If you own an e-commerce business you should think of your website as your store-front. This may seem like an obvious one, but you’d be surprised how many online stores fail to follow some basic fundamentals. This results in poor sales which leads to cash flow problems. If you want to avoid these problems and drive more sales to your online store, implement these basic strategies:
Email Marketing
Email marketing doesn’t necessarily drive new sales to your store, but it will surely retain your existing ones. When a customer makes a purchase for the first time on your store, give them the option to opt in to email updates on new products, sales, and more.
According to a study done by MarketingSherpa, about 73% of Americans prefer email marketing to other marketing methods with online businesses. Here are a few tips when developing an email marketing campaign:
- Give your customers the option to opt-in or not.
- Offer exclusive deals: You need to make this very clear when providing the option to opt-in. Here are some strategies to implement that keep the deals exclusive to the recipients:
- One-time coupon codes
- Flash sales
- Buy one get one free offers
SEO and Content Marketing
Generally, what makes a person famous? The more people talking about you, the more famous (or infamous) you become. These same rules apply to the internet. The more your store is talked about on the internet, the more popular it will become.
If you want to generate more sales, you need to pay attention to SEO and implement a content marketing strategy. The best way to get the ball rolling is to start a company blog. Platforms like WordPress allow you to easily create and manage your company blog. Here are a few things to keep in mind when blogging:
- Pay attention to links: Links are basically streets that connect websites. The more links you have back to your site, the higher it will rank for SEO.
- Moz provides a basic link building strategy for first-timers.
- Create meaningful content: The more helpful and meaningful your content the better. Here’s why:
- Syndication: If you’re content is valuable enough, you can reach out to other publications and syndicate your posts onto their sites. This gives you more exposure.
- Leverage: If your content begins to get a large following, you can use your blog as leverage when negotiating deals or partnering with other companies. Offer a mention in a blog post for something you need.
- Diversify: Try not to write about the same topics. The more diversity you have in topics, titles, links, keywords, etc… the more exposure you will get.
Mobile Optimization
If you haven’t optimized your store for mobile devices yet, you’re missing out big time. According to Internet Retailer, about a third of online purchases are made from a mobile device. With mobile payment options becoming readily available, consumers are ditching their desktops for their smartphones when its time to shop.
Advances in payment technology like the introduction of a digital wallet will only drive more consumers towards mobile shopping. Ideally you should develop a mobile app for your store, if that’s not feasible at the moment at least start by optimizing your website for smartphones.
These are just a few tips to get you started. Always look for ways to improve your online shopping experience and keep that cash flow in the green!
