E-commerce is not new.

Especially not anymore.

Marketing operations of various businesses are shifting to online media channels in order to promote themselves and be seen in the public eye.

For those of you who have tried their hand at e-commerce know it’s not as easy as it may sound. And for those who are yet to begin their journey, I have something that might help you.

Let me tell you what e-commerce really is:

The use of digital content, social media, search engines, mobile applications, and various other tactics are employed in order to get ahead in the game of marketing to gain returns.

The rise in e-commerce advertising will open gates to the global market and provide a large scale of business opportunities. Rather than being a luxury, surfing the internet today has become more of a regular deal.

People do not get bored, they get “internet bored.” That’s how often most of the population surf the internet. Now if the internet is this vast, its importance shall increase as well.

Take a look at a few reasons why e-commerce is bound to progress:

• It is less time-consuming
• Offers a wide range of products
• It does not require people to leave the house
• Has a transparent business system
• For businesses, it has a lower maintenance cost
• E-commerce offers a personalized consumer experience
• Sellers are required to sell high-quality products due to more competition
• On the go notifications of offers, discounts, and exciting deals
• Higher scope of expansion

These are only a few of the many reasons businesses are diving into e-commerce.

In spite of revealing such numbers, there are plenty of Indian businesses that do not own a website today, neither do they feel the need to go online.

The explanation doesn’t end at “going online.” E-commerce is an amalgamation of different services, which when combined forms strategies that enhance a business’s ability to survive in the online market.

For those who are willing to expand their business through the unlimited advantages of e-commerce, here are a few tips related to each of the digital channels:

1. SEO for E-Commerce

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and our beloved Google keeps updating its algorithms to make things interesting for marketers. It is a highly effective e-commerce marketing strategy.

Optimizing content can mean a lot for the business. It could be the difference between not being visible on the Google pages, to ranking in the top 10 search results.

I have compiled a few tips that will prove to be beneficial for your business. These tips have been tried and tested, so don’t worry about a thing!

• One of the most crucial things when it comes to SEO is to ensure that your company website loads fast. A slow-loading website will reduce the user experience considerably, and they would leave without making a purchase.
• Make sure that the content is produced for the readers and not for the search engine. Doing so may get you on the leaders’ board with Google, but will drive your customers and potential consumers away.
• Meta descriptions are the charm of any page. A singular description for every page does absolutely nothing for the user experience. Each topic you write for varies, which is why the same should go for your meta description.
• Optimize voice searching for your business. The method is easily accessible, and most searches are related to the primary questions. By creating FAQs that feature high-quality voice search optimization, the website rank can increase on Google.
• Add links on your content with relevant content from other websites in order to create growth, since link building makes your website more resourceful and valuable to customers.

It is essential that a team of experts takes care of search engine optimization for your business in order to drive more organic traffic, gain leads, and create high-quality content.

Did you know:

2. PPC for E-Commerce

PPC is one of the most effective ways of digital marketing. Through the pay-per-click advertising technique, your business will receive a rather targeted audience making it scalable.

Here’s what you can do for PPC as e-commerce advertising:

The PPC campaigns need to be optimized by keeping a check on the high-converting keywords. These are the keywords that bring the most business to your website. By tracking the performance of the keywords, you will come to know whether you need to make drastic changes or just tweak a few nodes.

• Once you have set a list of high performing keywords, you will be able to pick out the low performers. After this, it’s an easy road to altering the keyword bids.
• The use of Ad Extensions will improve the visibility of your business. Along with this, it will enable your customers to understand the product and services you provide.
• If your PPC focuses on social media pages, then a technique known as dark posting should work for your business. Using the dark posting method would mean that various ads and campaigns use the same ad ID.
• In order to increase the click-through rates, your ads need to be made in such a way that they are eye-catching and more clickable as well.

With the wide range of platforms that it cover, PPC proves to be a great opportunity for every business to expand its reach.

3. Affiliate Marketing for E-Commerce

The affiliate marketing technique is for experts, who have gone through various experiments to understand, in detail, the way conversion works.

The sales tactic helps in increasing the company’s sales by letting other businesses target the same audience as yours and in return earning a commission for the product or service recommendations. It is a highly acclaimed e-commerce marketing strategy.

How can this be done?

• When people look up keywords, their principal intent is to learn about that particular topic and gain insights on the same. By providing the readers exactly what they need, your conversion rates will skyrocket.
• In order to stay ahead in affiliate marketing, it is crucial to meet up with marketers from time to time and exchange experiences, the best tactics, and try to understand the practices that work best.
• To maintain the credible image that your business has, make sure that the affiliate links in your content are not added shadily. It’s okay for the readers to know that your content makes you money. Transparency is becoming increasingly necessary.
• To make sure that you earn according to your potential, you must try not to fall into the scheme of offering coupons. It might reduce your earnings rather than boosting it.
• In case you feel as though there are drawbacks of a product or a service you affiliate with, then you must let the readers know about those. Leading them the wrong way will affect your reputation in the market.

Grabbing the attention of potential customers has become tough even for the most experienced bunch of marketers. It is through creativity that businesses will earn a profit by affiliate marketing.

4. SMM for E-Commerce

The most acclaimed e-commerce digital marketing strategy, social media marketing, is so relevant in today’s world that without it, your business might face enormous amounts of losses.

Social media has the strength to persuade even the toughest person into consuming your product if the SMM campaign has been carried out correctly.

Take a look at how you can keep up with the ever-evolving landscape of SMM with the below Social Media Marketing Hacks:

• The ultimate aim of any marketing strategy is to reach out to the audience, correct? For this, you must understand their needs and wants by carrying out surveys, initiating conversation, gaining feedback, analyzing the demographics, etc. With an idea of what kind of audience it is that you need to target, you will be able to turn a profit.
• They say content is king and isn’t that true! Before posting anything on the internet, check if it is appropriate for that platform. The kind of content that will work for LinkedIn will not work for Instagram or Facebook. Take into consideration the audience that will visit the platform and write content that will appeal to them.
• It’s always a great idea to make sure that your audience is left wide-eyed every time they look at your content. This can be done by creating images that are highly creative and attractive, all while being interesting.
• Announcing contests that offer a substantial return for their efforts is an amazing way to increase the engagement rate, visibility, and the number of followers.
• No matter what happens, remember that you must write everything down! All your planning strategies and the objectives of these strategies should be written clearly in sight to ensure that they are met within a timely manner.

5. Email Marketing for E-Commerce

Every private email address is flushed with thousands of promotional emails by tons of businesses. It just comes to show that email marketing is an e-commerce advertising strategy that works. With the amount of competition, it might be tough to figure out a way to stand out and make your target audience actually open the email.

In order to improve your sales, there are a few tested tricks that can be employed:

• The key to gaining your consumers’ trust is consistency and regularity in sending emails that make sense and contain content that they will enjoy. Once they’re used to it, they’ll be hooked to your content and potentially buy from you.
• Personalization is an extremely crucial part of any email campaign. Even though your consumers know that you send out bulk emails, seeing their name in the content will make them feel special. This feeling will surely drive them to visit your site, at least.
• Use the A/B split testing method to gain answers as to how each set of email campaign will do with different viewers. At the end of the trial, you will be able to achieve the perfect version of the campaign that will give you a higher conversion rate.
• Scannable emails are the best way to grab your viewers attention since it becomes easy for them to get the details they want to learn about. Adding a lot of white space makes the content easy to read, fast. Doing so will enhance their experience and will be willing to read more of your emails.
• Individual landing pages for each email campaign will benefit your business by gaining higher conversion rates and return on investment. This way when the viewers click-through your email, you have a way of directing the traffic.

E-commerce marketing automation campaigns can be improved gradually by experimenting and gaining insights on as to the improvements that can be made.

6. Mobile Marketing for E-Commerce

A strategy that should not be compromised with, mobile marketing, is one of the most effective e-commerce advertising strategies. With mobiles phones coming into popularity, businesses could reach out to customers efficiently and far more effectively than before. Now, when most of the population owns a smartphone, this task has become even easier.

Just because the task may seem straightforward, doesn’t mean it’s simple. Every business is trying to reach out to its customer base, like you. So how does one manage mobile marketing?

• Pay attention to the local searches. A large number of people are known to look for “near me” while surfing the mobile. So a design that makes the best out of the local searches shall reap you higher results.
• Create content that people look up in the micro-moments. These are the instances when people take a second or two to browse through information to get the exact information they need. Optimizing such queries will drive conversions to your site.
• Let’s say you created a great website, but it only works on desktops or laptops. It won’t benefit your business. Instead, optimizing the same website to work on mobiles will ensure the traffic that visits, stays.
• People want everything to be done as promptly as possible. For this, you can create QR codes to make it easier for the users to go through your website since it will load faster.
• A maximum number of emails should be opened on mobile phones. Taking this fact into consideration, emails must be optimized to look and feel good on the phones. The subject line should be short, the message should be clear and simple, and the call to action button should be distinctly visible.

To reach out to the extensive population that relies on their phones for information and entertainment, it is important to be available on platforms they prefer to make it easier for them. Mobile marketing is the e-commerce marketing strategy of the future.

There are various other marketing strategies that can be employed to increase leads and conversion rates. E-commerce will keep rising, with more and more people depending on it for everyday activities.

I have made my fair share of mistakes when it comes to e-commerce, and it’s okay. This is how we learn.

E-Commerce Mistakes To Be Avoided:

To ensure that you don’t have to go through the same, and learn through trial and error, read a few of the most common mistakes that could be avoided in e-commerce.

1.No Discounts or Offers

By offering your customers discounts from time to time will let them know that you appreciate them. Along with this, it will also drive more traffic to your website and online store. As long as your ads have been clearly made, and give out the exact details, you should be fine. And even when you offer a discount, they might end up buying something that they never knew wanted but loved at that moment. See! Double profit! It is also a great e-commerce advertising technique.

2. Security

Technology has advanced, and people are finding loopholes in it. Being equipped with a multi-layered security system for your applications and websites will provide trust to your consumers. They will not hesitate in buying from you since the threat of credit card fraud reduces. Along with this, ensure that an SSL connection is installed to secure the users’ data connection.

3. Validating Leads

There are various sources that your business gains conversions from. Solicitation, customer forms, service enquiries, job applicants, etc. to name a few are the principal sources of conversions. Assuming that the traffic belongs to only one group may damage your marketing strategy.

4. Tough Navigation

Websites need to be easy to browse through. The more complicated the site is, the more disinterested your visitors will be. Your main menu should be at the top of the site for easy access. With the main menu should be the sub-categories that lead to particular pages. The search tab is one of the most important factors to add to the website design. Only when the website is easy, will the visitors stick around to view all the services or products.

5. Neglecting Carts

If you already own an e-commerce website and you’re not doing anything about the people who have filled their carts but won’t check out, then you’re making a mistake! You want to get to the bottom of the reasons as to what’s stopping them from making the purchase and offer something that might add value to it.

6. Loading Time

When consumers encounter websites with slow loading pages, they tend to give up on the website. Also, in the search for a product or service, we tend to open various sites together. If there are other businesses offering the same set of products or services with faster loading sites, your potential customers will shift, increasing your bounce rate.

7. No CTA

Call to action buttons is the best way to encourage your visitors to buy something. Anything from “first purchase discount” to “free shipping above an amount” should be able to lure them into making a purchase. Deadlines work great as CTAs too.

8. No Blogs

One of the most creative ways of interacting with your consumers and gaining feedback on various topics is to post blogs. Also, if you ever run out of content to post and share on your social media pages, you could promote the blogs. This will not only increase the visibility of your brand but also bring more traffic. Blogs on business websites have 97% more inbound links, which increases the traffic as well.

9. Falling back on Promotions

Your social media pages should be filled with content that encourages people to visit your website. It’s one of the easiest ways of gaining traffic and converting it into sales. Through social media platforms, you can promote yourself to a larger audience and varied too.

10. Avoiding Automated Emails

As I said before, emails are still on and bound to grow. With e-commerce email marketing, especially the automated emails that have been personalized, will let your customers know that you are consistent, increasing your business credibility.

11. Bad Customer Support

Either the support is bad, or there is no one to answer when the consumer needs help. This leaves a bad image of your brand in the consumers’ heads and drives them away. If they have to wait 24 hours for support, they might as well not get the assistance. Rather than making them wait, or give rude replies, a strategy can be built to make the customer service experience better.

In order to minimize mistakes, your business will have to go through some intensive research. Like I said before, it is crucial to learn from others mistakes and not make the same ones.

New in the business or old, you must stay on your toes to keep your business in the limelight.

E-commerce can efficiently grow your business, but for that, proper layouts, plans, execution, etc. are necessary. A marketing team, experts in their fields, and their tactics should be able to help with your e-commerce marketing strategy

For people who are just starting out, and do not have a lot of finance, research is a great option. Since this article covers a lot of the essentials that must be remembered, your research time should reduce considerably.

Start jotting down points and making a proper strategy, because, without that, the chances of you accomplishing your goals are close to the ground.

Good luck, and I hope you succeed in your e-commerce marketing journey!