Struggling to boost eCommerce sales is common, particularly if you are still in the early phases of developing your store.
It also does not help if you are in a competitive market trying to establish yourself when other brands have more time to get ahead of you. In addition, because they are in a better place financially, they can also afford to spend more resources to get even further ahead.
Having said all that, the fact that you are struggling should not discourage you from pursuing your goal of creating a profitable online store. If anything, you should treat these hardships as a means of motivation that can drive you further on.
Besides, you can work on creating a more effective promotion strategy yourself and maximize the available resources at your disposal. The 8 tips below should come in handy for that.
Provide Customer Reviews
Online stores can drive more sales by showing customer reviews. It is easier to persuade someone to purchase goods or services when they can justify their decision based on positive experiences from other customers.
In case the store is using the dropshipping model, it is also possible to import reviews from other platforms. Thanks to tools like Okendo, importing reviews should not be a problem. On the other hand, you might also want to check Opinew, which is a cheaper okendo alternative.
Publish High-Quality Content
Customer reviews are a type of content on your website, but relying on them entirely will not cut it. You also want to ensure that product descriptions, blog articles, video instructions, and other website content comes at the highest quality you can produce.
There is a difference between online stores that put little to no effort and those that spend a lot of time polishing every piece of content to make it better. If someone visits an online store and notices low quality, they will feel like the site is not trustworthy.
Drive Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is valuable because potential shoppers discover a website after entering particular keywords in the search engine. If they have the intention to purchase goods or services, they will choose the keywords accordingly, and stores that show at the top search results get the benefits.
Search engine optimization is a difficult nut to crack, and it requires time to come into effect, so one should treat it as a long-term investment.
Advertise on Social Media
Social media marketing continues to be one of the cornerstones for many marketing tactics despite some claims how oversaturated the most popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram are.
You can still benefit from running ad campaigns, creating giveaways and contests, sharing valuable content, posting to groups, and taking advantage of other means to make the most out of social media sites.
Create Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing campaigns are another example of how you need to optimize the approach before you commit. For example, sending blast emails to random people is unlikely to yield results. If anything, your email inbox will probably get flagged as suspicious, and most email service providers will block it.
No, it is necessary to research the demographic, collect relevant email lists, create tailor-made copies, and avoid sending too many messages simultaneously.
Collaborate With Influencers
People trust celebrities that they follow on Instagram or Facebook more than they trust corporations pushing ads to promote goods or services.
If you follow someone on social media, it usually indicates that you like or trust them. Therefore, a promotional post from such a person is more effective as far as marketing goes.
Influencers make careers for themselves by collaborating with various brands. On the surface, it might seem like such an approach to promote an online store or a particular product is not useful in particular, but if it was, we would not have so many influencers.
Take Advantage of FOMO
The fear of missing out is one of the oldest marketing techniques. For someone who browses an online store and looks at the stuff they are interested in, it is easier to persuade such a person if they see a pop-up with stock running out and how many other people are viewing the same item.
In a similar vein, an online store could also offer limited discounts and encourage shoppers to spend money before these discounts disappear.
Simplify the Checkout Process
A complicated checkout process is one of the biggest hindrances to an online shopping experience. Having to register and fill out multiple pages of personal details increases the likelihood of abandoned shopping carts.
It also does not help if an online store offers limited payment options. There should be more than just credit cards and PayPal. Considering the differences between a hassle-free checkout process and a complicated checkout process, it should be a no-brainer as to which one to have.