The Most Effective Digital Marketing Channels for Ecommerce

Choosing the right channels and marketing tactics saves money and improves marketing ROI. But how does a business decide on the appropriate ones for an eCommerce digital marketing strategy??

You can start by learning about the various types of marketing channels used by eCommerce companies, and how they can boost your sales before picking which ones work best for your business.

What Are the Main Digital Marketing Channels for Ecommerce?

Let’s face it — traditional advertising methods aren’t enough anymore. With more people spending their time on their phones, selecting the right channel is an essential part of digital marketing strategies for eCommerce.

While every business should cultivate a strong online presence, the best digital marketing channels for eCommerce depend on your unique business and the ideal route to target your audience.

It’s about standing out from the crowd, and our team at Comrade knows just how it’s done. And it’s not just all talk. Last July, our agency ranked among the Best eCommerce Experts to Hire in 2021 by DesignRush, one of the world’s leading agency ranking platforms.

How Do You Choose the Best Digital Marketing Channel for Your Business?

From SEO to PPC, social media, content marketing, and affiliate marketing, there are many channels to choose from. And to help you begin your eCommerce journey, we’ve compiled a digital marketing channel list to help you select the right one for your business. Let’s get started!

The Most Important Digital Marketing Channels for Ecommerce

Before you begin working on perfecting your digital marketing campaign, you must first identify the best tool to boost your business. Below are industry standard digital marketing channel examples.

1. SEO and Organic Traffic

First off, is SEO a marketing channel? Yes! Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the top, most commonly used eCommerce marketing channels. Think about it — how often do you search for something completely random on Google? Daily, I’d assume. Ever thought about how businesses get in those first few spots on your search? This is all about SEO.

How Does SEO for Ecommerce work?

SEO is about using specific keywords relevant to your business so that you rank higher on Google and, as a result, become one of the top resources for your target audience. There’s more to this than just keywords, too. A great SEO strategy includes linkable assets, link building, and both on-page and off-page optimization. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but with the right digital marketing team by your side, SEO can do your business a great service.

2. PPC

We’re often asked “Is PPC a marketing channel?” Technically, pay-per-click is a category of marketing that includes several tactics to reach audiences via multiple channels. It’s one of the best paid digital marketing channels to use if you want quick, tangible ROI.

How Does PPC for Ecommerce work?

With this method, you can target specific customers, placing ads with a predetermined budget that’s completely under your control. What do we mean? Well, with PPC, you pay when someone clicks on your ad, ensuring that you only allocate your budget to customers that truly have an interest in your services or products. However, the success of this campaign relies heavily on the keywords you choose, which need to be optimized for your particular customer.

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3. Social Media

One thing is for sure — social media is one powerful tool, and when it comes to digital marketing channels for eCommerce, it’s one of the top ones you’ll want to leverage.

How to Use Social Media for Ecommerce Stores?

Social media marketing can be used to target audiences directly and allows for personal, real-time customer engagement. From Instagram and Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn, and even TikTok, there’s a wide range of social media platforms to pick from, and the one you go with depends on your ideal audience.

Is Instagram Good for Ecommerce?

Marketing a styling business? Visuals on platforms like Instagram and Facebook may be best.

Or are you offering career development services?

It sounds like LinkedIn is the right one for you! No matter the platform you choose (and we recommend broadening your horizons to multiple platforms!), the key here is to remain consistent and authentic to truly connect with your current and prospective audience.

A social media platform can be one of your most effective digital marketing channels if your strategy and what the network offers aligns with your business goals and its audience’s behavior.

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing is an essential part of every digital marketing campaign and one we recommend incorporating, no matter your business.

What Is Content Marketing for Ecommerce?

High-quality, relevant, and useful content is not only incredibly valuable to potential customers but your long-time ones, too. In addition, content marketing allows you to show off your expertise in your field while simultaneously driving more traffic to your site with customers that are truly interested in what you have to offer.

How to Transform Your Content Into a Powerful Marketing Channel?

Content isn’t technically a marketing channel. However, it is a marketing asset that’s distributed via your marketing channels to boost brand awareness and generate leads.

When creating content marketing, be sure to include more than just text. From graphics to videos, and other visuals, focus on enticing people with your content, educating, and entertaining in various ways.

5. Affiliate Marketing

When it comes to digital marketing tactics for eCommerce, affiliate marketing is sure to widen your audience. We live in an era of influencers and digital content creators, and it’s time to tap into those resources.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing refers to providing a commission to someone to share your product across a location or social media. Imagine a potential customer sees their favorite influencer talk about your services in their stories. Chances are, they’ll love hearing a glowing review from a voice they trust. This is what affiliate marketing is all about — putting your products or services in the hands of trusted voices, so people know it’s good.

6. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsement and product mentions from individuals with a dedicated social following viewed as experts in their niche.

It works similarly to celebrity endorsements, except influencers collaborate with brands on creating the content for their marketing campaigns. Done right, influencer marketing can increase sales, boost visibility, and introduce your brand to a new or expanded target audience.

7. Reputation Marketing

Reputation marketing is the promotion, monitoring, and acquisition of positive brand content like reviews, social media comments, online forums and traditional press to improve a brand’s overall image.

eCommerce businesses with positive reputations attract more leads and are perceived as providing more value and greater customer care. This drives long-term relationships and ultimately improves customer loyalty.

Over 90% of customers read reviews before making a purchase, which makes reputation management all the more critical to eCommerce business success.

How to Choose a Digital Marketing Channel for Your Ecommerce Business

So, you know the top digital marketing channels for eCommerce — now what? It’s time to find the right strategy for you! To achieve this, you must carefully consider what will best suit your business, taking a look at your budget and goals.

1. Calculate Your Budget and ROI

Before planing your eCommerce campaigns, you must first figure out your budget and ROI. Of course, a budget is pretty self-explanatory, but what about ROI?

What Is ROI?

ROI, or return on investment, is a performance measurement that reveals the profitability and efficiency of an investment. To calculate it, the return of an investment is divided by the cost. This is particularly critical when analyzing digital marketing channels for eCommerce. If your strategy doesn’t succeed in driving traffic and sales, and ultimately, revenue, you’re losing money on your campaigns — and we certainly don’t want that! To avoid this, monitor your ROI and adjust accordingly.

2. Which Specialists Do You Already Have?

When choosing between different digital marketing channels for eCommerce, consider what talent you already have on your team and the resources at your disposal.

These campaigns require quite a bit of oversight backed by a team with the right skills. Go-to skills include development skills for your web design, creative skills in terms of both writing and visuals, search skills to optimize SEO, and social skills to perfect social media.

Does someone on the team run your social media channels for eCommerce? Utilize them to create marketing campaigns on those platforms using their keen understanding of the channel, and its audience.

3. What Is Your Main Goal?

We’ve said it once (okay, maybe twice!), and we will say it again — the right digital marketing channels for eCommerce for your specific business depend primarily on your unique goals.

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Choose Digital Marketing Channels According to Your Main Business Goals

Is your business brand new and looking to boost brand authority and grow awareness? Or are you a tried-and-true company looking to get more sales? While both goals will lead to a boost in revenue, they require extremely diverse tactics.

Take the company that wants to grow brand authority, for instance. With this goal, prioritizing social media will be the best way to achieve results. However, if you’re a business looking to get more sales, paid ads are the right place to start. For this reason, it’s essential to zero in on your main goal so that you begin work with the channel that’s best suited to your needs.

Have questions, or are you looking for a team to take the reins of your digital marketing campaigns? Don’t worry! Comrade has your back. As a full-service web design and digital marketing agency, we specialize in multi-channel marketing for eCommerce and know just how to create a killer strategy for your unique business. To get started today, contact us at 312-265-0580.