As an e-commerce entrepreneur you are inundated with advice on how to best market your store. Invest in design! Tweet more! Use linkbuilding! And so on…
But in today’s digital landscape, audiences are fussy and niche. How can you spend your time finding the customers that matter to YOU in an effective and efficient way?
Let me de-bunk 5 common myths of digital marketing and offer alternatives for entrepreneurs to help optimize your time and money.
Myth 1: I have built a beautiful site, so I can rely on word of mouth marketing.
You may have the best designed website on all the world wide web but believe me, it doesn’t matter if people are not visiting it. While imagery and user flow may influence buying decisions, they are less important when it comes to attracting new customers.
The truth is, once you have designed your site, the work has just begun.
Truth : Spend less time on the aesthetics and more time on the metrics. You can invest in improving the look and feel of the site once you have significant visitors.
Myth 2: The more likes on Facebook, the better.
There is no doubt that social media is one of the best ways to drive traffic and Facebook is the leader in valuable engagement. In fact, 60% of social traffic to retail sites is from Facebook.
That being said, don’t feel overwhelmed at having to earn thousands of likes. According to research published by Kissmetrics, the average Facebook likes on small to medium e-commerce sites is 500. So guess what? If you spend time finding 600 quality people to like your page, you are already above average!
Truth : Facebook is important but it is worth the effort to find hundreds of authentic fans than spending the money generating thousands of fake ones.
Myth 3: Pop ups are terrible and turn people off.
Surprisingly enough, pop ups are not universally loathed. In fact, when they are properly implemented, they can have a tremendous effect on conversions.
In one test, pop ups drove 1,357% more email captures than side bar opt in forms.
The key to pop ups is to have a strong call to action and to ask at the appropriate time. For example, promotional pop ups work well when someone is about to exit your site while email captures typically perform better with scrolling pop ups.
Truth: Pop ups work, you just have to learn how to skillfully place and design them.
Myth 4: If I price my products cheaper, I’ll get more visitors.
It is a difficult time for online retailers who are dealing with demanding customers with tons of options. While you may think customers are simply looking for the lowest possible prices, there is a lot more to it.
Alex Turnbull, the founder of Groove put it perfectly:
[Price shoppers are] higher maintenance, far less loyal, and gone at the drop of a hat when a cheaper option comes along. Plus, if you try to compete for customers on price, a bigger player can always lower their prices to bleed you out of business. We learned that we had to compete on other differentiators. Ones that actually made people want to do business with us because we were the best choice for them, not because we were the cheapest. We needed customers who were motivated by more than price.”
Truth: If you focus on price you lose out on loyalty
Myth 5: SEO is quantity over quality.
A common misunderstanding when it comes to SEO is that the more links you have to your site, the better ranking you will get in searches.
People, Google is smarter than that.
Google’s algorithm to rank websites actually analyzes the quality of the website where the link is embedded. If you start linking your site on random website, you may actually be hurting your rankings.
Truth : SEO is crucial to your traffic patterns. One way to optimize that isn’t tech heavy is to reach out to influencers in your space and start a content exchange or request adding your link to their site / social pages.
In conclusion, driving traffic to an e-commerce site is no easy task so you will need to constantly evaluate and adjust strategies based on results. Be careful not to employ every tactic that is suggested but rather focus on those that will work to drive valuable customers to your store.
Any other bogus marketing tactics you’ve seen around? Help others by sharing your examples.
