8 Effective Ecommerce Marketing Strategies for 2024

If you build it, they will come. Doesn't really work in 2024. Sorry. Kevin Costner, you beautiful man. There's just too much of everything all the time. It takes hard work and sometimes big money to get your business in front of the right eyeballs. If you're running an E commerce business, chances are you're already doing the basics. I'm talking SEO optimization, building your social media presence using targeted social campaigns, Google Ad campaigns. Oh, and maybe some PPC placement. That's awesome. Keep doing that. But most businesses don't have the capital for fancy TV spots. That will really get your brand out there. That was brutal. Wish planners had just killed me off again. And budgets are stretched thin as it is. I mean, a TV spot in this economy? Who are we? Temu? The good news is there are some clever and affordable ways to help your business stand out among the noise. All while building valuable relationships with your customers and increasing sales. You ready? You're probably already utilizing email marketing, right? Sending out information about a new product or big sales. That's great. But there's so much more you can do to activate your email list. Even though it's base level digital marketing, there's a reason it's a staple. It's cheap and it works. Email lists can be leveraged with hyper personal emails to the customer. Check this out. Follow up with them after their last purchase and ask them how they're enjoying it. Ask them for a review. Retarget shoppers who left items in their cart. 70% of shopping carts are abandoned and that's a retailer reminding me I left something in my cart. One sec. See how effective that was? And it was probably automated. In fact, research shows an email like this is the most effective the first hour after cart abandonment. Offering a discount code to make that purchase more urgent and enticing is a great idea. 2. You know that whole you miss 100% of the shots you don't take? Well, you also miss 100% of the 70% of abandoned shopping carts on your site. That math works. Re engaging any of those customers is worth the effort. Okay, so if email is the old school digital marketing tactic, what's the new hot way Social shop integration is booming these days with brands taking advantage of on platform e commerce like Instagram or TikTok shop. One cool way to leverage your social media is to call upon your hours of QVC watching, bust out that ring light and start a live stream to connect to your followers and show off your projects. Hi everyone. Today we are demonstrate your products, interact with Your customers, all while using TikTok or IG Shop or Amazon Live, YouTube, Shopify, whatever you prefer as an e commerce platform. If you feel like your social media following isn't big enough or you just you don't want to be on camera, that's totally cool. There are professional influencers who will gladly showcase your products on their feeds for the right price. What's cool is that there are different tiers of influencers, allowing you to choose whoever is best for your target customer and your budget. Nano influencers will be less expensive because their reach is smaller, and that makes sense. But don't sleep on the nano influencer. You want to know why? Research shows that their engagement rate is actually 5% higher than influencers with a million followers. Talk about bang for your buck. And one study shows that 37% of people trust influencers more than brands. This is because they know their audiences. If you're working with an influencer, leverage their creativity and opinions on how to create content that will best showcase your product for their audience with whom they've already built trust. Leveraging outside audiences doesn't just mean influencers, though. Incredibly, 16% of E commerce sales come from affiliate marketing, essentially partnering with another brand or website to cross promote your items with their customers and receive a percentage of sales in return. The most notable example of this is Amazon affiliate marketing, where bloggers and influencers use a specific Amazon link that tracks which sales came from their audience and earns them a commission in return. Try partnering with popular newsletters, podcasts, or websites in your industry to feature your links in return for a commission. You might lose a little bit of profit, but you'll definitely reach new customers. And once you've got those new customers, you have to keep them. Easier said than done, I know. But you know what? Always, always, always hooks me? A reward program. Sign me up. Literally sign me up so I can earn points and get free stuff. Who doesn't want free stuff, right? Plus, studies say that the probability of selling to a Repeat customer is 60 to 70%, versus the 5 to 20% probability of selling to a new customer. So why not play those odds and incentivize them to spend more? You can offer rewards that make sense for your pricing structure. 20% off, 5% off. BOGO. Things like that. I mean, you probably use the Starbucks app, right? They do double and triple star days. And guess what? It always gets me back in the store, even though I'm more of a Pete's girl. In fact. Hang on. I'm sorry, where were we? Oh yeah. Hey Siri, play my last video. They do double and triple star days and guess what? Oh right, right. It's awesome having a little pocket assistant, isn't it? Oh, that brings me to an emerging trend I wanted to mention. We already talked about how you're probably managing your SEO optimization, but there's something else you should be optimizing for. Voice assistants. I know it sounds wild, but Hear me out. 40% of Internet users say they use voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Sorry, I have to whisper so they don't answer me all at once. Anyway, the big retailers like Walmart are already letting their customers use voice assistants to order products and you can bet the other big fish will follow. But it can work for a small e commerce business too by matching your digital content to match voice search intent, just as you would try to match Google search intent to traditional SEO. For example, people usually ask a who what when question hey Siri, what are the coziest socks I can buy? See how the headlines to these results are basically answering my question directly. But if I say hey Siri, cozy socks what I would normally type into a search bar, the results aren't as good. People talk to their voice assistant in a casual conversational tone, so your content should reflect that. And speaking of optimization, estimates say over 40% of sales will be from mobile and 75% of users prefer using mobile. So the days of having non responsive websites. What? What is going on here? Are dead and gone. Yeah, this is a must. Think about the old adage about how making a customer click more than once to get to a product is basically asking them not to make it all the way to the sales funnel. I would start thinking about not optimizing for mobile shopping. In the same way, if I open a link on TikTok and it goes to some janky site that doesn't function intuitively for Mob, then I'm out. And it's not just me. We all do this. Attention spans are short people. You gotta hit em with the good stuff while you got em. Like a great product video for example. It's not exactly a new concept, but in 2024 you've gotta do it in a grabby short form way that not only effectively showcases your product but answers potential questions about it at the same time. It takes work, but the good news is it's a great way to showcase your business's personalities and or your employees and make the shopping experience feel a little more intimate. Also, research shows that 80% of marketers say that video content increases sales. That's a number that's hard to argue with. But don't just show off the product itself. Make a video about how that product can be used in a way that the viewer might not expect, or an explainer video on how to best use the product, or even a funny video on ways not to use it. All of these things add value to the shopping experience and might entice someone on the fence about a product to try it out. Building valuable, informative content about your products is one of the best ways to build customer trust and establish yourself as an expert. And if you are an expert, another great tactic for expanding your e commerce reach is by starting a podcast. I know, I know. Another podcast. These days it seems like everyone has a podcast, but why not? The audience craves content, and if you have an interesting take on the industry you serve, or maybe the way make products, well, then that might be worth sharing. Mic check 12123 for example, HubSpot's super good at marketing, right? That's why we've got a whole podcast network full of smart people talking about what they do best. But if your specialty is making custom scarves that you sell on your e commerce site, maybe you should start an expert podcast on what goes into creating your fashionable line of outerwear. You've definitely got insight to share, so why not share it with an audience who wants to hear it? Sticking to the tried and true methods of e commerce marketing is important because they work, no doubt. But in a crowded Internet space, you've got to go the extra mile to stand out. And that's where ideas like these come into play. Being creative, innovative and unexpected can pay dividends to your brand. Like who knew I could fake knitting so well? Luckily, HubSpot's got a killer e commerce planning kit that can help you get started on the right path to growing your business. Check it out at the link below and get help with everything you need to build your ecommerce marketing strategy. Reduce abandoned cart rates, track sales, and so much more. What e commerce marketing strategies have you found successful in your small business? Let me know in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe to the HubSpot YouTube channel. And stay tuned for more marketing tips. Obviously, I'll see you next time. Sam.