The 4 new sales strategies to boost online presence

In this online or eCommerce series, we dig into the current trends and the four new marketing strategies to boost organic sales.

Shopify has put forward four recommendations that will help eCommerce platforms boost their sales and keep their business momentum in the endemic era.

Develop a brand measurement methodology

First, align your brand activity with your top-level brand goals: With today’s attribution modeling and data-driven performance marketing, you can show a clear line to value from your brand-building activities.

No single metric will be enough to determine the success of brand activities. Instead, build a measurement framework with performance indicators aligned to your top-level brand goals, like growing share of mind, market share, or brand consideration.

Expect to run brand campaigns for at least six months before seeing a measurable impact.

Second, it is important to gather data through consumer surveys as they are a tried-and-tested method
for brand measurement.

You can use responses as inputs to metrics like net promoter score, brand awareness, brand perception, purchase intent, brand recall, and category preference.

Third, Monitor your site and social analytics regularly. Record changes before and after a brand campaign by measuring direct traffic, organic traffic for branded keywords, and backlinks.

On social platforms, pay attention to an increase in followers, social engagement, and especially shares.

Share of voice, measured across pay-per click advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and public relations, can also be a strong predictor of market share.

Boost sales

Pai Skincare, a United Kingdom–based brand selling sustainable skincare, is investing in brand awareness by leading with its values. As stores in the United Kingdom began to open up, they saw massive fluctuations in online traffic and revenue.

“We have experienced 51% cost-per-click increases in the United Kingdom year over year on our
brand,” says Roz Brabner, head of ecommerce at Pai Skincare. “This in itself is forcing us to look
outside of performance [marketing] and into more [organic] ways to increase traffic.”

Digital marketing costs skyrocketed in 2021, so the brand is looking to make large investments
into a long-term acquisition strategy through brand building

Invest in both short-term performance marketing and long-term brand building

Investing in your brand doesn’t mean forgoing performance marketing. Use both performance marketing and brand marketing to create lifelong customers and brand evangelists.

You’ll need to experiment with the exact split based on your industry and current level of brand awareness, but we recommend aiming for a 60/40 split between brand building and short-term performance marketing to achieve increased return on investment from your performance based advertising in the long term.

Diversify your advertising and sales channels to lower the cost of acquisition

First, explore new channels to reach new audiences by experimenting with them like voice shopping, connected TV, and messaging apps.

This can act as a hedge against digital advertising uncertainty. Global shipments of smart speakers and displays grew 35%28 over the past year, and spending on connected TV ads is expected to grow by double digits29 over the first half of this decade.

Second, consider investing in niche channels with high engagement, for example, Doe Lashes, a cruelty-free lash brand, shares content on Discord, a popular group chatting platform among gamers that attracts users of the same age bracket as Doe’s consumers.

And on the apartment design game, Design Home,30 players can purchase physical versions of products in their virtual apartments.

Third, don’t discount tried and-true channels which are out there. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 until September 2021, email marketing integrations were among the most popular apps globally, according to internal Shopify data.

Email and text continue to be two of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to nurture customer relationships.

Fourth, use marketplaces as both sales and marketing channels. Marketplaces are an effective channel for many DTC businesses to get new eyes on their products.

Yet 44% of brands report the biggest challenges selling on marketplaces are competing on price and controlling the customer experience.

Use a hero product to reach new customers, then incentivize shoppers to move to your site by creating store-only offers.

What is a hero product? It boasts a loyal group of followers who completely believe in it. Delivers on its’ mission. Defines and stands out as the shining example of how well a brand performs. Is the top seller, highly effective and keeps you coming back time and again.

Highlight your unique differentiators and values at every customer touchpoint

First, revisit your brand story and differentiators. Why does your brand exist? What’s your origin story? What are your brand values? What needs does your brand meet and for whom?

These fundamental questions differentiate you from your competitors, fuel your brand identity, and should form the foundation for any brand-building initiative.

Second, show your customers you share the same values. Fifty-two percent of shoppers are more likely to purchase from a company with shared values and 53% of brands are creating products in 2022 that align with their values.

Be consistent. If you take an ethical stance on social or environmental issues, demonstrate how those values run through your brand, from the top of the business to your customer service representatives.

Patagonia, a brand that actively campaigns for environmental causes, spreads their values through
every facet of the company.

Such as: Its “Worn Wear” program encourages consumers to buy and sell used items, and its “Drive-Less” program rewards employees for reducing emissions on their commute to work.

Third, treat your employees as a target audience for your brand. As your company grows, it’s easy for your brand’s purpose to get lost further downstream.

But your employees (including in-store retail staff and customer service teams) are a key part of how consumers experience your brand at every touchpoint. Thinking about your employees as a brand audience, and running marketing programs to help educate them on your brand purpose, experience, and messaging, will improve the consistency and quality of how your employees communicate your brand value to customers.

“Customers are looking for brands to align with their values. They are calling out complacency and demanding transparency. A purchase now represents your values, a demonstration of shared beliefs between customer and brand,” says Sarah Brown Founder, Pai Skincare.

The brand undertook a site rebrand to bring its values to the forefront, highlighting clean, organic ingredients (accredited by Cruelty Free International, The Vegan Society, and the COSMOS
Natural Certification) on product pages, as well as a commitment to sustainability.

Every component of product development and packaging was recently reviewed to improve the company’s carbon footprint or recyclability.

Pai Skincare’s recycling scheme makes it as frictionless as possible for consumers to dispose of parts of the product packaging through household recycling and to send the rest back with a prepaid shipping label for the company to specially recycle.

Beyond the website, the brand is evangelizing its values across email, social media, its skincare coaches, and on live shopping streams.