7 Top Strategies for Growing Your E-commerce Business

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. So, in this video, we are going over seven top strategies for growing your e-commerce business. These are the things that you have to do if you want to build a seven, eight, or nine-figure product or brand. Let's get started. So, the first strategy we're talking about is having a mobile-friendly website as well as a very, very intuitive and easy-to-use shopping cart. Let's first focus on the website because without a mobile-friendly website, you are losing out on a ton of potential traffic. Our first tip is make sure that all the text on your website is very easy to read because if the consumer cannot read the text on your website, they are immediately going to click out. As far as the design of your website, it should be very simple but also professional-looking. You'll want to choose a theme that is extremely professional because that is very appealing to the psychology of the consumer. And as far as what I mean by simple, you don't want your website to have tons of buttons and links. Pretty much the fewer you have, the better it's going to be. Now, like I said, you will really want to focus on the design of your mobile website, so pretty much what your website looks like not on a desktop but on a mobile phone. People right now are consuming more internet on their phones than ever and if you have a very mobile-efficient website, this is going to result in more leads which will lead to more sales and that, in essence, should lead to more customers as well as repeat customers. Yeah, the data is showing that more and more people are using mobile devices and it's actually surpassing the number of desktop device users. Now, going back to that easy-to-use shopping cart, this is very important because if you make it complicated for the shopper to actually check out, then the people that are actually converting 100% aka just making that first purchase is going to be a lot less and that's really going to have a domino effect on your business. So one thing you can do is optimize the number of clicks that they have to go through in order to get to your checkout page. Delete any links that are not relevant to them actually checking out and then really design your shopping cart so that people do not abandon their cart. This is one of the greatest mistakes that people make is not optimizing for that section of their website because it's really where you're closing on them and everything needs to be absolutely top-notch. One thing I'll say is that do not have them create an account before they check out. That will actually make a lot of your customers annoyed and they may just be like, I don't want to make an account right now, I'll just come back and do it later and they'll never purchase anything. Look at the data here because it really shows you that removing this extra step or at least moving it to the back can really increase your site's annual revenues. So yeah, the big point is have fewer clicks leading to your checkout page and that will result in a higher conversion rate meaning you get way more sales. Alright, the second thing is you want to focus on selling one product first. Really you guys, align your marketing efforts to sell one product at the beginning. By communicating to your audience one product at a time, you have a much clearer grasp on how the audience is reacting to your business, right? Like think about a company that is marketing a ton of different products at the same time and they're facing all sorts of different mixed responses for each of these different items. That's going to be very frustrating for you as the business owner because yeah, that's just going to be very tough to sort through. So what I recommend doing is focus on one product, perfect that product, really make that selling funnel very efficient and from there that's going to maximize your products and then you can start looking at other products after that. Another thing is that when you do more products at the same time, your output and your focus is really really divided. By focusing all your attention on one single product, you can put your maximum dedication and focus onto it. That's just really going to make your chances of success with that product a lot higher. Another great benefit to just having one product at the start is that your marketing costs could be a lot less. I find that that's where a lot of people skimp on spending their money and when you don't have cash flow from your business, it's very tough to, you know, put your own money into it without having that guaranteed cash flow coming back. Now like I said before, this does not mean that you can't sell more products later on. You can absolutely expand into related categories or products as you identify your addressable market and see how well that product performs. You'll also have return customers if you have a great first product and you guys will focus more on this later but you can actually upsell which means that at the checkout process, you are recommending another product from your catalog. This can actually really really increase your overall sales. So to go through this, let's take an example of a company that did just that and that is Levi's, the company that is really well known for their jeans. They started off marketing just one product, their 501s, and since then obviously they've started selling a ton of different things but their 501s are still super iconic. So one extremely important step for building a successful e-commerce business is sourcing from a reliable manufacturer and that's where today's sponsor comes in. Alibaba.com is the leading sourcing platform for e-commerce sellers. I've personally used them for a wide range of my own businesses and they are really the platform that everyone uses to find suppliers and get their products made. They offer nearly 200 million products and 200,000 global suppliers to choose from with an easy to use website and mobile app. As a business owner, you have the option for a variety of supply options, drop shipping, full customization, as well as ready to ship products. Sourcing products globally is normally quite complex and difficult but Alibaba.com makes it so much safer with their tools like trade assurance, verified suppliers, and a 3D showroom. I've literally had dozens of products sourced through Alibaba.com and I've always had a great experience ending up with a high quality product. So yeah, that's why I'm really excited that they were able to sponsor this video. Anyways, if you are a new or existing e-commerce seller looking to grow your business, I highly recommend checking out their platform and finding your products to sell on there. Their platform gives me the confidence I need to find a reputable supplier that can handle my business needs and all at really great pricing. It's really all about spending less and selling more. The links will be in the description and now back to the video. The next strategy we're talking about relates to growing your brand and trust. In order to grow your brand, you really need to focus on storytelling because it's absolutely been proven that storytelling increases brand loyalty. Now what I recommend doing is applying storytelling to your page content, your about us page, your product descriptions, as well as your marketing. It's really interesting because stories are actually 22 times more memorable than just straight up facts. And yeah, if you are memorable to your audience, then that is a very, very great sign. And another thing I want to talk about is you want to use images as part of your storytelling. Different images can definitely invoke certain reactions. And what I'll say is you absolutely do not want to use photos that are very clearly stock images. Those will cheapen and ruin your brand. So you'll really want to focus on creating organic photos or photos that you have made yourself and not just cheap out and buy an image online that is a stock photo. So if you guys take a look at this image, you can see that 73% of consumers need three or more images before they actually buy something online. And going to your product descriptions, they should definitely not be boring. You'll want to be very energetic with your language. You'll want to storytell. And those two things combined are really going to invoke emotions from your audience. One thing you can do is absolutely emphasize how your product will help them, really make them picture themselves using it. And that's really going to help with your conversion rates. 67% of consumers say that it's really important for brands to provide them with personalized experiences. And one thing you have to do is add reviews and ratings to your product page. Over 92% of consumers rely on reviews to help with their purchase. And a study of 1,000 consumers discovered that better reviews are the number one thing that will make people choose a higher priced option. Our strategy number four is using social media to your advantage. You'll want to build relationships with your customers on as many social media platforms as possible. So we're talking about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and more. When you're big on social media, that allows you to have organic traffic, aka traffic that is completely free and just comes naturally. It also allows your customers to really identify and connect with your brand. Because on these platforms, you'll likely be using a lot of images or video. And that, you guys, is storytelling, which really makes people feel attached to your brand. On these platforms, you will want to post regularly. Because when you do that, it reminds your audience that you exist and that you have really awesome products. And whatever content you're posting on these platforms should not just be media that's selling your products. It should be selling the emotion behind your products, which really gets them to actually want it. After you build that base of content that your audience can really relate to, you can start incorporating different sales or promos into your content. And that, you guys, is your organic traffic that should really increase the number of sales you get. Another thing I really want you guys to focus on is try and generate user-generated content. So an example of this is, let's say you go to a restaurant nearby. It has some really, really cool-looking food. You place an order, you take a picture, and you post it on your social media tagging that restaurant. That in itself is awesome because, you know, it's word of mouth. But what you can do is actually hit that person, ask if you can use their content on your own page. And yeah, it's sort of like a win-win because you get a piece of content that you can post, and they get some publicity from being tagged on your page. So yeah, going back to the images that you should be sharing, they should absolutely be authentic and relevant, and they should speak to a brand experience that, you know, cannot be manufactured. Oh, and it's interesting because 79% of people said that user-generated content really impacts their purchasing decisions. We also find that user-generated content is 9.8 times more impactful than influencer content when making purchasing decisions. The fifth strategy we're talking about is video marketing, and this sort of relates to the last post about social media. Nowadays, so many more people consume information through videos. Now, when it comes to videos, 51% of marketers are using YouTube, 17% of marketers are using paid video hosting, and 23% are using self-hosting. You can also see that Facebook is the most popular social channel at 75%, followed by YouTube and then Instagram. As a business, you can use videos to market your brand, build trust within your audience, keep customers informed, and actually show them how you can use your product or service. And yeah, it's very interesting because 87% of video marketers said that video gave them a positive return investment in 2021, compared to only 33% in 2015. So yeah, you can see just how impactful video is getting for this type of marketing. And you can see that in this 2018 report, 93% of marketers claim that they've landed clients thanks to videos on social media. One great thing is that making videos nowadays has gotten a lot easier. So yeah, it really is cost-effective for businesses to generate their own videos and use video as their main social media content strategy. An example of a brand that uses a lot of video is Fitbit. They make tons of videos detailing their product functions and also provide a lot of dynamic and engaging content. Yeah, tying this back to storytelling, you guys, video is just such a powerful form of storytelling. Definitely use videos if you have a brand and you want to connect with your audience because that in turn is going to drastically increase the number of sales and profit that you have. So the sixth thing we're talking about is your email marketing strategy. This is something that every brand or business should be doing alongside their social media content strategy. The first thing I'll say is that email generates the highest return investment for marketers. And for every $1 spent, email marketing can generate $38. Of course, that's going to depend on your email list as well as your brand. One reason why I love email marketing is because you own your email list. It's an asset that only you have. It's not uploaded on another platform like YouTube. And as a result, it can be so powerful. What I like to do with email marketing is use it to actually offer discounts as well as to just remind your audience that you exist. Creating content for emails can be very, very inexpensive and it's really easily outsourceable to people that you hire. Now, of course, not all your emails should be selling your product because that doesn't really give your audience any value. You can have helpful newsletters, different articles about fun things that relate to your brand. And yeah, the list really goes on. But I think what I'm trying to say here is that you really want to focus on building your email list. And you can do this by offering something for free. So for example, a lot of websites are going to do like 10% off in exchange for your email. And yeah, email is a very powerful marketing strategy. It's pretty boring. It's been done for a long time. But there is a reason why it's so successful and so many brands still really rely on email marketing to get sales. Okay, so the seventh and final thing we're talking about today is building a winning ad strategy. We've talked about email marketing as well as your social media. And that is sort of your organic marketing strategy. But we don't want to focus on just that organic strategy, right? It's probably a very big portion of your business. But you'll also want to do some sort of paid ads. And for this, you'll want to advertise through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Now, it seems to me that Facebook ads generally have the highest ROI. And that's because it's so easy to target who your ad is shown to based on their interests. Now, with Google ads, you can actually place ads that show up when people search for different search terms. And I like to refer to that as intense marketing. Basically, what that means is they are intending to book something up or buy something because that's why they're searching it on Google. And if you can show up then when they are in that process, then that can give you a great shot of actually being the product that they buy. Now, when you use these types of ads strategically, you can reach thousands of new leads and customers as well as convert them into buyers. I can't really go into too much detail on how to build a winning ad strategy in this video. Otherwise, this video would probably be like two, three hours long. But I do promise to make more videos about this in the future. Another thing you guys need to know right now, which I'm not going to get into too much detail on, is retargeting. So when someone clicks on your advertisements or they go to your website, you can actually track that and retarget your ads towards them. So basically, what happens is once they do that, they're going to see a lot of ads. I know you guys have probably experienced this firsthand. That's a very effective way to drive paid ads at certain people. But yeah, I could get really in detail about this. I could talk for probably hours about it. So I'll save that for a future video. Anyways, those were seven really great strategies that you need to implement if you're trying to build an e-commerce business. These strategies will apply to many different types of e-com businesses. It doesn't matter if you're doing Amazon FBA, if you're making your own brand, if you're dropshipping, all this will apply to your business. Anyways, thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please make sure to hit that like button and also subscribe to my channel to see more content just like this. I make ton of videos about personal finance, entrepreneurship, as well as investing. Again, thank you for your time and I'll see you in the next video. Peace.