Don’t you just get excited when your prospects reach out to you for help? Well, this is an email I received a few days ago from one of you. In response, I have prepared a detailed guide on how to increase your online presence as an e-commerce seller.
Note: Not to tire you, I have divided the questions into three parts. This blog post covers the first part of the question. We will notify you through email when we publish the second part of the question “How to use funnel techniques to drive traffic to your social media and website.”
Let’s talk about performance-based marketing…
Performance-based/commission-based is an excellent marketing strategy because you only pay your affiliates after they generate a sale. This is a perfect example of how it works, only it could get better with automation. This would allow the company to get more affiliates
I thought about writing an email in response but, how many of you want to learn the same?
Therefore, this is a lengthy article that will address how to increase your online presence as an online seller.
However, before we delve into any of this, I must tell you the number 1 rule of marketing you probably haven’t been told:
Stop selling to everybody!
Well then, let’s dive in.
How to increase your online presence in Kenya – as an e-commerce/online seller
As a savvy e-commerce seller in Kenya, you’ve crafted the perfect website, set up your social media profiles, and lined up your products.
But here’s the deal – having a digital storefront alone won’t cut it. To truly thrive in the digital realm and the world of affiliate marketing, you need to forge a powerful online presence.
In this article, we’ll unveil the secrets to elevate your online game – from showcasing your products to nurturing genuine connections with your target audience.
5 tips you to increase your online presence
So, as an e-commerce seller, I will show you the 5 tips you can use to increase your online presence. These are:
- Optimize your website
- Identify your target audience
- Create helpful and engaging content
- Take advantage of online advertisement
- Get into influencer marketing or better yet, affiliate marketing
Let’s dive in!
Optimize your website
Launching your e-commerce venture is an exciting journey, and getting a website is your first pivotal step. But here’s the catch: To truly amplify your online presence and reach your target audience effectively, you need to optimize your e-commerce store.
When building an e-commerce store, you have choices:
- You can either dive into the world of custom-built websites, offering unparalleled customization but often at a cost of time and money.
- Alternatively, you can opt for user-friendly e-commerce builders like Shopify. These builders offer lightning-fast store setups with monthly subscriptions and a bundle of valuable features.
- And don’t forget the option of e-commerce marketplaces like Slyzed, providing a ready-made platform to showcase your products.
Yet, merely having a website isn’t the end of the story. Below are 5 tips to increase your online presence by optimizing your e-commerce store:
Conduct Keyword Research for SEO
After creating your website, you want people to find you online. Search engine optimization is the most effective strategy to bring organic traffic to your site.
You need to research relevant keywords that align with your products. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your product descriptions and meta tags.
For instance, a local handmade jewelry e-commerce site in Kenya can use specific keywords like “handmade beaded earrings” and “African-inspired necklaces” in their product descriptions and meta tags. This simple change will boost their online visibility and sales.
Create Urgency
Encourage quick decisions by using phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Hurry, Only a Few Left.” Urgency motivates customers to take action, increasing your conversion rate.
Some businesses also use the countdown timer to motivate their target audience to purchase before the offer ends.
Showcase Your Social Proof (Customer Reviews/Testimonials)
88% of online buyers admit to reading customer reviews and testimonials before making the purchase decision.
Pro Tip: Always encourage your customers to leave a review after each purchase. You can follow up with an email after the purchase.
Do not shy off from sharing these reviews with your social media audience. Customer reviews and product ratings will boost your online presence, customer trust, and sales.
Optimize Your Product Listings
Use keywords to write unique and compelling product descriptions. Additionally, it would help to use high-quality, authentic images that showcase your products from various angles.
This boosts customer confidence and reduces returns.
Use Content Marketing Strategies
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build organic traffic for e-commerce sellers. Creating valuable blog posts, how-to guides, or videos related to your products helps you define yourself as an expert in your field.
For instance, creating product review videos can increase your visibility on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You can also send this content to your email list.
It is, however, critical for you to craft a content marketing strategy for your e-commerce store. This will include topic and keyword research, content distribution, and promotion.
Choose your marketing channels
We have all fallen short of this mistake – creating business pages and accounts in all marketing channels available. However, you’ll notice how overwhelming it is to keep up with all the channels, especially because content production takes time and effort.
It is therefore important to select marketing channels based on where your target audience is. For instance, if you are a fashion brand, it would make a lot more sense to create visual content and focus on visual channels. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok would make a lot more sense.
Now, to select marketing channels that align with your target audience, you need a buyer persona.
Download our buyer persona template here
You need to identify who you are selling to. Flash news, you cannot sell to everybody. Understanding your buyer goes beyond the usual age, gender, and job titles (demographics.) It involves digging deeper to understand their pain points and knowing your customers well.
Remember, your customer is already creating ads and targeting a specific location, gender, and age group. Do you want to do it differently? Keep going.
How to know your customers intimately?
In our recent blog post, we unraveled the 6 principles of persuasion based on Robert Cialdini’s research on the psychology of persuasion. The article explores how to capture a buyer’s attention and influence them to purchase your products. Well, you cannot persuade your prospects if you do not know what moves them.
Uncovering your customer’s hopes, desires, fears, and biggest dreams will help you establish trust. This means that you have to think beyond the features and benefits of your products. You need to know what your customers think, feel, and act.
The template above contains a custom template to guide you in creating your buyer avatar. We will show you how to create a detailed buyer avatar.
Once you fill out this template, you will understand where your potential buyers get their information from. You will also discover the social media channels they like to use. Eventually, you will use this information to create content that resonates with your audience.
This will increase your online visibility among your specific audience, and therefore increase your sales conversion rate.
Create helpful content
In the digital age, consumers are not just looking for products; they crave valuable information and solutions to their problems. This is where the magic of helpful content comes into play. Providing content that genuinely addresses your target audience’s pain points and interests can significantly boost brand and product awareness.
Below are 3 reasons why content marketing works for e-commerce brands
Demonstrates Expertise
When you consistently deliver high-quality, informative content, you position yourself as an authority in your industry. People trust experts, and they are more likely to engage with your brand when they perceive you as a knowledgeable source.
Builds Trust
Trust is the foundation of any successful brand-consumer relationship. Offering valuable content demonstrates that you genuinely care about your audience’s needs, not just their wallets. This fosters trust and loyalty.
Engages Your Audience
Content that provides practical solutions or insightful knowledge is inherently engaging. It encourages interactions, comments, and sharing, thus increasing your reach and visibility.
Content Types to increase online presence for e-commerce sellers
During the brand awareness stage, people engage better with valuable and helpful content. It could be a tutorial, a how-to guide, or even video content. Let’s delve into each one briefly:
Educational Blog Posts
Write informative articles that address common questions and challenges within your industry. Share insights, tips, and how-to guides to position your brand as a valuable resource.
Infographics
Visual content like infographics can convey complex information in an easily digestible format. Use them to illustrate key industry trends, statistics, or processes.
Video Tutorials
Videos are highly engaging and can showcase your products or services in action. Create tutorials, demonstrations, or explainer videos to captivate your audience.
Case Studies
Share success stories of how your products or services have positively impacted real customers. Case studies provide tangible proof of your brand’s value. You can also share detailed customer reviews to enhance consumer trust.
Social Media Updates
Regularly post helpful content on social media platforms, including tips, tricks, and quick advice. Encourage discussions and interactions with your audience.
Remember, the key is consistency. Regularly publishing and promoting helpful content will gradually increase your brand and product awareness. Ultimately, this will make your brand a go-to choice in your industry.
PS: Google recently released the October 2023 Core Update. If your site traffic is affected, you should practice patience until the update rolls out completely. It could be over the the few weeks.
Consider social ads
In today’s digital landscape, e-commerce sellers face fierce competition. To rise above the noise and capture the attention of your target audience, leveraging social media advertising is not just an option; it’s a strategic necessity.
Below, we will delve into the art of harnessing social ads to skyrocket your online presence, along with a real-world example to illustrate the impact of effective social advertising.
Understanding the Power of Social Ads
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have evolved into robust advertising channels. Here are the five reasons why you cannot ignore the power of social media advertising.
5 Reasons why you cannot ignore social media ads to increase your online presence
- Precise Targeting
Social platforms offer unparalleled targeting capabilities. You can tailor your ads to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, and even retarget users who have interacted with your brand before.
- Visual Appeal
E-commerce is a visual industry, and social ads thrive on visuals. Stunning images and videos can captivate your audience and convey your product’s value instantly.
- Engagement and Interaction
Social ads encourage engagement through likes, comments, shares, and clicks, fostering a deeper connection with potential customers.
- Cost-Effective
Compared to traditional advertising, social media ads often provide a more cost-effective way to reach your audience, especially for smaller e-commerce businesses.
- Analytics and Insights
Social platforms provide detailed analytics, allowing you to measure the performance of your ads and make data-driven adjustments for better results.
Case Study 1.0: How to increase your online presence through social ads
Below is a case study on how social media ads can increase your online presence.
Let’s take the fictional example of Sarah, an e-commerce seller specializing in handcrafted jewelry. Sarah’s online presence was struggling until she decided to dive into social media advertising. Here’s how she did it:
Step 1: Identifying Her Audience
Sarah knew her target audience was women aged 25-45 who appreciated artisanal craftsmanship and unique jewelry pieces. She also identified that these women got their information from Instagram and TikTok. Sarah went ahead to point out her target customer’s pain points – Original local handcrafted jewelry at fair prices.
Step 2: Crafting Compelling Visuals
She invested in professional product photography, capturing the intricate details of her jewelry. These images formed the backbone of her social ad campaigns. She also took videos of the process of making these products to engage with her target audience.
Step 3: Precise Targeting
Using Facebook’s ad manager, Sarah created custom audiences based on interests such as handmade jewelry, fashion, and artisan crafts. She also retargeted website visitors who had shown interest but hadn’t made a purchase.
Step 4: Engaging Ad Copy
Sarah paired her eye-catching visuals with persuasive ad copy. She highlighted the uniqueness of each piece, her commitment to quality, and the personal touch of handcrafting.
Step 5: Monitoring and Optimization
Sarah regularly monitored her ad campaigns, tweaking targeting, adjusting budgets, and testing different ad creatives to find what resonated best with her audience.
Results: Sarah’s Success Story
Thanks to her strategic use of social ads, Sarah’s online presence soared. Her engagement and followers on Instagram and Facebook grew significantly. More importantly, her sales spiked, with a noticeable increase in revenue.
In an era where online presence is paramount for e-commerce success, social media advertising is an inevitable strategy.
Consider Creator (affiliate) Marketing (Formerly Influencer Marketing)
As an e-commerce business, you constantly seek innovative ways to increase your online presence. One strategy that’s gained significant traction in recent years is affiliate marketing.
In the traditional influencer marketing model, upfront fees are often hefty and results can be unpredictable. On the other hand, affiliate marketing presents a performance-based approach that can be immensely valuable for e-commerce merchants.
Why Affiliate Marketing Outshines Influencer Marketing for E-commerce Businesses
Affiliate marketing operates on a “pay for performance” basis. You only pay affiliates when they successfully drive a desired action, such as a sale or lead. This results-oriented approach ensures that your marketing budgets are spent effectively, with a clear return on investment.
Additionally, affiliate marketing allows e-commerce businesses to tap into a vast network of affiliates. Often this can include bloggers, social media influencers, content creators, and niche-specific websites.
This diversity enables brands to reach a wide array of audiences, each with its unique interests and preferences.
In affiliate marketing, you have greater control over affiliate campaigns. You can set commission rates, track performance in real time, and adjust strategies as needed to optimize results. This level of control is often lacking in influencer marketing, where content creators have more creative freedom.
Another advantage of affiliate marketing is that it often requires lower upfront costs compared to influencer marketing, where established influencers can demand substantial fees. With affiliates, e-commerce businesses can establish mutually beneficial partnerships with a wide range of partners, from micro-influencers to niche bloggers.
Additionally, affiliates are often experts in specific niches or industries. This expertise allows you to reach highly targeted audiences who are more likely to convert. This level of precision is challenging to achieve in influencer marketing, where influencers may have a broader following.
Slyzed can help!
If you are wondering where to find affiliates, I would love to invite you to join Slyzed and allow multiple affiliates to promote your products.
We have prepared a complete whitepaper that explains everything you need to know about affiliate marketing in Kenya. You will also learn about how our sales platform can help you meet your sales goal through transparent affiliate programs.
In conclusion, enhancing your online presence as an e-commerce seller is not just a strategy; it’s a necessity for sustainable success. It is the cornerstone upon which lasting brand recognition and customer loyalty are built.
By adopting a multi-faceted approach that encompasses the above-outlined strategies, you can chart a path toward greater visibility, trust, and profitability.
Therefore, equip yourself with these strategies, stay adaptable, and watch as your e-commerce venture flourishes in the digital age.
Thank you the content is so helpful
Your post is so educative I look forward to partner with you
You are welcome. We look forward to partnering with you as well. We are delighted to have you onboard. Share and spread the knowledge. Cheers!