Ecommerce Marketing: Personas, Traffic Drivers, Advertising Channels & More

Ecommerce marketing is the system of pushing top-of-funnel traffic to transform into sales and customers. And there are numerous methods do it. You can combine various paid strategies with non-paid strategies to find out what converts the most people. But marketing tactics and marketplace algorithms continuously change and so should your strategy to grow your online sales.

Creating a modern, feature-rich, and user-friendly website might seem a difficult task to do but it is still not enough. You have to build awareness, otherwise, your ecommerce website will exist in a vacuum. You need a well-planned ecommerce marketing strategy to drive brand awareness and increase sales to efficiently increase an ecommerce business.

This article will guide you to build an ecommerce marketing plan that can successfully boost your business and achieve your goals.

Creating And Executing An Ecommerce Marketing Plan

The odds of achieving your marketing goals will be few to none in the absence of a well-organized plan. You’re at a serious disadvantage if you don’t know the ecommerce marketing landscape. Follow the fundamentals of forming a marketing strategy to finally build a plan that is best for setting up your online store.

1. Seek Out Mentors And Advice.

Seek companies or people who have previously developed an effective ecommerce business, preferably within the same industry. Ask them for advice.

• The way they started?
• The marketing channels that delivered the biggest ROI in the short term?
• The agency they used and why?
• The technology they used to monitor records?
• The most helpful and effective SaaS products?

You can ask these questions on many groups available online.

2. When Possible, Hire Experts.

A talented marketer can bring valuable knowledge and experience to your business. Hire a freelancer if you’re a start-up and if you’re an established business, then hire an experienced agency.

3. Be Honest With Yourself.

The proper funding and a capable team will be of no use if you don’t offer quality products. Have realistic expectations and plan for growth.

How To Build An Ecommerce Marketing Plan

Your techniques and approach should be well planned enough to pass the test of time. There are some fundamentals to forming a successful marketing plan and a successful business.

1. Executive Summary.

Writing an Executive Summary is among the initial stages of developing your ecommerce marketing plan.

2. Goals & Objectives.

Have clear and specific goals and objectives. You can later alter them if they seem to be too high or low but the aim is to form create realistic, achievable goals.

3. Mission Statement & Value Proposition.

Answer the basic questions such as the purpose of this company, what you do and what you don’t do. It is nice but not a necessity to have a philanthropic element to the business but your mission should be clear.

4. Target Customers, Personas & Markets.

Know your target audience. If you don’t know what characteristics define your audience or where they’re located, you’re going to run ineffective campaigns that just waste money.

5. Situation Analysis.

Do a comprehensive assessment of the present condition of the company including the competition and the total marketing plan. It will help to make better decisions and eventually deliver better results.

6. Pricing & Positioning Strategy.

Make sure your pricing and positioning offer real value to your target audience. Price comparing is easy now and forcing products upon your target customers that they consider to be overpriced is a losing proposition.

7. Distribution & Fulfillment Plan.

Be clear about your distribution and order fulfillment needs. You should have a clear understanding of whether your fulfillment processes can fulfill the demand for your upcoming marketing push.

Executing An Ecommerce Marketing Plan

This is the time when you must know the subtle nuances that define your business. This is when small businesses can lay the foundation for future growth and more established businesses accelerate the growth route.

1. Determine Your Sales & Lead Generation Strategy.

You can get creative here. You can adopt endless ways to market your business. You can implement the proven policies and tools and adopt some newer ones as well.

2. Get Technology & Reporting Software.

Answer the following questions before making a serious marketing push.

• Is the technology that is being used to monitor the success rate of my marketing efforts sufficient?
• Can it be used to decide whether or not the KPIs I’m looking for to advance is in reality advancing?
• Will it help our team exactly ascertain the ROI of our actions?

If the answer is “no” then you have to alter something and then begin a new ecommerce marketing strategy.

3. Start With Conversions.

There were some bottom-of-the-funnel policies made within your lead generation and sales funnel strategy to get customers over the finish line. Begin those campaigns first to make sales and progressive momentum. Once your team is content with the preliminary outcome then you can start your whole ecommerce marketing strategy.

4. Test the waters.

Allocate share of your ecommerce marketing budget to assess the latest policies. You have to try to know what works and what does not. Don’t waste money but do some simple test cases in smaller markets and you can easily defend a budget increase, authenticate your previous suggestions, and/it will pave the way to a new market opportunity.

5. Refine & Expand Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy.

This is the time where you will have a good idea about what’s working, what needs upgrading, and what prospects still exist. Now, improve and scale your initial strategies.

Some tools to consider while forming your ecommerce marketing plan are:

1. Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC).
2. Search engine optimization (SEO).
3. Content marketing.
4. Influencer marketing.
5. Social media marketing.
6. Email marketing.
7. Affiliate marketing.
8. Local Marketing