The popularity of shopping on online marketplaces continues to increase, making it a great option for ecommerce retailers and small business owners. However, the abundance of sellers on these marketplaces can make it hard for your products to stand out. Customers are also getting savvier at finding quality products at the lowest prices online.
In order to boost your online sales, you have to make your marketplace presence stand out from all your competitors. To help you do that, here are five ecommerce marketing tips to net you more sales:
1. Take and post amazing photos.
High-quality images of your products are vital. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to shell out the money to hire a professional photographer, though. You can learn to take stunning product photos yourself. Many experts recommend using a plain white background with close-up, detailed shots of each product. While this recommendation makes an image look like it was professionally photographed, it may not help your products stand out against the competition. You may want to consider using a more unique background – just be consistent. This will help your products be more recognizable and leave a memorable impression with potential buyers.
Related: Check out these great product photography tips.
2. Be a storyteller.
The key to successful marketing strategies is to build brand awareness. Customers respond well to stories, and there is no easier way to build your brand than by telling your story. Here are a few great ideas that may interest your customers and help establish your brand:
- why you started your business
- what your company values are
- where you find your inspiration
You can also take this strategy to help write better product listings. What is special about your specific product? Why is it meaningful? How will your customers feel when they receive it?
The power of hearing (or reading) stories is useful for selling any type of product, but even more so for vintage or collectible items. Items like artwork, antiques, or even collectible memorabilia, all beg for stories to be written about them. While not every product comes with a story, if it does, be sure to share it with your customers.
Related: Write product descriptions that sell with these evocative storytelling tips.
3. Use content marketing.
To further your brand-building and reputation as a product expert, it’s a good idea to utilize different types of content marketing. You can start a blog and post tips that are relevant to your customers to share on your social media channels. Come up with ideas that will pique potential customers’ interest and also engage your existing customers. Capturing your audience’s attention is the key to success. What do you offer that is different from other marketplace sellers? Focus on bringing attention to those differences. Also, try to write guest posts for blogs that are relevant to your business. This will help build awareness amongst an audience of potential customers.
4. Build a community.
Not just your physical community (although you could find potential customers there too!), but your online community, as well. Interaction with other buyers and sellers within your online marketplace are great sources for information about trends and new products. They could also be potential customers and referrers. Social media is a great avenue to have interactions with your community. You can tweet a “thank you” to a customer for a purchase or connect with industry influencers by following them, retweeting, and commenting on their posts. Additionally, you should always acknowledge and thank customers who comment on or share your social media posts. Word of mouth marketing works online as well as in person.
5. Know your SEO.
All marketplaces do their best to achieve search engine optimization (SEO) for marketplace products, which means that you need to do your part to beat your competition. The visibility of your products depends on how well you’ve optimized your listings. There are free resources available to help you optimize your SEO results. You can use keyword tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to ensure that you’re putting the right keywords in your content that will attract customers to your marketplace product listings.
Final Thoughts about Ecommerce Marketing Strategies
The name of the game for online marketplace sellers is building your brand in a way that sets you apart from other sellers. With so many sellers out there, many selling the exact same products, you have to be recognizable and memorable so that customers choose you. The above ecommerce marketing ideas are just a few to get you started. As your business grows, you may find that you need to tweak your marketing strategies to continue obtaining new customer relationships. But, whatever you decide to employ for marketplace marketing, be sure that you are setting yourself and your business apart from other retailers. Not selling on a marketplace yet? Here’s a list of online marketplaces to consider.
Related: 3 Ways to Clean Up Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
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