Understanding Your Target Audience
It never fails to amuse me how often brands spend more time on the look of their online store than trying to figure out who’s actually shopping there. You know, those real humans with tastes and quirks and pet peeves. And yes, maybe you can sometimes sell to a faceless ‘everyone’ - but chances are, you’ll end up appealing to no one.
More or less. Most of the time, getting your products in front of the right people is half the battle. You need more than age ranges, geography and income brackets.
Dig a little deeper and you’ll find what you’re looking for - hobbies, personal interests, behaviour patterns and even their complaints about competitors. This is all part of creating a strong buyer persona, which really helps you address their unique pain points as well as connect them to your offerings. Once you know who you’re talking to, everything gets easier.
Your messaging will have clarity and consistency. You’ll be able to create targeted content that shows an understanding of their lifestyle. You’ll also be able to tell stories that feel personal and resonate with them. Without this kind of connection, your audience won’t have any emotional investment in your brand or its products - which really isn’t good for sales or repeat business.
Well, I suppose there are supposedly people who think it’s better to appeal to everyone instead of a select few (possibly because they’re scared of missing out on customers) but that’s only true in rare cases.
Optimizing Your Online Store for Conversions
It can be quite frustrating to see your metrics growing and people clicking through, but when it comes to conversions, your numbers just aren’t what you expected. Or possibly even what you need them to be. That means it might be time to optimise your online store’s conversion rate.
There are a few elements at play here when we talk about conversions - the science of people buying something from you. There’s the landing page, there are calls to action, navigation, layout and much more. But at the heart of all of this is the right message reaching the right person at the right time in the right way. When it comes to ensuring that someone converts, this becomes rather important and a good way to do this is via search engine optimisation or SEO for your online store.
The right keywords allow your brand to reach people who want exactly what you offer. Sometimes with our marketing strategies being what they are and trying to increase awareness, we miss out on reaching those who already know what they want but don’t know where they’ll get it from. If you’re running paid ads or advertising campaigns designed around SEO strategy, this means that your cost per lead will be lower, as will your cost per acquisition. While it can sometimes be hard to forecast these things, by using Google Trends’ tools and Keyword Planner tools from various platforms, one can estimate or at least plan for how these numbers might look after implementing an SEO strategy.
There’s always a bit of trial and error here because we’re not Google or any other search engine (and therefore don’t know how algorithms work), but it seems like this kind of investment in an online ecommerce store pays off in conversions fairly often. Investing in organic keyword research, finding long tail search terms with low competition that have high conversion rates - all of these help conversions go up. At least until Google comes up with something new yet again.
Leveraging Social Proof and Reviews
It’s quite funny how the age-old habit of asking your neighbour for their plumber recommendation has made a digital leap - and landed squarely on the review section of every online shop. I Suspect i mean, we’ve all become armchair critics, waxing poetic about shoes that didn’t fit or raving about eco-friendly packaging. The whole thing is sort of fun to watch, but for e-commerce businesses, it’s a goldmine.
A random stranger writing “this lasted five years” might do more for sales than any clever ad copy. This does something strange to us as shoppers - and perhaps as humans. We’re statistically more likely to snap up the blender with three hundred four-and-a-half-star reviews than the one with ten glowing testimonials from food bloggers.
It’s like social proof on steroids. We trust the crowd over curated expertise. Sort of.
Which is great news if you’re selling stuff online, because this crowd-wisdom can be harnessed in delightfully low-effort ways. Widgets that display reviews as soon as you land on a product page are only half the story; having little tidbits pop up at checkout, or under similar items, helps drive conversions too. What I find curious is how reviews have become almost an alternate currency in the ecommerce world. A well-placed “customer photo” can instantly lend authenticity to whatever you’re flogging, whether it’s kitchen knives or bohemian rugs.
And once buyers see someone who looks like them using your product and loving it - well, let’s say it creates some pretty powerful shopping momentum. Of course, there’s always the flip side - oddball keyboard warriors or competitors leaving less-than-stellar feedback just for laughs (or malice). But generally, encouraging positive customer feedback and making it visible seems like one of those rare win-wins in business: customers know what they’re getting into; sellers get authentic trust-building content without much fuss.
Social proof levels out the playing field somewhat - reminds us that even faceless platforms need real human input to flourish.
Effective Email Marketing Strategies
You know, it appears that email marketing is still seen as a dinosaur. A big, clunky, 90s dinosaur. But it’s an odd one because despite all the new stuff - the TikToks and the DMs - those emails continue to get results.
It’s perhaps just that we need to look at what effective email marketing actually means in 2024. It seems like the most obvious thing in the world but that first impression (the subject line) can really set everything up for success or doom it to be deleted. I think it’s because we’re all time-poor these days and nobody wants to spend their evenings wading through spam. There are some frameworks that have been proven to work for eCommerce businesses.
For example, The 7 Proven Frameworks for eCommerce Marketing Success features modules and templates that help businesses create powerful email campaigns, deliver emails with high engagement rates, and build loyal customer relationships. The real reason why these frameworks work is because they give people something useful - not another sales pitch.
And this is evidently where many brands go wrong by making every communication about them. Seems obvious but instead of trying to sell more products, why not use email campaigns to get customers more invested in what you’re offering. Keep your messaging helpful and human. Tell stories that are meaningful and relevant rather than using generic pitches or templates.
If you want a measurable increase in open and click-through rates then automate your campaigns based on how customers have interacted with your business before. Tailoring messaging in this way means less unsubscribes and increases your chances of converting leads into buyers faster than ever before - which has become more important now thanks to things like COVID-19 lockdowns which have caused us all to spend more money online.
Utilizing Paid Advertising for Quick Results
It’s a strange thing, but there’s something oddly comforting about the predictability of paid ads in ecommerce. Compared to all the swirling uncertainties of organic growth or influencer partnerships, handing over your card details to Meta or Google is a straightforward transaction - and you’re quite likely to see something resembling results fairly quickly. Reminds Me Of at least, you’ll get numbers. Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing money at Facebook and watching the orders roll in.
Fast sales are seductive, but paid advertising has become a sort of dark art that’s evolving at the speed of TikTok trends. The platforms constantly shift their algorithms; what works one week can bomb spectacularly the next. Still, for businesses who need sales yesterday, nothing scales faster than a well-targeted campaign with a clear offer, memorable visuals, and great copy.
When budgets are tight, I’ve seen founders squeeze out a batch of sales in a weekend by focusing every cent on retargeting people who already know them or on remarketing their bestsellers. If you want new customers cold. Higher cost per acquisition, but still possible.
It’s maths - paid ads are measurable. I’m not always a fan. But even I have to admit that the best marketers I’ve ever worked with all learnt how to allocate spend for short bursts and then turn off ads when they weren’t needed (or if things got out of hand). Some even drove traffic through paid campaigns to posts they knew would go viral organically, compounding both.
Now that Apple has made tracking more private, old numbers seem laughable compared to what you have now - especially if you rely on paid ads for sales as a young business. But it’s still measurable. You can figure out your cost per click and how much it costs you to acquire a customer fairly accurately.
The trick is supposedly to use paid advertising like an expensive meal; enjoy every part of it and don’t expect it every day or week.
It’s meant to stimulate revenue or raise brand awareness quickly when you need it, not when your ad specialist needs their retainer paid (if you hire someone else). Done right, paid advertising can allegedly create sustainable periods of growth for each stage of the ecommerce funnel without blowing through budgets to acquire leads that will never convert unless you send them another 25 emails (don’t do that).
Implementing Upselling and Cross-Selling Techniques
I have always believed that the real trick of retail isn't having something to sell, it's being able to convince people to buy more than they intended. So that's why the art of upselling and cross-selling is essential for any sales strategy. More or less. The way I see it, i expect it's a delicate dance - the last thing you want is for your customers to feel like they're being taken for a ride.
By suggesting products that complement what they've chosen, you're helping them create a fuller experience, especially with clothing and accessories. When you think about it, there's an art to this approach that can make shopping an enjoyable and fulfilling experience for your customers. You're not just selling them a handbag or new shoes - you're actually helping them create their own unique fashion story.
And while it might sound excessive, most people enjoy a good story as long as it's a good one. When you suggest pieces that go together or work with a specific dress or top, you're giving your customer more inspiration and ideas.
What you've done is take the guesswork out of shopping by making suggestions that are relevant and useful. The way I see it, you've planted the seed for future purchases and left the door open for repeat visits - which is the ultimate goal. So the next time your customer has an event or party to go to, they know where to find the complete look.
But when you get right down to it, it's all about positioning things in such a way that your customers feel like they've made the right choice by buying more from you. They should never feel pressured or like they're being manipulated - that's just not cool. The best approach is always gentle encouragement and subtle persuasion that'll leave them feeling excited about their purchase instead of guilty.
Because if they're happy, you're happy too.