10 Product Marketing Procedures for E-Commerce

The popularity of E-Mail product marketing is continuing to hold sway. A steady income is being generated for those sellers who have an established E-Mail marketing strategy that continues to work excellently well.  Do not forget to try out other strategies as well because by using just one tool, that is an E-Mail marketing strategy, to reach out to your customers means you only speak to very few potential consumers.

It is therefore advisable for business houses to persistently explore for new ways and means to look out for fresh potential clientele, woo them in order to increase your sales. We have attempted to offer 10 E-Commerce product marketing strategies that you should ideally have to apply at the appropriate time.  These marketing approaches can be used smartly to form a tool for converting potential customers, expand your business and generate more sales.

Here we go…!

Upselling

You triumph as you prepare the final bill.  A sale is closed when a customer decides to purchase in your store because you have created an appealing product by effectively marketing it. But think of it, if there is something in your store that might make your customer even happier and thrilled-but they have not yet noticed it!  This is where upselling comes to play!

Upselling is a concept where you would cajole a customer with your sweet-talk to buy additional or even expensive product that suits their needs.

If you want upselling to work effectively, you have to know your products or services in detail. This will result in your ability to make useful suggestions or ideas to your customers. Moreover, you should never forget the maxim – the customer comes first and he is the king!

Ensure that your advice is a useful improvement that would make the customer related. That way customer will actually go for the upgrade and become a loyal client due to the satisfactory experience at your store.

Obviously, the concept of upselling applies to products and services. For instance, you can add a recommended product bar at some point in the checkout journey. Alternately, if the customer is ready to buy apparel or casual wear, you can offer premium quality. What more, you can simply offer a discount of 20% on two.

So do a stock-taking your products and see what you can offer as an upsell!

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is another strategy to offer customers other products from your store.  Go to see this concept is the other side of the same coin as in both customers is presented the benefit of other products or services from your store.

At times you may find the most difficult part of the whole process is convincing a customer to make a purchase.  You will heave a sigh of relief once the customer has decided to buy from your store.  Now it is the perfect opportunity to offer him something additional cross-selling technique.

Think McDonalds and “Would you like fries with that?”

Upselling deals with alternative premium products and cross-selling is presenting your customers with additional items that satisfy complementary needs that your customers might like to have.

Cross-selling is not new to E-Commerce business which has been working well for some time now! Analytical studies state that it can be up to or could be more than 68% less expensive to cross-sell (or upsell) to an existing customer than to convince new buyers.  In view of the above, cross-selling can save you some precious marketing budget, in the long run.

Although the key to cross-selling is to offer something your customers could find products that are not only attractive but also would have good utility. Suggest items that have been gathering dust on your shelf for a long time and highlight complementary products. Take cross-selling & upselling concepts to the next level.

Abandoned cart reminders

You will observe people, read prospective buyers, get easily distracted by trivial or critical matters. These could be a phone call, a new WhatsApp post, or simply an irresistible urge to attend to some urgent matter or even an uncontrollable need to take a nap et al. There could be many varieties of reasons why customers put an item in their cart, but stop just short of pressing the all-important ‘Confirm Purchase’ button. What prevents them from doing so?

In addition to abandoned cart, E-Mails averaging over 45% open rate and nearly 21% click-through rate they are worth a try.  You may take a look at how many abandoned carts your store has, and send out abandoned cart E-Mails to check if these resolves the problem.

Social Media Platforms

Your website can rather be referred to as a perfect website as you would already have loaded with quality products. But the potential of your store might stay incomplete if you do not get the word ‘out’. By simply having a Facebook page or a Twitter account may not suffice – you have to be active and create engaging content that generates traffic constantly.

In recent times social media has turned into is a big branch of marketing that is becoming significantly important in E-Commerce. Earlier, during the evolving process of E-Commerce, it was adequate to have social media accounts and do virtual business. However, in present times, you need to have a customized social media strategy for your customers’ needs and also needs regular maintenance, oops updating!

To start with preliminary research is needed. Initially, define your target audience to ascertain what social media platforms they use. Ideally, Facebook works for most customers. But there are some less popular social platforms that could be right next to you and may even give a better outcome. As for example; if you sell custom-made jewelry or apparels, consider creating a Pinterest account to showcase your pieces to more than 185 million users annually.

At this moment in time, social media platforms are dime a dozen. It is alright if you do not have a presence on all of them.  However, It would be better if you pay more attention to the ones that is directly related to your audience. Thus, when you have decided and made up your mind as to what works for you, set goals and create engaging content. Cheers!

All the same, despite your efforts, do not forget to display your social media activities on your store! You may even add social sharing buttons, feature tweets, or show Facebook reviews from your customers. There are lots of options, so make sure you find what suits your needs best. Stay in touch with your audience and prospective customers, socially!

Influencing Through Social Media

Now that you have all your social media platforms operating hammer and tongs, but you are still fraught with attracting more customers to your brand. Here influencers might help you to influence people!

Social media influencers are regular social media users who have established themselves decent credibility in a specific field.

Really speaking, good influencers are a brand themselves.  Since they have a loyal following that trusts their opinion, they would be beneficial to your brand. These Influencers essentially, have an above-average number of fan following with whom they actively engage on a regular basis on many topics.

Obviously, influencer marketing can become a little expensive. While Mini Cooper could afford it (and even got a good return on their investment), but most E-Commerce sellers need to start less significantly without much fun fare. It is not necessary to hire brand names, but you might be able to get even more return by opting for micro-influencers, who may have fewer followers, but possess a bigger engagement rate with their audience.

Let us remind you that influencer marketing is a relatively new area and subject in-Commerce, so you need not be petrified to seek assistance. Start with actionable blog posts and put the right foot forward!

Affiliate Partner Program

Capitalize on your relationship building when your association with your customers is going strong. This could be done by implementing an affiliate program aka associate program. By this way, customers who are already found of your product can help spread the word and give new leads, thereby increasing your sale.

Want to know how does an affiliate program work? It is basically, your long-term customers who know and use your products or services recommend them to their acquaintances. Moreover, every referral gets rewarded with a commission.

It works this way; each affiliate usually has a unique link that they can share on their social media accounts, blogs, etc. with the help of various software tools which you can keep track of how many affiliates you have in order to manage the finances finally.

For example have a look at the print-on-demand drop shipping and warehousing service Printful, whose affiliate program invites customers to become their ambassadors.

In the present E-Commerce scenario, an affiliate program is an ideal option to consider because long-term customers might already be in the mindset to offer your product or services to their associates. Since they have tested it and decided to stick with you, the concept would be viable. With an affiliate program, you simply offer the incentive for them to start talking more about your business, your product, and services.

Social proof

The dynamic pace of our everyday lives prompts us, as customers, to have an honest opinion that can be easily accessed. It is unlikely that you would remember a time when you ordered a product online without reading a review first.

Avoid taking negative reviews that could affect your sales seriously. Remember getting only 5-star reviews is not the best thing for your business. The reason is people are uncertain as we all know that nothing is perfect, so products with only positive reviews are simply too good to be true. The human tendency after all!

You must also take into consideration that only reviews do not construe to be social proof. You can also show your customers your list of discerning and satisfied customers. Here, for instance, online bookseller Book Depository shows a map, where the latest purchases have been made on their website in real time.

A map or a review or a photo of a happy customer; display them as social proof wherever possible! Do not worry, if someone’s honest opinion lowers your rating a little, sometimes! Think of it as an opportunity to encourage the customer with excellent customer service – get in touch, find out what went wrong and try to resolve the issue as far as possible. These endearing things may make the customer edit the review to reflect your hard work!

Engaging With Your Customers

It is always a better idea to find new ways to be in touch with your customer; bank on them, they can give you the edge over your competitors. Tumblr, Reddit, Quora and other community sites where there are scores of brilliant people who are open to new experiences and might even become your customers someday.

For instance, the e-commerce subreddit on Reddit has more than 23,000 readers, a great place to seek advice on how to run your store. It is also a platform for sharing your own experience.

All the same, forethought is wise when it comes to speaking about your own products or services. This rule pertains and covers not only Reddit but all kinds of community pages. If you only use the channel to plug your products, you would not get any results and moreover you might even get banned from the forum altogether. So be wise and maintain caution as people are watching you.

In view of the above, identify the communities that share your interests and values. Thereafter, start building relationships that might result in customers who trust you and your products on a long-term basis!

Paid Online Advertising

There is no better way to drive more traffic to your site than paid advertising. But that catch is it requires some financial investment, you should, therefore, be careful before choosing it.

Here again, the first step is to conduct your personal research. Weigh the pros and cons of the different paid channel pricing models (viz, Cost-Per-Thousand, Pay-Per-Click, Cost-Per-Acquisition), and contemplates to what you want to achieve finally with paid advertising. Is it you have noticed that the traffic on your store is good, but no sales come through?  Why not try retargeting ads? This is why before finalizing, check the viabilities.

Generally, retargeting ads are often shown to people who have already been on your website in the past and after they have left your website.

Remember in most cases paid advertising is a good way to drive traffic to your store and make people show interest. However, even when the ads stop, only your products and the user experience on your website can keep the sales coming!

Offline Product Marketing

Flyers and putting up banners are fast fading. But when the digital world is getting saturated, one can always turn back to the good old offline product marketing at times according to one’s convenience.

It might seem simple for E-Commerce business, but the fact is very little can actually replace one-on-one human interaction. So from often, it is actually worthwhile to participate in real-life events to enhance your profile.

You can even take part in a local fair or event or could even join a networking event for small business owners. Such platforms can lead not only to useful connections who can share their experience in building a business but can also let you be known to others that could generate more sales with word-of-mouth marketing and publicity.

Refrain from underrating what the real world has to offer to your E-Commerce business. Hop into the bang wagon!

What next?

The product marketing tricks and tips discussed might seem a lot, but they are well worth exploring. It is also worth your sales and product marketing channels that should work hand in hand to achieve the biggest impact. So make time to come up with an E-Commerce strategy that fits you ideally with the right tools to help you grow and get started ASAP!