If you are an eCommerce business managing an online shop and promoting your products via social media and email marketing, here are 5 digital marketing hacks that you should be deploying right now to increase your traffic and sales!
1. Install a Facebook Pixel on your website
Facebook Ads are one of the most effective ways to attract your target audience to your online store. If you are considering running Facebook Ads to promote your products, then you should be tracking your ad performance, optimising conversions and targeting your audience using a Facebook Pixel.
What is it? Facebook Pixel is a piece of code for your website that lets you measure, optimise and build audiences for your Facebook advertising campaigns. When someone visits your website and takes an action (for example, buying something), the Facebook pixel is triggered and reports this action.
Why use it? By installing a Facebook Pixel on your website you’ll know when a customer took an action after seeing your Facebook ad. You’ll also be able to reach this customer again by using a Custom Audience. When more and more conversions happen on your website, Facebook gets better at delivering your ads to people who are more likely to take certain actions. This is called conversion optimisation.
How to install it? If you have access to your website’s code, you can add the Facebook pixel yourself. Simply place the Facebook pixel base code (what you see when you create your pixel) on all pages of your website. Then add standard events to the pixel code on the special pages of your website, such as your add-to-basket page or your purchase page. For full step-by-step instructions on adding the Facebook pixel to your site, visit the Facebook Help Centre.
2. Set up a Facebook and Instagram shop
With Facebook Shops, you can display and sell products on Facebook and Instagram. People who visit your shop can browse your products, make purchases and get to know your brand.
This is giving your audience another way of browsing your products and getting to know your brand in addition to your website. With added convenience and exposure you’re likely to convert more clicks into customers!
You can create your shop in Commerce Manager, a platform that you’ll use to manage your inventory and sales on Facebook and Instagram.
You can choose one of three checkout methods for people to purchase your products: On your business website, with Checkout on Facebook and Instagram (US only), or through messaging.
To read more on how to set up your Facebook and Instagram shops, go to Facebook Help Centre.
3. Create an Email Marketing sequence
To help amplify your customer journey we recommend creating an email marketing sequence which will enable you to nurture leads to customers and maintain their loyalty so they purchase again.
As an ecommerce business you most likely already have an email marketing platform that has comprehensive automation tools to allow you to set up email marketing sequences.
By setting up emails that are triggered by your audience along the 3 key points of their journey below, you will be able to target them with right messaging at the right time to guide them on their path to purchase.
– Abandoned cart emails – when your customer abandons the cart, set up an email sequence to entice them to come back and purchase that product. The abandoned cart workflow could be set up in 3 emails. The first one is sent within a few hours of abandoning the cart with the items left in the cart, the second one a few days later as a follow up, the third email could be a promotional discount sent a few days after the second one.
– Shipping confirmation emails – Shipping confirmation emails tend to be simple emails advising your customer that their order has been shipped. But these tend to have the highest click and open rates therefore it presents a big opportunity to add value to the transaction, build customer loyalty and express your brand personality. You can also cross-promote similar products to them but best practice is to make this as a secondary message, at the bottom of the email.
– Customer retention and repurchase emails – These could involve a number of different emails that are sent on a regular basis offering your existing customers value by enticing them to open your email and click to the website to purchase. They could feature tutorials, guides, free product trials, competitions, promotional codes, birthday discounts, invites to special online sales events etc. These emails are your opportunity to make your customers feel loved and not forgotten after they make the initial purchase.
4. Pay attention to your website analytics
To ensure you are not losing valuable customers and sales it is important to consistently track and pay attention to your website’s shopping cart abandonment cart rate and e-commerce conversion rate. This allows you to identify potential issues and optimise your website and product offering to increase sales.
– Shopping cart abandonment rate – this rate is the percentage of online shoppers who add items to an online shopping cart but then abandon it before completing the purchase. According to 2021 stats from Sleeknote the average rate across all industries is 69.57% – number 1 reason is extra costs at the checkout, number 2 reason is being forced to create an account. By mapping your conversion funnel in Google Analytics, you can pinpoint exactly where customers are deciding to leave your store. Then once you know the potential issues you can optimise the checkout process to minimise this rate.
– E-commerce conversion rate – this rate is the percentage of website visitors who purchased something from your online store, in a set period of time. A 2%+ conversion rate should be the baseline goal for your online store. By using Google analytics and setting up goals and funnels within it, you will be able to identify your customer’s behaviours along the conversion funnel to see how you can optimise your site and the offering to increase conversions.
5. Optimise your product descriptions
Pay attention to how you write your product descriptions and use keywords that you know your audience will search for and find you. If your product descriptions align with this goal, you will rank well on the search engines – the key to search engine optimisation. When writing your descriptions, write in detail about the features of the product for sale but also the benefits of the product and how it will work for the buyer or improve their lives. This will ultimately help the buyer not only find the product but also help them make a decision to purchase it.
We understand that implementing these initiatives involves effort, skill and time! If you are in a position where you need to outsource them, consider partnering with us. We have implemented these initiatives successfully for our eCommerce clients and can do the same for you.
Get in touch to find out more about how we can help – hello@victorandflo.com