Boost Your Online Sales with These 5 Shopify Marketing Tactics

You did it. You’ve built your very own Shopify store from scratch! You might be asking, “what’s next?” Well, it’s time to make some money, of course.

It's not going to be easy, but if you want a regular monthly income, you need to start selling on Shopify.

Conquering the world of sales is not a simple endeavor, that much is certain. In fact, reaching sales and income objectives is one of the largest obstacles that small businesses encounter. In any case, we're here to help.

Let us teach you how to start a Shopify business with very little capital and turn it into a profitable one.

Why do I need a Shopify marketing strategy?

When it comes to creating an online store, Shopify is by far the best eCommerce platform. That’s the reason there are over 1.7 million businesses worldwide that rely on it to sell their products or services.

It is the industry leader because of its superb design, usability, product customization, SEO-friendliness, inventory management, and interoperability with key payment platforms.

You can count on its many outstanding capabilities to help you create a shop, grow online sales, and scale your business quickly.

Nevertheless, a well-defined Shopify marketing strategy is required for increasing sales. Success with Shopify can be achieved in many ways if you have an effective marketing plan in place.

A solid marketing plan helps to properly promote your services or products in order to attract new customers or retain your existing ones.

Having a marketing plan also gives you something measurable to track and quantify your progress instead of grasping at straws. It also helps you stay focused and put your ideas into action.

How do I choose the best strategy for my business?

Before deciding on the most effective marketing strategy for your Shopify business, consider the following.

• Your goal - what do you want to achieve?
• Target audience - who do I want to sell to?
• Cost - How much money can I afford to spend on my strategy each month?
• Manpower - How many additional hands will I require to put it into action?
• Scale - Am I a small, medium, or large business?

Depending on your responses, the “right strategy” will rely on the following:

If you’re on a tight budget, you’d probably choose to go for Search Ads or Facebook Ads rather than producing a whole digital commercial. If you’re a big business however, this may not be enough but that would also mean you have more budget to spare.

If you’re a small business, you’ll also have to consider adding extra manpower to ease some of the workload. Is there anyone on your team who can head marketing? You might need different people for digital marketing altogether.

Here are some of the best strategies you might want to consider.

1. Send Email Sequences to Engage Customers

Despite popular belief, sending emails is still quite popular. Last year alone, 3.9 billion worldwide users actively communicated via this medium, and the figure is expected to surpass 4.3 bn in 2023.

Email marketing is the practice of promoting a company's products and services to potential consumers via email, including sending pre-programmed messages to such prospects.

Email sequences are automated email messages delivered to customer segments after a predetermined period. Instead of sending generic emails, this feels more personal and authentic to customers.

It’s still an effective strategy today because people read a large number of promotional emails everyday. This is because they like the excitement of receiving personalized recommendations.

How to segment customers

The best way is to segment clients by purchasing behavior (actions/lack of actions). Once you know the customer's lifecycle stage, you’ll be able to send them emails that are relevant to them. Here are some key segments:

Prospects: Those who give their information after browsing the page and before exiting the store's website. You can send them a very quick welcome email and encourage them to check out the brand and your products.

New buyers: These are people who've picked an item or two to test out the brand first. You can send them an email with order details, instructions, and a link to your website when they buy from your Shopify store. Don’t forget to thank them and make them feel special!

Regular buyers: These are customers who keep coming back but also purchase from other brands, trying to get the best deal possible. If you want to be their first option, send them an email with a special offer they can’t refuse.

Loyal customers: These are your most devoted customers and the ones you should appreciate most. You can keep them coming with a VIP or loyalty program. Make sure they know how much you value them and urge them to join your loyalty program for better and exclusive offers.

2. Personalize on-site product recommendations

The facts are, 56% of online customers are more inclined to return to a site that gives product suggestions, and 49% have purchased a suggested item without intending to. This is because customers associate a great shopping experience with a customized approach. In turn, product suggestions can improve your Shopify sales.

Upselling

Just by adding a "You may also enjoy" or "Buy the look" section (by default) can help push pricier products to buyers who might find them appealing. This is known as upselling.

Cross-selling

This is where you suggest products that go well with the ones someone has already bought.

Selling proactive

Proactive selling is being two steps ahead of your customers. For example, instead of waiting for a visitor to take action, try to overtake them by issuing them a chatbot message mentioning the item they’re looking at.

3. Start influencer-driven affiliate programs

Affiliate marketing is one of the main sources of online income across the globe and accounts for about 16% of all eCommerce orders in the United States and Canada. It’s grown in popularity as more people start purchasing online.

This is a strategy that creates a network of brand supporters who promote, suggest, and vouch for your business in exchange for wages. Influencers help you reach untapped audiences and sell more Shopify items.

But how do you find the best affiliate?

BuzzSumo is a popular research tool for locating the perfect influencers that have built their careers around a certain area of interest and are eager to become the face of your company.

Or check Instagram. Check similar influencers (for example, fashion, kids, travel, etc). You may then verify their content and number of followers. There are also many tools to let you check engagement rates. Ideally, you want better engagement rates, but the bigger the influencer, the lower their rates get. Go for an ER of above 5%.

Selecting an affiliate partner is only one half of the equation. Before you decide to work together, take the following steps into account:

• Provide an attractive commission rate (based on the industry average and your financial capabilities)
• Your program’s terms and conditions should be crystal clear.
• To ensure that affiliates have enough material to work with, provide relevant product information.
• Use freebies to build rapport.
• Be available to them if and when they require it.

Note that the more popular the influencer, the harder it will be for them to agree with working with you. That’s why an enticing offer is needed.

4. Introduce shoppable posts on your Instagram account

A few years ago, Instagram customers could only be redirected to a store's website if the URL was placed in the bio part of the profile or in Instagram stories.

But Instagram introduced shoppable posts, allowing the complete purchasing process (from discovery to checkout) to take place within the app.

Now, due to the recent Instagram and Shopify integration, Shopify store owners can offer their products to a larger audience by publishing them on a well-known network with over 500 million users.

Shoppable Instagram posts include the product’s name and price so all a customer needs to do to complete the transaction is touch the post to see the product information. They'll be redirected to your Shopify store from there, where they can finish the transaction.

Make sure you meet all of the following requirements to connect Instagram with your Shopify store:

• You have a Shopify Basic plan, a Facebook business page, and an Instagram business account in one of these countries, with your Instagram account linked to your Facebook page.

Remember, Instagram is all about the visuals. This is why certain photos receive a larger number of impressions than others. It's important to remember that the presentation is more important than the product itself.

5. Make the Checkout Process Faster

A lengthy checkout procedure can easily impede a business's success. It's too much effort, and it irritates customers. If it takes too long to go through all of the confirmation tabs, a badly made checkout can make the user experience look bad.

This is why an increasing number of shoppers abandon their shopping carts and exit the store without purchasing anything.

The average abandoned cart rate is 77.73% implying that $4.6 trillion worth of items is left on the shelf each year.

But of course, there are ways for you to reduce your abandonment rate.

How can I make my checkout process more efficient?

• Reduce the amount of steps and information needed.
• Allow people to check out without having to create an account.
• Provide your target customers with their preferred payment methods.
• Automate the entry of codes or discounts so that customers don't have to.
• Put everything on one page if possible