The e-commerce market is worth over £100 BILLION – here’s how to make it work for your startup

The e-commerce industry continues to boom in the UK after generating £119.64 billion last year, according to Statista.

Marketing expert Isobel Burns shares 5 tips for developing a focused e-commerce marketing plan to give you a competitive edge in an ever-expanding market.

Use Email Receipts

Emails are still one of the most effective ways of reaching customers through e-commerce marketing. One essential tool is email receipts. Email receipts are transactional emails – triggered by a customer taking an action such as buying a product – that thank customers for their business and provide discount codes in return for referrals. Transaction emails are opened at a much higher rate than traditional mass email campaigns and are an integral part of any successful ecommerce marketing strategy.

Optimise Images

You already know that SEO is central to driving business to your webpage – but image optimisation is also a key driver of new customer clicks. Make sure you provide a clear file name that describes what’s in the picture, adjust the image size so it will load quickly and use alt text to provide more information to describe an image.

Use Facebook and Instagram

Reaching customers where they live is a big advantage of social media advertising. Your business needs a combination of well-placed infographics, videos and other media content to get people to look your way. Facebook and Instagram are powerhouse platforms for marketing campaigns that speak directly to your customers, and native ads are an excellent way to create excitement around your brand on your terms.

Tell a Compelling Story

Customers respond to personalised content more than the heavy-handed sales pitches of the past. Writers now use brand stories to highlight the personality of businesses and show customers why they should buy from these companies. Storytelling speaks straight to the needs and wants of customers as individuals.

Include User-Generated Content

Popularised by Instagram, using user-generated content is a highly effective strategy in e-commerce marketing. People take photos of themselves using products and post them to their social media accounts. As a business, you should repost these photos to build customer relationships and boost repeat sales.

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