Do you want to attract the right audience to your website or page without having to spend a lot on campaigns? Well, know that Inbound Marketing for e-commerce can be the ideal solution!
This strategy has become increasingly essential as the internet becomes more popular in society. Today, the main focus is on attracting the public to your website or page, and not on persistently trying to get them to buy your product without being prepared.
This is what Inbound Marketing does: it helps educate your customer until the ideal moment of approach , which is when they already know they need and want to buy the product.
Want to know how to do this on your business’ communication channels? Keep reading and find out!
What is Inbound Marketing for e-commerce?
First of all, it is necessary to understand how this strategy works. As we have already mentioned, Inbound Marketing seeks to attract your customers to your communication channel through content that is relevant to the user.
This way, you inform your potential customer about a subject that interests them and, in return, they get to know your brand.
But be careful! The topics should be related to your product. For example, if you sell hair products, you should create content like:
- hairstyle trends;
- hairstyles for straight hair;
- hairstyles for curly hair;
- between others.
How the e-commerce purchasing journey works
The buyer’s journey is the path your lead takes until they purchase your business’s product or service. It is divided into four stages:
- Learning and discovery (when the user discovers your brand and starts consuming Inbound Marketing content for e-commerce);
- Problem recognition (this problem or pain must be solved by your product or service);
- Solution consideration (when the user starts considering the purchase);
- Purchase decision (when the user makes the decision to actually become a customer).
See? There are many paths to purchasing a product, and Inbound Marketing for e-commerce aims to ensure that the user has an excellent experience while going through this journey.
In this sense, it is also interesting to consider after-sales as the last stage of the journey, to build customer loyalty.
Inbound Commerce Strategies to Attract and Convert Customers
Let’s get down to business now. Discover the most popular approaches in inbound marketing for e-commerce, which seeks to draw in consumers and turn them into buyers.
Use and abuse content marketing
You may have already noticed: content is one of the main pillars for the success of an Inbound Marketing strategy for e-commerce.
But for content marketing to work properly, you first need to study the characteristics of your business . So, first of all, do some research to find out:
- your buyer persona (a semi-fictional character that represents your ideal customer);
- keywords (what is your potential customer searching for? These could be the topics of your content!);
- SEO strategies (for your content to be remembered, first, it needs to be seen!);
- among other factors.
Create a blog
Anyone who thinks that this tool has been forgotten on the internet is wrong, as one of the most relevant content currently is the creation of articles for the blog.
This is because, nowadays, when we are in doubt about something, one of our first instincts is to look for the answer on Google (or other search engines) and click on the first answers.
Therefore, creating blog articles with topics relevant to your persona is a great strategy.
This way, you increase your website’s organic traffic and also attract several potential customers.
Similarly, it’s critical to spend money on SEO techniques to get your material as near to the top of Google’s initial pages—the search engine that most people use on the Internet. We will discuss this topic further later!
Convert with CTA
There’s no point in creating relevant content if your potential customers don’t do anything other than read it. That is, you need them to make a decision.
That’s why you need a CTA ( call-to-action ). A CTA is usually used at the end of content, as a suggestion of what the user can do next.
This suggestion will depend on the stage of the sales funnel your lead is in. Some examples are:
- follow the brand’s social networks;
- download an e-book ;
- read an article;
- subscribe to the newsletter ;
- access the product page;
- between others.
Apply SEO strategies
Your website or page has to be somewhat visible on Google for inbound marketing for e-commerce to be successful. This is due to the fact that over 25% of users of this tool click on the first search result, per study.
And that is the goal of SEO techniques: to optimize your website so that it can be found more easily and thus attract qualified traffic. This is one of the most economical and recommended practices when we talk about Inbound Marketing for e-commerce.
Use landing pages
LPs ( landing pages ) have the same goal as CTAs: to convert your visitor. The difference is that, instead of a button or click, they are conversion pages.
Landing pages also help with ranking and data collection , and can be used in different Inbound Marketing strategies for e-commerce, such as:
- download free material in exchange for the lead ‘s personal information (email, name, contact, etc.);
- schedule a meeting or conversation with consultants;
- start purchasing a product or service;
- create a personalized conversion page for each segment of your audience;
- between others.
Send email marketing
Keep communication with your customers active and your leads engaged by sending email marketing and newsletters .
Emails can contain a variety of different content, such as blog articles, social media posts , and even offers and discounts.
Create social networks
With more immediate and fun communication , social networks are all the rage right now. In other words: part of your target audience is definitely there.
In this sense, creating more relaxed and light-hearted content on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp can be a great Inbound Marketing strategy for e-commerce.
A presence on social media will increase your brand reputation and keep your audience engaged.
Likewise, offering service on these networks can help you sell more and increase the satisfaction of your customers who are looking for practicality and comfort.
How the sales funnel applies to Inbound Marketing for e-commerce
Now you know what Inbound Marketing is for e-commerce and how it relates to the purchasing journey, but how can you apply these techniques to the sales funnel? Check out some tips!
Attract visitors
Use attraction tactics to attract more visitors and potential customers. To do this, you can create ads on Facebook Ads and Google Ads , for example. This, in addition to SEO strategies to attract organic traffic.
Since we’re talking about Google Ads, how about watching a video on the subject?
Google Ads, how does it work?
In this sense, it is interesting to understand your target audience as much as possible to be able to segment your campaigns and ads , targeting the right people.
Generate leads
Once you’ve attracted users, fill your website with opportunities to convert them into leads . To do this, make the most of CTAs, landing pages , and email marketing.
Convert your leads
The fourth step is to transform your leads into customers through the stages of the buying journey .
To do this, you need to understand what the persona is looking for in each of these stages and, therefore, offer the right solution until they reach your product or service.
Keep your customer loyal
According to research, keeping a customer can be up to 7 times cheaper than acquiring new customers.
To keep your customers interested in your company even after they make a purchase, keep providing them with pertinent material and employ post-sale techniques.
To do this, you can also offer special offers and discounts for a second purchase.
Two interesting strategies at this stage are: free shipping and exclusive discount coupons. This is because, with these advantages, the customer will be more tempted to do business with you again.
This way, you can keep your customers satisfied, increase your sales and even become a market reference for your target audience .
