Shift4Shop eCommerce Blog | eCommerce Marketing (5)

In the pantheon of internet culture-defining websites, Craigslist ranks highly. You’ve probably used it in some way, shape, or form: to find a place to rent, recruit a guitarist for your band, track down a romantic “missed connection,” buy an inexpensive second-hand couch, even pick up a little extra work on the side.

Craigslist is just as infamous as it is famous, claiming a wide range of asterisks, especially when it comes to business transactions. Considering the marketplace isn’t highly[...]

The power of persuasion separates the successful from everyone else. Persuading others isn’t luck or magic - it’s a science.

Persuasion is important, and well worth learning, for every human being and not just marketers or sales reps. It is a part of our daily lives. From persuading our families to go out to eat, persuading friends to go out for a movie or persuading interviewers in a job interview, it is pervaded in our lives.

Many merchants focus on traditional marketing campaigns to drive traffic to their existing content. However, taking a more natural approach to both attract and convert shoppers can provide a noticeable boost in your organic sales, and in the average lifetime value of your customers. Such content marketing efforts can complement and enhance your other marketing efforts, and provide an overall sales lift. Here are some examples of ways that you can leverage content to improve your bottom line:

Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons are a great way to get your visitors engaged. Online shoppers appreciate straightforward links that accurately state what clicking will do, e.g. "Add to Cart" as opposed to "Learn More." People also have an innate curiosity when it comes to pushing a button; there's just something tempting about them. These are some of the psychological reasons CTA buttons can be very effective: they draw attention by presenting clear instructions and looking so clickable.

Did you know your 3dcart store comes with a built-in Group Deals module? With Group Deals, you can create a limited-time offer that requires a certain target number of purchases before the discount will be honored. This can be a very effective way of marketing a product, because it combines the urgency of a deadline with the incentive to share the sale with others. Basically, they are made to go viral.

In the past decade, social media has taken the world by storm, with Facebook the most popular platform by far. Owners of brick-and-mortar and online stores alike have discovered Facebook as a great way to get the word out about their products, find new customers, and interact with fans. In fact, it's almost unheard of in 2017 for a business to not have a Facebook page.

As an online retailer, how do you bring more searchers to your website? Especially, searchers that are ready to buy.

So you want to start a blog. From both a content marketing and branding standpoint, that’s fantastic news! A blog is a resource you totally control and one you can use to express yourself, communicate with your audience, and promote whatever goods and services you have on deck.

The problem is this: with some 2 million blog posts written every day, how in the world are you going to stand out?

Lucky you, we’ve got 4 pretty good ideas.

Since their launch in 2010, Google Shopping Ads have steadily become an important part of successful eCommerce marketing. These ads have consistently proven themselves to be more effective than traditional PPC Google text ads, and businesses of all sizes are taking note. In the first quarter of 2018, 76.4% of retail search ad spending was directed to Google Shopping Ads.

Over the last several years, Google Shopping Ads have evolved into a profitable marketing channel for many businesses.[...]

Google any product these days, and roughly 80% of your mobile screen will feature sponsored results. While text-based ads comprise a lot of this space, it’s Google Shopping ads, with their captivating images and price information, that are drawing the eyes and attention of most search users.

In the most basic and straightforward way to describe it; affiliate marketing is the name given to having your own band of loyal promoters.

What’s the conversion rate of your shop? Around 2%? That’s more than likely, and it’s not a bad result. If you report higher rates, then good for you! However, if you report lower rates, maybe you should look into this issue.

Kickstarter campaigns are becoming the norm for new products sold online. People love contributing to and sharing these campaigns to their friends, family, and social media followers. There is something about helping-the-little-guy that compels people to spread the word; to do their part to gain awareness of a new idea. But, what happens after the Kickstarter has ended and the intrinsic coolness and newness of your product wears off?  You need to be proactive to continue getting your product[...]

Affiliate marketing is a powerful sales channel that when implemented correctly, can drastically boost sales for your eCommerce business. If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s a type of performance-based marketing where other websites will advertise your store. In return, you’ll reward affiliates with a percentage of every sale they send your way.

The welcome email, typically triggered upon joining a mailing list, is one of the most important emails a customer will receive during the course of their relationship with a business. As the crown jewel of any retailer’s email marketing effort, the welcome email sets the tone for the type of relationship a business hopes to build with its customers, and can serve to aid or hinder a brand’s image.

Whether a welcome message is presented in a magazine style ad or more of a hero image[...]

SEO (search engine optimization) is the driving force behind a business’s growth and customer acquisition, and as such, is the single most important factor to affect an online store’s long-term success. Businesses that adopt and implement a well-strategized SEO plan consistently benefit from a massive increase in visibility and sales, regardless of previous notoriety.

With the power of the internet, small businesses can spend less on marketing while simultaneously gaining more, using valuable resources to fight larger counterparts head-on with formidable marketing campaigns. It’s important to keep in mind; however, that online marketing comes with its fair share of budget constraints. Nonetheless, compared to the days of yore, the funds required to dish out advertisements on traditional marketing channels is significantly larger than similar internet[...]