How to do Shopify Marketing

Any Shopify developer or designer will know just how valuable the platform can be for ecommerce store owners. Shopify is currently one of the most popular ecommerce store builders in the world, primarily because it’s such a versatile, and agile environment for online selling. 

However, simply designing an amazing Shopify store isn’t enough to make it successful. While UX design and careful development strategies will boost your chances of conversions when a customer actually arrives on a website, you’ll still need a way to convince your customers to checkout the business. That’s where Shopify marketing tactics come in. 

There are endless ways to boost a company’s chances of online success with Shopify marketing, from leveraging social media campaigns, to using email advertising. Today, we’re going to share just some of the easiest ways to get started. 

1. Establish an Email Marketing Strategy

For experts managing Shopify stores, few things are more effective or lucrative than a good email marketing strategy. Done right, an email marketing campaign can turn prospects into loyal customers, retain existing buyers, and generate a huge number of sales. 

The great thing about Shopify is the app market comes with plenty of tools for integrating email automation tools with the store directly. You can start with an app like Justuno pop-ups to capture the attention of visitors who happen across your online store, and convince them to subscribe to your newsletter. Ideally, you’ll need a great offer to make sure your customers actually want to hear from you, so consider using lead magnets like a free download or free shipping.

Next, you can integrate your Shopify store with your email marketing app, so every customer who buys something or interacts with your business can be added to your contact list. Once you’ve got your list, you can start sending out various emails to boost conversions, such as welcome emails with access to offers and content, or sales emails. 

2. Set up a Referral Program

These days, customers are increasingly looking for evidence they can trust the shops they’re going to be buying from. While designing your Shopify website with plenty of trust signals like customer testimonials and authority badges can help, referral strategies could take your marketing to the next level. Studies show referrals account for about 65% of the new deals collected by companies. 

Shopify has a ton of Referral apps available to use today, such as Smile.io, ReferralCandy and Rise.ai. All you need to do is add one of these tools to your Shopify ecosystem, and set up a campaign which encourages existing shoppers to bring new people to your store. 

The best referral programs work by rewarding customers every time they convince someone else to make a purchase. You can consider giving your consumers points for each referral they can turn into discounts or free gifts, or give direct rewards for each referral. A good way to boost your conversions even further is to reward both the person who refers your new customer, and your new lead with a discount. This way, your new leads will be more likely to convert when they visit your store.

3. Leverage Shopify SEO Features

As a website designer or developer for Shopify stores, you may already be aware of the importance of SEO in making a company successful. Search Engine Optimization helps to improve your chances of attracting customers looking for specific products or services on Google. Since about 48% of online shopping journeys start with search engines, it makes sense to prioritize SEO. 

The good news for Shopify users, is the platform makes it relatively easy to start boosting your SEO performance. Companies can create blogs on their Shopify site, to use content marketing techniques that help them to rank for certain keywords and phrases. It’s also possible to download SEO apps from the Shopify app store to help with optimizing landing pages, product pages, and more.

Shopify will allow you to make technical changes to your store for SEO purposes too, like altering the appearance of URLs, meta tags, and descriptions, or simply improving site speed. Remember, when optimizing any Shopify site, it’s important to:

• Get the keywords right: Look for top-of-funnel and long-tail keywords like “where to buy shoes”, to help attract customers with the right level of intent. 
• Optimize your images: Make sure all of your images are optimized for search, so they appear when customers click the “Images” tab on Google. 
• Use built-in SEO features: Make sure you leverage Shopify’s built-in features for SEO like URL structure management, meta titles, descriptions, and alt text for images.

4. Run Paid Ad Campaigns

While not every Shopify marketing strategy will require an up-front cash investment, it can be helpful to spend a little extra on boosting the presence of a new store. Shopify allows companies to take advantage of enhanced PPC campaigns, so they can attract as many visitors to their store as possible. 

You can link Shopify directly with Google Ads and Google Analytics, so you can take advantage of things like Google retargeting ads, for customers who have already visited your store, and Google shopping ads, to attract customers researching new products. 

It’s worth experimenting with a range of different PPC campaigns to determine exactly which efforts bring you the most customers. Leverage your Shopify sale reports to sort through your number of sales by “traffic source” to see where your biggest conversions are coming from.

Keep in mind, paid ads aren’t just limited to Google either. You can also align your Shopify site with Facebook, and use Facebook ads to convert leads. The Facebook pixel will help you to keep track of how many customers actually make a purchase after clicking on a Facebook ad.

5. Integrate with Social Media

Increasing your sales with marketing strategies with Shopify doesn’t necessarily have to mean bringing more customers to a Shopify site. One of the best things about Shopify is it integrates effectively with a range of other social media platforms, so companies can sell their products directly from channels like Instagram and Facebook. For instance, some of your options include:

• Facebook: The Facebook Shops tool allows anyone with a business profile on Facebook to set up a store for free. You can connect this store to your Shopify product range through the ecommerce platform, making it easy to keep track of sales and sync inventory.
• Instagram: Instagram Shopping is a feature which allows ecommerce store owners on Shopify to sell their products directly through the social platform. You’ll need a business/creator account and a Shopify website to get started. Once your store is live, customers can browse through your products and make purchases on the Instagram app. 
• Pinterest: Pinterest offers “Shoppable pins” which allow customers to make transactions by clicking on an item they see listed on the stie. Around 89% of Pinterest customers say they use the platform to find purchasing options, so it’s worth taking advantage. 

Remember to combine your social media integrations on Shopify with social campaigns to boost your chances of success. Posting ads on social media, sharing content regularly, and even working with influencers can all improve your chances of success. 

Shopify Marketing for Beginners

Marketing on Shopify isn’t as difficult as it might seem. If you already have some insights into how to manage a Shopify store, then you’ll be able to take advantage of a range of features and tools to generate traffic for your website. The options above just offer some of the basic ideas business leaders can use to start boosting their sales.

Remember, take advantage of your Shopify reports as you launch your marketing campaigns, to get a behind the scenes look at which of your efforts are generating the best results.