Best B2C, B2B Ecommerce Marketing Strategies – Learn Everything about Ecommerce Business

 

Ecommerce is one of the most competitive industries online. Whether you’re selling jewelry, sports gear, or something else, there will always be competitors fighting for clicks and customers. So, how can you make your ecommerce marketing strategies stand out from the competition in 2024?

In this blog post, we will learn “what is ecommerce?”  “e-business model,” “the top ecommerce platform,” and “the best ecommerce marketing strategies.”.

What Is E-Commerce?

E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) is the process of buying and selling products or services online, where transactions are completed through digital platforms.

 E-Commerce usually means online shopping, but it also covers any money or data transactions done over the internet. For example, besides online stores, it includes online auctions, wholesalers, subscription services, digital product sales like e-books or software, crowdfunding platforms, and online marketplaces. All of these are part of e-commerce.

When a user subscribes to a premium Netflix plan or an organization hires a freelancer through platforms like Upwork or Fiverr, both are examples of e-commerce.

4 Types of E-Commerce Business Models

Let’s look at the four types of e-commerce business models in brief:

1. Business to Consumer (B2C): In the B2C business model, a business sells its products or services directly to customers. Online stores often use this model.
2. Business to Business (B2B): In the B2B business model, a company sells its products or services to other businesses. Companies that provide B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) or sell items in large quantities use this model.
3. Consumer to Consumer (C2C): In the C2C model, transactions happen between two customers. For example, when a person sells their used items to other people, it’s an example of the C2C model.
4. Consumer to Business (C2B): C2B e-commerce occurs when a consumer provides value to a business. For example, online platforms where freelancers offer their services to companies are an example of the C2B model.

What Is an E-Commerce Platform?

An e-commerce platform is a software tool that allows businesses to create and run an online store.

The application includes all the tools needed to market and sell products. It also lets business owners track store performance, manage inventory, set product prices, and run promotions.

Like other enterprise software, an e-commerce platform can be either on-premise or cloud-based. Most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) prefer cloud-based platforms because they require minimal upfront investment and allow easy scaling up or down without major changes to the business.

6 Top E-Commerce Platforms

Let’s explore six of the most popular e-commerce platforms. Each platform offers different features, so not all may be the best fit for your business. Be sure to research each one thoroughly before choosing the right option for you.

1. Shopify

Shopify provides a SaaS e-commerce platform designed for small businesses, boutique stores, or artisans. Its user-friendly interface makes it simple to set up and manage an online store.

Shopify lets you create an online store and includes features like social commerce, Facebook ads, and a POS system. The basic plan starts at $29 per month and can go up to $299 per month. For larger enterprises, Shopify offers the Shopify Gold plan. Hobbyists can try out the Lite plan for $9 per month.

2. WordPress – WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress websites. It provides features similar to those found on most e-commerce platforms, allowing store owners to handle all aspects of their online store.

While the plugin is used by various businesses, you’ll need developers who are skilled with WordPress and WooCommerce to fully customize and scale its features.

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce provides two main plans: Enterprise and Essentials. It offers a range of features similar to Shopify and WooCommerce and can be integrated with social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram), Amazon, Google Shopping, Square, and eBay. Due to its complexity, beginners might face a steep learning curve. The basic plan starts at around $30 per month, while Enterprise solutions are available with a custom quote.

4. Magento

Magento is an open-source platform that can be installed on your own servers. Magento 2 is a cloud-hosted version. Hosting Magento on your own servers gives you full control over your data, but it also means you’re responsible for managing security updates and other maintenance tasks.

5. Wix

Wix is a website builder that lets you create online stores using a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to set up an e-commerce site with little or no coding. While Wix allows you to manage your store, create product pages, and set up coupons and payment methods, it’s not as feature-rich as dedicated e-commerce platforms. Wix offers a free plan, with premium plans starting at $29 per month.

What Is E-Commerce Marketing?

E-commerce marketing involves activities that help guide potential customers through the conversion process. It enables the following:

1. Creating awareness about your e-commerce store
2. Driving traffic to the store
3. Converting visitors into paying customers

5 Steps to Document an ECommerce Marketing Strategies Plan

Before you start developing an ecommerce marketing strategies, create a detailed ecommerce marketing strategies plan. This plan will serve as a guide for executing your strategy and help ensure that your marketing efforts are organized and effective.

Step 1: Set Goals & Objective for your Store.

If you’re new to e-commerce, start by setting goals for your store. Check the average success rates in your industry and set your goals based on that. If you set goals that are too high without knowing what’s typical, you might be disappointed when you review your results.

Existing stores should check their current performance and compare it to industry standards. If their performance is below average, they should set goals that are in between their current performance and the industry benchmarks. If their performance is better than the industry average, they can set higher goals based on their marketing budget.

Step 2: Analyze Your Target Audience and Competition

Do you know who your ideal buyers are? If so, what are their characteristics, interests, buying power, and other demographic, geographic, and psychographic details?

Gather all this information to create several buyer personas. Understanding your ideal customers will help you design a conversion funnel that works best for your business.

At the same time, monitor your competitors to see what’s working for them. Are they focusing on Facebook ads or making YouTube videos? Use these insights to choose the best strategies for launching your ecommerce marketing strategies plan.

Step 3: Choose Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategies and Tactics

What actions will help you reach your marketing goals? Understanding this will help you select the right marketing channels and strategies to hit your sales targets. For example, if you run a B2C e-commerce store with ambitious sales goals, you might need to invest heavily in social media ads to connect with your target audience.

If you’ve created a conversion funnel, it will be easier to identify the best marketing channels for each stage. For example, SEO is essential for the awareness stage, while email marketing helps keep your leads engaged during the interest and desire phases.

Step 4: Build Your Martech Stack

A martech stack is a collection of tools designed to support your marketing efforts. To build a martech stack for your store, first identify the marketing channels you want to focus on, then find tools and applications that help you automate and manage your marketing activities across those channels.

Choose tools with a lot of features to make your martech stack strong. For example, besides your e-commerce platform, using a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) and a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool can be the foundation of your marketing efforts. If you choose a MAP with enough features, you won’t need to buy separate tools for email marketing and social media management.

Creating Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategies

These 10 best ecommerce marketing strategies can help a business stand out from its competition, build a stronger brand, attract new customers, and boost sales over time.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Launching a website is a big step for any e-commerce company, but it’s not enough to make the brand easy for customers to find. To increase visibility, marketing teams need to optimize websites for search engines. Good search engine optimization (SEO) means regularly updating the website with valuable and relevant content that helps customers.

An SEO strategy helps businesses ensure their content appears on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant searches and provides a positive customer experience (CX) by giving customers the information they need. Marketing teams should naturally include SEO keywords and phrases in their content to signal to search engines that the site is relevant to those searches.

Marketing teams should also use simple, easy-to-read URLs and descriptive page names that include a primary keyword. These URLs and names can also contain familiar words or phrases that customers are likely to use when searching. This approach requires keyword research to find opportunities for creating new content.

SEO helps businesses appear on SERPs, making it easier for customers to find their websites.

2. Content marketing

To boost SEO and establish brand authority, marketing teams should include content marketing in their ecommerce marketing strategies.

For example, a blog can be an important part of a successful marketing plan by letting brands create content that’s relevant to their products. Blogs allow marketing teams to use important keywords that might not work well on product or category pages. This content can directly address customer needs, offer useful solutions, build trust, and strengthen relationships. Overall, blogs can help increase brand visibility and lead to more sales from both new and existing customers.

Content marketing helps answer customers’ questions, educate them, tell the company’s story, and guide them toward making a purchase. Different types of content, like videos, downloadable guides, and user-generated content, can also enhance a brand’s reputation. This content can be shared on the blog, attracting more attention to the business and its products.

3. Social Media Marketing

Along with strong SEO to help content appear on SERPs, brands should connect with consumers where they spend their time: on social media. These platforms are great for engaging with an active audience.

Billions of people use social media every month, making it a powerful tool for brands to build genuine connections with their followers. On these platforms, marketing teams can engage by responding to comments, sharing relevant content, and offering more information about their products.

Marketing teams should choose the right platforms to manage and share their content. For example, Twitter users might prefer different types of content compared to Instagram users. Teams should understand which platforms their customers use most and match their content accordingly.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing can keep prospects and customers updated about new products and information. By sending timely and relevant updates, marketing teams can inform both new and existing customers about sales, new product releases, and new blog content.

Personalized emails help keep customers coming back and making repeat purchases. When marketing teams show they understand a buyer’s shopping or browsing history through these emails, they can build a strong and loyal customer base.

Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to keep in contact with all different types of customers.

5. Customer Loyalty Programs

Customer loyalty programs can boost revenue and keep customers coming back. Loyal customers are valuable because they’ve already bought from you. By rewarding loyalty and encouraging repeat purchases, marketing teams can increase customer lifetime value (CLV) and turn customers into strong brand supporters.

Marketing teams can choose from different types of loyalty programs, but those that are consistent and offer real value to customers tend to be the most successful. Loyalty programs also offer great opportunities for personalization, as they can gather more information about customers and identify the best times to send targeted communications.

Loyalty programs can also offer special deals, discounts, and birthday wishes to strengthen the relationship between the business and the customer. However, if customers aren’t aware of a loyalty program, they probably won’t join it.

6. Optimized Product Pages & Smooth Checkout Experiences

An e-commerce website has category and product pages, but optimizing product pages can boost conversion rates. These pages should make it simple for visitors to view the product, learn about its features, and make a purchase.

Product marketers can use analytics data to decide which pages need optimizing to improve sales. They can see where sales are coming from or where they’re being lost. Teams should also make the checkout process easy and reduce the steps needed to complete a purchase.

7. Pay Per Click – Advertising

Some ecommerce marketing strategies are low-cost to implement, but sometimes brands need to spend money to get their products and services noticed. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can help place product pages at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) as ads.

Effective PPC campaigns include an ad, a special offer, and a landing page. This strategy can support SEO efforts and help businesses use their marketing budgets to showcase offers to consumers. Marketing teams can run search and display ads on search engines or within ad networks. These ads can follow users to other sites they visit, increasing visibility for products and offers. Additionally, marketing teams can use paid ads on social media platforms.

Organizations that have trouble appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs) might find a paid search strategy helpful.

8. Retargeting

Building on a PPC strategy, retargeting is another paid method to bring back people who have already visited a website and shown interest. While PPC can attract new visitors, retargeting focuses on users who visited a page but left without making a purchase.

Brands can create different audience lists based on the pages users have viewed on their website. For example, if someone visits various product pages on an e-commerce site, showing interest in those items, brands can show targeted ads on other websites within their ad networks. These ads can direct users back to the specific product pages they viewed and encourage them to make a purchase.

 

9. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a popular strategy for brands looking to reach specific audiences through trusted figures. Influencers are found in various markets and industries, from tech review blogs and YouTube channels to lifestyle products and TikTok creators. By working with influencers, brands can connect with their followers effectively.

This approach is especially useful for organizations launching new products. Companies can send influencers free products in exchange for reviews, promotions, and a third-party perspective on the product, which helps increase the brand’s reach. Engaging with influencers may involve product giveaways or sponsorship fees, depending on the terms set by the influencer.

Marketing teams should view influencer marketing as a valuable part of their ecommerce strategy. It fosters positive relationships with influencers, who can then provide favorable reviews or promotions for the products.

10. SMS Marketing

SMS texting is becoming an important channel in ecommerce marketing strategies. Alongside creating relevant content, sending emails, and using paid ads, social media, or influencers, marketing teams should not overlook that consumers are frequently on their phones.

Brands looking to use SMS marketing can gather phone numbers from consumers and send regular, timely offers to both potential and existing customers. Online retailers are among the most successful at using SMS marketing. This strategy helps with cross-selling, upselling, recovering abandoned carts, and offering exclusive promotions to boost sales.

 

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