Effective ecommerce marketing follow-up efforts

A complete approach to ecommerce marketing involves attracting new customers and encouraging existing ones to make more purchases. A strong base of repeat buyers is easier to manage in general. Having shoppers already familiar with the the brand of an ecommerce storefront and the items it offers makes it easier to make sales. It also allows ecommerce store owners to maintain a steady flow of customers and build fruitful relationships with them. For this reason, new and existing ecommerce retailers need to focus some of their marketing energy and budget on repeat customers.

Here is a review of the most effective methods that online store owners can use in ecommerce marketing efforts targeted specifically at customer loyalty:

• Post-purchase coupons: As with all promotional efforts, business owners need to calculate the profit margin of their products and understand the impact coupons and discounts will have. With that determined, providing a coupon shortly after a purchase is an effective way to encourage repeat business. Offering a discount coupon a week or two after the initial order is placed means a buyer will have already received and have started using their purchase. The coupon is then a positive reminder of where that product came from. Businesses can use coupon offers with a time limit attached to create a sense of urgency. This approach also prevents buyers from saving up too many indefinite discount offers.
• Customer email lists: Beyond offering a one-time coupon, creating and managing email marketing lists of past customers helps encourage further purchases. Using smart email lists makes managing multiple lists of hundreds or thousands of different customers a manageable task, even for ecommerce stores operated by a single person. With many different options for organization and sorting, these email lists make it possible to send marketing messages based on the last date of purchase, location, type of items bought and other useful options.
• Social media interaction: Customers can tell their social media followers about the specific items they bought on popular networks with a single click. This is a no-risk, no-cost option that spreads the word about a store and its offerings. This approach also links customers to your social media presence, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or a combination of the networks.

Store owners can't offer too much to bring back a customer, but can feel free to try out different combinations of offers, social sharing and email outreach, within reason, until they find a strategy that works for them. Bigcommerce's flexible marketing features makes adjusting and altering these retention campaigns for a high level of effectiveness easy and simple.