Once you have created an online boutique it’s time to get your first sale. Remember, your long-run goal (which will take years) should be building a reputation for your clothing brand and make your store look trustworthy, but the short term goal (which will take a few months) should be- Getting sales.
Once you have done the optimization I discussed in my previous post, it’s time to make money. Here are 5 actionable techniques to help you make money with your online store.
7+ Trending eCommerce marketing techniques
1. Create a blog
Blogging is the best way to get convertible traffic to your store. Content marketing will help you get traffic with high ROI (rate of interest). You can either use a Shopify for creating blog posts or create an entirely different blog to look less promotional. If you want to make a site specifically for blogging, use WordPress.
Once you have set up your blog, Start looking for a long tail keyword with a high search rate using the KwFinder tool. For example, if you have a store selling men apparel, the keyword should not simply be men apparel.
You should either narrow it down to a 3-4 words string or use semantic keywords. The best way to do this is by using a keyword research tool, if you have a good budget, you can also go for Semrush, otherwise, KwFinder is the best choice. All you need to do is enter the main keyword, it will show you a list of low-competition keywords.
Use these keywords to create a high-quality post on your blog. If you are serious, you can easily grow your blog in the first 6 months and generate some serious income.
2. Start an affiliate marketing program
It is a process where a user promotes your product via their blogs, videos, emails or any other way, in exchange for a small commission.
Affiliate marketing is something considered by more than 80% of the brands. This is because it is one of the best marketing techniques to promote your product if the quality is good.
You can go to platforms like CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Advertising, ShareASale, and similar platforms. The average affiliate rate could be anywhere between 5% to 30% depending on your niche and popularity.
Don’t forget to promote your affiliate program by reaching out to niche-specific blogs, different clothing blogs, and sharing your program with them.
3. Use Instagram for promotion
With Facebook ads becoming a little saturated, many marketers are shifting to Instagram, and it is proving to be a good marketing platform.
You can create an Instagram page and create eye -catchy images for driving an interested audience base. Additionally, offer product giveaways and paid promotion to Instagram influencers in your niche. You can also try commenting on relevant IG pages.
4. Boost sales with referral marketing
Referral marketing is one of the popular eCommerce marketing strategies used by many online stores.
This is a technique where stores offer rewards in the form of cash, discount, points, gift cards or vouchers on every sale made by his referral. Both the referee as well as referral gets the reward. One great example of this is Endy.
They offer a $55 discount to the new customer and a $55 direct cash to the referral.
5. Retain customers with loyalty marketing
Around 82% of organizations believe that retaining customers is less expensive.
You have a much better chance of converting an existing customer than a new one. And it is because of this reason that the biggest companies like Uber use loyalty marketing.
Loyalty marketing is simply about thanking your customers for buying from your store. For example, Uber offers reward points for choosing them over other ride companies.
As a customer, you will get perks like priority support, free deliveries (Uber Eats), highly rated drivers, and flexible cancellations.
6. Use social proof and social currency concept
Social proof and social currency are the two concepts that adversely help in boosting sales. Social proof is a feedback from an industry expert, friends or family. Social proof is usually more trusted than a paid review.
Social currency is the person providing social proof to look popular. You need to interact with your customers via email or your page, and tell them how their feedback is featured and how it will help other users.
Some examples of Social proof are product reviews, Trusted badges, or ratings like BBB, testimonials. Comments, brand mentions, subscribers, and more.
7. Perform email marketing
If you have a few existing sales, or subscribers, you can perform email marketing. This eCommerce marketing strategy will help you retain existing customers and get more sales.
Also, you can use email outreach for sharing your marketing strategy to relevant blogs. There are different ways to promote a product, but don’t forget to personalize your email content.
Here is a short template for promoting your marketing program:
Hey [Name] We have recently started an affiliate program and wanted to share the details with you. Our program offers 10-20% commission on each sale and we have some great range of [Niche] products. [Your web store URL] Let us know your take. Thank you, [Sender’s name]
8. Guest contribution and paid promotion
Guest contribution is one way to reach the vast audience. Although, it is a part of content marketing similar to blogging, you don’t need to wait for the content to rank.
Instead you can write high quality guest posts on popular websites and convert their audience to your store. If the site doesn’t accept outside contributions, you can ask them for a sponsored post.
Over to you
You can use any of the above eCommerce marketing strategies for your online store. Content marketing is the most crucial and budget friendly technique that you can get started with, right away. Email marketing is pretty common, so write convertible email copies.
