What is ecommerce marketing
Different types of ecommerce businesses exist that employ ecommerce marketing strategies as a strategic approach to drive traffic, convert visitors into paying customers, and retain them post-purchase while promoting their products/services online.
Having knowledge of the category your business belongs to can assist you in creating an effective marketing strategy that establishes your brand for lasting success.
Types of Ecommerce
Let’s break it down step by step: Common ecommerce business models exist, and depending on the products and services they offer, an ecommerce business can combine two or more of these models. Now, let’s briefly discuss each of these models.
Business-to-Business (B2B)
B2B ecommerce is a model in which a business sells its products or services to other businesses, which can be either end-users or middlemen that resell to consumers. B2B ecommerce businesses such as Slack and Zoom serve as examples.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
B2C is a business-to-consumer ecommerce model in which businesses sell products and services directly to consumers. It is also referred to as Direct-to-Consumer (D2C). However, there is a distinction between B2C and D2C in that B2C brands sell products from various companies to consumers, whereas D2C exclusively sells its own products directly to consumers.
B2C ecommerce brands include Airbnb and Alibaba, while D2C examples include Glossier and Dollar Shave Club.
Business-to-Government (B2G)
An example of a B2G ecommerce brand is OpenGov.com, which allows businesses to sell to federal, state, or local government agencies.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
C2C brands, such as eBay and Craigslist, operate on an ecommerce business model that enables consumers to sell products and services to other consumers using the company as a platform.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
An example of a C2B business is Shutterstock, which allows consumers to sell valuable products and services to businesses, and those businesses can then resell those items to other customers.
Consumer-to-Government (C2G)
The C2G model enables consumers to engage in transactions with government agencies. An illustration of this model would be the option to pay utility bills, health insurance premiums, or taxes using a government website. Now, let’s explore the advantages of ecommerce marketing.
Key benefits of ecommerce marketing
To begin constructing your marketing strategy, it is advantageous to first determine the ecommerce business model that suits your needs. Utilizing digital marketing, you can disseminate informative and promotional materials to target customers through various platforms, thereby enhancing brand recognition and obtaining potential customers with relevant interests. Ultimately, this can result in increased sales for your business.
Businesses can benefit from four key advantages of ecommerce marketing.
1. Lowers transaction costs
Startups greatly benefit from ecommerce marketing as it helps to decrease and eliminate expensive transaction costs. By utilizing cost-effective digital marketing channels, businesses can expand their customer base and sell to a wider range of businesses and consumers worldwide. Furthermore, ecommerce allows for reduced inventory costs and affordable branding strategies.
To begin, all you need is a logo and a website that includes an online store. In addition, you will require an ecommerce marketing strategy in order to expand and grow.
2. Maintain an accurate customer database
By thinking step by step, you can rephrase the text as follows while maintaining the same meaning: An effective strategy for marketing in ecommerce enables you to recognize useful resources for consolidating accurate and pertinent customer data in a single location. It allows you to monitor the origin of visitors, their interactions with your website, and gain insights into their purchasing patterns. This way, you can develop content that appeals to customers and generates sales.
3. Improves the customer experience
One powerful advantage of ecommerce marketing is the ability to have unrestricted access to customer insights. With this advantage, you are able to:
- Identify popular channels your customers use to find you
- Identify channels your competitors use but you aren’t exploring yet
- Create accurate customer segments and personalized experiences
- Create content that resonates with your audience at every stage of their buying journey
By enhancing the customer experience, you can establish a stronger connection with your ideal buyers, which ultimately leads them to choose your brand over competitors.
4. Allows you to reach more people
An effective ecommerce strategy offers the advantage of expanding reach. By implementing this strategy, your business gains the ability to attract and sell to customers from all over the world, regardless of the time of day. By reaching a larger audience, your chances of successfully converting and retaining customers are increased, provided that you employ proper tactics.
Now, let’s discuss the different types of ecommerce marketing that ecommerce marketers utilize to drive online purchases, which include organic and paid digital channels such as search engines, social media, email campaigns, and influencer campaigns.
Types of ecommerce marketing
There are different forms of ecommerce marketing that can be used.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Ecommerce SEO is the act of improving your pages’ rankings on search engines to drive organic traffic to your website and online store. That could mean optimizing product, category, or individual web pages, fixing your site architecture, acquiring backlinks from high-authority websites, and updating old or mediocre content.
The importance of SEO lies in its ability to make your business discoverable and drive organic traffic to your website by ranking for both branded and non-branded industry keywords. Additionally, it can establish you as an authority. To make SEO effective for your business, focus on developing blog posts, landing pages, and product pages specific to your ecommerce offerings within your product or niche.
To rephrase the text while maintaining the same meaning, think about incorporating keywords that highlight your brand’s narrative and solution. These keywords should directly fulfill the search intent, be it for information, navigation, commercial purposes, or transactions. Subsequently, develop content that provides value to customers.
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising, a form of digital marketing, involves businesses paying a fee to an ad network whenever someone clicks on their promoted link. This strategy helps companies attract new visits to their website.
There are doubts regarding the usefulness of PPC in today’s context, particularly considering the widespread use of ad-blocking applications.
In terms of statistics, 75% of individuals reported that paid advertisements were beneficial in their search for desired information, and 26% clicked on the ad due to their prior familiarity with the brand. This indicates the effectiveness of PPC ads in engaging with interested and devoted customers. Furthermore, search ads have the potential to enhance brand visibility by as much as 80%.
The pay-per-click model benefits businesses with high customer lifetime value (healthcare, education, cable & internet providers), high margins (lawsuits, repair jobs, cars), retailers, and producers of unique products. Additionally, this advertising method is advantageous for small businesses as it enables them to operate within limited budgets.
Web push marketing
Web push marketing is a strategy used for advertising that involves the delivery of brief notifications to the desired audience through a browser or mobile app. This channel allows for the transmission of both promotional and transactional messages, enabling goals such as promoting goods, informing customers about their order status, sharing updates, and more.
Web push notifications have an average reaction rate of 7.8%. Notifications from businesses in travel, finance, and online stores are the ones that readers respond to the most. Using web push notifications can be beneficial for individuals who advertise their businesses through content marketing by informing customers about new articles or videos, thereby boosting website traffic.
By incorporating this form of marketing into your strategy, you can enhance your outreach efforts, increase engagement, and gather valuable statistics related to open rates and click-through rates, all of which can aid in the improvement of your strategies. Additionally, this communication channel offers the advantage of being cost-effective. For example, by using SendPulse, you can send push notifications for no charge when your subscriber count is below 10,000.
Social media marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing refers to the utilization of social platforms to promote brands, expand the target audience, generate web traffic, and boost sales. The audience for SMM is vast, consisting of 3.8 billion individuals. During 2019, 43% of internet users engaged with social media while conducting product research prior to making a purchase.
Every business, including B2B, can benefit from social media marketing. This form of eCommerce focuses on various objectives such as enhancing brand recognition, increasing website traffic, enhancing content distribution, regular interaction with the target audience, and more. According to 73% of marketers, SMM is considered effective or highly effective in achieving these objectives.
To excel in social media marketing, develop distinct strategies and content tailored to each social media platform employed for brand promotion. Adjust the frequency of posting, themes, post formats, and other factors to optimize performance on every social network.
Chatbot marketing
Chatbot marketing encompasses the utilization of a specific computer program, known as a chatbot, for marketing objectives. These objectives include assisting customers, managing orders, disseminating company updates, and advertising exclusive deals. Chatbots interact with customers through predefined scenarios or with the aid of artificial intelligence.
Businesses with large customer support services are the ones who benefit the most from chatbot marketing. Bots have the ability to reduce customer support costs by 30%. Additionally, chatbots offer constant interaction with clients, enhance customer engagement, aid in lead nurturing, and expedite the payment process.
In various industries such as eCommerce, healthcare, telecommunication, banking, food, and retail, chatbots play a helpful role. Customers utilize these bots to resolve issues, make reservations, settle bills, purchase various items, or obtain recommendations for purchases. For instance, SendPulse has developed a straightforward chatbot that assists customers in subscribing to email campaigns and receiving consultations.
Begin your chatbot marketing journey with SendPulse. With this platform, you can easily create a chatbot for either Facebook or Telegram. Additionally, you can configure auto-replies, initiate promotional campaigns, and streamline your business activities through automation. Moreover, you can send up to 10,000 messages every month to an unlimited number of subscribers without any charges.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing involves bloggers or opinion leaders promoting brands as a means of enticing new customers. It proves to be effective because individuals are more likely to trust brands after witnessing endorsements from their favorite bloggers.
When done correctly, influencer marketing can increase brand awareness, reach target audiences, facilitate faster customer acquisition, and boost sales, according to 68% of marketers. This type of eCommerce marketing is beneficial for all businesses, but it demonstrates the most impactful outcomes for the fashion, cosmetics, travel, and holiday sectors.
In order to harness the advantages of influencer marketing, it is important to carefully select suitable influencers. It is crucial to consider the loyalty of their audience, even if their numbers might not be extensive, as this enhances the likelihood of maximizing the collaboration. Additionally, aligning your partner’s audience with your specific target audience is pivotal for achieving success.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting your brand through affiliated resources and paying them a commission for each new customer. While it may appear similar to influencer marketing, the mechanism differs. In influencer marketing, you pay for the advertisement, whereas in the affiliate model, you only pay a fee when a sale is made.
When implemented effectively, this form of marketing enhances brand recognition, improves search engine optimization, increases sales, and yields a greater return on investment. Skillfully developed initiatives have the potential to raise revenues by 30%.
An example of affiliate marketing on a financial expert website illustrates how this type of eCommerce marketing is suitable for businesses that have strict control over their product and purchasing, such as direct selling. It is effective in minimizing reputational and financial risks associated with this kind of promotion. Affiliate marketing works well in various niches, including online education and retail.
