Why lead generation for ecommerce is so important? Ecommerce leads for B2B and B2C have become the key component of business success. It’s a fact that e-commerce will remain as a major part of global trade for at least the next decade. And that point shouldn’t be taken lightly. Lead generation is one of the most integral parts in our company, because even if you have a lot of customers, you still need new ones to stay on top. Lead generation is a process that helps find those potential customers and deliver them to your sales team.
Lead generation and sales are one of the most important parts of starting an online business, especially an ecommerce store. The reason why? Without sales, you have no business. There is no point in having a website where products get added but never purchased, so how do you generate the right kind of leads to convert into customers? I discuss how to create your own kind of ‘ecommerce lead generation’ list that eliminates prospects that don’t convert and only gives you prospects that are ready to buy.
When a potential customer makes a request to buy a product, they’re actually starting a lead generation process. That’s because they’re asking you to ‘generate’ the lead. This can be hard if you don’t have the right tools, but luckily there are real people involved in helping businesses like yours to generate ecommerce sales leads on top of the internet.
Generating sales is the name of the game in ecommerce. The more traffic you get, the easier it is to convert that traffic into paying customers. If you’re having a hard time driving sales on your own store, and find that you’re not able to generate enough leads for your business, then this video can help. I share a few strategies for generating online sales through various methods for lead generation for ecommerce.
What Is Lead Generation?
Any person showing interest in any brand’s products or services is called a ‘lead’. It is critical to understand that not everyone is a lead, even if they’re showing interest in your offers.
The biggest mistake digital marketers make is they waste their marketing budget on everyone showing interest in their products. For instance, if you’re selling CBD products online and you’re marketing your products to everyone visiting your website (kids, teenagers), then you’re merely throwing your money into the trash. Target marketing is the essence of the lead generation process.
If you’re looking for the formal definition of lead generation, it is the process of enticing buyers and turning them into someone with interest in your offers. Today’s ecommerce businesses leverage different lead generation strategies to attract potential customers
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Consider how your potential customers shop for the products they want online. In most cases, they begin by searching for the items they want on search engines like Google.
With an SEO strategy, you improve your site to help your pages rank in the results of those searches. This makes it easy for your potential customers to find you and allows you to focus your marketing budget on the people who actively search for your products.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Although SEO is the best long-term strategy for ecommerce lead generation, running pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements on platforms like Google Ads is an effective way to reach searchers while you establish SEO rankings. PPC is also useful for competitive keywords that have clear purchase intent, but are dominated by your competitors.
When you create your campaigns, you determine where you want to display your ads based on the keywords users search. If you sell running shoes, for example, you could display an ad in the search results for “women’s trail running shoes.”
Then, you set bids based on how much you’re willing to pay for each click to your website, and you only pay that amount when your ad is clicked.
Content marketing
Many of today’s consumers research the products they want before buying. They want to know which products are the best options for their needs, which offer the best value for their money, and which are the most popular with other customers.
You can provide all of this information and more as part of your content marketing strategy. Publish blog posts, articles, and other content help your customers make informed purchasing decisions.
The topics you choose depend on your industry and products, but this content can range from buying guides about specific products to blog posts on the latest trends to articles with helpful tips. When you provide information that your ecommerce leads want, you can help them make buying decisions – and build a trustworthy reputation as a helpful resource in the process.
Social media
Social media is a valuable marketing tool, and that’s especially true for B2C ecommerce companies. It’s the perfect channel for interacting with customers and showing your brand’s personality.
Some platforms also offer effective advertising options. On Facebook, for example, you can run ads designed to drive traffic to a specific page on your site and use their highly-specific targeting options to reach the exact audience you want.
These options range from basic demographic information like age, gender, and location to more advanced options like interests, career, education, and their past actions on Facebook. When you utilize these targeting options, your ads bring the exact audience you want to your site.
Write Valuable Content
Content generates strong leads by piquing a user’s interest. The more content you have, the more likely it is that a consumer will encounter it. Impact reports that 70% of people prefer to learn about a product from an article over an ad. While WordStream found that brands using content marketing have six times higher conversion rates than brands that don’t produce content.
Take inspiration from Dollar Shave Club, a brand that has truly mastered eCommerce content marketing. The company creates platform-appropriate content across its communication channels. It entertain users, keeping them coming back for more.
Build Your Social Media Followers
Hootsuite reports that there are almost 4.2 billion social media users, and they spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on social platforms. This makes social media a goldmine for eCommerce lead generation. Put your efforts towards a few select channels where your buyers spend most of their time.
When someone chooses to follow your brand on social media, you’re a few clicks away from turning them into a customer. Facebook data shows that on Instagram, after seeing a product or service, 80% of users will research the product more, and 81% of users will make a purchasing decision.
Use your feed to showcase your products, brand values, content and promotions and collect user-generated content (UGC). Most platforms know eCommerce companies rely on them, so take advantage of integrated shopping features such as shoppable posts on Instagram and shoppable pins on Pinterest.
Here’s a shoppable post from Anthropologie:
When the user clicks the icon, the brand creates more chances for making a sale by showing more products the user might be interested in.
Create Personalization
Personalization comes in many forms and can be executed across the entire customer journey. An eMarketer survey revealed that 50% of people prefer personalization in the form of products related to their interests, so make sure your site triggers that functionality. After a purchase, follow up with an email highlighting additional related products or a discount on items in the same category.
Old Navy uses this strategy, showing users complementary items and giving them the ability to place them in the cart with one click.
Set Up An Email List
The best place to start with eCommerce lead generation is by setting up an email list. That’s because email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with and nurture leads.
The latest email marketing stats show that people still read email, and enjoy getting emails from the businesses they connect with. Emailing prospects a few times a week can be a great way to keep leads coming in.
If you’re just starting out, Mailchimp can be a good email provider to start with. That’s because it’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. However, if you have a bigger list, or you’re ready to level up, consider Constant Contact, which is also one of the top email marketing services.
Once you’ve got your account set up, move on to our next eCommerce lead generation tip …
Create a Lead Magnet
You know what’s even more effective than a simple email signup campaign? A campaign where there’s a payoff for your customer.
When we say a payoff, we mean a lead magnet. That’s a valuable freebie that you give your customers in exchange for an email address. A lead magnet can be a guide, checklist, or ebook, showing customers how to get more from what you offer.
The best lead magnets are simple and easy to understand and solve a problem for the reader. Plus, they give subscribers the warm fuzzies about you, and can make them want to buy from you, or at least learn more – double win!
Use Exit Intent®
One way eCommerce sites miss out on leads is by failing to get the attention of visitors planning to leave the site.
Believe it or not, this is one of the best times to try to tempt them to sign up. And one of the best ways to achieve that is with OptinMonster’s exit-intent® technology.
Offer a Discount
Online shoppers love discounts and coupons. In fact, 71% of people say they’ll decide to buy based on a coupon.
So if you offer one as an incentive for subscribing to your list, most people are going to be interested.
This is easy to do with OptinMonster. Once you’ve set up your marketing campaign, you can deliver the coupon via a success theme, or send it by email. See our list of eCommerce email examples for inspiration. Go to Success in the OptinMonster campaign builder to enable this feature.
You can also redirect them to a page where they can apply the coupon immediately.
That way you don’t just get leads; you make sales, too. Learn more in our guide to creating a popup coupon.
How to determine your ideal ecommerce lead
Every business is different, which is why lead generation for ecommerce businesses varies some. Your definition of a perfect ecommerce lead, for example, will probably differ some from your competitors. What’s important, however, is that you define or determine your dream lead.
When thinking about who your ideal lead is, think about the following factors:
- Household income
- Age
- Education
- Gender
- Location
- Hobbies or interests
- Pain points
- And more
These details can help your business create a buyer persona or mock-up of your ideal ecommerce lead.
Conclusion
Ecommerce is a growing industry, though the need for lead generation tools remains the same. This can be tricky for marketers looking for the best ecommerce lead generation tools that work because of all the scams and gimmicks. If you are considering lead generation for ecommerce, read this article to gain insight before spending your money on ecommerce conversion rate optimisation or landing pages.
Lead generation for ecommerce can be a great way to keep your business relevant and engaged with the people who are most likely to need what you have to offer, which is why it’s essential. Good lead generation will provide the traffic that you need both now and in the future, while lead generation tools will allow you to get even more from each traffic source. This is vital for any business model so finding out about lead generation tools for ecommerce can only help you.