There is no doubt that Ecommerce is on the rise across the globe, and that business success in such a competitive environment will depend on your ability to generate leads, and nurture them to fruition. Given the fact just how lucrative the future of Ecommerce is, achieving this will become exponentially more difficult as new players enter the market in search of Ecommerce superstardom.
If you want to stay competitive and drive the lead generation process, you will not only need to incorporate technology and AI into the mix, but also improve on some of the most effective tactics used by your top competitors. Let’s take a look at the six lead generation strategies that will help your business flourish in the competitive Ecommerce world.
Generate leads through social media
When people become your followers, they position themselves just a couple of clicks away from a purchase. This is the Goldilocks Zone of the Ecommerce world, as you have the unique opportunity here to improve your sales with smart social media management that doesn’t require any grand financial investments but delivers excellent long-term results.
With compelling content, calls to action, excellent customer service, deals and discounts, you can make every one of your social media accounts interesting and engaging enough for the potential customer to follow the link to your website, and make the decision to buy. Be sure to always monitor your social media performance in order to adapt your approach and tailor the experience based on the platform and its audience.
Nurture them with email marketing
From digital marketing gurus predicting its demise in the wake of social media and other direct forms of communication, to it becoming one of the most important lead generation tools in the Ecommerce world nowadays, email sure had an exciting journey thus far. In today’s competitive world, though, it’s one of the rare tools that can complement your entire digital marketing strategy and help your brand connect with its customers on a more personal level.
You can reach out to your potential customers via email by sending out newsletters and promotional material, or even promoting your blog and stories directly tied to your products. However you choose to approach the challenge of email marketing, remember to include your social media buttons in the header and the footer to incentivize people to become your followers. With a strong CTA in the email as well, you will easily inspire them to check out your store.
Upgrade your customer service
Once people land on your website, it will be up to your customer service agents to seal the deal. In the modern Ecommerce world, having a strong customer support program will mean all the difference and allow your brand to connect with its potential customers and give them a reason to stay. Fail to answer all of their questions and resolve their problems in a timely manner, and you will lose them to your competitors.
With high traffic volumes on a daily basis and hundreds of inquiries to handle, only a comprehensive online sales chat management system will be able to help you reduce the noise and the clutter, and streamline the customer service processes. In order to take customer support to the next level, you should not only offer 24/7 live chat service, but also communicate with your customers in numerous languages and use specialized communication procedures to convert them into paying customers.
Use website cookies for retargeting
Website cookies are among the most powerful digital marketing tools in every marketer’s arsenal. Simply put, every visitor on your website is a potential lead because they have accepted the cookie policy upon entering. With their information and online movement stored in your cache, you can track them on social media and execute accurate retargeting campaigns to reignite their interest in your products.
Even though there are people who will disable cookies, and even though these entries will eventually expire from your cache, using them to fuel an efficient sales cycle and obtain paying customers in a short amount of time is a tactic you shouldn’t skip.
Incentivize with deals and discounts
Every piece of personal information matters in the online world, and especially for your lead generation efforts to bear the desired fruit. With that in mind, gathering email addresses to fuel your email campaigns should be one of your top priorities. However, people are usually not so keen on simply giving away their email – after all, they know brands are going to start bombarding them with deals and discounts if they do.
This shouldn’t stop you, though, as there are a number of ways for you to incentivize people to share their email address with your website. There needs to be a cost-benefit factor at play here, so make it worth their while by offering special coupon codes, deals, and discounts for everyone that forks over an email, or better yet, brings their friends over in the process.
Create content with SEO in mind
Just because Ecommerce companies deal mostly in quick sales cycles and high customer turnover doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t play the SEO game for the long haul. After all, the first step to converting a lead is to get the person to your store in the first place. You want your store to rank high in the SERPs in order to build its online authority in the eyes of your demographic and Google, so focus on creating SEO-driven content across the board, ranging from compelling product descriptions and effective meta, to in-depth articles and stories that will tell the search engine crawlers that your website is worth the customer’s time and money.
In conclusion
Lead generation is the name of the Ecommerce game, because you need new customers to grow your business, and because every new customer has the potential to become your brand’s lifelong follower. Use these strategies to skyrocket the lead generation process, and stay two steps ahead of the competition at all times.
