8 Low Budget Marketing Hacks for eCommerce

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Ecommerce marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. With the right strategies and tools, you can effectively market your eCommerce store without needing to tap into a major budget.

Digital marketing is essential for any eCommerce business. It doesn’t matter how good your products are – you still need to attract customers to your store if you want to make sales. Luckily, with digital marketing, there are many ways that we can do this.

Here are some of the best low-budget marketing strategies for eCommerce businesses. Any online store can implement these pretty easily, and they could make a major difference to your sales.

  1. Advertise Cheaper Products
  2. Make the Most of Email Marketing to Drive Free Traffic to Your Store
  3. Use Content Marketing to Build a Community
  4. Focus on Upselling and Cross-Selling
  5. Explore Different Social Media Channels
  6. Use Popups to Create Amazing Offers
  7. Offer Something Special
  8. Utilize Social Proof and User-Generated Content

1. Advertise Cheaper Products

If you’re using paid advertising as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy, then advertising less expensive products will save you money.

This is because customers need more convincing to buy more expensive products. So if you run ads for an expensive product, you’ll end up spending more money on those ads until you start making sales. A product that costs $100 could cost you $300 to advertise before it starts selling.

Customers will buy less expensive products on impulse. They don’t need a lot of convincing to buy a product if it’s not particularly expensive. This means you’ll spend a lot less advertising cheaper products before they start selling – which results in a much better ROI.

Top Tip: A great eCommerce marketing strategy is to draw customers in with more affordable products, and then upsell to them when they’re at your store. We’ll go into more detail on upselling later.

2. Make the Most of Email Marketing to Drive Free Traffic to Your Store

Ecommerce success comes down to traffic. The more traffic you can bring to your online store, the more sales you will be able to make.

There are a couple of different ways that you can bring traffic to your online store, but email marketing is one of the best. Once you’ve gathered an email address for a potential customer, you have that email address forever. You can send the right content to this potential customer whenever you want to generate sales.

Email is a highly effective eCommerce marketing strategy for two main reasons:

  • Your email list should consist of people already interested in your products
  • Sending email costs you nothing

This is because when someone signs up to your mailing list, they’ve already shown an interest in your brand and your products. This will make it easier to target marketing strategies to them that result in sales.

When it comes to email marketing for eCommerce, there are all kinds of email approaches you can take. You can send them product updates, special offers and coupon codes, newsletters, interesting content that you create, and more.

The best eCommerce marketing strategy is to make sure you send the right content to the right people. To do this, you will need to use an email marketing platform with a leads database that allows you to create different email lists. For example, you could have a list of existing customers, a list of customers that purchased certain special offers, lists based on location, and so on.

Just make sure that each email you send has a clear CTA that leads to your store.

eCommerce email marketing

Ecommerce Lead Generation

In order to use email marketing, you will need to have an email list. This is what we mean when we talk about eCommerce lead generation. Basically, your “leads” are potential customers who have shown an interest in your products.

How do you gather these emails?

Here are a few strategies that you can use:

  • Run a giveaway or contest. You will capture the email address of everyone who signs up to win, and you already know that they’re interested in your products.
  • Use strategically placed popups across your online store to gather email addresses
  • Offer discounts and special offers for email signups (“sign up to our mailing list and receive 10% off your first purchase”)
  • Offer interesting and valuable newsletter content
  • Use awesome lead magnets in exchange of emails.

Top Tip: With a platform like Wishpond, you can create all of the lead generation campaigns listed above, as well as send out customized email marketing campaigns, all from a single platform.

Check out this guide to eCommerce email examples and tips to help you create a more successful eCommerce marketing plan.

eCommerce newsletter

3. Use Content Marketing to Build a Community

Like we said earlier, traffic is the one thing your online store needs if it’s going to make sales. When it comes to eCommerce marketing, you first need to generate traffic. Then you can generate sales.

And you don’t just want a lot of traffic, you also want to attract high-quality traffic that has a strong intention of buying. The best way to attract this is through content marketing.

Creating content doesn’t have to cost anything, and it offers one of the best returns on investment possible. Doing content marketing on a budget isn’t that hard either.

Your main goal should be to create high-quality content that appeals to your potential customers. This should be content that offers them some kind of value and will result in them being sent to your online store.

First, you will need to understand what type of content you will be focusing on. Blog posts are always a good choice, but you can also focus on video (YouTube is an awesome place for eCommerce marketing), podcasts, or anything else. Of course, you should also be sharing your content on social media.

Then it’s time to create content. Think about your target customers, what they’re interested in, and what their pain points are. You want to offer them value, and give them a reason to visit your online store. Ideally, you want to create content that is interesting, draws attention, and can offer long-term results.

eCommerce content marketing

Here are a few ideas for eCommerce content marketing:

  • Product reviews and demos
  • How-to guides and product guides
  • Product roundups
  • Influencer content and unboxing content
  • Any helpful content that relates to your product and customer

For example, let’s say you sell tools. Great content could include DIY guides on how to build things with those tools. If you sell food products, create recipe content. If you sell hiking boots, create content on hiking guides and trails. These are all examples of the kind of content your potential customers will be interested in, and you can easily sed them to your online store from this.

The trick to using content for eCommerce marketing is to create a community based on your niche. Having a clear niche is important for dropshipping stores and regular online stores to gain a strong understanding of their customers. This will help you market to them more effectively.

SEO 101

Really great low-budget content relies on good search engine results. SEO is your biggest advantage when it comes to content marketing. Unlike paid advertising, good search engine rankings will bring you a lot of free traffic over a long period of time.

Successful SEO involves a lot of different factors. The main idea is to target the right keywords, or search terms, and get your content ranking for this. To do this, you will need to understand which keywords your potential customers are using, and then optimize your content around this.

Gaining traffic from keywords that show a high buying intent is important. For example, if someone searches for “best lawnmower”, they are likely interested in buying a lawnmower.

Check out this eCommerce SEO checklist to help you cover all of your bases.

If you want to achieve great SEO results, then you should consider working with experts. This is because there are over 200 ranking factors for SEO, making it tricky to claim the top spots if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

Wishpond offers affordable SEO services for eCommerce stores. This is an easy way to rank well in search results without having to hire an expensive SEO agency.

eCommerce SEO

4. Focus on Upselling and Cross-Selling

It costs a lot more to attract new customers than to sell to existing customers.

One of the most budget-friendly eCommerce marketing ideas is to simply put more effort into selling to your existing customers. These are customers that have already made the decision to buy, and they already trust your brand. Selling an extra product to them will be much easier than selling that same product to someone new.

To do this, you should optimize your online store for upselling and cross-selling products. Suggesting similar products to ones that your shoppers view, or revealing products that go well with their purchase is always a good approach. Amazon is a master at this:

Amazoon upselling

If a potential customer shows an interest in your store, then running retargeting ads is an excellent strategy. 97% of visitors leave online stores without buying anything, and retargeting is one of the best ways to get them back and make a purchase. Sure, these ads will require some marketing budget, but they also produce good results.

Of course, you should also be using your email to upsell to existing customers. For example, if you have customers that brought winter clothing from you, add them to a list and send them offers for summer clothing when the seasons change. You know they already trust your brand, so there’s a better chance of them making another purchase.

Offering referral programs and loyalty rewards are also great ways to keep your customers coming back. By making the effort to keep your existing customers’ buying, you’ll be able to keep your sales up without having to spend all your marketing dollars.

eCommerce upselling

5. Explore Different Social Media Channels

Ecommerce doesn’t need to be restricted to your website. One of the best ways to expand your reach without expanding your budget is by making the most of social commerce.

Social commerce is when you sell directly through social media platforms. All the big social media channels support some form of eCommerce. This can be a great way to streamline the customer journey and ramp up your sales.

Here’s a helpful guide on social commerce to help you put together a killer social commerce strategy.

And when it comes to social media eCommerce marketing, it’s always a good idea to explore new and different channels. For example, TikTok is one of the biggest social media channels with amazing potential to help you go viral. A lot of brands still aren’t using TikTok for their marketing, and they’re missing out!

Read our complete guide on TikTok for eCommerce marketing to find out more.

@vuoriclothing Halloween is just around the corner. Here are a few easy costumes with pieces you can wear all year long ? #halloweencostume #costumeideas #halloween #easycostumes #TargetHalloween ? brutal opera by Adamusic – Adam Wright

6. Use Popups to Create Amazing Offers

Having popups on your online store can make a major difference to your sales. By including strategically placed popups that trigger at the right time, you can give your visitors just the nudge they might need to make a purchase.

Besides using popups to capture emails, they should also be used to promote products and offer discounts. If someone is looking at your product and they’re hesitant, a popup that triggers a discount code could push them to become a customer.

Remember, visitors have come to your store for a reason, so there is a good possibility you will be able to turn them into customers. Using a convincing popup to do this is an excellent strategy.

With the right tool, creating popups is easy. Wishpond lets you publish beautiful popups wherever you want them – no knowledge of coding or design is required.

eCommerce popups

7. Offer Something Special

There is a lot of competition out there. Customers need a reason to choose your brand over others, and a good way to do this is with a special offer.

This could include free shipping, a first-purchase discount, a special gift, or anything else that adds extra value to the shopping experience.

Offering something special, like free shipping, doesn’t necessarily have to cost you anything. For example, if you cover your shipping costs in the retail price of your product, and advertise “free shipping”, customers will have more reason to support you than if you offer a slightly cheaper product with additional shipping costs. If you tell a customer they’re getting free shipping, the customer feels like they’re getting something extra.

A discount or special offer for first-time buyers is another great way to encourage sales. These sales may not be as profitable as full-price purchases, but they’re allowed you to do two things:

  • Attract a new customer (who you can sell to again in the future)
  • Convince a customer to support your store over others (even if it means slimming down your margin a bit)

Think of something that will make your customers feel special or add extra value to their lives, and promote this on your eCommerce store.

eCommerce special offer

8. Utilize Social Proof and User-Generated Content

Social proof is the phenomenon when consumers want to copy the actions of other people. In terms of eCommerce marketing, social proof can be incredibly powerful. And it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

There are two really important social proof strategies for eCommerce marketing. These are:

  • Reviews
  • User-generated content

First of all, your online store needs as many positive reviews as possible. The first thing that consumers do before making a purchase is to check the reviews of a product. Having as many clearly visible reviews as possible is essential for building trust and influencing sales.

Start by reaching out to all of your customers and asking them to leave a review. You could even incentivize reviews, by sending an email to customers saying something along the lines of “review your purchase for a chance to win a $100 voucher”.

As soon as you’ve generated some reviews, display them clearly on your product pages and websites. You can even share positive reviews on social media.

Next is user-generated content on social media. You want to get as many people posting about your product as possible. Having real customers share their experiences with your products in the real world is incredibly valuable for your eCommerce marketing.

One way to do this is through a social contest. For example, you could ask customers to post a photo of themselves with one of your products for a chance toi win. You could also get influencers to post user-generated content. This might have a wonder reach, but it will probably cost you.

eCommerce user generated content

Conclusion

E-commerce marketing ideas don’t have to be expensive. In fact, some of the most effective eCommerce marketing strategies are totally free.

One of the best things about running an online store is that you can be very specific about how you attract customers to your eCommerce store, and who you bring in. The marketing strategies listed above are all pretty simple and affordable, but they can offer excellent results for any online store.

If you need to attract more customers to your store, or if you’re looking for ways to get visitors to complete their purchase, then try these strategies out.

Have you got any low-budget strategies that you’ve implemented for your eCommerce business? Let us know in the comments below!

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