E-Commerce Marketing: 8 Techniques to Expand Your Customer Reach

As an e-commerce company or a marketing business, it’s your job to spread awareness of your brand and business and to get it in front of the eyes of your customers. However, while this process can be summarised in a sentence, it’s much easier said than done.
With so much noise and competition on the internet, it can be a daunting task when you’re trying to stand out, but with hard work, perseverance and determination to get results, it’s fully possible to grow your audience.
If you’re at the stage where you’re looking to grow and market your business, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we’re going to explore eight of the best and most effective e-commerce marketing techniques for expanding your customer reach.

#1 – Define Your Own Sales Funnel

It’s important to remember that every business is different, and there’s no hard and fast technique that’s going to work for your business just because it worked for another. This means you need to be proactive in defining your own sales funnel and seeing what works for you.
You need to define the average or typical length of time it takes for someone to go through your sales funnel and then use his information to your advantage. Plan what platforms you’re going to market yourself and promote on to get the best results, as well as what techniques will best suit you, but we’ll speak more about these below.

#2 – Optimise Your Product Descriptions

The product descriptions on your e-commerce store are the lifeline between your products and your customers, so you need to make sure you’re treating them as such and giving them the full attention they deserve.

#3 – Encrypt Your Payment System

It’s vital that you’re offering your customers a safe and secure service when they’re paying online. Otherwise, most customers will be apprehensive about using it. By offering an encrypted payment service, you’re telling your customers you care about them and their private information, which is so important in building a trustworthy relationship.
There are plenty of services out there that will offer payment protection for eCommerce stores such as your own, so make sure you’re displaying the badge of the platform you’re using to showcase you’re verified and putting your customers first.
This helps to spread awareness and expand your customer base because you’ll make more profit, have more customers, grow your traffic, and ultimately your SEO ranking.

#4 – Enhance Your Checkout Process

If you have a long and complicated checkout process where you need to go through lots of options and hand over a lot of information, this is a sure-fire way to put people off and ensure they won’t come back. This is why you need to take the time to enhance your checkout process to give your customers the best experience.

“Word travels fast, especially on the internet, when you’re offering a good experience that people enjoy using. What’s more, you’ll decrease your bounce rate, which will increase your SEO ranking, and you’ll reduce your cart abandonment rate” explains Sarah Coombes, a project manager WriteMYX and Brit Student.

A great thing to aim for here is making sure everything your customers need to fill in on the same page, so they’re not switching between pages, and the experience seems quick and easy. You’ll also want to accept as many payment types as possible, especially Visa, Mastercard, and platforms like PayPal.

#5 – Start Including Social Proof

Whenever you go and shop on Amazon when was the last time you brought a one-star product? Never? You’re not alone. Social proof in the form of testimonials and reviews go a long way when it comes to online shopping, so it’s vital to make sure you’re implementing it onto your website.
Collect reviews from past customers, highlight and showcase them on individual products, and on the homepage of your website, and make sure others are aware of how awesome the experience you’re offering is.

#6 – Start Using Email Marketing (Automation)

Email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of marketing, but it’s still regarded as one of the most popular and most effective. This is because you’ll be able to speak to your customers on a one-on-one basis, and this isn’t an opportunity you should take lightly.

With a well organized and well-curated email marketing campaign, you can dramatically increase your customer base, all while educating and providing value to your readers, all while creating a community around your business.

“Remember, the most important aspect to remember is making sure you find and define the voice of your business, provide value in everything you say, and aim to provide value for 80% of your emails, and then sell or promote for the remaining 20%” explains Tina Goody, a marketing manager for Next Coursework and Australia2Write.

#7- Make Your Shipping Costs Easily Accessible

Have you ever been on an eCommerce website and you’ve been happy with the prices of the products, you’re ready to pay but then you can’t find the shipping costs, and you end up taking your business elsewhere to a company that has more clarity with their pricing system?

People don’t want to be misled, nor do they have the time to seek out all the pricing structures that you’ve hidden on pages throughout the website. With this in mind, be crystal clear with what you’re offering and make sure your prices are easy to find and aren’t hidden.

Most customers will respect the clear and easy experience you’re giving them, which in turn will make them more likely to spend their money with you, thus increasing and expanding your customer base.

#8 – Retarget Past Customers

It’s far easier to retarget customers who have already spent money on your eCommerce store than trying to attract new customers because they have already been through your entire process and have found your business trustworthy and were happy to spend their money.

Because these customers have already been through this process, it’s far easier to retarget these customers through retargeting ad campaigns or email marketing campaigns to get them to come back to your website and spend more.

Link this with point #5 about including social proof from these customers, and you’ll be onto a winning strategy where both new and old customers are happy to use your business.