
eCommerce is a great business model with tons of potential. In 2021 alone, eCommerce stores generated $870 billion dollars.
And that’s in the US alone!
So, what if you could just get a tiny slice of that with your Shopify store?
For this, you must ensure your marketing plan is on point, as it’s the most significant indicator of your success.
So in this blog post, we will show you the six best marketing strategies that help grow your Shopify store.
If that sounds interesting, then keep on reading.
1. Market Research
While this doesn’t really make any revenue directly, it’s still vital! That’s because it’s the foundation of all your marketing.
And no matter how lucrative ad strategies you learn, you won’t be profitable without them.
That’s because, with market research, you learn who is your ideal client, their pain points, dreams, and more.
That helps you to create tailored ad copies, content, and more which will convert way better than anything general.
So, how do you do it?
Well, there are a lot of ways to do it. However, here’s one of them:
For this, you have to go to Amazon.com! In there, you want to search for a similar product that you’re selling in your store. Once you’ve found one, it’s time to start the process.
On a successful Amazon product page, you can learn a lot. Here are a couple of things to look out for:
- In the Product Description – See how they write about their product. What type of benefits do they write about? Is there anything interesting? If so, write all of them down, as this could show you a lot of information about your market.
- Check the Reviews – I suggest you look at 5-star and 1-star reviews! That’s because, with them, you get tons of valuable information. In 5-star reviews, you can find out what words your market use to describe products. And 1-star reviews show you how you can improve your products.
- Look at the QnA – The Questions and Answers Tab helps to see people’s questions about your type of products before buying. That enables you to create better product descriptions that answer those questions, resulting in better conversions.
So, while you might not make any money from researching, it will decide whether your marketing will be successful or not.
2. Email Marketing
Apart from market research, having outstanding email marketing should be your top priority. That’s because it’s one of the most profitable marketing techniques. According to DMA, the average return on a dollar spent on it is $42.
Doesn’t that sound crazy?
Well, that’s just one of the reasons why email marketing is so important. The other part is that email marketing is the only traffic you own!
Just think about it, all your SEO effort could go to waste if Google changes its algorithm.
The same goes for social media pages. And worse, when those social giants crumble, you won’t keep your audience.
However, with email marketing, you know your customer’s email addresses, so you can always send them messages like when your store has a sale going on.
But make sure not only to send promotional emails. No one wants to give their contact details just to get bombarded with sales pitches. Instead, try to give something valuable back, which keeps them opening your emails.
So what value could you give them? Well…
3. You Could Consistently Write Blog Posts
Your Shopify store comes with a blog built-in.
And let me tell you, this is one of the most underrated Shopify marketing strategies. While people tend to enjoy videos and pictures more than blog posts, there’s a lot that a blog could do for your business.
First, you could use it to show off your authority.
If you have information about how to use the products or anything else related to the niche, you build authority. And if you have authority, people trust you more, which leads to more conversions.
However, the best thing about blogging is that you’re always bringing the people back to your online store. And that is an excellent thing, as it could lead them to check out your products, which one day will turn into a sale.
So don’t underestimate blog posts! They can help you get more sales without putting more money into ads.
4. Grow Your Social Media Pages
Nowadays, you’re slowly killing your Shopify store if you don’t have a social media presence.
That’s because this is the place where most people spend their time. And if you aren’t in their feeds, they’ll likely forget about your business and choose a competitor.
So instead of doing that, it’s best to get into social media and start posting content there. However, before you do that, you must understand how to use it properly.
The thing is, social media isn’t a place to make sales!
According to Hootsuite, the average conversion rate of social media is only 1%-4%.
And when you think about it, it makes sense! Do you go to social media to buy some products?
Unless it is Black Friday, the answer is no. Instead, you’re using it to share your experiences and see how your friends, family, and favorite celebrities are doing.
So, what’s your objective with social media?
Easy! It’s to remind your audience that your business exists and make them interested in your products. You should create lifestyle photos of your product in them, so your potential customers start associating your products with their lifestyle.
And then you can just direct them to your online store to make the sale.
5. Use Digital Advertising Intelligently
One of the quickest ways to scale your business is through digital advertising. That’s because digital advertising brings you predictable traffic without investing a lot of time into it.
However, many people don’t understand how to use digital ads! What most beginners do is try to sell their products to complete strangers! And that’s not the best thing to do.
It’s like seeing a beautiful girl at a bar and asking you to marry her without prior dates. She will almost always say “no!”
And those who say yes, might not be the best wife material.
So, what should you do instead?
Instead of selling your products, aim to get them interested in them and become leads.
That way, you can start nurturing them and making your products appealing, slowly turning them into customers.
6. Use Influencer Marketing to Your Advantage
Nowadays, people don’t trust corporate talk as much as they did in the past.
There are many reasons for that, but it’s mostly because they’ve been overpromised. So instead, they trust what other people say about the products more.
So what would be the best way to connect with your audience?
Easy, that’s with influencer marketing.
With it, you pay an influencer to speak about your business and recommend your products. And since influencers have connections with their audience, they’ll trust them more than your best salesman.
So don’t underestimate influencer marketing, and make sure it’s a part of your marketing plan.
7. Don’t Forget SEO Optimization
We’ve already given you a lot of ways to better your marketing in the short term. And while that’s great, I think it’s time to start looking at more long-term solutions for your marketing.
And the best thing you won’t work on is the SEO of your Shopify store.
Google gets more than approximately 63,000 searches per second!
So who wouldn’t want a slice of that?
And SEO can help you with that.
However, before we go on, you must set the right expectations. SEO should never be the top priority of your marketing campaign. While getting thousands of visitors for free might sound fantastic, you won’t see any for a long time.
It takes time for Google to help you get to the top page. So don’t forget about it, but don’t make it your primary focus.
And with that out of the way, you might ask what you should do to optimize your store?
Well, you need to do these three things:
- Add Keywords Everywhere – Once you know your keywords, it’s essential to add them everywhere. That includes your texts, links, and even image alt texts.
- Add Internal and External Linking – Another thing you should do is have internal on your Shopify store.
- Get people to refer to your website – The more people link to your Shopify store, the better. That’s because this helps Google to see that your content is helpful and people share it with others.
And do you know the best way to improve all three? It’s by writing consistent blog posts! So make sure you do that!
8. Use the Power of Loyalty Programs
While getting new customers is crucial for success, especially for new businesses, the most money is made with retention. The more people you can keep returning to your business, the better.
That helps you increase your average customer’s lifetime value, which has many benefits. That includes less stress on digital ads, as you won’t have to worry about not having profitable customer acquisition costs.
That’s because, over time, they’ll pay it off.
So how can you increase your customer retention?
Besides having complementary products in your store, you should also create a Loyalty program. But what is it exactly?
Well, think of it as a point system in your bank. With each order, your customer earns points which they can later turn into rewards such as:
- coupon codes,
- free gifts,
- and more.
That means once you have it, you encourage people to buy from you as they get rewards for it. So if they like your product, they’ll come and buy from you again.
So, how do you add a loyalty program to your Shopify store? While it might not be a standard feature in Shopify, there are many apps out there that do the job.
Here are two of them:
Stamped is a loyalty program software that is highly customizable and gives you a large variety of rewards to provide to your customer. That gives your loyalty program a unique feeling.
- Joy – Joy is a free loyalty program for those who don’t have high budgets. It gives you everything you need, including a customizable regards pop-up and rewards panel.
So pick one and start enjoying the benefits of having a loyalty program.
9. Don’t Be Afraid to Collaborate With Other Brands
Example of GoPro and Red Bull Collaboration
Having some competition is excellent! It keeps you competitive and innovates your product line to win more customers. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t collaborate with other brands.
Actually, you should do the exact opposite!
That’s because collaborating with other brands is a win-win situation.
With it, both of you share each other’s customers and fan base with each other. And that helps both audiences to get familiar with each brand. And that alone can help you get more sales and fans.
It’s a no-brainer. However, if you’re going to do it, make sure that you pick the brand wisely. That’s because this can be a make or break of your collaboration.
So, what should you look out for?
Here are the two things:
- Relevant company – While there are ways to have two different companies collaborate within various industries, it’s best to work with a company that is similar to yours. This way, your customers would be interested in the collaboration you and the other brand have.
- Complementary Products – When creating a bundle with other brands, ensure they are complementary. If they aren’t, it’s challenging for people to want them.
Conclusion
And those were the six marketing strategies you could use to grow your Shopify business.
Make sure to add all six of them to your next marketing plan, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll see your business grow to heights.
All you need to do is take action!