The primary objective of all businesses is to increase the number of their customers, leading to more sales and profit. But while other businesses can be somewhat discreet about this intention, this is impossible in the ecommerce industry.
So, how do you sell a product to people who know that you want to sell them something from the very first moment? Would you buy something from a sales agent you see for the very first time?
Of course not. That is why you need to be smart and patient. And always use the following strategies to acquire new customers for your online store.
Optimize your ecommerce website
Optimizing your online store should be your first step. When you start an online store, you need to make sure that it is optimized both for your customers and for search engines.
From optimizing your checkout process to building a mobile app, each of the following steps will help you acquire new customers and retain the existing ones.
Checkout process
To minimize your cart abandonment rate and boost conversions, try:
– having a single checkout page
– showing a progress bar at the bottom of each page (in case you have more than one checkout page)
– making your buttons easily noticeable in order to reduce the time your customers spend on your website and accelerate conversions
Shipping costs
Let’s be honest – everybody likes free shipping. If you can offer free shipping to your customers, you will hold a special place in their heart.
However, if this is not an option, it’s always a good idea to minimize shipping costs or charge flat rate shipping.
Also, make sure to show two things:
– clearly state your shipping costs at the very beginning of the checkout process
– include estimated delivery time
Payment types
Showing the logos of the credit card types and other payment methods you receive will build trust with your customers and make them feel safer buying from you.
Optimize for mobile
A recent study by Statista estimates that by 2021, more than half of online shopping will take place on mobile devices. Even though this may not come as a surprise, it surely doesn’t mean that you should do nothing about it. You need a mobile-friendly website, and you need it fast.
Your mobile online store needs to have:
– a bigger, easily noticeable and clickable add-to-cart button on mobile product pages
– images optimized for mobile devices, allowing your customers to load product photos and zoom in more quickly
Create a mobile application
It is a fact that mobile apps help businesses increase customer loyalty. With a mobile app, your buyers will have more than one reason to stick with your brand:
– load time will be faster
– your customers can view your products with a single tap
– you can send push notifications about your sale
Search engine optimization
SEO is still the most effective long-term online marketing strategy. But SEO success doesn’t come overnight. As the matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite – it takes time, patience, and effort to see the desired results.
However, if you follow the latest SEO trends, you will keep your existing customers and acquire new ones.
This is a list of the best SEO tips for your online store:
– first, make sure you conduct an SEO audit of your website
– conduct detailed competitor research
– then, analyze keywords, including search volume, user intent, and CPC
– use the right keywords and try focusing on long tail
– optimize your content, title tags, and meta descriptions
– work on internal and external linking
– acquire backlinks from high-authority websites
– minimize your page load speed
Last, but not least, make sure you use an SEO-friendly website platform. When it comes to search engine optimization, some platforms are better than others, so you may want to consider Volusion to Shopify migration for your website.
Content marketing
You must have heard marketers say that content is the king. Well, no matter how old this phrase is, it still holds true. And judging by the latest online marketing trends, content doesn’t even seem to consider getting off the throne.
The thing with quality content is that it has more than one advantage:
– it warms up your leads by helping and educating them
– good content creates a strong bond with your audience
– it keeps acquisition costs very low
For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to run a blog around your niche, gradually moving on to a wider audience. However, you always need to know who you are writing for and create highly relevant content.
Finally, always try to be different than your competitors. Be better than them, upgrade on their content, and you will see customers leaving them and turning to you.
Social media marketing
Social media platforms are ideal for reaching a wider audience. But you can’t run a social media campaign just like that. No, no, no. You need to plan it based on several factors.
First, you need to know which social platform yields the best results in your specific field. For online stores, it is important that you promote visual content. Therefore, you should post on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Another important tip is to know your audience’s demographics to be able to target them better. Also, create a social calendar to post consistently, and share user-generated content posted by your customers.
Finally, make sure you monitor competitors regularly. This way, you will see what they do better than you and where you can improve, but also where you outperform them.
Email marketing
Even though social media and SEO are great for acquiring new leads, email marketing is still the most personal online marketing channel.
The best way to get more subscribers is to ask them to sign up when they are checking out or add a sign-up form on the most popular pages on your website.
Here are some additional email marketing tips:
– write compelling subject lines
– add only quality leads
– create high-converting email funnels
– always segment your email list
– personalize your emails
Paid advertising
If you have just started an ecommerce business, then SEO should definitely not be your only marketing channel. As we mentioned earlier in the article, search engine optimization takes time to show results.
On the other hand, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may be just what you need. It will cost you some money, but it will certainly and immediately reach a lot of customers in your niche.
The best platforms for ecommerce paid advertising are Google AdWords, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. They will help you appear in relevant searches and target the right audience.
Video marketing
People like images more than content, but they also like videos more than images. This is why you need to engage in video marketing on YouTube, social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as on your website.
When it comes to video marketing, it is important that you:
– tell an interesting story
– hook people within the first 5 to 10 seconds of your video
– always include a call to action
– never forget to optimize your content
– share and promote your video wherever it can reach your users
Retargeting
Customers who visit your online store and show an interest in your products are more likely to buy them later on. For this reason, you need to have a detailed retargeting strategy, meaning that you should track visitors who have visited your online store in the past and try to get them back.
Retargeting is best done when you use specific ads including links to your product pages and showing information the user wants to find out when they click the ad.
Finally, to help them move on with their purchase, it is important that you show the exact product that they are looking for or the one they already added to cart before they left your online store.
Conclusion
It’s not easy to acquire new customers, especially if you are in the ecommerce industry. But hey, this is your story and it is up to you be the hero.
When you follow all the strategies listed in this article, you will see the number of your customers steadily rise. This automatically means more conversions and sales, which is the main goal of every business.
On the other hand, if you start enjoying the process of building high-converting ecommerce websites, you can always sell your website and repeat the process with a new online store.
