8 Ecommerce Digital Marketing Strategies for Online Businesses in 2023

The world of ecommerce is constantly evolving, and businesses need to be able to adapt their marketing strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

In 2023, there are a number of digital marketing strategies you can implement that will have a positive impact on your ecommerce business.

Whether you are selling on Amazon, your own Shopify store, social media, or other online marketplaces, you need the right digital marketing strategy to get your products in front of the right customers.

What is ecommerce digital marketing?

Ecommerce digital marketing is the process of using digital channels to promote and sell your products online.

This can include a variety of channels, such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and so on.

The goal of digital marketing is to reach potential customers interested in what you offer and encourage them to make a purchase – but in today’s competitive landscape, you need to get creative.

By using the right digital channels and strategies, you can reach a wider audience, generate more traffic to your website or product listing, and increase sales for your ecommerce business.

What are the goals of a good ecommerce digital marketing strategy?

The goals of a good ecommerce digital marketing strategy can vary depending on the specific business and its objectives. However, some common goals include:

• Reaching a wider audience. A good digital marketing strategy should help you reach a wider audience of potential customers interested in what you offer.
• Generating more traffic to your website. Driving relevant traffic is what you need in order to sell more of your products. Without high-quality traffic, you don’t make any sales.
• Increasing sales. Ultimately, any ecommerce digital marketing strategy aims to increase sales. A good strategy will help you reach more potential customers, generate more traffic to your website, and ultimately convert more visitors into paying customers.
• Building brand awareness and credibility. A good digital marketing strategy can also help you build brand awareness and credibility. This is important because it can help you attract new customers and encourage existing customers to continue buying from you.
• Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. By measuring the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns, you’ll know what to cut out and what to double down on.

8 ways to market your ecommerce business in 2023

Let’s review some digital marketing strategies for your ecommerce business in 2023.

1. Social media marketing

In 2023, if your brand or products are not on social media in some form, you may be falling behind your competitors. While Amazon remains number one for where consumers begin their product search, social media platforms are on the rise.

Did you know that:

• 23% of consumers start their product search on YouTube
• 21% start their product search on Facebook
• 18% start their product search on Instagram
• 17% start their product search on TikTok

Gen Z and millennials are more likely to search for and purchase products they saw on social media, though Gen X and boomers are also starting to catch on to the trend.

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are where you should be as a brand owner – especially with the rise of short-form content. And most of these social media platforms allow users to sell directly on the platform, increasing your chances of conversions.

Creating a proper social media marketing strategy for your business can make a massive difference in your sales and overall brand awareness. One viral post can reach millions of potential customers, all organically.

Social media also lets you personally engage with your ‘fans’ and potential customers. If you do it right, you could garner thousands of followers fairly quickly.

2. Influencer marketing 

Similar to social media marketing, partnering with influencers is a great way to quickly reach a new audience. When you partner with an influencer with a large following, you can tap into their audience and promote your products to them.

Influencers don’t just fall under those who have large social media followings. This could also mean finding someone with a popular blog or newsletter focusing on a similar audience.

Are sellers using influencers for their businesses?

• 12% of third-party Amazon sellers hire influencers to promote their products
• Over a third (41%) of Amazon sellers plan to grow their business through social media, influencer marketing, and other off-Amazon marketing efforts

When choosing influencers to partner with, you must ensure that they are a good fit for your brand and that their audience is interested in your offer.

Always ask the ‘influencer’ about their audience, such as engagement rate and demographics, to see if they would be a good fit for your brand and products.

Amazon also has a program called the Amazon Influencer Program that lets influencers and affiliates promote Amazon products to earn a commission.

If you sell products on Amazon, search for Amazon Influencers on Amazon.com and try to find someone who you think would be a good fit.

3. Create high-quality content

Now this can mean a few different things. Creating content for social media, blog posts, emails, product images, ads, etc. Creating high-quality content is extremely important for standing out amongst your competition.

Content marketing is a great way to attract and engage potential customers. By creating informative and engaging content, you can establish yourself as an authority in your industry and build trust with potential customers.

You can create many different types of content, such as blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and social media posts. The type of content you create will depend on your target audience and your marketing goals.

If you’re good in front of the camera, create videos about your brand and product to use for social media. If you’re a good writer, start a website for your brand and write SEO-optimized content about your niche and products.

Or, if you don’t have the time or the skills to create content yourself, hire someone who is well-versed in whichever type of content you want to create for your brand. There are many talented freelancers who can help you with just that.

Why is creating high-quality content important?

• Engaging with existing customers. High-quality content can also help you engage with existing customers by providing them with fresh and interesting content to read or watch. This can help you build relationships with your customers and encourage them to make repeat purchases.
• Boosting your SEO. High-quality content can help boost your SEO by providing relevant and informative content that Google and other search engines will find valuable. This can help you rank higher in search results, which can lead to more traffic to your website.
• Building brand awareness. High-quality content can help build brand awareness by positioning your brand as an authority in your industry. This can be done by writing about industry trends, sharing thought leadership content, or creating educational resources.

4. Email marketing 

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach existing customers. By sending regular email newsletters, you can stay top-of-mind with your customers and promote your latest products and offers.

Why use email marketing?

• It’s a direct line to your customers. Email is a direct way to reach your customers, bypassing social media platforms and search engines. This means that you can be sure that your emails will be seen by your customers, even if they’re not actively looking for your products or services.
• It’s a personal touch. Email marketing allows you to connect with your customers on a personal level. You can use email to send personalized messages, offers, and updates that are relevant to their interests. This can help you build relationships with your customers and encourage them to do business with you again in the future.
• It’s a cost-effective way to reach a large audience. Email marketing is a very cost-effective way to reach a large audience. Once you have an email list, you can send emails to your entire list for a fraction of the cost of other marketing channels, such as paid advertising.
• It’s measurable. Email marketing is a measurable marketing channel, which means that you can track the results of your email campaigns. This allows you to see what’s working and what’s not, so that you can optimize your campaigns for better results.

To create effective email marketing campaigns, you need to have a good email list. You can collect email addresses through your website, social media, or other marketing channels.

How do you grow an email list for your ecommerce business?

• Offer something for free. One of the best ways to grow your email list is to offer something for free in exchange for an email address. This could be a free ebook, a discount code, or early access to new products.
• Create a sign-up form on your website. Make it easy for visitors to your website to sign up for your email list. You can add a sign-up form to your website’s homepage, product pages, or checkout page.
• Promote your email list on social media. Encourage your social media followers to sign up for your email list. You can do this by sharing links to your sign-up form on your social media pages, or by running social media contests that require users to sign up for your list to enter.
• Integrate your email marketing platform with your ecommerce platform. This will allow you to automatically collect email addresses from customers when they make a purchase on your website.

If you don’t have an email list but want to try email marketing, look for others in your niche who have a large email list and see if you can promote your products to their audience. This is another way of using “influencer marketing.”

5. PPC advertising

This one may sound obvious but PPC advertising will always be a great way to promote your products online. If you are an Amazon seller, utilize Amazon Advertising to promote your brand and products in various on the marketplace.

Amazon Advertising offers many different ad products, especially if you are enrolled in Brand Registry.

1. Sponsored Products Ads
2. Sponsored Brands Ads
3. Sponsored Display Ads
4. Sponsored Brands Video Ads

Want to learn more about how to run effective Amazon ads for your business? Check out our Amazon Advertising Guide or check out the Jungle Scout YouTube channel!

Other ad types you can use if you don’t exclusively run an Amazon business are through Google ads, Facebook ads, TikTok ads, Pinterest ads, and so on. There are so many ad platforms to test out for your ecommerce business.

6. Encourage user-generated content

User-generated content, or UGC, is invaluable to brands. By encouraging your followers and customers to post their own organic content about your brand and your products, you build social proof and reap the benefits of free advertising.

You can also hire influencers to create UGC that you can use in your own marketing campaigns or social media accounts.

UGC can be a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses because it can help you to:

• Build trust and credibility. When potential customers see that other people are enjoying your products or services, they’re more likely to trust your brand and make a purchase.
• Generate social proof. Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to do something if they see that other people are doing it. When you use UGC, you’re essentially showing potential customers that other people are already using and enjoying your products or services.
• Personalize your marketing. UGC can help you to personalize your marketing by showing potential customers content that is relevant to their interests.
• Increase engagement. UGC can help you to increase engagement with your brand by encouraging people to share their thoughts and experiences with your products or services. This can help you to build a community around your brand and attract new customers.

There are a number of different ways that you can use UGC for your ecommerce business. Here are a few ideas:

• Feature UGC on your website or Amazon listing. You can feature UGC on your website or listing by adding it to your product pages, A+ Content, blog posts, or social media feeds. This is a great way to show potential customers what other people are saying about your products or services.
• Run contests and giveaways. You can run contests and giveaways that require people to submit UGC. This is a great way to generate new content and get people talking about your brand.
• Promote UGC on social media. You can promote UGC on social media by sharing it on your own channels and encouraging your followers to share it as well. Encourage people to use a specific hashtag so you can find it all in one place.

7. SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website for search engines. This involves making sure that your website is well-structured, easy to navigate, and contains relevant content.

When your website is optimized for SEO, it will be more likely to appear high in search engine results pages (SERPs).

When it comes to Amazon SEO, you need to be sure you are targeting the right keywords and using them throughout your listings. This not only tells Amazon what your product is but helps your product appear in the search results.

To find high-volume, relevant keywords for your listings, use a tool such as Keyword Scout along with our AI Assist Listing Builder tool to build out a highly optimized product listing.

There are a number of things you can do to improve your website’s SEO, such as:

• Do keyword research. The first step to SEO is to do keyword research. This means finding out what keywords your target audience is using to search for products or services like yours. You can use a variety of tools to do keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush.
• Optimize your website for your target keywords. Once you know what keywords you want to target, you need to optimize your website for those keywords. This means using those keywords throughout your website, including in your title tags, meta descriptions, and throughout your content.
• Build backlinks. Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. These links are important for SEO because they help Google see that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. You can build backlinks by guest blogging, submitting your website to directories, and participating in social media.
• Keep your website up-to-date. Google loves fresh content, so it’s important to keep your website up-to-date with new content. This could be blog posts, product pages, or anything else that is relevant to your target audience.
• Use high-quality content. Content is king when it comes to SEO. If you want to rank well in search engines, you need to create high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience.
• Optimize your images. Images can also help you improve your SEO. When you upload images to your website, be sure to include alt text and title tags that include your target keywords.

8. Live Streaming

Going live in front of your audience is a unique way to connect with your customers and really show how your products work in real time. Doing so also allows you to answer questions live and get to know your audience.

Here are some ways ecommerce sellers can use live shopping to market their business:

• Host product demonstrations. Live shopping is a great way to showcase your products and show customers how they work.
• Run Q&A sessions. You can host Q&A sessions to get feedback from customers, learn about their needs, and answer any questions they have about your products or services.
• Offer discounts and promotions. You can offer discounts or promotions during the live stream to encourage viewers to make a purchase. You can also offer exclusive products or discounts to viewers who watch the live stream.
• Partner with influencers. Partnering with influencers is a great way to reach a wider audience with your live shopping events. Influencers can promote your live stream to their followers and help you attract new customers.

You may be wondering. Where should I be livestreaming to my customers? If you have an audience on social media, you should start there! Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok all have an option to go live.

TikTok is a really great opportunity to go live because your stream will be shown to random people who do not yet follow you, potentially leading to more followers and more importantly, more customers.

If you sell products on Amazon and have a brand enrolled in Brand Registry, you can go live using Amazon Live.

Your livestream will appear on your product page as well as on Amazon’s Live homepage, where customers can discover your stream. This is a great opportunity to promote your product to your current customers and new customers.