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E-commerce 101: Boost E-commerce Sales with These 9 Tactics

Gyeong Kim
August 11, 2021

Running an e-commerce business is challenging. While it's convenient for customers to visit your store, it's just as easy for them to switch to a competitor. Moreover, standing out in a crowded market is increasingly difficult. Acquiring new customers has become both challenging and costly. If you're facing these struggles, consider implementing the tactics below to boost your revenue.

1. Run Paid Campaigns

Let's face it: you have to spend money to make money. Paid advertising is an essential part of marketing your business. It's an effective way to raise brand awareness, drive conversions, and increase engagement.

Creating eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing advertisements is important, but there's more to consider. Choose an advertising platform that best reaches your target audience. Before posting your advertisement, set a SMART goal. Your goal should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. For example, if your goal is to acquire 100 new customers within a month with a $500 budget, assess your campaign at the end of the month to determine if you've achieved your goal.

Throughout your campaign, it's essential to continually optimize your efforts. Create multiple design assets or ad copies, and conduct A/B tests to determine which performs better. Target your audience based on demographics, location, and active hours. To reach a broader audience, consider establishing a lookalike audience. If visitors don't make a purchase, utilize retargeting strategies to encourage them to revisit your website

2. Update Your Social Media

Every e-commerce business should maintain a presence on social media. It's crucial for these businesses to remain active online consistently, demonstrating to customers that they are legitimate and accessible. However, this doesn't necessitate responding to every comment and DM.

Engage your customers with compelling posts. To reach new customers through social media algorithms, you'll need content that is saveable, shareable, and encourages comments. Create humorous memes for your audience to tag their friends or share with them. Pose questions such as 'this or that' or quizzes to solicit their opinions. Encourage them to save your posts by appealing to their goals and desires with visually appealing content. Social media posts are also effective for shaping a brand image.

Expand your audience by running a giveaway for your customers. Consider collaborating with other brands that share similar interests with your audience. Giveaways not only make your customers feel valued but also serve as an effective way to promote your business. Reward your customers, but do so strategically.

social media

3. Find an Influencer For Your Business

Since we just discussed social media marketing, it's essential to touch on influencer marketing. Take Kylie Jenner, for example, who has 257 million followers on Instagram and serves as both the founder and influencer of her brand, Kylie Cosmetics. Whenever she launches a new lip kit, it sells out within seconds. This illustrates the immense importance of influencer marketing in today's landscape.

The greatest advantage of working with an influencer for your business is their ready-made audience, which you can reach easily. When an influencer showcases and discusses your product features to their audience, it not only provides convenience for you but also resonates better with their followers. Even if you have a limited budget for influencer marketing, you can still collaborate with influencers who have smaller audiences. Just ensure to choose influencers whose followers align with your target audience.

4. Improve SEO

If your website is well-optimized, your business name will appear at the top of Google search results. For example, if you sell bananas, your website's keyword should be 'bananas.' While you can pay Google for keyword bidding to rank at the top of searches, you can also reach audiences organically through SEO.

Google continuously evaluates website scores through their algorithm, which they update almost every day. While the specifics of the algorithm are unknown, there are several strategies to improve your search ranking. One effective approach is to keep your website dynamic and engaging. Starting a blog on your website is a great way to achieve this. You can write blog posts explaining why your bananas are special or share recipes for desserts made with bananas. By doing so, you not only increase your visibility on Google but also enhance your chances of appearing at the top of search results, especially if your blog receives significant views.

Additionally, it's crucial to ensure that your website is always in optimal condition. If your site takes too long to load or contains broken pages, it can negatively impact your website score. Utilizing tools like Google Analytics can help you identify areas for improvement and areas where you can enhance performance.

5. Optimize Your E-commerce Website

Optimizing your website is not limited to SEO; it also impacts your conversion rate. Just as first impressions matter on a first date, the initial appearance of your website significantly influences conversion.

When updating your website, pay attention to its visual appeal. If a page will serve as a landing page, put in extra effort. This is crucial for making a strong first impression and reinforcing your branding, as your website serves as the face of your e-commerce business. Use visually appealing designs to encourage purchases. Always consider your customers' perspective and anticipate what they would expect when visiting your website. Additionally, leverage your landing page to showcase top-selling products. Clear calls-to-action (CTAs) are essential for driving conversions.

Always prioritize user experience. Not only is it crucial for SEO, but it also directly impacts your customers' experience on your store. There are several factors to consider. For example, does an immediate pop-up annoy your customers? Is your website mobile-friendly? Does it load quickly?

6. Send Emails

After acquiring a new customer, you don't want them to forget about your business. To keep your business top-of-mind, build a contact list of your customers and send them emails regularly!

There are many tools available to build and send emails, such as Klaviyo and Mailchimp, which make the process convenient. However, when sending emails, it's important to be aware of the Can-Spam Act. Breaking this law could result in fines based on the number of emails sent.

Emails are the best way to welcome new customers, remind them about items left in their carts, send newsletters, event offers, and announce new products. If you're not sending emails yet, you're missing out! Additionally, consider sending text messages for short messages.

Empower Your customers, grow your business

7. Start a Loyalty Program

Another way to encourage customers to return is by starting a loyalty program. Have you ever wanted a loyalty program like Starbucks'? Well, you can easily start one with btwn!

Loyal customers are particularly crucial for e-commerce businesses, given how easy it is for customers to switch to another website. Acquiring new customers is costly, as no marketing effort is truly free, making it challenging for e-commerce businesses to profit from one-time customers unless they purchase high-value items. The benefits of having loyal customers include higher lifetime value and average order value compared to non-loyal customers.

Implementing a loyalty program can be a significant differentiator in your industry, particularly if your competitors do not offer one. Get started with a loyalty program on btwn for free today. Once you sign up, btwn automatically tracks your repeat customers, and you can customize your rewards. Instead of allocating excessive funds to acquire new customers, focus on rewarding your existing customers for a specific number of repeat purchases. This approach not only helps reduce costs but also fosters long-term relationships with your customers.

8. Incentivize Referrals

Loyal customers can also serve as a valuable source for reaching new customers. Studies have demonstrated that loyal customers are more inclined to refer their friends and family to your e-commerce business. In fact, Nielsen reports that 84% of people consider recommendations from their friends and family to be the most trustworthy

Incentivizing referrals can lead to an increase in the number of referrals. Additionally, you can access a list of your loyal customers to see who referred whom and how many referrals they made. By analyzing your top referrers, you can effectively manage relationships with them and foster deeper connections.

9. Use Psychological Tricks

Here's a small tip: stimulate your customers by employing simple psychological tricks. Utilize a scarcity tactic by emphasizing certain products. For popular items, indicate "Only __ left in stock" or "Sell out quickly" to create a sense of urgency. Similarly, for products with low sales and no plans for restocking, label them as "Last chance" to encourage immediate action.

Utilize coupons strategically to drive desired outcomes. For instance, if you aim for customers to spend at least $200, distribute discount coupons applicable to purchases over $200. Likewise, if you need to clear out certain products, offer free shipping or discounts on purchases including those items. With btwn, creating customized coupons is simple with our user-friendly dashboard.

Finally, capitalize on upselling opportunities right before customers proceed to checkout. Consider featuring more expensive or complementary products in the product descriptions located near the 'add to cart' button. Alternatively, suggest a few low-cost items at checkout to qualify for 'free shipping'.

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