These days, it feels like every online store is using the same generic marketing strategies to get a foothold in the digital marketplace. Everyone is on social media, the power of email marketing is obvious and on-site content is a must.
But what about the more inventive and undervalued techniques most brands are overlooking? If you’re tired of the tried and tested methods, here are some different tactics you can implement into your marketing strategy.
Create product videos
The goal of an ecommerce store looking to attract as many customers as possible should be to give them as much information as possible about their products. By far the best medium for doing that is video. There are so many different styles of product videos you can create to give your marketing extra detail and punch.
Videos primarily give your audience additional insight into a product. Tutorials can help show off how something works, in case its features aren’t inherently obvious from images and text. Background videos can show customers how the product is made, featuring clips of the manufacturing process and giving them a look behind the scenes. Details like this help to encourage trust in your products, making customers feel more comfortable purchasing them online. In some industries, video is a key part of 8 of 10 successful customer journeys.
Video content can also be used to develop a community around your brand. By doing something unique with your tutorials or demonstration videos, you can encourage discussions and debate on the products. Uploading to YouTube is one of the best ways to do this, as there is a built-in audience on the platform who enjoy ‘how to’ and tutorial content. This doesn’t require you to be a film-buff either, there are numerous free mobile video editing tools such as VideoShow that make it easy to upload directly from your phone.
Sell in person
Surprisingly enough for those of us who have dedicated our lives to ecommerce, physical retail still has an important part to play. In fact, if you’re an online store, it pays to step out of the digital bubble and get in front of your customers.
Selling in person works because it gets the products and your business directly in front of a person’s face. When you’re browsing the sensory overload that is today’s world wild web, it can be easy to forget about that nifty little craft store you stumbled upon or that enticing deal that popped up in your search. That’s why the power of getting directly in front of someone when they’re in the mindset of purchasing is so vital. Presence is often enough to get people over the line.
Selling at pop-up shops, conference stalls, and industry events is a great way to give people the chance to sample and test products before committing to a purchase. This kind of environment also creates a sense of urgency amongst the customer, where they feel they may miss out if they don’t buy there and then. It’s easier than ever for ecommerce stores to do this without having to create unique processes for in-person orders, thanks to systems such as Shopify POS. This process collates all your orders into one CMS and completes regular transactions through an app. A key part of physical retail is ensuring you don’t sacrifice ease of sale.
Sell products in cycles
In the last few years, scarcity has become the greatest trait a product can have. If you could just head to an ecommerce store and buy something any time then what’s the rush? By running your products on limited cycles, you are gaining a unique edge over your competitors.
Of course, this only works in a few industries, most notably fashion retail. However, you can learn from the concept of ‘the drop’ and either create limited product runs or cycle out selected products out of peak season. This sense of exclusively makes your marketing more effective, ensuring that people convert rather than just browse and potentially coming back later. The limited nature of your stock will spread by word of mouth, doing much of the marketing for you and creating a some mystique around you.
This strategy doesn’t just help you develop your product marketing, but establish your brand. While this can sometimes superseded your entire identity, it also does a lot of the brand building for you, as your company becomes one of perceived higher quality and exclusivity.
Employee advocates
You don’t need us to tell you how great your team is. They keep your business running, get orders out the door on time and present products in a manner that makes people want to buy them. But, if you’re not already harnessing the power of employee advocacy, you’re not quite using them to their full potential.
Employee advocates work much in the same way as social proof. Whereas with social proof, a customer feels encouraged to buy a product because of the positive words of another customer’s review, here you use the power and reach of your team to spread the message of your brand.
This can be done across social media, blog writing and many other methods. This creates a nature marketing channel where employees eulogise over the benefits of their company and products to their own particular audience. People are more likely to believe people they know, and more likely to see the benefits of a company if they seem how enthused its staff are about it.
This is an excellent and often underutilized strategy that opens you up to new networks and gives you genuine low-cost marketing.
Sometimes you just need to try something different, to fill out a budget, reach a new audience or build your brand. These techniques will hopefully help you do this, and inspire inventive new methods of marketing your products.
For more tips on boosting your online sales, check out the blog at EcommercePlatforms.io. If you're looking to integrate your eCommerce store with a cost-saving shipping solution, reach out to eShipper and they'll point you in the right direction.
RodneyLaws is an ecommerce expert with over a decade of experience in building online businesses. He’s worked with the biggest platforms in the world, making him the perfect person to offer advice on which platforms to build your website with. Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business. Connect with him on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio
