People spend money online.
A lot of money.
eCommerce is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it’s estimated that total retail eCommerce sales in America alone will reach 603.4 billion US dollars in 2021.
If you want a piece of that action, you need to start producing content for your eCommerce store – and then monetizing it.
In other words, you need to make content marketing work for you.
Content marketing is the best way to reach a generation of shoppers that want to be immersed in a proper marketing campaign, as opposed to being sold to.
This is the age of information, and what content does is two things:
1) It drives traffic to your store
2) It boosts sales and conversions
More traffic is fine, but it means little if conversions and sales aren’t increasing. This is where monetizing your store comes in.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at how to better monetize your eCommerce store across all channels.
Monetize Your eCommerce Store: Make Videos
Video marketing is a massive deal. Videos can increase conversions by as much as 80% on landing pages, while 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube each day.
But what can you as an eCommerce store owner do with videos?
Videos can help your customers understand your product better. While you can use text and images to show how something works, videos are more powerful and compelling.
And when a customer knows how something works, they’re more likely to go ahead and purchase it.
Then there’s the fact that Google loves video. Google prioritizes and favors websites and online stores just like yours that have videos, which means that including videos on your site can boost your position in the SERPs.
This increases exposure and visibility, and can lead to more conversions and sales.
Video is easy to share too, and it captures the imagination in a way that plain text and images just can’t.
Your videos can be fun and entertaining, but they must also inform, engage and educate people about your products.
As well as how-to videos and product guides, you could also use videos to highlight customer testimonials.
You can then share your videos to your website, as well as across your social media channels.
Build a Lead Funnel + Create an Email List
A customer doesn’t usually read your blog to buy something.
In fact, making a purchase is probably the last thing on their mind as they start reading your blog.
So why do they read your blog? Primarily to learn something or to occasionally be entertained.
Despite a customer not being in a buying frame of mind, your blog is a crucial stage of your funnel, and you can use it to warm them up.
Why? Because you can use your blog to capture people’s attention via educational, helpful, informative and engaging content that converts them into loyal customers.
Monetizing your store via content starts with a blog, and it’s time that you saw your blog as a key part of your lead funnel.
The aim is to publish content that…
1) Is compelling for people to read
2) Easy for people to find
3) Convinces people to take an action
Once people are reading your blog and enjoying it, the next thing to do is to get them to sign up to your email list.
Once they’re on here, you’ve got an excellent chance of turning them into full-time customers via more awesome content.
You can send out regular emails that entertain, engage, educate and inform, as well as emails that promote your products and any discounts you’ve got going on.
How to convince someone to hand over their email address and sign up to your mailing list? Engage them in what we call an “ethical bribe,” – or what’s otherwise known as a lead magnet.
This is a free gift – usually an eBook or a cheat sheet – that’s stuffed with value.
You offer it to your customers in exchange for their email address, and because the free gift is so rich in value, the idea is that – in their mind at least – they’ve got the best deal here.
From now on, start using your blog to educate your audience. Solve their problems. The more you do this, the more trust you will build with them and the stronger your relationship will become.
Then, they will want to keep on buying from you.
Become an Affiliate Marketer
You can sell your own products … but you can also sell other peoples products, too.
Affiliate programs are a terrific way of monetizing your eCommerce store across all your channels.
Being an affiliate advertiser is super simple once you’re up to speed, and it lets you sell other peoples products for a paid commission.
This means that, as well as selling your own stuff to your customers, you’re double downing with more products.
You can promote other company’s products on social media, via blog posts, and you can also promote them via email.
Each time a customer clicks on the affiliate link you’ve provided and makes a purchase, you take home a slice of the profit.
If you’ve built up a healthy following on social media and have a large email list, you’ve got plenty of customers to sell affiliate products to.
Of course, you need to be very transparent with your customers. Each time you promote someone else’s product, make sure you’re clear that this product isn’t yours.
Encourage Shares
If you’ve ever bought anything from online retailer ASOS, you might have noticed that, after every purchase, they send you an email with a clear CTA: Share your purchase.
You’ve just bought something from them, and they want you to show it off to your friends on social media.
This is a really neat idea, and while we don’t have any stats on the conversion rates, it sounds like something that can work.
Moreover, ASOS incentivize a share by promising customers the chance to appear in the ASOS gallery.
It’s a simple but compelling hack that requires you to add a clear CTA to the end of each purchase confirmation email you send to your customers.
It’s important to remember that, when it comes to monetizing your eCommerce store, the hard work doesn’t stop when you’ve made a sale. It has to keep going.
Tell your customers what it is you want them to do next; include social buttons at the end of your emails and ask them to share their purchases.
Invest in a Powerful Logo
The thing with your content is that you can’t monetize it if it isn’t resonating with your audience in the first place.
Your brand has to speak to people, and it has to leave a good first impression.
Key to building a strong reputation is a powerful logo that your audience identifies with.
Your logo can create a good impression, attract new customers, and it helps you to stand out from the competition.
A logo can also help you retain your customers and it shows that you take this seriously.
Even if you haven’t got the time to hire a professional graphic designer, you can use Shopify’s Logo Maker to create a powerful logo in a matter of minutes.
Conclusion
These are ways to better monetize your eCommerce store.
As well as selling, you need to start marketing, and although this will take some time at first, monetizing your store will get easier once you’re up and running.
