E-commerce Digital Marketing: 15 Tips to Grow Your Business Online

The United Kingdom has more than 580,000 active e-commerce stores. In various niches, these stores serve more than 60 million users who rely on digital purchases.

The e-commerce domain is striving to deliver the best to its potential customers. Additionally, stores use innovative marketing strategies to broaden their target audience’s reach.

Digital marketing is a boon to this evolving sector. It helps businesses create awareness and generate conversion-friendly traffic. As a business owner, you must know the numerous benefits of digital marketing and leverage the strategies for optimum business growth.

This comprehensive read is your guide to mastering e-commerce digital marketing. We will explore the benefits of digital marketing for e-commerce businesses and offer the best strategies to excel in this competitive landscape.

Importance of E-commerce Digital Marketing

Digital marketing strategies are a must in this era and help a business in two ways: growth and ROI. Traditional methods no longer work in this competitive era.

E-commerce marketing ensures a business gains that initial momentum to supercharge through the digital sales funnel. It confirms that the service or the products reach the target audience strategically and entice them to convert.

A structured e-commerce marketing strategy also leads to exponential business growth and helps stand out in this saturated e-commerce market.

So, if you are wondering whether you need eCommerce website digital marketing services – yes, you do.

Let us focus on some result-driven e-commerce digital marketing tips. We will discuss 15 time-tested marketing tips to help your business grow. These marketing strategies apply to all industries – regardless of their niches.

15 E-commerce Business Promotion Strategies for 2024

The strategies shared are some of the best for growing your business online and experiencing improved sales and ROI. The tips are expert-backed, researched and relevant to your e-commerce business.

1. Optimise Your Website for Search Engines

More than 80% of your potential customers search for the desirable products online. The most strategic thing is ensuring they find your website before the competitors.

SEO or search engine optimisation helps optimise a business presence and enhances visibility. With the perfect content optimisation and keyword incorporation techniques, audiences find your business presence at the top of the SERPs.

SEO is a long-term business growth strategy for gaining mass exposure and targeting customers. For e-commerce, it offers unlimited organic traffic and enhanced brand reputation.

E-commerce businesses that have invested in digital marketing and SEO have gained a manifold in sales and revenue.

Tips on creating an optimised e-commerce store –

• Focus on the product and landing pages of the store. Enhance the description with potential keywords and convince the visitors to become customers. Catchy titles, descriptive details highlighting benefits, Meta enhancement, and SEO-friendly URLs – will help the pages gain organic ranking in the search results.
• Utilise clear CTAs to enhance the customer journey. An intuitive web presence contributes to a positive user experience and makes the conversion funnel streamlined. Incorporate action words like ‘Get it now’ and ‘Buy now’ to excite the customers into quick conversion.
• Leverage original content to promote the products or services and the business. Nothing works better than quality and original content that imparts knowledge to customers. It helps in brand promotion, facilitates SEO efforts, and leaves a positive experience among customers.
• Ensure optimum website speed, especially on mobile devices. It helps avoid website abandonment and increased bounce rate. Your potential user will wait no longer than 4 seconds for the website to load on a mobile device, so the web presence must load quickly.

These are only a few of the optimisation tactics. To gain more of such strategies, consult a professional digital marketing agency in London.

2. Invest Paid Advertising Campaigns

While search engine optimisation is the most organic way to reach your potential customers, Paid Advertising is another faster, more targeted alternative. Paid campaigns help focus on demographic information like age, location, gender, and daily preferences.

This information lets businesses focus on streamlined paid campaigns and generate assured leads. Additionally, paid campaigns do not require enhanced market research on the target audience. Social media collects enough data, which can be leveraged for the campaigns.

Types of Paid Ad Campaigns –

Paid campaigns or Pay-per-clicks are famous for their targeted approach and short-term success rate. Here are some of the most popular paid ad campaigns –

• Paid search ads – appear at the top of the results based on the searched keyword. These are ad campaigns created with a Google Ads account based on specific keywords.
• Display ads – reach potential audiences looking for that specific product or service. These ads appear on Google’s partner websites and typically entail imagery to attract the audience swiftly.

Social media ads include Facebook and Instagram campaigns, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Analyzing the target audience will require selecting a social media platform to start with.

• Google Shopping Ads – delivers a window-shopping effect on the search results depending on the keyword searched. Users can see the products and their prices before clicking on the website.
• Local Service Ads – are more focused and help cull out local services in a specific area. The ads are set with concentrated keywords in the area mentioned. For instance, ‘best locksmith in Plymouth’ can be utilised as a local service ad keyword.

You can choose any paid ad campaign for your business promotion. Additionally, we suggest investing in organic marketing for long-term success and growth benefits.

3. Leveraging Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful tool if you are aware of leveraging it. Businesses can directly communicate with the target audience, engage accordingly and drive them to the website. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook also allow direct sales and revenue.

Different social media platforms can be used for various marketing benchmarks. For instance, Facebook and Instagram are impressive places to engage through videos and imagery. Twitter or X, on the other hand, demands concise content—similar to announcements.

The diverse marketing manners contribute to a digital presence with enhanced promotions. Additionally, businesses can gauge better customer needs and preferences before launching new events or focusing on better strategies.

Social media marketing tips –

If you are not seeking professional help for social media marketing, keep these tips and tricks handy.

• Diversify the content to engage your audiences effectively. Utilise various content, such as polls, contests, announcements, quizzes, and how-tos, in your particular niche.
• Maintain a consistent social calendar to build a cohesive brand environment. Consistently use multiple platforms to convey the appropriate message to potential customers.
• Engage directly with present and probable customers through various platforms. Engagements can be multiple modes—messages, comments, etc. Additionally, modern modes of engagement, like live streams and questions, should be utilised.
• Leverage social media marketing tools to create compelling visuals that help in brand promotion. Whether or not to invest in paid tools depends on the marketing budget.
• Incorporate hashtags to boost your business posts in social media channels. Hashtags increase the visibility of your social posts and align with the algorithm to reach the ideal audience.

Social media marketing has benefitted numerous businesses over the years. However, remember, social success does not happen overnight; it requires diligence and consistency. Focus on creating quality and original content that adds value to engaging customers.

4. Utilise Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing is one of the most potent tools for many e-commerce businesses striving for growth and sustainability. Its effectiveness lies in the direct approach. With a well-structured email, a brand can engage with customers, build lasting relationships, and drive sales.

Here is how you can harness the power of email marketing to help your brand experience steady growth:

• Building an Effective Email List – A successful email marketing campaign relies on a robust email list. Encourage your website visitors to sign up for newsletters and promotions. To influence them, offer incentives like discounts. Additionally, leverage social media platforms and gated content to capture email addresses.
• Segmenting the Subscribers – Not all subscribers are the same – some are here to browse, while others will surely convert. Segregate the email list based on demographics, purchase history, preference or engagement. This method allows you to tailor the messages for maximum relevance.

Tailored email marketing ensures subscribers receive content that resonates with their interests and needs, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

• Compelling Content is a Must for Email Campaigns – Content is king, regardless of the marketing medium. As a business, focus on crafting engaging and relevant content. It must provide value to your email subscribers.

The type of content can vary from product updates to informative content or even user-generated content like reviews and testimonials.

Experiment with content formats such as newsletters, product showcases, or launched collections to keep the emails fresh and engaging.

Several other unique techniques exist to make the most of email marketing. Whichever strategy you choose, aim for personalisation to avoid a generic approach. Personalised email marketing campaigns nurture leads, increase repeat purchases, and foster long-term customer loyalty.

5. Focus on Content Marketing

Content marketing is a crucial component of a successful e-commerce strategy. It is the medium of communication between brands and target audiences. Content is essential to brand voice and conveys the perfect message about the products or services.

Let us discuss how we can utilise original and quality content to help grow e-commerce businesses online:

• Content marketing is more than selling products. It is about providing value, education, and entertainment to the target audience. Additionally, it allows brands to showcase expertise, build trust, and differentiate from the competitors.
• Diversifying the content marketing approach is vital to making the most impact. Blog posts are impressive options for sharing in-depth insights. Brands can share industry trends and how-to guides relevant to products or niches.
• Videos are a dynamic medium of storytelling. It can be utilised for product demonstrations and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
• Infographics portray complex information in visually appealing and shareable formats. The tailored content effectively addresses the pain points and interests of the target audience.

Content is an indispensable aspect amidst the many digital marketing strategies for e-commerce. It helps attract potential prospects to the e-commerce store through various channels. The success rate of a content marketing strategy depends on the quality and value of the content.

6. Offer Excellent Customer Service

While great content and engaging email content work wonders, marketing strategies only deliver results with effective customer service, which is not necessary but a cornerstone of e-commerce success.

Here is why it is paramount to ensure your e-commerce store customer service must stand out:

• Face-to-face interactions are limited in the digital landscape. Therefore, customer service becomes the primary means of connecting with your audience. It instils the brand reputation and shapes customer perceptions and loyalty.
• Prompt responses are non-negotiable. Focus on addressing customer inquiries and complaints promptly, even if not immediately.
• Live chat support is a modern marketing and branding strategy. It offers real-time assistance to customers and enhances the shopping experience.
• Complaints and challenges are inevitable when dealing with e-commerce customers. How a brand handles them is a differential factor. Empower your customer service team to resolve issues swiftly and effectively, whether processing returns, issuing refunds, or troubleshooting technical issues.

Excellent customer elevates customer satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfied customers are more likely to become purchasers, brand advocates, and word-of-mouth advertising. Consistently deliver exceptional customer service to attract new customers and reviews.

7. Optimise for Mobile Devices

The United Kingdom has 40 million unique Smartphone users. The number does not include the tablet and desktop users. Keeping the masses in mind, it is a fundamental necessity for businesses to invest in mobile optimisation.

Significance of Mobile Optimisation

With the steady penetration of smartphones and tablets, more consumers rely on these devices for online purchases. Failing to optimise the e-commerce website for mobile users means losing a substantial segment of potential customers, which jeopardises the market’s competitiveness.

Responsive Design and Faster Loading

Responsive design and development are the foundation of mobile optimisation. A responsive framework adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and resolutions. Visitors experience a consistent and user-friendly experience across devices.

Similarly, fast-loading web pages are essential in the present market, where the attention span is merely seconds. Optimise website performance by minimising unnecessary elements, compressing images, and leveraging caching techniques. Lightning-fast e-commerce stores are a necessary aspect of digital marketing strategy and aid in high engagement.

The mobile shopping trend will evolve and grow in the coming years. E-commerce businesses must prioritise mobile optimisation to capitalise on this trend. It will help tap into a vast and lucrative market segment and stay ahead of the competition.

8. Implement Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Techniques

What is conversion? Every time a visitor takes action towards completing the journey – a purchase or signing up for a newsletter – it is conversion. It significantly increases sales, revenue, and overall business growth.

CRO, or Conversion Rate Optimisation, involves fine-tuning the website and marketing strategies to improve conversion rates.

Here are some tested conversion rate optimisation techniques:

• Split testing, or A/B testing, is a powerful technique for optimising conversion rates. It involves testing different variations of elements such as headlines, call-to-action buttons, layouts, or product images to determine which version performs better.
• User experience is directly proportional to the conversion rates. The e-commerce website must be intuitive, easy to navigate, and visually appealing. These aspects help engage visitors and guide them towards conversion actions.
• Page load speed, mobile responsiveness, clear navigation menus, and streamlined checkout processes contribute to an elevated conversion rate.
• Product pages are the final frontier in decision-making and must be top-notch to deliver success. They must provide clear and detailed descriptions with high-quality images or videos.

Customer review ratings and calls to action are persuasive aspects that facilitate the process.

The cumulative impact of CRO techniques significantly impacts sales, revenue and business growth. Additionally, it allows owners to make data-driven decisions and allocate resources more efficiently. The primary purpose of a digital marketing plan for e-commerce is maximising the return on investment and double the efforts.

9. Personalise the Shopping Experience

In this hyper-connected era, personalisation or custom approach is a game changer. It caters to unique preferences, interests, behaviours and shopping experiences, leading to increased conversion and sales.

Personalisation in e-commerce leverages customer data and insights to deliver relevance. The relevancy entails product recommendations, customised emails, and targeted offers resonating with individual needs.

With a personalised shopping experience, e-commerce businesses can enhance engagement, increase conversions, and foster long-term customer loyalty.

How the personalised e-commerce approach works:

Customer data is the fuel for harnessing the power of personalisation in e-commerce. Data analytics tools gather insights into customer behaviour, purchase history, demographics, and preferences. This data helps segment the audience appropriately and tailor digital marketing strategies.

For instance, you can recommend products based on purchase history, abandoned carts or generic preference and increase the likelihood of conversion.

• • The data is utilised for personalised product recommendations. This targeted marketing helps guide customers towards relevant offerings and purchases.

• • Similarly, email marketing provides ample ground personalisation. Personalised subject lines, email copies, and calls-to-action resonate with the users individually. Utilise dynamic content blocks to showcase custom products or promotions relevant to each user. This effort maximises the impact of the email campaigns.

Personalisation is the key to customer loyalty and retention in e-commerce. It helps build stronger emotional connections and foster brand loyalty. It also leads to higher conversion brand value and advocacy.

10. Expand Your Product Range

Expansion of the product range is optional. However, product expansion is beneficial if the business objective is growth and scalability, especially in e-commerce.

Here is why product expansion is advantageous and how you can go about it effectively:

• Diversifying products and collections opens brand-new revenue streams and expands your customer base. It attracts a broader audience and caters to diverse needs and preferences. With the progressive surge of e-commerce shopping, product expansion is vital.
• An expansive product range enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty and gives shoppers more choices. It increases the possibility of increased conversion, cross-selling and up-selling.
• Before you aim for product expansion
• Research the market to identify opportunities and gaps in the market. Analyse industry trends, consumer behaviour, and competitive landscape to pinpoint areas where expansion is viable.
• Staying abreast of industry trends and consumer preferences is crucial for successful product expansion.
• Leverage data analytics tools and engage with the audiences to gain insights into their needs, expectations, and pain points. Use this information to develop an effective product expansion strategy.
• Effectively diversify the product range and enhance the offering. Product expansion is a lucrative opportunity to experiment with variations and categories.

A diverse product range, whether catering to different demographics or lifestyles, enables you to serve a broader customer base and drive higher sales and revenue. An exclusive product range positions the e-commerce business for sustained growth in the competitive marketplace.

11. Focus on User Experience (UX) Design

User experience (UX) design greatly shapes a successful e-commerce website. An effectively designed website with top-notch UX profoundly influences the customer journey and contributes to satisfaction, engagement, and conversion rates.

Here are a few tips and tricks to enhance the UX design of the e-commerce store:

• UX design encompasses the interactive elements of the website. It includes navigation, layout, functionality and performance. A well-designed user experience must engage the customers and drive engagement.
• Clean and intuitive navigation leads to a positive user experience. Streamline navigation menus, categorise logically, and implement search functionality with predictive suggestions. It makes the browsing experience simple and minimises friction.
• Streamline the checkout process – it is a critical conversion juncture. Simplify and minimise the number of steps required and offer guest checkout options. Optimise the payments page for mobile devices and enhance the auto-complete feature.
• Test the e-commerce website across devices and browsers to ensure a consistent and user-friendly experience for mobile users. Perform multiple testing and experiment to create the most relevant presence for your users.

User experience is optimum for conversion and vital to e-commerce digital marketing strategy. Effective market research is crucial. It lets you delve deep into consumer behaviour, design preferences and conversion trigger elements.

Always hire a professional web design agency in London for your UI/UX whenever necessary.

12. Build Trust and Credibility

In the e-commerce landscape, establishing trust is essential for convincing customers to transact with your business. Since there is a complete lack of direct contact, credibility is the foundation of successful customer relationships. It influences purchasing decisions, retention and engagement and accelerates brand growth and profitability.

Here are a few suggestions on how to incorporate trust and credibility within the e-commerce digital marketing strategy –

• Display genuine customer reviews and ratings prominently across the website and other web pages like product and checkout pages.
• Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews by sending follow-up emails, using a direct approach, or offering incentives.
• Highlight trust badges and security certifications to reassure customers about the safety and security of products, services, and transactions. Prominently displays recognised trust badges, such as SSL certificates, payment gateway logos, or industry certifications.
• Leverage social proof and showcase testimonials from satisfied customers. Highlight user-generated content like photos or videos of customers using your products or reviews on third-party platforms.

Prioritising trust and credibility in e-commerce digital marketing is essential for a growing customer base. It minimises service or product concerns and helps increase the conversion rate.

13. Analyse and Measure Performance

Performance checks are fundamental to running a successful e-commerce business. Here is why it is crucial and how you can leverage analytics effectively.

For a growing e-commerce brand, analytics is crucial. It provides valuable insights into key metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, sales performance, customer engagement, etc. These metrics help businesses identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.

Here are some critical analytical metrics to help in a data-driven digital marketing strategy for e-commerce –

• Website Traffic – Monitors the total visits, unique visitors, and traffic sources to understand where the visitors are coming from.
• Conversion Rates—This helps track the customer journey and identify conversion instances, such as add-to-cart and checkout abandonment rates. It also helps evaluate the effectiveness of the sales funnel and marketing strategy.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)- This calculation calculates the cost of acquiring new customers and helps businesses assess the profitability of customer acquisition efforts.

Analytics is an essential aspect of data-driven decision-making. The insights empower e-commerce businesses to optimise marketing strategies. The collected data improves customer experiences and drives business growth.

Whether marketing budget adjustment or optimising product recommendations, data-driven decision-making enables businesses to iterate and improve. It is a critical growth tool businesses have utilised over the years and will continue to help numerous new brands in the making.

14. Stay Updated with Industry Trends

The e-commerce realm is a constantly evolving one. Staying ahead of the curve helps brands stay competitive and seize potential growth opportunities. If you are a business reading this, invest quality time in staying aligned with trends and emerging technologies.

Industry trends encompass technological changes, consumer behaviour, market dynamics, and the competitive landscape. These aspects profoundly impact various business strategies and outcomes. Identifying emerging opportunities and adapting digital marketing strategies to stay relevant and successful is crucial.

Here are some tips on how to remain industry-aligned and competitive –

• Follow reputable industry blogs and websites to stay informed about developments in your niche and the broader e-commerce ecosystem.
• Subscribe to the newsletters, RSS feeds, and social media channels of industry thought leaders and influencers in your niche and the digital sphere.
• Connect with other ecommerce professionals to stay informed about the ecosystem. Exchange knowledge and build relationships within the industry.
• Join industry-specific forums, online communities, and professional networking platforms to connect with like-minded professionals, share experiences, and discuss trends and challenges.

Adapting to technological evolutions and consumer behaviour is essential – especially for e-commerce professionals. It fosters relevance and competitiveness in e-commerce and introduces new opportunities for innovation and growth.

15. Continuously Improve and Adapt

Continuous improvement is not a digital marketing strategy for your e-commerce store. It is a mindset to remain dynamic in this competitive e-commerce landscape.

Improvement ensures a brand stays caught up and remains resilient in the rapidly evolving marketplace. We have discussed numerous ways to enhance products, processes, and customer experiences. The strategies help e-commerce businesses drive innovation, increase efficiency, and maintain a competitive edge.

Understand that continuous improvement is not a one-time endeavour but a mindset that fosters learning, experimentation, and growth.

Here are a few tips on how to be open to continuous improvement as an e-commerce business owner:

• Actively seek customer feedback through reviews and feedback forms to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points.
• Pay attention to positive and negative reviews and identify areas for improvement.
• Regularly analyse customer feedback to iterate and optimise your products, services, and processes.
• Analytics is an impressive growth tool. Leverage the collected data to understand which strategies work better and require fine-tuning.
• Monitor competitors, their products, pricing strategies, and marketing efforts to identify emerging trends, benchmarks, and avenues of opportunities.
• Digital marketing of e-commerce websites is an innovative practice. Be flexible in experimenting with new marketing strategies, channels, and tactics to reach and engage your target audience.

As an e-commerce business aiming for optimum success, be prepared to pivot your strategies and adjust your tactics. There shall always be new opportunities to seize in the digital realm. Agility and flexibility enable e-commerce businesses to quickly align with the changing market conditions and stay ahead of the competition.

Assured Success with Digital Marketing for e-commerce business

To stand out in the digital realm in 2024, a sure-footed digital marketing strategy for e-commerce businesses is paramount. It aids in brand awareness, revenue expansion, conversion and exponential growth. The marketing strategies are relevant to all e-commerce businesses – brand new brands or experienced.

The right digital marketing strategies help deliver relevant products, content, and services to the target audience. They are a necessary step towards brand growth and contribute to scalability. So, social media marketing, paid ads, and email marketing all contribute to a cumulative structure towards brand elevation.

We highly recommend seeking professionals for advanced strategies and unhindered online growth.

At Webskitters Ltd., we have the best digital marketing strategies to kickstart growth for an e-commerce brand. Our team of seasoned marketing professionals has helped numerous brands across industries experience the pinnacle of digital presence. We are the marketing partner you need!