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The number of online shoppers has skyrocketed in the past few years. Deciding to take your brick-and-mortar business online is an excellent way to reach more potential customers and boost sales. Opening an online store also gives you total control over your customer’s shopping experience, giving you a chance to make your customers feel special and a part of your brand. However, as a new online store, competing in the online landscape isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Having a digital store and an amazing product isn’t enough to help you stand out in today’s increasingly competitive online space. You need the right marketing strategies to attract more customers to your online store and increase sales.

To overcome some of the hurdles online store owners face at the initial stages, consider starting with an Esty or Shopify store. This way, you can start selling on an already established platform and then launch your own standalone store to scale your business and improve customer satisfaction. However, if you’ve already launched your own online store, here are a few marketing strategies that can help bring in more customers and profits:

1. Content Marketing

Content marketing is an excellent way to indirectly promote your online store by stimulating customers’ interest in your products and brand. While this is a long-term strategy, it’s a more cost-effective option and can generate nearly three times more leads than traditional marketing. Creating helpful content that resonates with your target audience can establish you as a trusted source and authority in your niche. This builds trust and interest in your brand, helping you attract and retain customers.

Some content types you can create for your online store include infographics, podcasts, blogs, videos, and quizzes. When creating content, take the time to figure out who your target audiences are to ensure you create the right content type. For instance, blogs may be a great choice if your target audience consists of moms. On the other hand, you may want to focus on interactive quizzes and videos if you’re dealing with a younger audience.

2. Boost Your Organic Social Presence

With over 4.26 billion social media users, increasing your social presence is an excellent way to get your online store in front of your target audience and acquire customers. Start by creating social media pages for your online store on different social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Then, build a solid presence on all your social media channels by regularly posting interesting content with high-quality, engaging videos and vibrant images.

Leverage social media to promote your online store by showcasing gorgeous photos and short, engaging videos of your products on your social channels. You may also want to incorporate appropriate hashtags on your posts and host giveaways. This will help you boost engagement with your followers and build brand awareness. Be sure to include user-generated content and encourage your followers to share your social media posts to increase your organic social presence. And most importantly, use a consistent brand voice on all your social media posts.

3. Leverage Email Marketing

Although considered an old marketing method, email marketing is still one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to acquire and retain customers. Start with building your email list by adding a signup button to your social media channels, a newsletter signup option at checkout, a pop-up offer on your homepage, and links in your content. A long email list means you can directly market your brand and products to people already interested in your brand.

Through email marketing, you can employ automation and segmentation to help save valuable time and provide potential leads with a personal touch. Use email marketing to send out newsletters, exclusive offers, and exciting updates since this will help drive traffic to your online store and build brand loyalty. When properly executed, email marketing can make it easier to convert leads into customers, boosting your sales.

4. Partner with Influencers

Partnering with influencers is another effective strategy to boost your online visibility and drive traffic to your online store. That’s because influencers usually have a massive following online, which they can promote your online store to and even convince them to start using your products. Ensure you choose an influencer in your niche and with a following that aligns with your target audience.

Depending on the influencer you choose, you can ask them to post photos of them using your products, videos of them talking about the benefits of using your products, or write guest posts or reviews. Ensure you link the influencer’s content to your online store so interested people can know where to purchase your products.

5. Employ Search Engine Optimization

While it’s one of the most complicated marketing techniques, search engine optimization, or SEO, has proven effective at driving quality website traffic. Search engine optimization helps drive traffic to your online store through organic search results. To optimize your site for search engines, determine what phrases or keywords your target customers use when searching for products related to yours.

Create a list of these keywords and integrate them naturally into your web content and pages. Incorporate relevant keywords into the title tags and meta-descriptions of your web pages. This will make your online store rank higher on search engine result pages whenever people search using those terms. This will improve your store’s visibility online, driving more traffic.

6. Run PPC campaigns

Running pay-per-click (PPC) ads is another digital marketing strategy that works well for online stores looking to reach a wider audience and acquire more customers. One of the main benefits of marketing your online store using PPC advertising is that it’s easy to scale and gives a high return on your investment. It also allows for targeted marketing, meaning you can set your campaigns only to be visible to your target audience.

You can also choose the type of ad you want to be shown on websites, search engines, and social media platforms. This allows you to target buyers already interested in your products, which can result in higher sales. You can also run retargeting ads targeting those who’ve already visited your landing pages or viewed your previous ads. This helps encourage them to purchase from your online store again.

Endnote

By implementing the right digital marketing strategy, you can drive more quality traffic to your online store, helping you acquire more customers and boost sales. Combining the digital marketing strategies above will help you reach your marketing goals and build a successful online store.