Creating an online E-commerce website, also known as the online store, is just the beginning of an exciting adventure in how to become an online entrepreneur. However, as the practice already showed, knowing which product to sell, and how to create a user-friendly website is not enough to attract the buyers and eventually meet the desired revenue.
The E-commerce environment became extremely competitive lately, so new players, as well as the old ones, have to bring their game to a whole new level. In this line of business, questions such as how to achieve good website traffic, or how to increase visits and crown them with the sale are the most important ones.
The much-needed answers to these questions are already a part of E-commerce marketing. It’s a practice or a method any marketer can adopt in order to increase awareness about the online store, product or service. To drive targeted traffic, marketers can use social media sites and platforms, search engines or e-mail campaigns.
These are just a few of many marketing channels created to assist in “convert visitors into customers” operation. Some of these channels are free while others demand a marketing plan and financial resources.
Search engine – SEO optimization
Let’s start from the beginning and learn what is SEO and how it works. If the E-commerce website is well optimized for the search terms or keywords, the search engine will put that website among the top results. This is just one case that shows how investment in search engine optimization can bring a certain online shop to visitor’s attention.
SEO has evolved considerably, in the last few years, so taking care of SEO guidelines became an important part of the marketing strategy for many marketers. Practically, when the vape online shop owners want to advertise their products, they’ll use terms such as vaporizers or best vape tanks, to ensure that search engine will first offer their optimized pages with offers for these products.
E-mail marketing
If it’s used in the right way, this type of marketing channel could represent the most effective tool to generate more visits. In order to explain what is the right way, we have to define the inbound marketing strategy and understand its importance. It’s actually a business methodology designed to attract customers by creating special content and unique, positive reading experience from it.
In order to get better online visibility from e-mail marketing, constant work on subscriber’s lists is a number one priority. Besides personalized communication with customers (order and delivery confirmation, follow up) it can be used for the opening announcements, exclusive offers, triggered campaigns, and other content. For example, people interested in the vape tank will subscribe to the online vape shop e-mailing list to stay informed about new products, discounts, promotions, and similar events.
According to statistics, online shopping is constantly growing and transforming since 2000 and so far it seems unstoppable. In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed many changes in device usage, types of products to sell, ways to deliver them and more. Customers are willing to change their habits and will happily buy all kinds of products online, including groceries, home tools, vape tanks, or makeup.
E-commerce marketing offers many effective ways to promote online selling, but the crucial thing is to choose the right one. The following channels are the most common options for various niche markets.
Social media marketing
This type of marketing channel can be used for gaining both free and paid advertisement traffic. It’s interesting for all marketers as it includes all social media visitors. Each social network (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin) has its own audience so it’s of great importance to investigate which one would be the best option for the particular online business.
Besides being able to target the right group of customers, marketers can also use social media’s advertising tools and analytics.
A great example of how useful social media can be is vaping product advertising on Facebook. This social network usually avoids placing advertisements for these types of products.
However, Facebook doesn’t forbid groups, where people can talk about vaping.
Furthermore, this type of promotion is especially good for locally-oriented companies as their best vape products will be reviewed and recommended to their targeted local audience, directly.
Mobile applications
Shopping applications are the fastest-growing category of mobile apps. It’s a simple and fast way of purchasing and online buyers usually have a pleasant experience using them. Mobile apps are the best way to interact with customers, but only if they are developed to be light and easy to use. If forced to make a choice between free storage space on their mobile device and certain retail mobile application, customers’ will always choose the first one.
Influencer marketing
The popularity of influencers, measured by millions of followers have created a large marketing space for advertising and promotion. This is now the fastest-growing marketing channel with numerous possibilities for further development. Influencers can reach a large group of people aka potential customers with only one post, blog or video.
The booming makeup and vaping industries are using it so successfully that even the overproduction of eyeshadow palettes or legislation obstacles for vaping can’t slow them down. Judged by the empty stocks, influencer’s recommendations can significantly boost makeup or RDA vape online orders.
Affiliate marketing
This is performance-based marketing in which one or more affiliates are rewarded for their marketing efforts. For every successfully closed sale, the affiliate will receive a commission. Affiliate programs can be launched through many popular networks and create massive revenue for both the merchant and the affiliates.
Paid search advertising
Marketers who want to invest in e-commerce marketing can use paid advertising sections on popular search engine networks. The more familiar term for this marketing channel is Adwords. Since this type of advertising is based on search engine results, it has to perform perfectly. The most used search engine networks are Google Ads and Bing Ads.
Making online selling growth steady requires a good marketing strategy. With marketplace algorithms constantly changing and marketing tactics evolving in an attempt to keep up with these changes, checking on the latest news in E-commerce marketing should become almost an everyday activity. Agility in combining marketing channels and marketing strategies can be a significant advantage and a good way to catch up with new online retail trends.
Work on marketing strategy never ends, but in the end, it will all pay off.