The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Marketing

SEO

In order to get traffic to your eCommerce website, you need to focus on eCommerce SEO.

What is eCommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO is the organic way to rank as highly as possible for keywords you want your products to rank for. It includes keyword optimization, meta description optimization, content optimization, product description optimization, speed optimization, sitemap optimization, image alt tags optimization, etc.

Tactics for Ecommerce SEO?

Keyword Research:

Keyword Research is the process of searching for “terms” users are using while searching for products/services your business deals in. You need to understand the search intent of users to get the best keywords for your site. Search intent refers to the context behind a search term that a user searches in the Search Engine; it could be informational, navigational, transactional, etc.

Informational:

An informational query is a search term which a user uses while searching for any information. This could be in the form of a how-to guide, a recipe, a DIY, a definition, etc.

How to make black coffee?

What is UI/UX?

How to do a gold facial at home?

What are the benefits of Honey?

Navigational:

Searches performed to locate a specific website refer to navigational queries. A user might want to go to a specific website but is not sure of the exact URL or might not want to enter the whole URL & thus, searches for the brand/website name in the search engine directly by entering the specific keywords.

For Instance

MOZ beginner SEO

Apple Store

Shopify Login

Upwork Registration

Transactional:

A transactional query is a search term which a user enters to purchase a product/service. In this stage, users are sure of what they want to purchase & are looking for the best place to buy it or they might be searching for a branded product directly.

For Instance:

Buy mattress online

Myntra t-shirts for women

Headphones under 500

Buy domain GoDaddy

Steps to do keyword research:

• Identify seed keywords based on what your business deals in!!
• Put those keywords in Search Engines to get more ideas!
• You can also use Google keyword planner to generate ideas
• Use keywords research tools such as ahrefs, ubersuggest, SEMrush to broaden the list with exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you’ve generated up to this point.
• Use the mix of primary keywords, longtail keywords & LSA keywords.
• Use Amazon for your eCommerce keyword research

Product Page Optimization

Product Page Optimization refers to the technique where your product page is designed not only to be found by search engines but also to convert browsers into buyers.

Tactics:

Use high-quality images to showcase your products.

Use multiple images showcasing your products from different angles to assist users in getting more clarity about your products.

Specify clear product description with all the necessary details required by the users such as product details, color, size, disclaimers, special features, shipping & return policies, availability, item no. & other product specifications.

Use your target keywords in the title & description.

Optimize product images with appropriate keyword descriptions.

Showcase the review section appropriately to make it easier for your users to decide regarding your products.

Optimize product pages’ URLs appropriately.

Avoid Duplicate Content.

Google Business Listing

Google My Business is a very powerful tool to help your business rank locally. It is a free tool that lets your business listing show up along with other relevant local businesses whenever someone looks up your business name or a related term along with your business details like your phone number, website, address, reviews, hours, etc. This helps your customers to easily identify your business! Thus, you need to set up your google my business listing & optimize it appropriately.

Structured Data

Structured Data also known as Schema Markup is the markup language that helps search engines & users to understand the website content more clearly which in turn assists the Search Engine to show the results more clearly in the form of rich snippets such as reviews, recipes, etc.

Benefits of Using Structured Data:

• Higher CTR
• Boost your Site’s Visibility
• Helps you to rank for multiple keywords
• Helps search engines to display your content as rich results
• Helps Users & Search Engines to better understand your content.

Competitor Analysis:

Competitors Analysis is basically the SWOT analysis of your competitors. Let us dive deep into it!

Strengths: You can identify what is working for your competitors & what are the strategies used by your competitors through which they are acing the race.

Weaknesses: You can identify where are they going wrong. It can be their products/services or their strategies. You need to identify where you can be better off!

Opportunities: You can identify where your competitors are falling short which helps you identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace, and experiment with unparalleled marketing strategies they haven’t taken advantage of.

Threats: You can identify their USP & features which are missing in your products/services & might become a threat for you if not tackled on time!

Identify your Competitors:

The first step is to identify who are your direct & indirect competitors.

Direct Competitors are those who are dealing in the same products/services which your brand is offering; thus, they are the direct competition & should be analyzed thoroughly.

Eg: Brand A deals in sport-shoes & Brand B also deals in sport-shoes. In such a case, they are direct competitors.

Indirect Competitors are those who are not dealing in the same products/services that your brand is offering but may be indirectly associated with your business.

Eg. Brand A deals in Formal Wear while Brand B deals in sportswear. In this case, these are indirect competitors but one needs to be cautious as they might become the direct competitor in the future & one can also analyze their broader strategies & implement the same where necessary!

Identify your Competitors’ Keyword Strategy:

Check out the keywords which are getting a good amount of traffic to these competitors & make a list of such keywords. You can make a separate list of seed keywords, LSA keywords & longtail keywords in order to determine your next move!

You should not only consider the direct competitors but should also look for the indirect competitors as these will help you in determining broad terms which can further give you an elaborate list of other similar & longtail or LSA search terms that your direct competitors might be unaware of.

Determine the Backlinking Opportunities:

A competitor backlink analysis is an investigation where you analyze your competitor’s backlinks. By analyzing your competitors’ backlinking profile, you’ll be able to identify the opportunities where you can pitch for your backlinking process as you’re most likely to get links from the sites that are interested in your competitors’ products/services. This way you can decide on your outreach & link-building activities.

There are many tools available for analyzing your competitors’ backlinking profile such as Ahref, Moz link explorer, etc. You can try any of them to get a complete picture!

Analyze their Products & Pricing:

Analyze what products your competitors are offering & determine if you can add those products to enhance your business. Also, check out the pricing of respective products & based on the average pricing, determine your competitive pricing policy!

Competitors’ Online Reviews:

Read the online reviews of your competition & analyze what their customers are loving about their products/services & what they are not liking, this way you will be able to determine the loopholes of their business where you can improvise & be a better alternative!

Analyze their Marketing Tactics & Strategies

Explore their promotional channels & strategies to gain an in-depth insight into their business.Check out!

Which channels do they use for Promotion?

How frequently do they post/blog?

Do they use Case Studies?

Do they use Case Studies?

Are they having a substantial review section?

What all online & offline advertising campaigns are they running?

What is their content mix strategy?

Which content gets the maximum engagement?

Do they have any viral content?

This will help you in guiding you for a perfect market strategy. Of course, you can modify & reinvent those strategies with your own unique touch. But analyzing their strategies will provide a guiding light towards your path!

Social Media Marketing

Social Media is undoubtedly becoming a powerful source of marketing for eCommerce site owners as people are becoming more active on Social Media Platforms. Moreover, users actively research products on Social Media & look for feedbacks before making a purchase decision. Brands who know the tactics & are implementing them correctly are witnessing a major traffic boost to their products.

Strategies to Boost Ecommerce traffic through Social Media:

• Increase your Organic Followers
• Engage with your Followers
• Be Consistent
• Use Paid Media Marketing as Well
• Use Relevant Hashtags
• Promote User Reviews
• Analyze your Competitors’ Social Media Strategies
• Leverage Influencer Marketing
• Leverage Stories Feature
• Leverage Contests & Discount Offers

Content Marketing

As you must have heard “Content is King” & it indeed is! People are consuming content like anything. A well-formulated Content Marketing Strategy can do wonders for your user base.

• It helps in:
• Boosting your traffic
• Solving your users’ queries effectively
• Establishing your brand as an Authority
• Converting your potential leads easily
• Cultivating loyalty towards your brand
• Describing your products briefly
• Offering solutions to their pain points

Step-wise Content Marketing Strategies:

A. Identify Your Target Buyer Persona:

Before initiating your content marketing journey, firstly identify who your content marketing audience is? What do they expect out of your Content Marketing Plan? Then only will you understand which sort of content you should focus on; Which content strategy will work for them. To determine your target buyer persona, you need to rectify:

Demographics

Interests

Preferred Content-Type

Pain Points

Motivation Source

B. Analyzing your Competitors’ Content Marketing Strategies:

You might be new to the market, but your competitors who have been in the market for a long period, have tried & tested different Content Marketing Strategies & thus, have better evolved with time. Therefore, analyzing their strategies will give you a brief idea of what will work for you!

By analyzing their Content Marketing Strategies, you’ll figure out:

What does their Audience love about them?

What is the most engaging content for them?

Which is the most significant channel for your competitors?

Which strategies are working for your Competitors?

What all content types you can use?

C. Creating Content:

After thoroughly analyzing your competitors’ strategies & industry trends, you can now proceed with the content creation. You should not plagiarize & push your content marketing team to publish original content & for that matter, you can use surveys, leverage your experience, strategies with different departments of your office, attend webinars & industry-related shows, etc. At this point, you’ll be quite clear about what your audience will love; you can still go for A/B Testing to evolve & gain expertise over time!

D. Promoting Content:

Only creating outstanding content is not enough! You need to promote it profoundly to get the expected result. Content not seen by the target audience is as good as trash for your business. After all, what’s the use of your outstanding content if it is not received by your target audience? You need to promote it exceptionally well in order to get the desired results!

How will you promote it?

Email it to your subscribers

Share it to relevant Social Media Platforms

Promote it through paid ads on relevant platforms

Reach Out to Influencers in your industry to promote your content

Expand your reach via guest blogging

Request content curators to promote your content

Reach out to PR & News Personnel!

Promote it on Forums

PPC

Pay Per Click Advertising, abbreviated as PPC, is an advertising method where you pay to reach your target users. It can be in the form of

Search Ads –

Search Ads are text-based ads having 3 main components — headline, display URL, and description text displayed on Search Engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. These ads are shown above the 10 blue links i.e., organic results on the 1st page of the SERPs depending on the bids & the keyword competition!

Display Ads –

Digital display advertising is visual advertising on websites, apps, or social media channels through banners, videos, animations, graphics, etc. Display ads differ from search ads as a Search ad probably appears in front of users who are currently searching for your product or service while a Display ad appears in front of users who have shown any indication that they might be interested in your product/service.

Retargeting Ads –

Retargeting advertisement is a type of campaign which is shown to users who have shown an interest in your brand & were almost converted but due to certain reasons, they did not close the deal. This type of advertisement uses pixels or cookies that follow users around after they leave your website, through third-party networks such as the Google Display Network and Facebook!

For instance, a user visits your website & added a product to their cart but abandoned the cart, then through the tracked pixel, the same product could be displayed to them through the Google Display Network or Facebook. This will remind them to finish the purchase!

Video Ads –

Video gets the most impressions as compared to other forms as it conveys the message clearly & is a more appealing form of content. Thus, video advertisement is a powerful form to capture your audience’s attention provided it doesn’t exceed the stipulated time & is properly optimized.

Shopping Ads –

Shopping Ads, a boon for Ecommerce Sites! A shopping ad campaign includes rich product details, such as a product image, price, and merchant name & is shown in the SERP, the Shopping tab, Google Display Network, in the price comparison Shopping service and apps

Social Media Ads –

Social media advertisement is one of the most expeditious and powerful ways to connect with your target audience. It gives us the ability to build specific campaigns on social media and meet different business goals at comparatively economical prices. By targeting specific demographics & interests relevant to your brand, you can maximize your profits drastically!

Gmail Ads –

Gmail ads are interactive ads that show in the Promotions and Social tabs of the user inbox. Some of these advertisements are expandable. The expanded ad can include images, video, or embedded forms. These ads help you connect with your potential customers in a more personalized format.If you are having an eCommerce site then you should definitely try out these tactics!