Mark’s lying in bed.
It’s been a long day at the home office.
He’s been working on his e-commerce marketing all day, and his VA is proving to be difficult to manage. And to top it off, his programmer is off sick. Again!
He’s mentally and physically exhausted.
And then he hears it…
….It sounds like kerrrrchiiiinngg. It’s the sort of sound you hear when you win on the slot machines.
Mark looks up. He looks around. He’s baffled.
Then he remembers…and a broad smile starts to spread across his face.
THAT sound was the sales notification app he’d installed on his smartphone, notifying him that his e-commerce store had just made a sale.
It’s first sale.
Mark wakes his wife to tell her the good news. After all, it’s been six months and she’s been supporting them both – she needs to hear this, even if it is 1.am!
How’s your eCommerce marketing working out?
Made your first sale yet…or…
…maybe you’re in Mark’s position?
Anxious. Worried. Overworked and overwhelmed with all you’ve had to learn just to get here. I mean, you’ve done the work, the store is up …but the buyers…well…the buyers haven’t come yet!
Keep reading to discover whether you’re making one or more of these e-commerce marketing mistakes. Costly, common mistakes which are costing your business money. But equally important (if you discover that you are), you’ll get 10 Brazen Tips designed to quickly help you fix them.
Isn’t it about time you learnt how to grab hold of the low hanging fruit of e-commerce marketing and finally start to make your business profitable?
10 common e-commerce marketing mistakes – and how you can fix them!
1. You still haven’t realised that PPC marketing is your friend
Many new e-commerce store owners think that pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is just for the big boys – e-commerce brands with big budgets. And sadly, some store owners don’t even know they can join the throng of others business owners paying to send traffic (and sales) to their website, everyday. Unfortunately, it’s that kind of ignorance that keeps well-intentioned, hard working business owners broke.
However, PPC is not a magic pill that will work for everyone.There is a caveat with PPC marketing – as you’ll quickly find out when you start to experiment, and that is: depending on your niche, Google Adwords maybe outside of your budget.
Brazen Tip: Invest a few hundred $ experimenting with the Google Adwords platform – there are other paid ad platforms. Record your results. Get clear about the ROI from using paid traffic for your e-commerce marketing. And then, if you can see potential, but realise you don’t have the skill or the time to manage the campaigns yourself, hire a professional.
2. You didn’t start retargeting straight away.
Many online marketing experts don’t recommend that you start retargeting until you hit a certain amount of daily unique visitors to your e-commerce store per day, but I disagree and here’s why…
…retargeting campaigns are cheap.
For the cost of a few cents, you can make sure that every visitor to your store gets a reminder of your business as they surf around the web. Retargeting allows you to test ad copy, placement and messaging. And many re-targeting platforms offer you a lot of control over what ads you serve up to your web visitors and when, not to mention the ability to switch your campaigns on or off as you wish. My advice is to start retargeting as soon as you can!
Brazen Tip: Before you start your retargeting campaign make sure you do the following:
- Research the different platforms out there and chose the one best suited to your business
- Make sure you have completed a recent customer profile, so you can write copy directed at your target buyer
- Have access to a copy of Photoshop and some basic skills to help you make your creative graphics. Alternatively, have access to an independent contractor who can help you create high quality professional graphics. This does not have to be expensive.
3. You’ve forgotten that the occasional freebie is good for moral
Now it may seem counterintuitive for a new e-commerce business owner to start giving away the merchandise, but there is one killer way this generosity can transform into actual cash sales, let me explain…
…Firstly, hosting a product giveaway where users have to register to enter the contest, helps you build your email list. Now, depending on your traffic and the quality of your giveaway, this could potentially lead to thousands of new subscribers. But here’s where it gets strategic…
…you already know that all those who entered that giveaway have an interest in your product. So…when announcing the winner, why not take a moment to send an email to all the ‘losers’ offering them a time limited discount on that product?
Brazen Tip: Don’t be tempted to give away your cheapest product. Give away something valuable and desirable and worth having. If you want to make an even bigger impression and increase the chance of more sign-ups, bundle together a few of your best products and giveaway a high value hamper. Bonus tip: put the price of the combined items on the graphic used for the giveaway.
4. You’re not leveraging product feeds like a pro
There is no getting away from it; just like in the real world, online consumers like to comparison shop before they make a new purchase. The more expensive the purchase, generally, the more research that will be done.
That’s where aggregators like Nextag, Google Merchant and The Find really come into their own – there are others out there, but have some fun discovering them for yourself! These feeds aggregate product pricing and information so shoppers can compare prices with ease. Some of these aggregators do charge a fee to register with them, but many are still free.
Brazen Tip: Start out with the free aggregators and submit your products. If you find this is driving sales, do some further research on what other feeds you can submit to, for a fee is need be!
5. You’re not making the most of video (even though you know you should be)
Adding instructional explainer videos to your products can help increase sales by a noticeable margin. Yes, they take time and money to produce, but if you offer a product that can be complex to use or understand, comes with different accessories (win), or has some unseen benefits, then video could help you win your first sale and many more.
Brazen Tip: Start small. Don’t think you have to go all out buying expensive studio equipment. If you don’t have a quality SLR camera and tripod, then borrow one from a friend. Then, take a few hours to watch some of the many videos on youtube which teach you how to shoot quality video at home. Your next step is to set about shooting video for your top three products (or the ones you would like to be). If you need helping with editing a few minutes of footage, you can find that over at sites like fivverr. Get these videos hosted to your site, and measure your metrics.
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Wanna 4x the traffic to your online store? Join the 4-week Blog Your Brand Challenge, and I’ll show you how. Click here for details and to register, it’s free. Start Feb 18th, 2016.
[Tweet “Take the 4-week Blog Your Brand Challenge, I dare you! http://bit.ly/bybprolive”]
6. You’re letting Amazon keep the lions share of the profits
Amazon is an open marketplace. You can’t beat its reputation or its traffic, so you might as well join them! Whether using FBA, or shipping directly from your own facility, so long as you keep your pricing competitive listing your products on Amazon is a great way to make your first sale, and keep making sales.
Brazen Tip: Listing your products on Amazon gives you a chance to piggy-bank on the reputation and trust already built up by the site as a whole. Each day, thousands of independent business owners are leveraging the platform to take more money into their business. Yes, Amazon gets a cut, but just think? 75% of something is better than 100% of nothing, right?
7. No one knows who you are, and it’s your own fault!
Many people who decide to open an eCommerce store are often experts in a particular industry. And those who are not, quickly become experts as they talk with manufacturers, distributors and most importantly, customers.
If you know your niche and your product inside and out, then approach media outlets and blogs and provide them with expert articles that appeal to their target audience. This is traditional guest blogging, and it has been working to drive sales for years for people with other business models, so why not e-commerce?
Brazen Tip: Make a list of all the sites which feature high quality content about your field of expertise and approach them about contributing. Additionally, you’ll want to target the blogs where your target customer hangs out. While you may not be an expert in the particular topic of that site, that does not mean you cannot contribute to them. Depending on the size of your marketing budget, it could be worth your investment to hire a writer to create compelling and relevant content for that site – which will contain a link back to your site.
To learn everything you need to know about guest blogging, hop over to http://badassguestblogging.com/1 , and sign up for the course – this lady knows her stuff (non-affiliate link)
8. Your blog is a barren waste ground
I just spoke about getting your name out there on other blogs and media outlets. But what about that barren ground of a blog you had your developer set up? 3 posts just won’t cut it. You need to create a highly engaging content marketing strategy, then set about creating the content resources you need.
Did it ever occur to you that when a new prospect wanders over to your blog and sees that you haven’t posted in 6 months, they may wonder whether you’re even still in business? So make it a priority to keep your blog regularly updated with fresh, relevant and interesting content.
Brazen Tip: It’s impossible to create an effective content marketing strategy if you don’t really know your customers. And it doesn’t just end with creating great content. Once the content has been created, then, the marketing part starts!
Do you need to have a better understanding of your target customer? Sign up to download your FREE video training The Ultimate Customer Avatar <<sign up here – you’ll also get a free action guide >>
In less than six minutes, you’ll have a simple framework to help you create the customer profile you need.
9. You haven’t stepped up your social media marketing game
Some online marketers go on and on about the power of social media for a reason – it works. Now, not all platforms are created equal and it’s not every platform that will be a good fit for your business. But if you’re familiar with my content then you’ll know I’m a big supporter of e-commerce business owners learning how to make the most out of Pinterest. That’s not to say that Facebook marketing won’t work for you too. The questions you have to ask yourself are:
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What platforms are best for my business
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What time and financial investment am I willing to make in learning these channels so I can benefit from them?
Brazen Tip: Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Take the time to really master that platform – and remember, sometimes investing in a high quality course is more time and cost effective than trying to muddle it all together with blog posts and youtube videos.
Show up and be consistent. Post content that will interest your audience. Test which content gets the best results, and deliver more of it. And don’t even think about bombarding your followers with sales messages, they don’t like it. Spend a little extra to have custom graphics created. This quickly makes your content more memorable and likely to be shared. Did I mention I’m a fan of Pinterest? Get on it..like yesterday!
10: You’ve forgotten about good ‘ol coupon codes
There’s no diverting away from the fact that consumers like to save money where they can. Some buyers are very proud of this fact, and have made couponing and searching for online discount codes a part of their buying cycle.
Depending on the positioning of your product, you may not feel that a discount coupon would send out the right message. But if you can see how a discount coupon could benefit your business – by getting more eyes in front of your product – then head on over to sites like redflagdeals and retailmenot and get your coupon code posted.
Brazen Tip: When creating your coupon copy and graphic, take the time to have some simple but eye catching graphics made. Also, don’t forget to experiment with the copy of the coupon code to see which message gets the best response.
So, we’ve come to the end this article. Did you recognise your business here? Are you making any of these eCommerce marketing mistakes…was I right about number #5?
I would love it if you’d share your e-commerce marketing wins and failures here in the comments. And don’t forget to sign up to grab your copy of my free resources designed to help e-commerce business owners find their right people, and market to them more effectively.
Here are those free resources I mentioned earlier!
FREE video course: How to create a customer Avatar for your e-commerce business <<sign up here>>
When you sign up, you’ll receive a link to the video which contains your free training (if you use Gmail, make sure you look in all your folders, or check your spam file if you can’t find it). You’ll also receive a link to a FREE PDF action guide that you can use to complete your own ideal customer avatar.
FREE Brazen bonus: Learn how to get more eyeballs in front of your content, create a more engaged social media community, and make more sales. Grab your free blog post promotion guide here (no sign up required) >>FREE DOWNLOAD<<
So….what’s working in YOUR e-commerce marketing strategy right now?
If we’re not friends over on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, then come and say hi. You’ll find me talking about eCommerce, marketing, fashion and travel.
Lastly, if you’ve found this article informative and helpful, I’d love it if you shared it with your community via social media – share buttons are on the left.
Wanna 4x the traffic to your online store? Join the 4-week Blog Your Brand Challenge, and I’ll show you how. Click here for details and to register, it’s free. Start Feb 18th, 2016.
[Tweet “Take the 4-week Blog Your Brand Challenge, I dare you! http://bit.ly/bybprolive”]
Images: All Getty royalty free images
