When you have spent the time doing amazing product research, and you have built a visually appealing store, the next step is to evaluate what apps or tools you need on your website, to help convince and convert traffic to sales.
Consumers enjoy buying from brands that are relevant, those that share a rich culture or passion for the products they sell.
Doing that important storytelling all happens with content marketing, and how you share information that helps establish a relationship between you, and your e-commerce customers.
We share five important content marketing tools you can use, to draw in website traffic, educate visitors about your products, and influence a positive purchase decision.
Social Media Sharing Buttons
People love to ask their friends and family for advice, when they are shopping online. We’d like to say this is a female trait, but let’s be honest guys… we’re guilty of it too, especially for new tech gadgets, man cave items and other stuff.
What you want to do is make sure you are providing an easy way for any customer to share virtually anything on your website. So that includes installing social media sharing buttons on your product pages, and on your blog.
The more they share, the more potential your business has of tapping into new customers through word of mouth (WOM) advertising.
A Live Chat Bot
Online marketing and customer service are conducted on demand. The consumer’s demand.
When they have a question about shipping, or refunds or the product they are interested in, you have a very short window of time, before they move off to another website.
When people want to buy… they really want to buy; not wait around for someone to get back to them, sometime. Maybe. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of installing a live chat bot app on your e-commerce site.
They work seamlessly with smartphones, so when a customer has a question (if you use good software) that message will become a push notification on your smart phone.
No matter where you are, you’ll be able to respond in real time to your customer (and that service, will help you earn the sale).
Email Subscriber
In the fast-paced culture of social media networking and instant messages, the idea of email marketing might seem antiquated. After all, it takes a lot of work to create a visually compelling and interesting email to send to your customers.
And then there is all that extra work to actually build your email list.
So, is it worth it? Yes.
Check out what WordStream had to say about email marketing conversions in this article “Is Email Marketing Effective? Three Examples That Prove It Is”.
The article also provides some valuable tips for A/B testing email copy, so that you can see the kind of information and promotions that your customers respond well to.
Now back to growing that list of subscribers. One of the biggest mistakes e-commerce business owners make is burying the “subscribe now” feature.
If they can’t find it, they won’t use it, and you’ll be stuck sending emails only to family members and friends.
Don’t laugh (okay maybe laugh), because it happens all the time until drop shippers learn the knack of growing their distribution list and managing it as a powerful sales tool.
A Prominently Featured Blog
Remember how we discussed early that one big mistake that e-commerce independent retailers make, is burying that email subscription button and call-to-action?
Well, some people choose themes for their store where the blog is not prominently featured on the main navigational menu. It’s hidden way at the bottom of their website, in the no-man’s land called the footer section.
Which for engagement, is like marketing Siberia. It’s cold down there (check a heat map on your website to see what we mean) and hardly anyone wants to visit.
But your blog is one of the most important aspects of your website where you can share lifestyle advice that centers around the culture of your product. Where you can offer practical tips about using your products, announce new and exciting sales and special offers, and even share a little about yourself using some of the great products from your store. Put it where they can see it, flip through many interesting blog posts, and maybe even share your blog article if they found the information provided in it to be useful.
And remember, search engines like Google and Bing love blog content, so make sure you are blogging frequently every month, to give your domain an organic traffic boost.
Special Offer Pop-Up Messages
A little word of warning before we begin to explain why the moderated use of pop up messages is valuable for your e-commerce business; don’t use too many of them.
There is nothing that turns a customer away faster, than a website that has constant involuntary messages occurring all over the screen.
They are distracting, and depending on the design of the popup, really annoying if they have a concealed [X] button to close the window. It’s one of the biggest crimes of online shopping and digital marketing experts are the first to agree, that sales can go straight out the window, if you inflict “death by popups” on your website. Consumers like special offers.
Shopping online for the best deals feels a lot like hunting (because it is) for the best bargains. So, when your shopper is happily clicking through all the amazing products that you have chosen to sell, they don’t mind a special offer.
In fact, they really like them (when they are used correctly) and a popup app installed on your website can increase your per transaction sales volume.
What kind of offers are ideal to provide customers, when you flash them your popup? Here are some things you can try:
- A minimum qualified order bonus. For instance: “Save 15% on all orders over $75 dollars”. Provide a coupon code that will enable the price adjustment when the customer moves to the cart checkout.
- Free shipping with a qualified order. Because consumers hate spending money on shipping costs but are willing to spend more (and get more) if they can receive a special offer for free shipping. More is more for online shoppers.
- An invitation to subscribe to your email list. Now, people don’t like to get a lot of emails, but if subscribing to receive 1-3 emails from your store a month helps them qualify for a coupon on their next order? Most customers will happily sign up for an incentive.
- A free eBook.
Creating a piece of enjoyable reading for your customer, that helps them learn more about you and the culture and lifestyle behind your store, helps to both recruit and retain customers.
If your shop sells pet supplies, for example, then maybe a short eBook on puppy training, or essentials for first time pet owners?
Something helpful that tells a story about your business, and your passion for the lifestyle and niche products.
And if you are not much of a writer, head over to one of many freelance websites like Fiverr.com or Upwork and outsource the content piece. You can source one in about 3-5 days and will want to keep it short and sweet with a great layout, full of pictures and product suggestions.
And if you are an Amazon Affiliate, and you have your products also listed on Amazon, you can also embed your affiliate links in the eBook, to boost your monthly commission.
The other great thing about an eBook is that you can link it as a free gift to an email subscriber and management system like Mail Chimp.
When the customer subscribes, they get a confirmation and a link to download the book. It can help you grow your email distribution or ‘fan’ list faster. Do you have these content marketing tools fine tuned on your website?
Are there other tools that you would like to suggest to our readers? Leave us a comment or email us your suggestion(s) and we may feature you tip in an upcoming blog post or podcast.
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