5 Fundamentals For eCommerce Marketing

"The minute you get away from fundamentals — whether its proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation — the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” ~ Michael Jordan

When it comes to product sales, we can sometimes feel like we’ve reached a dark chasm that needs to be crossed, the other side contains only good fortune, brand awareness, and scalability.

Maybe we place our bridges over the gap, hoping we will make it to the other end safely, but looking at how far you need to go, it can be sickening.

What we don’t know, or understand, can be frightening. A dark corridor, new crowds, strange towns, interviews, meetings, public speaking, and when you get 20 missed calls from your mum (or girlfriend, if you have one).

When the other side is unknown, you can sleep well at night knowing you have the fundamentals put in place.

So here it is.

1. Content Is King

Believe it or not, all content is marketing. You could be Lucy, who likes to Instagram her dog walks and new shoes from time to time. Or Steven, who posts video content every week, showing you his HIIT workouts.

Lucy and Steven both have a brand, they are both using social media as a marketing tool. Just marketing themselves. Every time we leave the house, we carry our brand on our chest, who we are, what we are, represents our brand. Much the same with an eCommerce platform.

Personal brand and business are one and the same when it comes to content marketing.

So, let’s utilise this. Content is king.

This is pretty obvious, look at us all. We hate to admit it, but we’re obsessed with consuming content. There’s a hungry little reptile in our brains, he probably sounds like Gary Vaynerchuk and he loves to absorb, absorb, and absorb.

We can all see that our mobile devices are an extension of ourselves. If we reach the right people with our brand, we can uncover a digital goldmine and it’s in the billions.

Your content can be used as a way to educate your audience on who you are, or why your product(s) is valuable. Post infographics on Facebook and Instagram, along with attractive images that show your audience that you’re not just a stone-cold salesperson. Get faces involved, people using your product and reviewing it, be human.

Blog posts are a very good source of inbound customers. I thought of writing my own to help my business too. It’s good to show your audience your inner self and express your thoughts while giving advice within your industry of expertise.

There are many successful eCommerce businesses using some outstanding content methods, from their element of design to the information shared.

I particularly like this brand, Lumin Skin.

I am beyond impressed with these guys, I don’t know about you, reader, but I’ve been bombarded with Lumin’s advertisements, and they’re really f**king good.

I don’t want to get caught up with their ads, my focus is on their content. They must have a group of little soft-faced, well moisturised Elves working 24/7 on producing value-rich, humorous, and entertaining content.

They have developed a pretty dominating presence in the male skincare industry in such a short time. This is because their content is backed by the most important ingredient to any marketing, empathy.

I’m not going to sit here and write about numbers and throw some extra boring data at you, I hope for my blog entries to just be a little bit mouth-watering. You can see why content is king, it’s just a matter of consistently implementing it the right way for your brand.

Nothing should get in the way of your buttered toast. Your schedule matters.

Planning is essential when posting your content, form a schedule, stay on top of it. Separate your content into different subcategories for different days, post videos, info-graphics, niche related humour, product offers, competitions, and product hero shots.

Start guest posting blog entries, make them real, and talk about what you are most passionate about. Make sure it always eventually leads back to your business, it will take some time to start an influx of inbound customers and followers, I’m very aware of that myself, but we have some incredible resources at our disposal, use them when you’re ready to.

Producing and posting content is much like transferring energy between stores. Notice who’s hitting the nail on the head within your industry, and stand on their shoulders to do the same, make it your own, the rest will follow.

‘’If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants’’. ~ Isaac Newton.

2. Email Isn’t Dead

I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and spam.

I agree, none of us like spam (or green eggs and ham). None the less, Emails will always get opened, eventually.

Email right now remains the number 1 communication method for many. People still read their emails, I know I look at mine. The issue is, most of them are annoying.

To overcome this issue when we try and promote ourselves via email, we again need to press the empathy button. What would you really want to see in your inbox?

Keep It Warm

Email re-targeting should be your best friend. A healthy warm audience is more likely to respond well to your email marketing campaign.

This does not rule out the cold, icy audience. They just need a little more of a push. Create offers.

I wouldn’t get out of bed for 5%. Maintain your dignity by offering considerable discounts, while maintaining positive profitability. Free trials, free t-shirts, free value. For it is in giving, that we receive.

Promote your discount offers or free trials in return for an email subscription. Start building your mailing list.

Here’s a simple example of a pretty decent subscription email structure:

• Introduction Email — Hello to your new subscribers, welcome them with open arms. Be funny, be rememberable.
• Email Nurture — This is a sequence of emails you send to your lovely subscribers, giving them product updates and valuable eduction on your niche and industry.
• Cart Abandonment Email — They were on your store, filling up the cart, ready to put the 16 digit card number in to make that guilty purchase. When to their surprise… Their fiancé walks in! Aport mission!

Don’t worry, remind them later that they can still be cheeky and check out.

Email Receipt — Send your new paying customer a follow up to their purchase. This is a perfect time to up-sell with another promotion. Good offers are discounts on a product that goes well with the one they just bought.

Here’s an application I cannot live without, It’s called HubSpot. Their email sequencing software is worth checking out. HubSpot has many other useful tools also, I’ll be sure to make another article all about them.

Your email strategy is dependant on what you have to offer and how far you are willing to go for your potential and existing customers.

Cut Out The Screen Talk

There’s a certain phrase I like to use for what has become the norm in the B2C & B2B world today. It’s called Screen Talk.

You know when you receive an email, or a message on Linkedin, one that’s really ‘nice’ and ‘thoughtful’, maybe it’s ‘different’ too. But it completely disregards you as an individual, there has been no apparent effort to empathise with you, it’s overly sales-driven, and it’s obvious you’re just one of many. This is Screen Talk.

Don’t be pixelated, robotic, and say everything anyone wants to hear all the time, don’t be ‘nice’. People often miss the point when it comes to understanding their audience. Being ‘nice’ and throwing out statements that look ‘attractive’, isn’t marketing.

Think with your emotional brain, level with your potential and existing customers, as if they were your friends. They are and they should be, after all, they do contribute to paying for the house you live in.

“Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.” ~ Seneca

3. Organic On Instagram

Instagram has become one of the most fruitful platforms for influencers, artists, designers, internet personalities, business owners, and above all, eCommerce brands.

Shopping on Instagram is second nature now, and it’s stylish too. I’m an advertiser, I specialise in growing eCommerce stores using Facebook Ads (this includes Instagram).

Advertising on this platform will always reign supreme as opposed to natural, free traffic, and growth. But there are some highly beneficial methods of getting your brand out there and expanding your online footprint, assuming your brand looks clean, this will surely boost your customer numbers.

Okay, here are the three core principles to taking control of your ‘gram. It’s simple:

• Create Quality Content
• Gain More Followers
• Engage With Your Audience

Instagram is a superior visual platform in the realm of social media. Quality, engaging content is your foundation to build upon. I said before, content is king.

Remember, everyone has that little Gary Vee reptile in their brain, wanting more and more content to absorb. Stand out and keep the empathy button at hand always. Spend some time really studying your audience and their interests, cater your content based around who actually likes you.

Next, stay on top of your schedule. I mentioned this before, it’s so important to stay consistent and on top of your sh*t! I recommend you should be aiming for at least 3x Instagram posts a day. One in the morning, then midday and late afternoon.

This sounds like a lot to manage, but it’s not always the case. Prepare yourself.

Create content in advance, stay a week ahead. To begin with, this can be a bit of a headache but once you get into your schedule, it becomes an automatic fluid process.

I recommend an Instagram scheduling app called HopperHq. Check it out.

Now the foundation is set, we need followers, right? Yes, we do. Here’s how you can gain natural, organic followers.

When posting your amazing content, be sure to hashtag your posts with niche-specific keywords. The more defined the better. It’s important to incorporate alliteration when organising your hashtags.

For example: #hypebeast #hypelife #hypefeet #sneaker #sneakerhead #sneakersociety

I highly recommend an online tool called Ingramer, Hashtag Generator. This will save you a hell of a lot of time and stress. It’s a must use for anyone who takes Instagram seriously.

Here’s another strategy for gaining quality followers. Follow & unfollow and engage with cold audiences.

So, first things first. Take a long look at who is following your competitors, what people are engaging with the other pages in your niche. Now follow them. These people are bound to follow you back and most likely buy from you too, they are active in your industry.

Now, Instagram will limit how many people you can follow per day, keep it minimal, and make sure to unfollow a bunch regularly too, you don’t want to be following too many people.

Secondly, while you are following these lucky users, engage with them too. Like and comment where you think appropriate, remember, no Screen Talk!

This method will gain you a pretty decent amount of quality followers over time, just don’t overdo it, you might get blocked for a day!

Here’s another method. Giveaways.

Giveaways have a very healthy success rate, I’ll explain how to set it up for optimum follower growth.

Create a giveaway post, structure it like this. Here’s a post from Feature I just saw.

This method brings so many positive ‘fans’ to your page. You can see why, it’s so easy to comment, follow, and share a post, for a chance to win some Fear of God shoes.

This is a perfect way to really engage with your audience and gain more followers at the same time, I would recommend doing a giveaway every single month. Make sure to showcase the winners, and be responsive to everyone involved. Your brand will start to feel like more of a community.

I have to mention this, work with influencers.

Influencer marketing is very cheap, if not free depending on how you approach it. Influencers can be a huge push for your brand, they can funnel their followers onto you very efficiently. They are influencers for a reason, it’s not to be taken lightly, they influence very substantial amounts of people. Utilise this.

If you organise giveaways, engage with cold audiences, and tap into some influencers’ networks, your Instagram should be growing smoothly.

I will finish with this. Respond to your current fanbase, reply to their comments, answer their questions, and take time to message them back when you can and when it’s needed. If you do not have the time, consider hiring a social media manager, you will not regret it.

4. Referrals

This one’s going to be short because it’s easy. Tell a friend, get a discount.

Referral marketing is pretty underrated in the eCommerce world, it’s commonplace for a dentist or restaurant, but from my experience, I rarely see it implemented in the eCom landscape.

So, what do we do? We use the methods I’ve previously mentioned, to promote a juicy offer to our current audience, and our cold market. Create a referral link, use your email nurturing process, and incorporate a healthy offer that someone cannot refuse.

You can consider hiring someone to develop a whole referral section on your website, an affiliate agreement for people to sign up and earn a commission from each referral.

I also would like to recommend an app called ReferralCandy, if you don’t want to go to the lengths of re-designing your site. Check it out.

Referral marketing is all about the incentive.

5. The Most Powerful Tool To Date: Facebook Advertising

I saved the best for last, maybe that was a bad idea… If you have read this far, I’m grateful, I want to thank your parents for having conceived you. Serious.

Okay, I co-own a Facebook advertising agency, so you could say I’m biased. However, I started my agency, and only specialise in Facebook, because it is simply the best. It’s the most powerful form of advertising to date. Let me explain why.

Mark Zuckerberg has created a powerhouse of user connectivity, human data, and online activity. Facebook is teaming with movement, friction, and information. Like a pond full to the maximum of tadpoles, all developing, each with their own genetic makeup.

Much like a car has a chassis, we have a skeleton, Facebook has people.

With a daily user amount of 1.66 billion, Facebook is its own living digital planet and solar system. People tend to make the mistake in thinking social media as a whole is a gimmicky time-waster, or it’s toxic and damaging. But it is a tool, a very useful tool.

A hammer can contribute to building a beautiful home, or it can smash a person over the head and murder them. The same applies to Facebook.

You can use this bountiful platform to inspire, create, generate, and develop. Or use it to humiliate, consume, troll, and waste your precious time.

As eCommerce business owners, you should be harnessing the power of this incredibly in-fathomable network of people. This doesn’t just solely include Facebook, Instagram too, which makes up for an extra 500 million daily users.

Facebook is home to real people, with real interests and user information. Our Facebook profiles are an extension of ourselves, the people we follow, the pages we visit, the things we like and share, our location, age, sex, relationship status, even our sexual preferences. It doesn’t end there either.

This is why Facebook ads are god-tier compared to every other platform available right now. The targeting is in a different league altogether. More importantly, it’s completely dynamic, forever adapting to its previous results, getting better and better, more and more efficient, and ferocious.

If you haven’t already, I demand you to go and install something called a Facebook Pixel onto your website.

A Facebook Pixel tracks user activity from Facebook on your website and collects data from your ads that are fundamental for retargeting. This little beauty is vital.

If you’re unsure how to install this guy, contact me and I can help you, or go to through this link here, it’ll tell you.

‘’Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Facebook ads should be simple, simple = sales.

Don’t overcomplicate your process, advertising takes time to get right, to find that Goldilocks ad campaign. It takes a lot of analysis and testing, budget allocation, and adaptation.

However, it should be simple. Learn the language of the advertising terminal and let it speak to you clearly. The results determine the next steps to take and so on.

Rinse and repeat, keep testing until you find the one that works.

I want to finish with this. Outsource your advertising to someone who lives for it. Facebook ads are my passion, I have noticed many times when an overconfident business owner has dumped their money down the drain because they deny the help of others. On the other hand, some are very successful.

Know your limits, understand your priorities.

Some Thoughts To Leave You With

There isn’t really a universal strategy for eCommerce marketing, there are many different variables as you can surely imagine.

However, these are the fundamentals, take them on board, use the resources we are so fortunate to have in our information age. There is no better time than now.

Think 10 years ago, think now, then the future.

I want you to wonder where online business and marketing will be in the future, bear in mind where we were 10 years ago. It’s quite mind-boggling.

My final piece of advice is this. Don’t get left behind.

For any questions or advice, contact me. I want to thank you for reading this. I appreciate

Harry Boulton and Casey Willow - WillowBoultonGroup Founders

@willowboulton

https://www.instagram.com/boultonism/

https://www.instagram.com/caseytwillow/