How to Raise Awareness for a New eCommerce Platform

Now that your eCommerce store has launched, you need a marketing strategy that'll help raise awareness. Since there will have been marketing for the launch, there is no better time to build on that momentum. In this article, we'll be taking you through all you need to know, from marketing plans to specific techniques that'll ensure your new store becomes a favorite among your audiences.

eCommerce Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy is a blueprint for managing your new eCommerce store. If you're at the stage of raising awareness, you'll have picked your platform and be ready to grow your brand name. In doing this, you will gain increased traffic, and if your website (or the social media platform you're selling on) is up to scratch, you'll be increasing your sales too.

Pro tip: When developing the strategy, consider the consumer's journey before entering your sales funnel. That is the researching phase before making a purchase. Your brand's awareness will lead to your business being included in this stage. It is widely reported that consumers use the internet to research brands and find shopping inspiration. Hence, you need to ensure your brand appeals to this behavior and that it is present where these searches are happening (online and via social media) with marketing messages that deem your brand worthy as a frontrunner. 

Optimize for Conversions 

If you'd like to attract people to your new eCommerce platform, you've got to optimize wherever you can. This significantly extends to your social media channels, and all content shared on your blog and website overall. The information you publish will be indexed by search engines, meaning this will influence your brand's level of visibility when people use these search engines. 

Your website or eCommerce platform will have best practices that will allow you to set up shop in an optimal way. The setup and layout need to be a focal area since this will affect your business's experience. It should be a well-designed page or site with an easy to follow responsive layout and guides the path to purchase. When it comes to eCommerce, you should think of your website as having to make up for an otherwise 'in-store' experience. 

Social Media Marketing

One of the best ways to raise awareness about your business is to utilize social media marketing. You can achieve this by:

• Increasing your exposure and reach on social media. There are various ways to find and connect with your audience on these platforms, from tags to hashtags and advertising. It is also the perfect space to create shareable content that can grow your network further.  
• Building your perception: What you post will influence your brand's perception. More so, being active on social media can grow your reach among audiences on those platforms and help with your SEO standing. Whether you sell directly on these platforms or use them to direct people to your website, these are powerful ways to improve your brand's visibility and build relationships with your audience. 

Advertising 

Arguably the quickest and most effective way to raise awareness is through advertising. Whether it's search engine marketing or social media marketing, you can target audiences directly. Developing your customer personas can go a long way in determining how successful your advertising campaign will be. 

The key ways to create digital adverts at the moment include video content and direct messaging. Consider using these when trying to grow your business's presence online. Your advertising strategy, in brief, should cover the following bases:

• Campaign: Plan and budget per the proposed marketing campaign that you'd like to advertise. Set measurable goals and intentions to ensure your efforts are maximized. 
• Targeting: Conducting in-depth research before going live with the ad is highly beneficial and will garner higher success rates.
• Content creation: The content developed for your campaign needs to be of high-quality. Your plans and budget will need to account for this. While digital ads can be flexible, this is one aspect you want to give ample time to sign off on and ensure that it is worth the budget you're placing behind it in both the creation and promotion of it. 
• Metrics: Having all of the necessary tools to measure your advert is important as you'll need to follow the metrics closely. The great thing about digital ads is that you can make changes if need be, and the reporting capabilities are high. Take full advantage of this to ensure you are reaching your goals and making the necessary improvements for the future. 

Techniques for Increasing Brand Awareness

• Partnerships: Collaborations with other businesses, organizations, and influencers can provide you with access to more audiences that can grow your brand. 
• Public relations: Having content created and shared on third party sites and platforms can build credibility, improve link building, and expand your reach. 
• Sharing: Putting the budget behind content creation that is shareable can increase your reach exponentially and organically. The key segways when it comes to sharing are generating user-generated content and gaining reviews and testimonials. 
• Visuals: Photos, videos, and other visual resources such as infographics are engaging forms of content that can boost your reach. This is a necessary part of your content plan, which has become a non-negotiable.
• Content: Content helps form your foundations as a brand and allows people to connect with you. There are many forms of content to share and various platforms to share it on. Creating both evergreen posts and news-based posts are essential and will increase your visibility. 
• Engagement: For awareness to be sufficient, you need to hold the interest, engage with the person, and direct them with calls to action. 
• Channels: The platforms you base your business on are crucial. 

Lead Generation 

To raise awareness, it is imperative to mention lead generation. It is a marketing philosophy of attracting potential customers to your business, and getting them started on your sales funnel or flywheel. Once this phase begins, it is your job to take the leads and convert them into sales qualified leads and finally (ideally) customers. 

For lead generation to begin, you need to use marketing techniques (which we'll discuss below) to increase the traffic to your website. Use multiple platforms and channels, with a marketing message that inspired visits from high-quality leads (those with a keen interest in making a purchase). From this point onwards, you can nurture the relationship and convert these leads into customers.  

To begin your lead generation strategy, assess the four-step process that a new customer goes through with your business. 

• Attraction: Discovery of your brand, which is helped by marketing efforts that increase brand awareness. 
• Conversion: Successful call to action or' path to purchase' steps taken from your website or platform.
• Closing: The capturing of information through a lead form (this is what separates a 'lead' from a 'visitor.'
• Delighting: The lead is rewarded for sharing their contact information with you with a valuable offering, such as a discount code or gated content.

In Summary

eCommerce stores and platforms need marketing to help raise awareness among audiences. This will result in brand recognition and a growing business - the goal of many new companies entering the saturated marketplace. Here's a brief recap of what you should be focusing on:

• Marketing strategy
• Optimization
• Social media
• Advertising
• Branding
• Lead generation

Need help with one, a couple, or all of the above? Nexa is a digital marketing agency based in Dubai. We'd love to help your eCommerce business get the reach it deserves. Book a meeting with us to get started.