How To: Make Your eCommerce Site Stand Out
Now, more than ever, retailers realize the importance of online shopping; and many retailers are 'racing' to get online. But getting online doesn’t mean your site will attract and retain customers. Whether you’re an experienced online retailer, or just starting out- it’s important to make your site standout. After all, the purpose of your eCommerce siteCustom ecommerce solutions – pos ecommerce software is to compete and win sales from other businesses- online, brick-and- mortars and big-box, so knowing how to properly promote your eCommerce website is key.
So what can you do to make your site stand-out?
Create quality content
To promote your eCommerce website, you need quality content. Content helps search engines find your site. It also sets your site apart from competitors by giving the impression you are an expert in your industry; and users are more likely to engage with your site longer- contributing to higher rankings. Quality content should be clear, unique and useful. Examples of content include: How to articles with videos; unique product descriptions; ‘real’ product reviews; and pages that highlight your staff, expertise and news.
TIP: Create a content schedule to continually build your site without getting overwhelmed.
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Drive organic traffic with an SEO strategy
How do I get on page 1 Google? If I had a dime each time I’ve been asked that question…
Even if your site is optimized, you need an ongoing SEO strategy for your eCommerce site. Search engine algorithms change, sites get stale, and your competitors are continuously trying to rank you out. For an effective SEO strategy, your site should incorporate quality content, be optimized for desktop and mobile; offer a good customer experience; and be free from malware. Search engines want to promote relevant eCommerce sites to their users, just as you want to promote good products to your consumers. Do you think your site is relevant enough for search engines?
TIP: Before outsourcing, ask your eCommerce provider if they offer digital marketing services, as they are already familiar with the structure of your site.
Drive traffic with personalized emails
Personalized email campaignsNew WindowNew Window are a great way to improve your site's success. Once you've obtained customer email addresses, you can create customer segments based on shopping behaviors and preferences. Then use automated workflows to send personalized promotions to each segment to boost sales conversions. Here are a few examples of email marketing for retailers:
- Post purchase thank you email, asking for an online review
- Abandoned cart email to remind customers with items in cart
- Customer re-engagement emails to bring customer back
- Post sales emails to promoting upsell products
- Emails to remind customers with gift card balances
TIP: Leverage an email automation system that can send emails based on real-time sales and customer data.
Drive traffic from social media
Building your online presence is important to helping your website achieve greater success by and integrating your site with social media platforms. These platforms can drive traffic to your site. For example, if you have videos on your site, consider posting them to YouTube with a link in the description to direct customers to your site. You can also engage with customers on Facebook and Twitter. Whatever platforms you decide to use to promote your eCommerce website, make sure you post regularly to build your reputation and online presence; this will help improve visibility and direct website traffic. You can also use these sites to sell products directly.
TIP: Integrate your eCommerce site with social media; and use a retail platform that can push products out to social marketplaces and manage those sales all in one place.
Drive traffic with rewards programs
One of the hallmarks of a successful business is its ability to retain customers and earn repeat business. The same could be said of a website as well. To that end, it's a good idea to develop rewards programsNew WindowRetail crm software - customer loyalty softwareNew Window. In order to reap the benefits of a rewards program, make sure that your program is beneficial to consumers and easy to use. If you aren't sure what incentives to offer, take the time to ask your customers what sort of rewards they would be interested in. That will help you design a more successful rewards program.
TIP: Your rewards program should be cross channel, so users can earn rewards and reap the benefits in store and/or online.
As a final thought, driving traffic to your website requires more than just optimizing your website. To be completive and stand out, your site needs to get recognized by search engines, drive traffic from each of your retail channels and keep customers engaged. Achieving this requires leveraging sales and customer data from each of your retail channels; and integrate that data into your digital marketing strategies.
Learn how Celerant can build and drive traffic to your eCommerce site through digital marketing
