In today’s competitive digital landscape, your new eCommerce business must strategically invest in marketing channels that deliver results if you stand any chance of making a mark and cultivating a loyal customer base.

If you oversee marketing for a small, hopefully growing online retail business, you likely have limited resources, so you need to spend your time and money on channels and tactics that have the best chance to drive the most sales.

In this blog post, we’ll explore three essential marketing channels that eCommerce newcomers must leverage to find success: paid social media advertising, paid search ads, and email campaigns. Each of these channels has the potential to significantly grow your eCommerce venture if used effectively, and we are going to show you how.

Paid social media

Paid social media advertising is a powerful tool for eCommerce stores to increase sales and brand awareness. Facebook users, on average, click on 12 ads per month, highlighting the potential for businesses to reach a large audience through the platform. Additionally, 25% of marketers plan to sell products directly within social media apps this year, a growing trend that’s already yielding impressive results for many eCommerce businesses.

By setting up campaigns to target people according to specific demographics and interests, businesses can tailor their ads to reach the most engaged customer segments, resulting in better conversion rates.

One of the key advantages of paid social media advertising is its flexibility in adjusting ad spend based on budget and desired results. Real-time performance tracking allows businesses to measure ad performance and make data-driven decisions about their campaigns. Paid social media advertising also encourages customer engagement through interaction and sharing, leading to organic growth.

While the cost of customer acquisition may be higher than other channels, paid social offers you some powerful options when it comes to eCommerce functionality, campaign targeting and building multi-ad funnels, so it’s definitely worth experimenting here.

However, among all paid social ad formats, those powered by video are especially worthy of your attention. People watch an average of 17 hours of online video per week, and videos are twice as likely to be shared than any other type of content. On Twitter, video ads are the fastest-growing advertising tool, saving advertisers over 50% on cost-per-engagement.

Seize this opportunity by creating high-quality video content that captivates your audience and promotes your business through paid social media. If you’re unsure how to begin, Lightricks’s Videoleap app can be your trusty sidekick for crafting custom videos for social media campaigns. With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, AI-powered visual effects capabilities and a huge library of community-shared video templates, you can create professional videos without any technical or design experience.

Paid search

Paid search, or pay-per-click (PPC), is an effective advertising channel that can bring a wealth of benefits to eCommerce stores. Firstly, paid search ads target people actively searching for products or services related to your business, making it an ideal way to reach potential customers with high purchase intent.

This means that the traffic driven by paid search ads is more likely to convert into sales. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that 75 of the top 100 stores on Shopify have a paid search presence. Google estimates that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on its PPC platform, making it a highly attractive channel for eCommerce businesses.

Secondly, paid search ads appear at the top of search results, providing quick visibility and increasing brand awareness. This is especially important for recently launched eCommerce stores aiming to boost their online presence and drive traffic to their website.

Thirdly, paid search offers flexible budgeting options, allowing businesses to control costs through adjustable bidding strategies, so you can get the most out of your ad budget. Furthermore, paid search provides measurable results, allowing businesses to easily track ad performance, conversions, and return on investment (ROI) to optimise campaigns for better results.

Using long-tail keywords can be an effective way to optimise and target paid search campaigns for eCommerce businesses. Long-tail keywords are more specific and tend to have higher intent. They also have lower competition, so you don’t have to bid as much.

Keyword research tools such as SEMrush are great for discovering relevant long-tail keywords that are closely related to your product or service. You can easily find relevant keywords to target in your campaigns, track their performance in real time, and adjust bids or budgets as needed. They also have reports on what paid search ads your competitors are running so you can stay one step ahead of the game.

Email marketing

Despite being one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, email remains a powerhouse for businesses looking to promote their eCommerce stores. On average, email drives an ROI of $45 for every dollar spent for eCommerce stores, higher than any other channel.

Aside from the ROI, the ability to deliver personalised messages directly to people who have opted in and want to hear from you is invaluable for driving sales. This allows retailers to tailor their email campaigns according to the customer’s past purchases and interests, increasing relevance and engagement.

Furthermore, email marketing allows businesses to nurture leads by providing them with valuable content or resources that can help convince them to buy from your store. This includes product use tips, discounts, exclusive offers, and related product recommendations. Employing these strategies can help to cultivate strong relationships with customers, thereby boosting long-term loyalty.

Finally, email marketing allows businesses to re-engage with existing customers and encourage repeat purchases. Automated emails can be sent out to customers who have not visited your store for a while, providing them with incentives to return and buy something. You can also use email campaigns to promote new products or services, enticing customers with exclusive deals or promotions.

To optimise your email marketing campaigns, there are three crucial factors to consider: personalisation, automation, and segmentation. Personalisation requires tailoring emails to suit each customer’s specific interests and requirements. Automation enables you to dispatch emails triggered by events like website visits or purchases. Segmentation involves categorising customers based on their actions, such as previous purchases, allowing you to send them customised emails.

Tools like Mailchimp are designed to help you make the most of your email campaigns. It has a wide array of features that allow you to easily segment customers, personalise emails, create automated campaigns, track performance, and more. You can even run A/B tests while directly integrating with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce.

The takeaway

There are plenty of digital marketing tactics that eCommerce businesses can leverage to drive traffic and sales. From paid social media and search to email marketing, businesses have never had so many opportunities to get the word out and promote their products.

Remember, executing a tactic is one thing, but mastering it is another. Therefore, it’s crucial to invest time in comprehending every channel and making sure that you are employing every possible measure to maximise the benefits of your campaigns. By developing an effective plan, you can attain tangible outcomes for your new venture and find a significant ROI for your efforts.