8 E-commerce Marketing Tips to Outrank Competitors
Running a big or small e-commerce website takes a lot of work, almost the same as running an actual physical store. Marketing is, and always will be, a major bottleneck for most e-commerce websites and those who are savvy with their techniques will always come out on top.
Along with the help of a content marketing agency, you can consider these eight e-commerce marketing tips to outrank competitors.
Make use of the target outranking share bid strategy
Many large e-commerce websites using Google’s advertising platforms make use of the target outranking share bid strategy, which focuses on using strategic key search words, to knock out competitors. The idea behind this strategy is to help your ads outrank those of competitors. Think of it as an auction. The person with the higher bid walks away with the auctioned item. In this case, the advertising spaces on Google’s various ad platforms is the auctioned item. Think With Google revealed that one of Southeast Asia’s leading online shopping brands, known as Lazada, was able to use this strategy to outrank its competitors. It increased their website traffic by 30% as well as the brand’s market share in major product categories by more than 280% while turning in impressive ROI.
Fully optimize your website for mobile devices
E-commerce websites need to be properly optimized for mobile usage. About 88% to 89% of mobile device owners are consistently searching for information with their devices and taking corresponding actions too. If you are seriously considering outranking competitors in your niche market then you should consider optimizing your e-commerce website for mobile. E-commerce websites should not just stop at creating a responsive website, rather more efforts should be put into creating a well-rounded mobile user experience that would increase leads, conversions and sales. You can make use of Google’s mobile test tool, to carry out a mobile-friendly test of your website. Ensure that the shopping cart and checkout process is very smooth and void of distracting content. Offer various online payment options as well. Then once this is sorted take advantage of all mobile marketing options
Create original, helpful and personalized content
Creating original content can make the e-commerce website stand out especially in search engine results page (SERP). Asides paying to get traffic to your website, organic traffic can also help increase leads and conversions. Ensure that your site content is helpful to the target audience. Creating helpful video or picture tutorials about how your target audience can use certain products retailed on the e-commerce website will spur them to take more buying action. These video tutorials or picture tutorials can be shared on social media, to reduce the loading time of the website with such heavy content. Content marketing is still one of the smartest, cheapest and effective ways to outrank your competitors.
Take social media marketing seriously
According to Statista, about 2.46 billion people used social media as of 2017, and it also predicted that the number would increase to 2.77 billion this year. So this is not the time to doubt if social media would do your e-commerce website any good. It definitely would! Marketing on social media is another excellent way to outrank your competitors and keep your teeth on a larger share of the target market you are all aiming at. Your content on social media has to be catchy, timely and engaging. While posting content is great, e-commerce websites should also take time to check out their followers, follow them also to get better insights about their interests and activities online. With this, you can create better content to keep them engaged. Also, find ways to reward those following your page either through special offers or discounts or giveaways.
Offer an irresistible loyalty program
Nothing sells your brand faster and cheaper than word-of-mouth. It is still one of the most effective marketing strategies. If you have just ten customers, ensure you give those ten excellent customer service. Create a reward system too. This is a way to give back to them for spending their hard-earned money to shop from your online store. Doing these two excellently can catapult any e-commerce website to a place in the heart of those customers where they suddenly become foot soldiers of the brand, telling others about the good deeds the brand does.
Take advantage of user-generated content
This is an indirect form of ratings or reviews. For example if a social savvy customer bought a product online – maybe a dress from an e-commerce website – they will most likely wear it, take several good pictures, post it online and tag your brand on social media and talk about what they love about the dress or how they enjoyed the buying process; as a brand, you can take advantage of this by reposting on your page or exploring other ways to use such content to market your brand.
Collect emails and exploit email marketing
E-commerce websites should find creative ways to collect emails from visitors on their website rather than wait until they make a purchase. Collecting emails through the traffic your site generates is a way to capture good leads which can be turned to conversions or sales when you exploit the opportunities of email marketing. For this to happen, you need to segment emails based on the interests that were ticked while subscribing. Create personalized content that is tailored to the need and interest of each subscriber. Emails also have to be properly optimized for mobile view and content has to be engaging and sent at the right time to get maximum results
Do not underestimate the power of ratings and reviews
A lot of online buyers can agree on one thing, ratings and reviews on a product either spurred them on or made them take to their heels. Once a customer has received purchased items, always ensure that you send a reminder (or automate it) about rating the product and dropping comments as well. When new visitors are looking through the website, these are the things they look out for in order to make a final buying decision.