7 Ways You Can Promote Your E-commerce Business

02/03/2020 | Share:

Are you in the early stages of developing an online store? Or perhaps looking for new ways to promote your e-commerce business? Here are 7 ways you can get started with promoting your store:

Google Ads

Almost every internet user will have come across a Google Ad at some point in their life. We all recognise them as the sponsored results at the top of a search engine results page. But you can use Google Ads too, just like any other business would. It requires a bit of work to set up and if you’re serious about it, you’ll also need regular management to make sure you are not overspending or underspending.

Google Ads are intended to reach people that are actively searching for the products or services you offer. People are already in the mood to buy or browse and Google Ads puts you at the front of the queue.

With e-commerce, you not only get access to the standard ads, but you can create shopping ads as well. These can sometimes appear above both the organic results and the text ads and are displayed alongside a range of similar products from competitors.

Invest in SEO

Staying with the Google theme, search engine optimisation (SEO) is another way to generate awareness of your business, that’s relatively cheap compared with traditional advertising. Whilst technically not a direct method of promotion, by working on SEO, you can get Google to present your business to people for you. Bear in mind though, it can take a lot longer to get results, so you may not want to put all of your eggs in one basket.

Google’s aim is to present people with the most relevant pages that match their search query. You get on the results page by being considered the most relevant and with SEO, unlike Google Ads, the effects don’t disappear the moment you switch off ads.

A successful SEO campaign needs to consider the three big areas of how a website performs in the Google Algorithm: keyword-rich and authoritative content, quality of website build, and relevant high-quality backlinks. Whilst people know SEO involves writing content around the keywords you want to rank for, don’t forget your site quality and the number of external sites that link to yours (known as backlinks) and how much authority those external sites have already. For example, a link to your site from a national newspaper is likely to carry more weight than from your friend’s amateur blog.

Social Media

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, social media is everywhere. And every business should have social media accounts. They act as a platform for customers to engage directly with your brand in a public online space. Because of this public space, it means there is a possibility for new customers to find you.

The social media channels also give you a chance to express your brand in its own way through original content and also foster relatability and likeability with the brand. Nowadays, it has also evolved into a new method of customer service.

Make sure you strike the right balance between the content you create. Some posts should be promotional – but try to avoid being seen as just promotional to keep your audience engaged – over time, you’ll find the right balance. Increase your chances of exposure by using hashtags (that act as keywords) and through using all the new features available to you within the apps (whether that’s creating a group, a long-form video, or going live).

Remember, social media is primarily for people to share content with the people that matter to them as well as be entertained or inspired. Make sure you’re in that category and your store will benefit.

Facebook Advertising

Since everyone is now on social media, why not actively advertise on the largest social media network in the world? If you’ve already got a page on Facebook that has plenty of useful, inspiring or interesting content, you can take it a step further and show your posts to people who don’t follow you.

Facebook Post Boosting is an easy way to get more people to see your social media posts. Simply set up your billing, select your audience and budget, then hit ‘boost’. You can even use the post to direct them to your e-commerce site.

By learning advanced techniques or enlisting the help of a marketing agency, you can take your advertisements to the next level by defining your objectives more. Ads can be optimised to increase brand awareness, promote app installs and even generate leads or sales.

Develop Partnerships

Reaching out to someone else to help you promote your product can be an alternative option that helps create a feeling of authenticity and gives your products a seal of approval.

You could ask a blogger or social media influencer within your niche to write a post or review of the product. Some potential partners may charge you a fee for the content and promotion whereas others can sometimes be happy just to keep the samples you provided.

Start selling on other channels

If you’re in the early days of your e-commerce business and website traffic is rather low, you could always use other e-commerce channels at first. Places like Amazon and eBay are online marketplaces that accept most products, however, you may find better profit margins on a niche related marketplace. For example, if your niche is fashion, you may want to use popular websites such as ASOS.

This will help you gain some exposure and some much-needed sales. It will assist in generating repeat purchases, brand advocates and product reviews… which leads us to our next tip…

Customer Reviews

Encouraging people to leave positive reviews of their experiences means they’re doing the promotion for you! However, in order for this to happen, you need to make sure it’s online somewhere for everyone to see (such as a Google My Business review or on TrustPilot) and that the review is indeed a positive one.

You can take steps to ensure that the majority of reviews are positive, but there’s no guarantee you won’t receive negative responses too. Maintaining great customer service is one way to avoid bad reviews.

Another topic that generates reviews, both positive and negative, is the service a person received for the dispatch and delivery of their goods. One way to ensure positivity is to invest in a bespoke e-commerce fulfilment company that can provide efficient picking, packing and delivery services to maintain happy customers.