5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Ecommerce Brand

Most marketing strategies are all about impact. After all, what’s the point of sending out all those messages if no one is receiving and acting on them?

However, measuring the impact of your ecommerce brand is tricky. Many marketing metrics, like clicks and opens, can tell marketers that the message was delivered — but offer little insight as to what effect (if any) it had on its audience.

That’s why the most important benchmarks and ways to grow your ecommerce brand often come from unexpected places, such as studying how new customers are finding your business or keeping a close eye on the services your competitors are offering. 

If you’re hoping to grow your ecommerce brand and get a headstart on 2022 success, here are five simple ways to drive website traffic, sales, and revenue growth through better benchmarking. 

Look outside your company — or industry — to incorporate innovative trends

One of the easiest ways to grow your ecommerce brand is by focusing on the digital customer experience. Take stock of what the other major ecommerce players are doing, evaluate any non-traditional trends and strategies that may be relevant for your audience, and then incorporate them into your 2022 plans as soon as possible.

The pandemic fundamentally changed the way in which customers interact with brands. Services like click-and-collect and curbside pickup have become a standard part of any retail customer experience. In fact, according to our 2021 Retail Personalization Index Consumer Survey research,  53% of consumers who adopted these new online shopping behaviors plan on making those changes permanent even after the COVID-19 pandemic comes to a close.

Understanding the services, experiences, and personalized marketing strategies other industries are offering to improve their bottom line and grow your ecommerce brand is an important step for all retailers. But for ecommerce brands looking to boost engagement and drive website traffic, meeting the evolving preferences of consumers is key to staying competitive. 

Create personalized content your audience wants to engage with

Unique, surprising content is another important way that ecommerce retailers can drive sales and grow revenue while adding value to the customer experience. The pandemic boom in online shopping also means that consumers are not only more comfortable seeking their favorite products out online, but that they’re more familiar with their options, which means personalization matters more than ever before.

And while most brands know the basics — greeting subscribers by name in email subject lines, for instance — the businesses getting the best results are taking personalization to a whole new level.

For instance, when NASCAR wanted to generate additional engagement throughout its birthday email series, the brand replaced its standard birthday message and promotional offer with an automated, personalized email that encouraged fans to click through to a website with a mystery discount.

The simple, yet innovative switch resulted in a 94% increase in conversions and a 308% increase in revenue generated by email. Benchmarking these little changes, which often yield big results, is an important way to make sure your marketing strategy is evolving alongside consumer behaviors — not after the fact in response to them. 

Drive more site traffic to grow your ecommerce brand

For most ecommerce companies, earning clicks (and keeping track of when, where, and why those clicks are occurring) is mission-critical. But marketers who fail to harness the power of email, especially the growing popularity of newsletters, could be missing out.

When Food52 wanted to drive engagement and boost visits to its website, the brand segmented its audience, sending different, personalized communication to its email newsletter subscribers based on their onsite behavior. And by harnessing the power of personalized email experiences, this channel became the brand’s most effective way to turn loyal readers into first-time shoppers.

Optimize for omnichannel marketing messages

Speaking of encouraging clicks and generating website traffic, breaking down silos is an important way to improve your customer experience while simultaneously updating your marketing strategy. After all, consumers have embraced mobile (and a variety of other new ways to engage) over the course of 2021 like never before.

In fact, more than 60% of website visits originated via mobile in 2020. But as shoppers engage via mobile, they increasingly expect a seamless, omnichannel experience. Understanding where clicks are originating, as well as which touchpoints consumers are hitting at every stage of their buyer journey, is an important benchmark for marketers looking to adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy.

For example, when Target introduced its curbside pickup strategy — a boon to many buyers during the pandemic — the brand also adopted an omnichannel approach by staying in constant contact with customers at every stage of the process.

From the order screen on its website, to the confirmation email confirming every purchase, personalized messaging and mobile alerts kept shoppers updated on the status of their order while also giving them useful details like curbside pickup instructions, special store operational hours, and even driving and parking details. The result was a seamless, omnichannel experience that made customers’ lives much simpler during a stressful time, ultimately driving loyalty in 2021 and beyond. 

Target up-and-coming audiences to grow your ecommerce brand

Ecommerce brands should never stop looking for new audiences, and one of the best ways to find new customers is to ask for feedback from your existing fans. After all, you know how to most easily reach and effectively engage them.

Benchmarking positive feedback via social media, online reviews, or elsewhere — and then incorporating that feedback into your marketing strategy — can go a long way toward generating revenue from new audiences. A recent study by TurnTo Networks found that 90% of consumers say user-generated content actually has more influence over their purchase decisions than promotional emails or even search engine results. Clearly nothing attracts new customers quite like loyal fans, so make sure you’re putting those rave reviews to good use!