Introduction to digital marketing strategy for e-commerce

What is a digital marketing strategy for e-commerce?

A digital marketing strategy for e-commerce is (or at least should be) a comprehensive plan that involves online tools, platforms, and methods to attract, engage, and convert customers.

Unlike general marketing strategies that often include offline and broad branding efforts, e-commerce strategies focus on driving measurable outcomes digitally, often aiming to boost online visibility and, ultimately, sales.

Of course, there are many specific methods, tactics, or social media platforms to choose from. The tricky part is to:

1. Get to know your audience,
2. Allocate resources well,
3. Execute efficiently.

Of course, there are many steps in between, but that’s the general gist.

That’s why creating a good digital marketing strategy starts with understanding where your audience is and how best to reach them.

If you have a fashion brand, you likely will put a lot of focus on social media presence and influencer campaigns. If you sell highly specialized equipment for specific industries, you might not find even one influencer who would fit your products.

A good digital marketing agency or team understands that different demographics spend their time on different platforms, engage with varying types of content, and respond to diverse messaging styles.

Understanding these details helps tailor a strategy that connects your brand with potential customers, whether through social media, search engines, email, or other channels.

And this intel comes a long way. Here’s a simple scenario.

Suppose your analysis reveals that a significant portion of your audience is young, mainly Gen Z. In that case, you can tailor your approach by partnering with Gen Z influencers who resonate with this demographic or even hiring a content creator who aligns with your brand philosophy.

Keeping it all coherent brings authenticity to your brand. This targeted approach ensures your messaging is not only seen but genuinely connects with the intended audience. Of course, that’s only possible with proper audience analysis.

In most cases, it’s impossible to create a universal set of rules other than “analyze and draw conclusions”. Factors like the company’s size, location, industry, and product type significantly influence how a strategy should be designed.

Key components of a successful e-commerce marketing strategy

When discussing key components of a successful e-commerce marketing strategy, we’ll usually talk about:

1. SEO
2. Social media marketing
3. PPC (Pay-per-click),
4. Influencer marketing,
5. E-mail marketing
6. Content and creatives,
7. And a few other elements included in this article.

We’ll talk about lots of things. But which elements really are the most important?

The short answer is, of course, it depends.

It truly does because each channel serves a distinct purpose, from boosting visibility to enhancing customer engagement and driving conversions.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for boosting product visibility and driving organic traffic.

Social Media Marketing helps build brand awareness and engage directly with potential customers.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows for precise targeting and instant visibility on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook.

And so on.

Whatever we choose to focus on in the digital marketing strategy for e-commerce, we should remember that each channel and method works best when integrated into a cohesive, data-driven strategy.

With this message, let’s proceed.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for e-commerce

SEO is quite a complex method aiming to increase product visibility and drive organic traffic. Unlike most other strategy elements mentioned here, it’s much more of a long game, rarely providing immediate results.

But when it does, they can be spectacular.

The key elements of SEO include:

1. On-page optimization: Optimizing product descriptions, images, and content with relevant keywords helps improve rankings and engagement. Well-structured, high-quality content enhances both user experience and conversion rates.
2. Technical SEO: Page speed and mobile-friendliness are essential for good SEO. Fast-loading, well-structured sites with proper internal linking help both users and search engines navigate your site.
3. Content: All forms of content, both written, graphic, and video, play a crucial role in both SEO and the overall customer experience. For e-commerce, this includes product descriptions, blog posts, buying guides, and customer reviews that address common questions and pain points.
4. Product schema: Adding product schema markup helps search engines understand product details like price, availability, and reviews, leading to enhanced search results and higher click-through rates.
5. Link building: Link-building is another vital aspect of SEO for e-commerce. Acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites boosts your domain authority and improves rankings. Strategic link-building helps drive referral traffic and strengthens your site’s credibility.

We should mention that when writing for SEO, it’s important to remember that the ultimate goal is not just to rank well in search engines but to meet your customers’ needs.

SEO should be customer-centric. Instead of stuffing keywords into product descriptions or blog posts, think about what your potential customers are searching for and how your content can help them make an informed decision.

And finally, remember that SEO is always evolving, so staying updated with the latest trends is key. If you can’t have a team dedicated solely to SEO, it’s probably better to consider using SEO services for e-commerce.

Social media marketing for e-commerce

The essence of e-commerce marketing in social media is using social platforms to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic. These platforms can be a perfect space to showcase products, engage directly with audiences, and create compelling content that hits the spot with your target audience.

Of course, as long as you choose the right social media. You need to know exactly where to find your audience before thinking about how to connect with them.

In most cases, you don’t necessarily have to be active everywhere.

For instance, visual and lifestyle-oriented platforms like Instagram and TikTok are ideal for promoting fashion products. These platforms thrive on engaging visuals, influencer collaborations, and trends, making it easier to showcase clothing, accessories, or cosmetics in an appealing way that drives engagement and sales.

On the other hand, highly niche or technical products, such as dental equipment, may gain less traction on these platforms. For such products, channels like LinkedIn, where professionals network and discuss industry-specific topics, or targeted Google Ads campaigns might yield better results.

But, of course, we don’t know the ins and outs of the dental industry. Maybe there’s an extremely popular TikTok trend of dentists showcasing their newest diamond burs. Crazier things have happened in the social media era!

Once again, we’re returning to the foundation of digital marketing: analysis.

Understanding the nature of your product and the preferences of its target audience allows you to invest resources in the most effective platforms.

If you choose wisely and create good content, you can build long-lasting relationships and a sense of community around your brand.

And finally, it’s fair to say that building a free, organic social media reach is nearly impossible nowadays, which brings us to the next point.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising for e-commerce

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be a top 1 method for driving traffic and conversions for many e-commerce businesses.

Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads can help you target specific audiences and returning customers precisely, making them critical components of your long-term digital marketing strategies.

Ideally, ads help you reach the exact people you want with the exact product they want. And then reach them again. And again.

The potential is usually there, but making the best of it takes a lot of work.

These platforms’ ever-changing algorithms and features require high expertise and constant optimization to remain effective.

There’s a good reason why large e-commerce companies have entire teams dedicated specifically to PPC. Those who don’t often seek help from e-commerce PPC services from professionals like us.

Running PPC campaigns for e-commerce demands ongoing testing, adjustment, and strategy updates, which can be challenging for in-house teams. Partnering with a specialized e-commerce PPC agency can be the best solution for many businesses.

But what makes a good PPC agency?

Results, of course.

But also detailed reporting and clear insights into the performance of each campaign. This transparency lets you track ROI, understand customers better, and make informed decisions to refine your marketing strategy.

Creatives in e-commerce marketing

Reaching the right audience means nothing if you come empty-handed. It’s like getting a stadium completely sold out and singing off-key.

People will leave and probably won’t come back.

That’s why you need good creatives. It’s good content that turns traffic into brand awareness, engagement, and sales.

So, no matter what you do, whether that’s banners, photos, product pictures, videos, or reels, you want them to be good.

If it’s a video, make sure it’s engaging and interesting from start to finish. If it’s a photo, make sure it stands out. If it’s a copy, keep it compelling, interesting, and believable.

And sometimes, you can just keep it simple.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s an extension of your creative strategy. It should be based on research and fulfill actual, measurable goals. And, of course, always allow yourself to grow and adapt.

For example, a good e-commerce digital agency must have A/B testing in its toolkit. While you may have an idea of what works well, it’s the customer who ultimately decides. So why not run a few tests that verify that assumption?

In our article about creative strategy, we explain the process in detail, highlighting the importance of each step, from the analysis of previous creations and team performance to content creation and ongoing analysis.

Influencer marketing for e-commerce

Influencer marketing is a strategy that involves partnering with creators who have a significant following on social media to promote products or services.

For e-commerce companies, influencer marketing can be a gold mine. A well-picked group of influencers can help you with:

• Brand Awareness
• Audience Engagement
• Driving Sale
• Building Trust
• Reaching New Audiences
• Website Traffic
• Content Creation
• And More

Choosing the right people to promote your products is massively important.

A large group of micro-influencers can often outperform bigger-name influencers and significantly boost your ROI. Micro-influencers typically have smaller but highly engaged audiences, often within niche markets.

Their followers tend to trust their opinions more because of the perceived authenticity and closer connection. It translates into higher engagement rates and more meaningful interactions, which can drive better conversions compared to working with larger influencers who may have broader but less engaged audiences.

And, of course, big names cost big bucks. There’s no way around it.

On top of that, there’s always a chance that you’ll partner up with a star in the making.

The other crucial question concerns the platforms on which to focus. The answer may not be as easy as you think.

As you see, while Instagram is still the most popular, even X and Snapchat can be valuable channels for influencer marketing.

So, as you might expect by this time, success requires a strategic approach and analytical measurement.

Simply sending products or signing contracts isn’t enough—you need clear goals, such as boosting engagement or conversions, and methods to track success, like affiliate links, unique discount codes, or campaign-specific analytics. This ensures you can evaluate ROI and refine future collaborations effectively.

Programmatic advertising for e-commerce

Programmatic advertising is an automated method of buying and placing ads to reach specific audience segments at scale.

While you may think that it’s just PPC on steroids, the truth is a bit more complicated.

While PPC focuses primarily on keyword-based ad placement, programmatic uses sophisticated algorithms and data insights to target audiences across various digital spaces, from websites to mobile apps and video platforms.

However, its success hinges on data quality and targeting accuracy. Without precise, high-quality data, even the most advanced system can fail to deliver results.

The three key components of programmatic advertising are:

1. Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs): Here’s where you purchase ad space in real-time. It connects you to multiple ad exchanges, allowing you to target specific audiences based on criteria like demographics, browsing behavior, or purchase intent.
2. Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs): A counterpart of DSPs, on which publishers sell their available ad inventory. It SSP connects them to ad exchanges and programmatic networks, automatically presenting their inventory to the highest bidders.
3. Ad exchanges: These platforms connect DSPs and SSPs, conducting real-time auctions where advertisers bid for ads across various online environments.

We highly recommend reading our detailed guide on programmatic advertising.

Email marketing and personalization

Even with the increasingly widespread separation of promotional and private emails, there’s still something unique about being able to connect with your customers directly. Other marketing methods rarely give you this option.

In this case, you usually know pretty well who and when you’re contacting.

That’s why email campaigns and personalized recommendations can be potent tools for nurturing customer relationships and driving sales in e-commerce.

By providing tailored content, offers, and product suggestions directly to a customer’s inbox,

you can create a personal connection that builds loyalty and encourages repeat purchases.

The difficult part is using your data and crafting emails that really hit the spot.

Here’s a few simple tips:

• Segmentation: Divide your email list into smaller groups based on criteria such as purchase history, browsing behavior, or demographics.
• Automation: Use automated workflows for key touchpoints, such as welcome emails, cart abandonment reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups. These campaigns save time while maintaining engagement at critical stages of the customer journey.
• Value-driven content: Ensure your emails provide genuine value, whether through exclusive offers, helpful tips, or updates on new arrivals.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that while email marketing may not be equally effective for all e-commerce businesses, it can work wonders for certain product types.

If your offer has particularly high repeat purchase potential or opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, such as fashion, beauty, or subscription services, there might be a goldmine here for you.

Metrics for measuring success in e-commerce digital marketing

If someone proposes an idea but can’t provide metrics to verify its impact, it’s likely an untested or unreliable suggestion. Being able to analyze the performance of each marketing endeavour is simply a must.

So, what are the examples of such metrics?

1. Conversion Rate: This measures the percentage of visitors who make a purchase. It directly ties into goals like increasing sales and improving website or ad campaign effectiveness. Higher conversion rates indicate more efficient marketing and customer experience.
2. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): CLV estimates the total revenue a customer will generate over their entire relationship with your brand. It’s key for long-term growth strategies. It helps you understand customer retention and the value of loyalty programs.
3. Average Order Value (AOV): AOV calculates the average amount spent per transaction. A higher AOV means you’re doing an excellent job of encouraging customers to buy more per visit, often through upselling or bundling strategies.

We can’t stress this enough: solid metrics are essential for validating and refining your digital marketing strategy. Without them, we can’t really talk about a strategic approach.

Building a cohesive, multi-channel e-commerce strategy

I can’t imagine a good digital marketing strategy for e-commerce that isn’t built in the multi-channel approach.

According to this year’s study published by the University of Maine, a typical user connects with 6.6 social networks each month on average. That’s why integrating different marketing channels is crucial for creating a seamless experience across the entire customer journey.

A multi-channel approach ensures that customers interact with your brand consistently, regardless of where they engage. This approach increases brand visibility and reinforces your messaging, leading to greater customer loyalty.

However, it’s essential to understand that it’s not about being everywhere but rather about being where your audience is most active.

Analyzing competition and staying informed about industry trends can help you identify the most valuable platforms and tactics for your specific market, avoiding wasted effort on channels that don’t yield results.

Whatever you choose, remember that all marketing channels and methods of communication should not exist in isolation. It’s the synergy between them that can amplify your results.

For example, while SEO helps improve organic search rankings over time, Google Ads can provide immediate visibility and drive traffic to your site. By analyzing the performance of your paid ads, you can identify high-converting keywords and optimize your SEO strategy to capture even more organic traffic.

This cross-channel collaboration maximizes overall marketing effectiveness and enhances the customer experience at every stage of the journey.

You can dive deeper into the topic in our article about digital growth.

Best practices for e-commerce digital strategy execution and optimization

It’s easy to make impactful adjustments to your e-commerce digital marketing strategy when you have the data and analytic capabilities to guide you.

That’s why the first step is to ensure that you have the data and can trust it. Make no mistake here. It’s quite common for e-commerce companies to draw conclusions and make significant decisions based on inaccurate data sets.

But assuming the numbers are right, you must include them at each stage of the process.

The power of data-driven decision-making lies in its ability to reveal what’s working and what’s not.

Here’s how you do it:

• Regular analysis: Consistently analyze your key metrics—such as conversion rates, AOV, traffic sources, and customer behavior—across all marketing channels. Use tools like Google Analytics, CRM systems, and ad platform insights to understand where your efforts are yielding the best results and where adjustments are needed. You may set alerts or red flags in case things go wrong.
• A/B testing: Continuously run A/B tests on everything from ad copy and landing page designs to email subject lines and call-to-action buttons. Always assume that things can be done better.
• Performance reviews: Conduct regular performance reviews of all your digital marketing efforts. Assess the ROI of each channel. Evaluate performance, identify underperforming areas, and reallocate resources to the most successful tactics.

By using data to guide every step of your marketing strategy—from creative optimization to budget allocation—you ensure your e-commerce business is constantly improving and adapting.

Crafting a masterpiece of digital marketing in e-commerce

A few things are as satisfying as seeing a good e-commerce marketing strategy in action.

If it’s executed well and brings results, you see all those green numbers flashing before your eyes.

A thing of beauty.

If you can’t wait to see it happen in your e-commerce, we’re here to help.