You have an eCommerce brand that you’re trying to grow. Some say you should run Facebook Ads, others suggest you should have a blog. But, you are not sure and haven’t thought of a proper marketing strategy, yet. 

We get it- business is hard. You rarely get time to think about marketing when you are busy with production, supplies and operations. If you’re confused about sales growth, we’ve come up with 7 simple ways that can help you get started with an eCommerce store marketing strategy. 

Getting started with marketing your eCommerce brand 

Marketing is not a genie in a bottle that would start granting your wishes instantly. Rather, think of it as farming. 

You’d need to continuously nurture your strategy, listen to your audience just like you take care of the crop to reap a harvest. Once you start thinking of marketing as an essential cog in your business machinery, you can fit it into the bigger picture and grow your store sales. 

Tactics to market your eCommerce store & grow sales in 2020 

Okay! Enough of the small talks. Let’s get to the point and see what you can do to start building a marketing strategy for your eCommerce store. 

1. Facebook Ads with Retargeting 

You must have tried this already if you are into eCommerce for a while. If not, trust me you’re missing out on a big opportunity here. 

Shopify says that 85% of the orders on its stores from social media comes from Facebook. Two-thirds of the social media visits to Shopify stores come from Facebook too. 

So, if you haven’t explored the Facebook lane yet, you should leave everything and take a stroll across resources to help you get started. Here is a detailed guide to starting with Facebook Ads for eCommerce stores by Shopify. 

2. Start building an email list & sending wishlist reminders 

If you are not serious about email marketing or haven’t thought about it, it is time you should. Your website already has an account feature, why not add a wishlist and start sending periodic reminders to people who add products to their wishlists. 

You can even send emails to abandoned cart users and convince them to complete their purchase. This will not only spike up your revenues but will help you stay on top of shoppers’ minds. 

Also, if you create blogs, you can share it with email subscribers. You can also send them personalized offers in their mail that they’ll love. The point is, when you have email subscribers, you have direct access to their mailbox. If you use it wisely, they’ll notice and buy from you more. 

Just don’t overdo emails. We all hate spams. Don’t we? 

3. Become a content creator (like a media company) 

The best way to market any brand or business is to start publishing content in your niche. If you have a content marketing plan, cheers to you. But if you haven’t planned yet, you should already. 

You can’t keep talking about your offers and products all the time. No one loves shameless promotion. Rather, create content that adds value to the visitor’s life. 

If you have an apparel store, think of releasing fashion trends on a weekly or monthly basis. If you sell shoes, give people content to share about their love for shoes. 

Content isn’t just ‘written’. So, if you are blogging and think that’s it, you need more. Today, people consume content in all forms – videos, audio, text and what not. People even consume content when they don’t know. 

You can create a content channel that is loved by your visitors and audience. (Think of a Spotify podcast, YouTube channel, Instagram Reels, etc.) You really need to become a media unit to grab attention and convert it into sales in 2020. 

4. Talk your users into talking about you (UGC) 

Do you remember how you got to know about Flipkart or Amazon back in the day? Most probably, some friend told you how he ordered a book online and you should too. That’s called word-of-mouth marketing. 

In the digital age, this has turned tables for small eCommerce brands. They influence their users/buyers into talking about them by posting on Instagram and other social handles. 

You might have seen how people check in on Facebook when they visit their favourite restaurant- that’s user-generated content. Reviews on Amazon are User Generated Content. Posts about the product they bought are UGC posts. 

If you want to ride the organic growth wagon i.e. you want to let your brand grow on its own, you should find a way to talk to your users talk about you. 

You can reward them for posts by offering an additional discount, running contests, ask them to post online about you in return of a freebie or more. This way, you will get into the eyes of more potential customers online. 

5. Partner with micro-influencers or complementary brands 

There’s one promotion channel that’s blown off marketing in the last 3-4 years, i.e. Instagram. Influencer marketing is a popular way for small brands to gain traction. But the way it is done is continuously changing. 

Earlier, influencers were made based on their follower counts. Now, it’s more about relevance and audience. That’s why it is important for you to build relationships with complementary brands and micro-influencers in your segment. 

If you run a health supplement store, wouldn’t it be great to have a cross-post by a gym or a fitness influencer on Instagram? 

You just need to do some research about micro-influencers and approach them with a profitable proposition (Many ask for cross-posts, others want money and some even do it for reach). 

You can create a cross-posting campaign and start getting traction on Instagram when your audience matches the other brand or influencer. 

The Golden Rule to Grow
Don’t just think of sales, think of building recall and relationships.

Marketing your store isn’t as easy as it seems. You will have to create a plan and have a long-term vision if you want to transform it into a brand people love. If you start today and build it right, you can enjoy the benefits for a lifetime. 

Remember, don’t market to sell, market to show people that you are the answer to their question, solution to their problem and the medicine to their pain. 

Always focus on become important in a person’s life through the mix of content, product, experience and proposition. Then only you will be truly ready to grow your sales.  

Share what you feel about growing your sales through marketing in the comments section.