It takes time to get ecommerce businesses up and running. You have to find the right product or service, set up a website where you can sell it, and make sure that the site generates enough traffic that it becomes lucrative.

All these are easier said than done—and it can be overwhelming. But with hard work and dedication, it is possible to grow your ecommerce business. All you have to do is focus on following the different steps below carefully.

1. Find your target audience

A very simplistic way of looking at this would be to describe the people who buy your product.  However, you have to look deeper into it if you want to gain more insight into your market and determine who your potential market is.

Essentially, you’re creating a buyer’s persona for your intended audience. And it should be as detailed as possible. This has to include:

• Market demographics, starting with age, sex, salary, location.
• Audience interests, specifically hobbies and interests, to gain further insight into their psyche.
• Personal details such as goals and values as well as fears and perceived challenges.

While this kind of information was once only accessible if your business had the budget to hire a marketing agency, these days, you can easily capture critical data yourself using simple tools available to ecommerce marketers online.

2. Determine critical keywords for your business

Keywords are important. At the very least, this is what helps search engines give users relevant results when they look for your product or service online.

From a marketing strategy standpoint, the use of keywords helps identify which of your products or services are most in-demand and it also helps paint a better picture of your competitive landscape.

That said, once you’ve started working on your keyword list, keep the following in mind:

• Important, relevant keywords is largely dependent on how well you know your audience.
• Using available keyword tools helps you find ideas for complementary products that could raise your visibility online.
• Choose high volume, low competition keywords.

3. Focus on content marketing

As an ecommerce business, it’s easy to think that the number one priority on your list, is to sell. But you’re missing a critical step here: generating traffic.

An ecommerce business won’t be able to sell anything if they are unable to gather enough traffic on their site. Given that, your primary priority should therefore be implementing strategies that would achieve this. How?

• Start a blog—but be realistic about your expectation. High-traffic blogs with steady, constant traffic takes time to build. But that’s not to say that you shouldn’t get started on it as soon as possible.
• Make sure that this  blog is filled with content that resonates with your target audience. This again goes back to how well you know your audience.
• Include necessary keywords to help boost traffic to your blog, and ultimately, your site. A thorough keyword research prior to this is essential, and seamlessly incorporating relevant keywords into each post will definitely help you boost traffic.

4. Pay attention to how you market your products

If you know your audience, have a well thought out plan to generate traffic to your site, you can expect a decent volume of traffic going to your site. This means, that your job as an ecommerce marketer doesn’t stop with simply bringing people to your website—everything they find there should be able to capture their attention and engage. The goal after all, is to make them complete a purchase or transaction.

• Make sure your site’s images, copy and visuals are carefully crafted and are professionally done. For retail sites, it’s important that you have high-resolution images to show, for services, it’s critical that users experience great customer service.
• Navigation on your site is another important consideration. If your site isn’t professionally done, is confusing, or too simplistic, you’re conveying distrust among users.
• Keep everything on your site consistent. Streamlined aesthetics combined with key trust features will help build credibility for your business.

5. Do not neglect email marketing and promotions

If you’ve worked hard to get the first few steps right, traffic will inevitably start to grow. At this point, it’s important that you focus on your email list.

Your email list is important because this is a critical component to keeping in touch with your customers and paving the way for a loyal, steady customer base. A pop-up, opt-in form is key to collecting such details, and if you don’t already have it on your site, it’s time that you have a mechanism to collect emails in place.

• Resist the urge to spam your users. Make sure you’re sending them important information that they will find useful and relevant.
• Draw people to your email list by running promotions or contests that will direct audiences towards the direction of your email list, and pitch additional incentives that await them at your site.
• Offer exclusive content accessible only via being part of the mailing list.

This 5-step plan is a great jump off point for ecommerce marketers who want to start generating real results for their business. Give it a try and see for yourself.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section below.

And if you think you need help improving your conversions, get in touch with us today.