How to Prioritize Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
THE PROBLEM: You have a million things that you could do, want to do, should do to drive traffic and conversions on your ecommerce site. Where should you start? What should you do first?
If you have a running business, jump ahead to our top ecommerce marketing priorities below.
If you are just getting started, read on for our quick start guide before getting to our marketing tips.
Quick Start Guide to Ecommerce
1) Focus on a great product.
Nothing else matters without this.
2) Build a great brand.
…And a site to match. Your brand will define how your customers perceive you and your site is their main window into your brand. Everything you do will magnify your brand, so make sure you get this right.
3) Create an irresistible offer.
That could be a guarantee, an amazing warranty, incredible value. You’ll likely have to test several against your audience to find the right one. Make sure that you have a great value proposition and present it in a way that your audience cannot refuse.
4) Tell your target audience about it from a loudspeaker.
Start with targeted paid social ads and google shopping ads. These channels allow you to map our your target audience in great detail and track your return on ad spend. This way you can get started without spending a ton of money. It sure beats buying a billboard along the highway.
5) Move on!
Once you’ve done all this, you’re ready to move on to our top ecommerce marketing strategies.
How to Prioritize Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
First we recommend you start with low hanging fruit. This varies business to business. Take a look at your store and marketing channels to see if you have any opportunities for a quick one.
Then, the key is to optimize your current business to increase LTV through the following mechanisms:
Usability Testing and CRO
Review your store experience and minimize friction points along the buying path through usability testing and conversion rate optimization. Start with the checkout and move backwards through the buying process.
AOV
Focus on increasing the AOV, there are many ways to do this, such as intelligent upsells in the cart (but make sure not to distract the customer too much when they’re ready to check out) or setting a free shipping threshold a bit above your current AOV. The important thing is not to sacrifice lifetime value in order to increase AOV in the short term.
Post-Purchase Upsells
Similar to upsells in the cart, post-purchase upsells are a great way to get customers to come back for another purchase and you have the opportunity to be a bit more bold in your offer since there is no risk of losing a sale.
Recurring Subscriptions
Take a look at your product line and see if there is an opportunity to create a subscription based product (either refiling items that run out, or a series of products delivered over a period of time). This is a great way to guarantee recurring revenue.
Referrals
You have customers, so use them to your advantage! Provide your customers with offers to share with their friends and incentives to do so in order to grow your brand.
Reviews
Make sure to have reviews for the products on your site. Positive reviews will greatly increase your probability of closing a sale. People buy because other people tell them to, not because you tell them to. The third party reference is more credible, so add this to your site and start requesting reviews from your customers if you’re not already doing this.
