Digital Marketing for E-commerce – Where to Start?

E-commerce digital marketing – where should you start and what do you really need to know before getting started? In this article, we will explain the various ways to start increasing e-commerce sales and what you need to consider to make digital marketing as effective as possible for you.

If you wish to avoid the unfortunately common scenario where already high figures continue to rise while sales decrease and growth slows down or stagnates, please continue reading.

We have compiled here the most effective marketing channels and the most critical tips for genuinely successful e-commerce digital marketing!

Digital marketing starts with your online store

Before starting digital marketing for your online store, you must first fully understand and internalize one thing: all sales and marketing originate from your online store.

The goal of your online store is to achieve a conversion (a sale or another desired event), which for you might mean making a purchase or joining an email list. The main task of your store is to make this event happen.

‍No other channels will ever sell on behalf of your online store, they can only increase visibility and traffic to it. Therefore, your own online store is your most important sales channel, and all marketing should start from there.

The purpose of digital marketing channels, such as social media and Google, is to increase brand awareness and bring people to the online store, where the actual purchasing takes place. If the visitors to the online store are not convinced by what they see, no sales will occur. No, even if you bring as many people as possible to your store from any other channel.

In order for your online store to generate conversions, i.e., sales, as efficiently as possible, its implementation must be such that it both meets the needs of your potential customers and advances your company's goals.

In e-commerce digital marketing, attention should therefore be paid right from the start to the store's conversion ability, i.e., the ability to get visitors to make a purchase or perform another desired action.

The structure, navigation, appearance, elements, and content of an online store form a whole that can either collectively convert visitors into paying customers or not. If your online store is not designed with conversions as the main goal, it is unlikely to sell now or when people are brought there from other channels.

Advertising alone almost never suffices to achieve truly sustainable sales growth. For this reason, your most important marketing channel is always the online store itself, which should be prioritized.

Improving conversion capability is the first and most important part of e-commerce digital marketing.

To achieve long-term results, you must work on the conversion capability of your online store. It is advisable to start advertising only after the online store can effectively convert incoming traffic into customers.

Digital marketing for e-commerce is guaranteed to succeed effectively when the store is first optimized for selling. Sales capability can be increased by making the online store as user-friendly as possible and aligned with the company's goals.

In practice, during conversion optimization, the user experience of the online store is improved while guiding and assisting visitors towards desired actions, such as making purchases and completing payments.

The measures taken to improve the conversions and sales of an online store vary depending on the condition of the store.

In an online store that usually sells poorly, the most critical issues requiring correction are slow loading time, an incomprehensible structure, and poor usability. In addition to these, there may be issues with the store's appearance, code, used elements, and content. Often, stores are also burdened by unnecessary and inappropriate add-ons.

The specific areas in the online store that need improvement can be identified through A/B testing.

There can be many types of errors, and it is often difficult to find all mistakes if you don't know what you're looking for. Some good guides can indeed be found on Google, but without experience, successfully performing conversion optimization can, frankly, be challenging.

If you are just starting out as an online retailer and want to have a selling online store immediately, we recommend turning to professional help instead of doing it yourself. At Growly, conversion optimization is always included in the price when implementing effective online stores.

Conversion optimization can also be performed on an existing or under-construction online store. However, it is important to understand that if the implementation of the online store has not followed industry best practices, a significant improvement in conversion capability may require a complete overhaul of the store.

However, a comprehensive e-commerce overhaul often proves to be a cheaper and more efficient option than optimizing the old online store.

The Most Effective E-commerce Digital Marketing Channels and How to Choose Them Correctly

Assuming that your online store is already conversion-optimized and effectively tested for conversions, it's time to decide on the marketing channels through which you will drive traffic to your online store.

The appropriate digital marketing channels should be chosen based on your target audience and resources. As an online retailer, you naturally want to be everywhere your potential customers spend most of their time. However, if time and/or money are insufficient to manage every potential marketing channel, you are not obliged or even advised to be present everywhere.

When resources are limited, as they are for many entrepreneurs, you are much more likely to get something out of digital marketing for your online store if you don't try to be in as many places as possible with half effort.

So choose a suitable marketing channel or a few suitable ones for yourself, where your time and budget allow, and start investing in them seriously.

There are many digital marketing channels, but for us, the most effective for an online retailer have proven to be search engine optimization, Google advertising, social media advertising, content marketing, and email marketing.

Let's go through them next.

1. SEO or search engine optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to various actions aimed at organically (naturally, without paid methods) increasing the visibility and discoverability of an online store in search engines.

There are many search engines, but the primary choice for most people is Google. You can also consider utilizing other search engines in e-commerce digital marketing, but we will now focus on this overwhelmingly popular search engine.

Search engine optimization aims, of course, to rank among the first organic search results.

SEO is worthwhile because organic search results have been proven to receive significantly more clicks on Google than ads, and you don't have to pay separately for those (clicks).

People simply trust natural search results more, and the majority do not have the energy, inclination, or desire to click beyond the first page. This is evident in the statistics, which show that websites that rank on Google's first page capture 95% of all traffic. Online stores that rank on the second and subsequent pages receive a mere five percent of the traffic.

The order of organic results, which search engine optimization aims to influence, matters. For example, the first natural search result receives 10 times more clicks than the tenth result.

So it's no wonder that many choose to invest in search engine optimization in e-commerce digital marketing.

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How is search engine optimization done?

There are different types of search engine optimization. There is external, internal, and technical search engine optimization, each consisting of its own measures.

Some aspects of search engine optimization, such as internal optimization, are easier to implement once you take the time to delve into the best and most current practices in the field. This involves optimizing, among other things, the site's content, such as texts, links, and metadata.

External search engine optimization includes links from other sites to your online store, which can be difficult to obtain without quality content and strong authority.

Search engine optimization can very well be done by yourself at the beginning, as long as you are willing to seek enough information and learn new things. However, when doing it alone and without in-depth expertise, you are unlikely to accomplish everything.

Search engine optimization is indeed more demanding the more competition there is in your field for search rankings and the worse condition your online store is in. If the online store is conversion-optimized, it requires slightly less effort from the search engine optimizer, and with minimal competition, it can be relatively easy to make the online store visible in search engines.

In the most competitive fields, ranking high in search results and maintaining that position requires much more, even if the store is technically sound. In such cases, you will achieve results faster and more reliably by seeking the help of a professional for digital marketing and search engine optimization of your online store.

Search engine optimization is also the continuous monitoring of the functionality of an online store and the prompt correction of errors that negatively affect search rankings.

This is where technical optimization comes into play, involving various measures related to the functionality and structure of the online store, most of which require web development and coding skills that professionals in the field possess.

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Search Engine Optimization vs. Conversion Optimization

At certain points, conversion optimization and search engine optimization involve similar actions. They are not exactly the same thing, as they have different goals and require slightly different skills. When done correctly, search engine and conversion optimization positively influence each other.

While conversion optimization measures often improve search engine visibility, search engine optimization measures can equally increase conversions.

For example, improving the structure of an online store (conversion optimization) pleases not only people but also search engine bots and thus positively affects ranking in search results (search engine optimization).

On the other hand, for example, blog content and meta descriptions visible on Google (search engine optimization) can generate conversions.

In the world of e-commerce, there seems to be a kind of "everything is connected to everything" type of effect. Hopefully, you are gradually beginning to understand why the implementation of e-commerce plays such a significant role in the success of digital marketing.

2. Google Ads or search engine advertising

SEM, or search engine marketing, is one of the most commonly used and effective forms of Google advertising.

Google Ads, or search ads, are text advertisements that appear above the organic search results on a search engine. They are displayed whenever a user types the keywords you have defined, or possibly their close variants, into Google's search bar. With search advertising, you promote your online store and products using the keywords you have set.

This is how you can reach potential customers at the very moment they are actively searching for information about products.

According to Semrush, one person makes an average of 3-4 Google searches per day, which is a very potential number for an advertiser.

With the right keywords and appealing texts, search engine advertisements are indeed a very cost-effective digital marketing tool for e-commerce and a quick way to increase sales.

For an online retailer, Google's search advertising offers several advantages, the most important of which is the ability to reach targeted groups (ads can be precisely targeted based on the target audience, such as location, gender, age, and interests), fully control the budget, and analyze and track results accurately using Google Analytics.

3. Display - i.e., banner advertising

Google Display or banner advertising is estimated to reach 90% of internet users.

Google succeeds in this by utilizing platforms it owns, in addition to the search engine itself, for delivering Display ads: including YouTube, Gmail, Play Store, as well as various partner websites and applications. The latter network consists of a mere few million pieces.

Display ads work excellently in reaching people who are not actively searching for any product, but fit well into the target group and the profile of your potential customer and could therefore be very interested in what you have to offer.

In the vast network, advertisements appear at the top, on the side of the browsed site, or for example, during a YouTube video.

Display advertising as a digital marketing tool for e-commerce can be very effective, as it offers a cost-efficient way to reach a very wide audience.

Before starting any kind of Google advertising, you must once again know that the performance of your store will significantly affect how much you have to pay for ads and how high you can get your ads to rank. Everything is interconnected, and therefore, before advertising, your online store should have conversion optimization and at least basic search engine optimization done.‍

4. Social media advertising (e.g., Facebook and Instagram advertising)

You can generate a significant amount of traffic by advertising your online store on social media channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok. In addition to traffic, social media advertising offers an effective way to increase brand awareness.

Since each social media channel and advertising on them works slightly differently, it is advisable to delve deeper into the platform or platforms you choose before starting advertising. However, when advertising on any social media, you must remember one and the same thing: your advertisement must be genuinely high-quality and interesting.

Advertising alone without thought or strategy will not lead to increased sales, and a bad or tasteless ad can even undermine trust in your brand.

Advertising also involves its own risks when it is used as the only digital marketing method for an online store.

‍In recent years, the cost of advertisements has increased along with growing demand, and advertisement prices can vary significantly depending on the current competitive situation.

Social media ads may work well today, but the results they produce are generally not as stable as organic traffic. Things can also change quickly in a day if a social media account is accidentally closed or hacked.

Although social media advertising can be a very effective way to implement digital marketing for e-commerce, it should not completely replace organic traffic, as natural traffic grows more steadily over time than paid traffic, and you don't have to constantly pay for organic visibility and the clicks it generates.

For these reasons, social media advertising is usually most effective when done simultaneously with search engine optimization and organic web and social media content production.

We would like to remind you once again that no amount of traffic (purchased or organic) will produce sustainable results if the online store is not optimized before starting advertising.

Since time and money are valuable, and you have to pay for each click whether your ad generates sales or not, it is advisable to have the groundwork done before you start investing heavily in advertising.

5. Content Marketing

Like search engine optimization, content marketing is part of a long-term marketing strategy. Content marketing may not be the fastest way to generate sales, but it can be very effective and completely free when done independently.

In content marketing, the focus is on creating valuable content that genuinely serves potential customers. Most commonly, this is done in the form of blog writing, but in e-commerce, content marketing also includes content, product descriptions, product images and videos, guides and tutorials, webinars, and among others, podcasts. This blog post is also an example of content marketing.

The goal of content marketing is to create meaningful content for your target audience that answers the audience's questions and helps build trust in the online store as well as develop customer relationships. When executed correctly, the aforementioned content generates interest in the products you sell and helps potential customers complete their purchase journey. Successful content marketing generates leads and conversions.

When you decide to invest in content marketing for your e-commerce digital marketing, focus on supporting your customer throughout their entire purchase journey. The purchase journey consists of four different stages: awareness, interest, decision, and advocacy, where customers in each stage need different information to move forward on the path. Your task here is to produce content that helps and encourages them to move forward.

When doing content marketing, also ensure that potential customers receive the information they need whenever it suits them – and through the channel that suits them. This way, you can best serve your target audience and create more desired results.‍

6. Email Marketing

Email marketing can be a very cheap and effective digital marketing method for e-commerce. It is not completely free, and moreover, email marketing divides opinions.

Some swear by the marketing channel, while some entrepreneurs consider it completely useless and ineffective.

In principle, sending any business email to a customer is email marketing. An online retailer can utilize email in the form of current updates, abandoned cart notifications, and discount codes sent on the customer's special day.

Such individual newsletters may generate some clicks to the online store and occasional purchases, but their number is usually not overwhelming. You often achieve the best results when you try to create a series of emails that focus on a topic that genuinely interests and benefits your potential customers, and send them at the right time.

In email marketing, many things can go wrong. You might send emails too often or too rarely, at the wrong time of day and on a bad day. Additionally, the content of the message might be uninteresting, otherwise inappropriate, and it might accidentally appear incorrectly to the customer or not at all. 

Compared to all other digital marketing channels in e-commerce, successful email marketing statistically yields the most. However, without testing and learning from mistakes, results cannot be expected.

In addition to communicating at the right time, crafting messages that are genuinely interesting and engaging requires effort. Email marketing is often condemned too early, that is, before all the mistakes made have been corrected or even noticed.

When you start email marketing for the first time, you must first set up your chosen email tool and create an email list.

You can encourage people to join the list on your online store by offering, among other things, a discount percentage, free shipping, or a free downloadable product.

When implementing email marketing, you must also be aware of a few aspects concerning GDPR regulations. For example, the customer must always have the option to easily unsubscribe from your email list, and the subscription forms must not have pre-filled checkboxes.

Summary: E-commerce Digital Marketing – Where to Start?

Although the matter surely became clear already, we will say it once more – The digital marketing of an online store always starts with the online store itself. and its refurbishment to be as converting, i.e., as selling as possible.

If an online store cannot generate sales, it doesn't matter how many people you bring there through other means.

For this reason, marketing actions should always start with conversion optimization. Only when the online store is first optimized to convert visitors into customers as efficiently as possible, can you start thinking about how to drive traffic to the online store.

Digital marketing channels should be chosen based on where your potential customers are. Additionally, the selection is influenced by your company's goals and resources.

You don't have to please everyone in every possible place. With limited resources, it is often more profitable to do targeted marketing to your own target audience using only a couple or a few channels.

However, if you know or even suspect that your online store is not selling as effectively as it should, it is not (yet) worthwhile to invest in visibility. In this situation, it is best to start by addressing the basics, i.e., improving the user-friendliness and conversion capability of the online store, so that purchases will occur when traffic is later directed to the store from other channels.

Digital agency Growly certainly creates effective online stores and digital marketing that generate sales and sustainable growth. We have already helped over 150 companies succeed online through, among other things, conversion optimization and website redesigns.