How to Market Your E-Commerce Site on a Shoestring Budget
You have a great product or service and want to sell it online. You might be thinking: "I have this great site, so why don't I just let people know how to find it?"
If only it were that sinple!
Fortunately, there are many ways to market an e-commerce business—including SEO techniques, paid ads, and promotions, retargeting strategies, email marketing campaigns, and more—that can help boost traffic to your site and create more conversions overall.
The best part is that they don't all require much money upfront; in fact, some cost nothing more than your time and energy.
Read on to explore these options for finding new online customers without breaking the bank.
Decide what your goals are.
Before you start to market your e-commerce site, it's crucial to know what your goals are.
This should be a general statement about how you want customers to perceive or feel about your brand and products.
What do I mean by this?
Well, for example:
I want my customers to see me as a trustworthy source of information on X (e.g., DIY home improvement).
I want people who experience Y problems (e.g., low-back pain) to know that there is an effective solution available for them through the Z solution offered by my company at price point A.
I want people who fit demographic B with income range C and age range D with interest E in product F sold by us at price point G because it solves problem H they have been having for years.
Make sense?
Understand Your Customers
Listen to your customers: Your most valuable resource is the information you can glean from people's experiences with your product or service. Listening is a two-way street, though--it's not just about gathering feedback and insights but also ensuring they know they can trust you will listen and act on that information.
Understand their needs: Customers don't always know what they want until they see it in front of them, so take some time to research before launching anything new or introducing any significant changes in how things are done at your company (or even just within a particular department). This will help ensure success by avoiding major missteps regarding your customers’ preferences or expectations.
Understand their problems: Market your products and services as the solution.
Communicate with customers in the right voice.
I have found the most effective way to market your e-commerce site is by communicating with customers in the right voice.
Be consistent in your messaging: Your brand's tone of voice should be consistent across all platforms--Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. It must also be consistent across all channels--websites, social media sites, email newsletters, and physical stores (if you have any).
Use the same tone of voice: It may seem obvious, but if there are multiple people involved in creating content for your company, then they should be using similar wording so people know they're reading material from one source rather than several different ones, which can get confusing quickly.
Use a customer management tool.
Many tools can help you manage your customers, and choosing the right one is vital.
A customer management tool allows you to continuously connect with individual shoppers and their needs.
This type of tool lets you:
Identify who your best customers are - and what they like about your brand
Make sure they stay happy so they keep coming back.
Here are a few to check out:
Zoho CRM
Capsule CRM
Freshworks
Hubspot CRM
Metrilo
Salesforce Account Engagement
Create a marketing plan.
Here’s how:
Define your audience.
Define your goals.
Define your budget, and make sure it's realistic.
Determine the marketing channels that will reach this audience with the most impact (social media, email marketing, etc.).
Create a marketing mix that includes: Content creation (blog posts), paid ads/sponsored posts on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram; email newsletters sent out periodically to keep customers engaged with new products being added or special offers running at certain times of the year like Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales promotions, etc.; customer service via phone calls or emails if needed - these are all critical factors when trying not only sell products but build relationships with customers so that when they need something else later down the line, they'll remember who gave them value first by providing good service throughout their entire buying experience. And hopefully, come back again soon.
Generate a lead magnet.
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