How to Develop an E-commerce Strategy: Tips for a Successful launch
The e-commerce space continues to expand. If you’re a new brand that’s about to launch it's especially important for you to have a go to market strategy that corresponds with your website. A tailored marketing approach can help you attract specific types of consumers and boost your sales more effectively.
Let’s dive right in to discuss how to go about conducting an e-commerce GTM strategy.
1. Outline your objectives.
Before you design an e-commerce marketing plan, the first step is to determine your goals.
What are your aims for this launch and the year ahead?
Here are some examples of marketing objectives:
Boost your site's traffic.
Increased revenue.
Repeat customers.
Expand new products.
Once you've decided on a broad one-year objective, fine-tune your goals. If you aim to attract new clients, for example, you might set a goal of converting 100 new consumers each month.
2. Find out who your ideal customers are.
Once you’ve established your objectives. It's time to define your target market. Understanding your your ideal client is extremely important. it influences where and how you will go about your e-commerce marketing efforts.
Overlooking this part could lead to confusion as to who you are targeting, leaving out key details about your target consumers and their problems.
If you already have a following for your product, the easiest method to get started is to send out a survey. If you don't currently have one, start building your ideal customer profile. Identify the following demographic groups while researching your target market - Gender, Age, Location, Job, Income, Buying behaviours, interests, social media preferences.
3. Look into your competition.
Next, identify your key competitors and their current strengths and limitations. This analysis will aid you in identifying potential advantages that you can use for your own e-commerce marketing strategy.
Examine the details of your competitors' product descriptions. Do they have a blog that they update often? You can use SEO tools like Ahrefs to examine your competition's traffic and see where it's coming from.
Competitor analysis is something that should be continued and done often. Keep an eye on what your competitors are up to so you can stay ahead of the curve in the market.
Sign up for their newsletters and follow them on social media. It could also be a good idea to pick up some of their products to see what they’re like and look at them from a consumers perspective.
4. Determine your pricing strategy and positioning.
How often will you run sales and offers? Pricing accordingly is important and it’s critical to do some legwork upfront. Now that you know who your ideal customers are, you should have a better idea of what they're willing to spend money on and how much they're willing to pay for them.
You don't want your target consumers to view your items as too expensive or not good enough quality. At this stage you should also decide how you want your business to be positioned in the market. Are you going to be a luxury brand or a budget-friendly option? Do you want to focus on being eco-friendly or perhaps only selling products that are made in America?
There are endless possibilities when it comes to pricing and positioning, so choose what makes the most sense for your company.
5. Your E-commerce Strategy
Now that you've completed the preliminary phases of developing your e-commerce marketing plan, it's time to focus on the elements you will include in your e-commerce strategy.
Here’s some things and best practices to consider when it comes to getting your product in front of your ideal customers:
Search engine OPTIMISATION (SEO) explained
SEO stands for "search engine optimisation," which is the practice of optimising a website for it to rank highly in search engines. One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research.
Keyword research is the process of finding words and phrases that potential customers are searching for on Google and other search engines. Once you've identified a keyword, you can optimize your website for that keyword to try and rank highly in search results.
Many company owners are reluctant to invest time and money into SEO because it is too time-consuming on the front end. However, after your site begins to rank higher and attract more traffic, you'll be glad you done it.
SEO is a long term game and an essential part of any e-commerce marketing strategy because it helps your potential customers find you.
Some tips for better SEO include:
Keyword research - Use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find out which keywords are being searched for about your products.
On-page optimisation - This term refers to the components of your website that have an impact on your search engine rankings, such as titles and meta descriptions. Grab our free SEO checklist here.
Link building, also known as link acquisition or link marketing, refers to the practice of inviting other websites to connect to your site.
Your e-commerce marketing strategy will be based on a variety of different content formats. You don’t have to concentrate all of them but determining what sort of material you want to put out into the world will give you a clear vision and direction for execution.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Blogging with SEO
Yes, blogging is certainly not dead, but it has changed significantly in recent years. It’s no longer as easy as throwing together a 500-word blog article, If you want to rank for important keywords, then your articles must go into excruciating detail about the topics you are putting in front of your audience. One of the best ways to ensure that your blog posts are high quality is to hire a SEO expert writer who specialises in writing for your industry. You can find many talented writers on freelancer websites such as Upwork.
Videos
Consumers increasingly desire video content from companies with which they are considering buying from.
According to HubSpot's data, 90% of consumers find the video useful when making purchasing decisions increasing your email subject line's average length from 66 to 91 characters, as well as including the term "video" in it, boosts open rates by 19%.
There are several methods for utilising video in your content for your e-commerce business. You could make how-to videos, product demonstration or style guides, behind the scenes videos and detail shots of your product are just a few examples.
Customer testimonials are important
Customers want to see social proof from the companies they invest in. It's not enough for you to simply discuss how great your products are; customers need to know what others think about them! You can add customer testimonials to your website and social media channels in the form of written reviews, video interviews, or both. You could even build a separate landing page for good client experiences, or publish long-form case studies on your blog.
Product guides
Conversion (product) guides are another fantastic way for turning prospects into customers who want more information about your items before buying them. Make sure to include a a call to action after the product guide. Encourage your customers to click on the item they want to buy, or give them a way to subscribe to your email list for future sales, discounts and product launches.
Email marketing
Why email marketing? You own your email list. You don’t own Instagram or Twitter.
Social media campaigns and SEO efforts can go waste when these platforms change their policies. On the other hand, if you own your email list, it is not influenced by the decisions of other businesses.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the USA.
Email subscribers who join an email list from a website and verify their identity by clicking on a link (double-opt-in), which means they are already interested in what you have to offer. Email allows you to land into a user’s inbox.
There is no ranking system limiting your reach. It is very direct and personal. Email can be targeted - you know what your target audience likes to consume, and you can deliver highly relevant offers through segmentation to get the best results.
Email campaigns are one of the best methods for developing a long lasting connection with your audience.
You can use email marketing to:
Announce new product arrivals or sales
Give customers coupon codes or other discounts
Share blog posts or other types of content
Offer customer support
Conduct customer surveys
The key to a successful email marketing campaign is to segment your audience and send them content that is relevant to their interests. That way, you are more likely to get people to open and click through your emails.
Social media marketing
According to Statista, 30% of 18- to 34-year-olds make purchasing decisions through social media. This evidence indicates that social media is not only a place to share information and get brand recognition, but it's also a way to convert followers into customers. These are endless types of social media posts that could result in potential sales:
Product photos
Product videos
User-generated content (reviews, photos, videos)
Coupon codes or other discounts
Contests or giveaways
You could also consider using paid social media advertising to reach a larger audience with your eCommerce content.
What are the main social media platforms used by E-commerce businesses?
Facebook is a popular social networking site with over 2.4 billion monthly active users (MAUs). This platform reaches a wide range of demographics due to its global user base, making it an ideal place to market your products or services. You can use your Shop tab to promote any items you have for sale on your Facebook business page. From there, you can list a variety of products and make it easy for followers to purchase them directly through Facebook. Plus, your Facebook business page can be linked to your website so that customers can easily find your online store.
Instagram offers e-commerce companies major potential. When you make a shoppable Instagram post, you can tag all of the products in the picture. When your followers click on a product in the post, they will be taken to a product page where they can learn more about the item and make a purchase.
Pinterest is another picture-centric platform for e-commerce companies. Similar to Google it run as a search engine so keyword research is important. To get started, you'll need to create a business account and verify your website. After that, you can start creating boards for all of the products that you sell. You can also include product links on your Pinterest profile so that customers can purchase items directly from your website.
Twitter is a great platform for e-commerce companies because it's fast-paced and allows you to share a variety of content, including photos, videos, articles, and more. You can also use Twitter to run paid ads that promote your products or services. Paid ads on Twitter are called "Promoted Tweets," and they appear in users' timelines just like regular tweets. However, Promoted Tweets also appear in search results and on other users' profiles who might be interested in what you're selling.
Influencer marketing
Many businesses have moved away from sponsored advertising in favour of influencer marketing. Working with an influencer who has a well-known following with a target demographic your brand resonates with is a great way to reach a new audience. This is generally done through social media.
Influencer marketing can be quite successful when executed correctly. This is due to credibility and social proof from a person has already established trust and credibility with their audience. Meaning their followers will be more inclined to listen to their recommendations.
Paid advertising
Paid advertising is frequently looked down upon, yet it is still one of the most effective marketing techniques. The best e-commerce advertising platforms are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. These platforms allow you to target a specific audience and get your message in front of them.
You can use Google Ads to run text, image, and video ads on Google.com and millions of other websites across the web. Facebook Ads is a similar platform that allows you to run ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. These platforms are incredibly powerful and can help you reach a large audience with your eCommerce content.
Facebook Ads may be used to target your ideal audience and introduce your product to a new set of potential consumers. You create the ad in the Facebook Ads Manager and then choose your target audience, budget, and schedule.
In contrast, Google Ads targets precise keywords. When a user searches for a term or phrase, your ad will appear at the top of the search results. Google Ads allows you to target a specific audience, but it's generally more expensive than Facebook Ads.
Do you need help with your brand or product launch? We offer tailored 1:1 strategy sessions. Get in touch hello@startupemporium.com
