14 Digital Marketing Strategies for E-commerce

Surely, you’ve heard the concept of “Digital Marketing” millions of times. But what is it? For many, the meaning of the term remains incomprehensible, so they try to avoid it. However, believe me, this concept is not so scary and not so difficult.

So, digital marketing is a type of advertising that is delivered to a potential client with the various digital channels.

Now I will explain it in simpler words: digital marketing is any advertising of goods or services for which various electronic devices are used. As you can see, there is nothing complicated.

Digital marketing has many methods for optimizing and promoting various products or services. We list the most popular ones: contextual advertising, search engine optimization, advertising in e-books, games and other types of digital products and so on. By the way, many of the largest companies have long been using such methods, successfully promoting their products or services, and expanding their customer base.

In this article, we’ll talk about how digital marketing can be used in e-commerce.

After all, this is precisely the direction that needs special attention today, given that we all live in the digital age. Given the large number of sites, blogs, online competition is very large and every day you can lose positions in the top, and therefore lose customers. In addition, the development of the Google search engine enables customers to literally compare sites, prices for the same product within a few minutes and choose the best solution for themselves. And, as you know, they may make their choice not in your favor. Therefore, inaction is unacceptable.

So, what strategies should be used in e-commerce to maintain leadership positions, have a profitable business and constantly replenish the audience of potential customers? Let’s find out together.

Why does digital marketing matter?

Not so long ago, the main marketing tool was visual advertising, which could be seen on the street (billboards, flyers and so on) and at home (newspapers, magazines).

But in the modern rhythm of life, people rarely divert their attention to such visual advertising.

Recently, such marketing has become unprofitable for owners of large corporations. There is one reason for this: people began to spend more time on the Internet.

Indeed, if earlier, on the way to work, people, being in public transport, looked out the window and paid attention to street advertising, now they are completely immersed in their own smartphones or tablets. At home, instead of newspapers and magazines, they read news on the Internet.

Therefore, in the XXI century, the century of digital technology, it is already unreasonable to spend millions on print advertising. It is much more profitable to invest in digital marketing, which can several times increase the likelihood of success of a particular business.

With a vast digital landscape growing every day, here are 14 digital marketing strategies to help you capture your share of the $2.8 trillion annual online sales.

1) Boost Product Visualization

When buying a product in an ordinary store, a buyer can come closer to it, pick it up, touch it, twist it, and so on. The lack of such opportunities in online stores repels him. To prevent this from happening, you must make every effort to visualize the product.

Fortunately, progress in the digital industry has already gone a long way, so it’s easy for entrepreneurs to do the following:

1. Produce the highest quality photos of the product.
2. To think over the function of scaling of the image. This will allow your customer to consider even the smallest product details.
3. Provide for the possibility of rotation of the product 360 degrees. Such features are available now thanks to 3d technology

The use of 3d technology in the visualization of a product greatly affects its marketability. According to reputable publications, this figure may be 25-30%.

2) Add Video

The importance and relevance of media content has not been canceled. If, in addition to the verbal description of the product, you can clearly show all the advantages of the promoted product, this will be a huge plus in your direction.

Remember that people do not like to read a lot, but it will be quite interesting for them to watch a small colorful video, where the most important information will be explained in an accessible language. In addition, the video positively affects the choice of buyers. So, more than half of the users who watched the video are likely to make a purchase on your site.

3) The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The use of artificial intelligence in digital marketing has a positive effect on sales performance.

For many years, modern sellers of goods have been using it to save time and resources, as well as to more correctly determine the most suitable strategy.

So, there are several advantages of using AI in your digital marketing:

• This technology helps to understand the client correctly and is able to analyze his further behavior
• Having analyzed the needs and desires of the client. The system highlights the products that will be interesting to this person
• Using AI in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies makes them much more effective
• AI helps the seller to solve many small routine tasks.

4) Cutting-Edge Product Filtering

If your site has a lot of products, you need to make sure that the user quickly finds the product that interests him. You must admit that it’s much easier to make purchases by choosing the necessary characteristics in the filter on the site than spending a lot of time scrolling through unnecessary products in search of the required products.

According to official figures, 42% of large e-commerce sites do not use a filter. Therefore, you can easily get more benefits by joining companies that take into account the interests of potential buyers and offer them to use the advanced filter when searching for the right product.

5) Automation of Work with Chatbots

Chat bots are a kind of online store support staff who are ready to help customers 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. They are able to answer simple questions from customers, talk about the features of a particular product or even advise something alternative.

Image Source: http://landbot.io

They are programmed in such a way as to conduct conversations in a manner as close to human as possible. That is why not all customers can determine who is talking to them: a person or a robot.

6) Flexible Delivery

Consider possible delivery methods in different regions or in your city, and offer people as many options as possible.

What is it for? Suppose one buyer needs to receive his goods quickly, and he is ready to pay for the speed of delivery. The other buyer, on the contrary, is in no hurry, and it will be better for him to get the purchase a little later, but at the same time delivery will be cheaper for him. Such a move will be very effective for you.

7) Reduce Cart Abandonment

Often people do not complete their purchases. Cart abandonment is most likely to occur when a customer gets to check out and finds the delivery options do not suit their needs. More than 69% of the time this is directly related to additional fees such as shipping.

There are 3 main reasons for rejecting the basket: the delivery or its price does not match the customer’s requirements, the process of making a purchase takes too long (registration on the site, verification, etc.), the slow loading speed of the web page, or the website’s malfunction. The buyer just leaves the page.

The most effective solution to this problem for you is to use the email recovery function and send a person a few emails asking him to complete the operation on the site. Statistics show that a third of the people who received such letters returned to the site and completed the purchase.

8) Leverage Wish Lists

By creating a wishlist on your website, you can receive invaluable information from your customers. Further, using this information, you can send them emails indicating that the product they want is on the site, but its quantity is very small. Or you can notify that a new product, which is included in the wish list, has appeared on the site. Such actions will bring you good results – they motivate your customers to make a purchase on your site.

9) Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

This is necessary if you want to expand your customer base. I am sure you agree that a satisfied customer is a great advertisement for your products. In addition, most potential consumers trust people who have already made a purchase and start using your products.

There are 2 options to use UGC effectively:

1. Make a convenient function on your website for posting reviews about your company and offered products.
2. Use as many suitable hashtags as possible on every social network.

10) Mobile Friendly

Statistics show that most users prefer to make a purchase from their mobile devices. Google confirmed these data, saying that more than 70% of users leave the site if it is inconvenient to buy from a mobile phone.

This means that you need to adapt to your customers and make your site convenient for use from a mobile device.

Image Source: https://www.websiteplanet.com

First, make sure that the shopping basket scrolls down as the customer scrolls down. This will allow him to add goods to the basket quickly without returning upstairs in his search.

Also, next to each product should be a quick add button to the basket.

11) Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

This strategy requires a better understanding of your client and his needs. With the help of artificial intelligence, this becomes possible. And it brings good results.

You can use localization along with personalization, and offer customers living on the north side some products, and customers living in the south completely different products.

12) Use Retargeting

Such a digital marketing strategy plays a major role in successful e-commerce. Using retargeting, you can track your customers’ online presence and offer them the goods and services that they need.

For example, if a person sees an advertising link to the product that he needs, he can click on this link then go to your website and make a purchase.

13) Improve Checkout

The more difficult it is for a customer to make a purchase on your site, the faster he will make a rejection of the basket. To avoid this, make the checkout process as simple as possible. Also make sure that the client can easily return to the previous page in the event of an error.

14) Encourage Social Shopping

Use social networks as platforms for selling your goods and services. You don’t need to force potential customers to switch from a social network to your website. You can make a small online store based on a social network (for example, Facebook or Instagram), where users can make their purchases.

Conclusion

So, digital marketing is necessary for every entrepreneur who seeks to expand his client base and therefore increase his income. Using these 14 strategies will help you to grow your business and maintain a leading position in your online business.

If you really want to launch your profitable online store and start making money online I would recommend that you read the article: How to start an online store in 2020. There you will find simple instructions on how to use your wordpress to launch your first online store.