As an entrepreneur, you always want to focus on sales, customer acquisition, and brand loyalty. While these factors have always been influential in a business’s success, how we look at them changes as we consider the evolution of e-commerce. As customers become more and more e-commerce-minded, you will need to keep up to compete.
If you want to increase your e-commerce success, and I’m sure you do, then you need to consider the latest techniques that are making waves in the industry.
Consider the following strategies to increase your online sales:
Develop a buyer persona. A buyer persona may sound silly at first, but to market and sell your products or services, you must know who you’re selling to and what they want or need. A buyer persona will allow you to visualize and establish a real audience and customer for your business. This will help you streamline your marketing and weed out products your ideal customer would not purchase. This will ultimately save you time and money.
When creating a buyer persona create a full picture of your buyer’s life. This includes age, gender, income, lifestyle, family, career, even hobbies. This will help you create useful, marketable products, and eventually, an established brand with loyal customers.
Have you tried remarketing? Remarketing or “retargeting” is targeted advertising to a potential customer that left your website. You’ve probably noticed that you get ads for items you looked at earlier while on another website. It may have made you reconsider leaving that page or reminding you why the item caught your eye in the first place.
Remarketing works because it targets people already interested in what you’re selling. While most shoppers don’t enjoy ads, many don’t mind them. And remarketing ads make customers feel special through the tailored content. If you haven’t tried remarketing, you must! It has a higher conversion rate, lower cost per impression, and higher ROI than other forms of online marketing.
Use content marketing. This is simple. Why do people use the internet? They want to learn more and connect with others. Content marketing helps target your customer base and is sharable! Successful content marketing should consist of blog posts or articles that present useful information and reflect your brand and values. Blogger Outreach company Stellar SEO stated “Over time, you will find that content marketing will help you build a resource to keep your customers returning to your site, so long as you write content for the right audience.”
Consider increasing your local presence. “Local” may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think e-commerce, but you should. While Facebook and Amazon are anything but local businesses, residents of Menlo Park and Seattle love to boast their cities as “home” of these businesses.
While your sales may not be confined to your city’s boundaries, local customers are excellent when it comes to finding reliable feedback. You can also reduce some costs by targeting locally.
Think about your shipping costs. How much money could you save on a portion of your sales by increasing local patronage and using a rented commercial truck for local deliveries?
Your city is a major factor in your business’s identity; don’t ignore it.
Make the buying process simpler. Your checkout process can make or break a sale. If your customer can’t checkout easily using PayPal, they may change their mind. This is similar to waiting too long in line at a retail store: it gives you the opportunity to question your purchase and say “no, thanks” and move along.
Make sure your checkout process is streamlined. It should also work seamlessly for mobile sales since more and more people are opting for shopping on their phones.
E-commerce Checkout Checklist:
- The shopping cart is easily edited
- Vertical alignment got optimal mobile formatting
- Limit input fields
- Allow auto-fill
- Your checkout has a progress indicator
Test marketing strategies before fully diving in, especially if your business is still new. As you’re developing products and refining your buyer persona, you will want to invest in multiple avenues of marketing before deciding which is best for your company.
Use a variety of digital outlets along with a variety of marketing designs. If you’re still figuring out your buyer persona, try a few different age ranges and income backgrounds. Feature one ad that runs for men ages 18-23 and other that targets 24-32 year-olds. Did you see more success with one versus the other? That can give you a better idea of who your customer is and where your ads will be most effective.
You should also spend in a variety of ways. Try remarketing and content marketing in addition to Facebook advertising and Google Ads. Give them an appropriate amount of time, take effect and then decide how to split your advertising budget between them.
E-commerce can help you achieve sales at new levels. Thinking strategically and implementing a user-friendly website and advertising strategy are essential to success. As Indian shoppers opt more and more often to click-and-wait-for-delivery, the more you have to consider their needs and how to offer an experience that surpasses your competitors.