a review.
• Always try to give your clients more value. Send them a coupon code, for instance, or let them know about a sale that is coming up.
• Keep it brief. Write brief messages that fit within the phone’s notification window rather than long ones.
• Whenever possible, personalize the messages you send.

Make use of discounts

92% of American shoppers believe that discounts and offers play a significant role in their decision to buy.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good deal, after all?

When a customer is unsure, discounts are a great way to encourage them to click the “Add to Cart” button. Science confirms this. We feel happier and are less likely to give up on our carts when we receive discounts because they release oxytocin into our brains.

You can try out various types of discounts, such as volume discounts, seasonal discounts, free shipping, buy one get one free, and discounts on particular items.

A word of caution: Although discounts are fantastic, you must use them wisely. The sales and discounts are useless if you take advantage of them too often. Aim for well-planned sales and steer clear of “year-round sales.”

Final Thoughts

At the end, numbers are all that matters. Instead of launching too many new strategies at once, focus on one at a time and closely monitor the results.

Avoid starting a new influencer marketing campaign, for example, if you’ve just launched a social media contest.

Experiment, analyze, and then repeat the strategy that works best for your brand and niche.