Having a successful dropshipping business is not just about opening a store, and it is not even enough to have a great product. To make your business fruitful, it is necessary to apply appropriate marketing strategies to generate dropshipping sales because just like physical stores, those that are online also demand attention.
1. Plan your customer acquisition funnel
Although under a dropshipping scheme your investment in the logistics part will be minimal, your business will be useless if you do not attract potential customers. As in digital marketing strategy, it all starts with attracting customers.
The aesthetics and content should invite Internet users to learn more about the products you offer, transmit security and trust by integrating clear texts and contact information. In addition, you should make sure that your website’s design is responsive since currently much of the queries about products and online sales are made from mobile devices. Make sure you have your digital marketing funnel all planned out.
2. Work with Search Engine Optimization
Sometimes better known by the abbreviation SEO, this means of promotion allows natural referencing experts to influence the search results of the search engine (like Google) so that your e-store is positioned on the first page in relation to the keywords used. According to its algorithm, good positioning will depend on many criteria such as the competition of the chosen keywords. It is therefore important to develop an SEO strategy for your dropshipping store if you want to double your dropshipping sales.
Natural referencing remains an effective strategy with optimal results for your dropshipping e-commerce. But you have to be patient and meticulous since it takes 6 to 12 months for you to notice the results.
Whether you adopt a short or long term marketing development policy, SEO remains a central element that should not be neglected, otherwise, your sales will stagnate.
3. Customize the descriptions of your products
Don’t just post standard and sometimes custom product descriptions. You should learn how to optimize duplicate product descriptions for search.
Use detailed and inspiring information that enhances your products and makes visitors want to buy them. Especially if you are on a range of luxury products!
4. Start a blog
Utilize a blog as a content marketing strategy, so that other people can also reach your store through indexed content. You can create content that is formative, such as guides, tutorials, data, manuals, recommendations, advice, and all those ways in which you can educate your audience on aspects related to your sector. You can also generate content that appeals to the emotions of users, as this helps establish a good connection between the audience and your brand.
5. Use email to reach your potential customers
One of the most effective techniques to communicate and achieve engagement with customers and potential customers is email.
Whether your dropship fashion, engineering items, or decorative pillows, customers will be able to periodically receive newsletters where you will notify them of the latest offers on your website, remind them of the products they liked, or simply send them material as an extra value.
Note: Make sure you study the best time to send email blast to optimize your email distribution.
6. Be present on YouTube
It can be difficult to get behind the camera if you are not very comfortable with video. At first, it might even take a long time. But you should know that more than 80% of internet users are on social media. In addition, visual content often generates a higher engagement rate. And even more impressive, 80% of people who said that they watched a YouTube video related to a product they want to buy said that they did so at the beginning of their buying process. These statistics prove that video marketing, which is really under-exploited in e-commerce, is nevertheless an effective strategy.
To create great content on YouTube, and “sell without selling”, you can create tutorials related to your area of activity. Don’t hesitate to recycle your written content, present your products, and talk about yourself. On the internet, making a store more human is a real asset.
7. Recover abandoned carts
It is strongly recommended that you learn how to turn abandoned carts into dropshipping sales. Several factors can cause cart abandonment. For example, some internet users lose their motivation to make a purchase when there are too many steps to take before they can enter their credit card number and confirm their order.
Others are reluctant to complete their order when they do not have enough information about the company or delivery terms, their preferred payment method is not available or the delivery costs are too high.
In short, prominent information and a variety of payment methods can make all the difference in turning a buyer’s interest in a product into a real sale.
Don’t underestimate the impact of abandoned cart notification. Over $1 million in revenue. A 10:1 ROI for marketing spend. An 81% increase in Black Friday revenue. These are just some of the results Shopify Plus stores are achieving using abandoned cart push notifications and SMS.
8. Create a LinkedIn profile
This will allow you to be in contact with other people in the sector and groups with similar interests. Also, this can help you get recommendations, both from your clients and from other people with whom you have worked. Similarly, if you need to establish contact with other people to receive support so that your business continues to grow, this medium is ideal.
9. Use paid advertisement
As you may have read above, an SEO strategy is a solution to increase dropshipping sales, but in the long term. Content is therefore fundamental work, while paid advertising is more of a boost to quickly generate traffic. Google AdWords campaigns or advertising on social networks (Pinterest, Facebook) can quickly become very expensive.
The problem is that it is essential to create impactful advertising to differentiate yourself from the competition. If you want to be accompanied by a pro, you can work with a copywriter or an AdWords campaign consultant. It is, in fact, a full-fledged job in which many elements must be analyzed: conversion rate, cost of acquiring a customer, costs per click or even targeting of the typical customer.
10. Increase the value and volume of the average basket
Another tip to increase dropshipping sales is to get customers to add more items to their cart. Usually, your online store automatically integrates this type of solution with phrases like: “These products may also interest you” or “Related products”. It should also be noted that, in order to increase the number of e-commerce purchases, it is preferable not to send the user directly to the purchase page after adding to the cart. Here is some information to make additional sales:
- cross-selling: it is the act of offering associated or related products;
- moving upmarket (upsell): when the customer chooses a product, you can suggest that they look at the characteristics of another (more expensive but with additional advantages) so that they can compare according to their needs;
- free delivery from a certain amount: you offer free delivery for any purchase above 100 dollars. The customer has items of 80 dollars in total in his cart. What is he going to do?
- additional offers (order-bump): gift-wrapping or membership card for example.
11. Make your customers come back
It’s no longer a secret: the cost of acquiring a new customer is significantly higher than the cost of bringing them back. You convinced him once that he needs your products or services then it won’t be hard to bring him back for more. How to retain a customer and sell more in dropshipping? Here are some tips to keep him coming back to your site:
- create your own brand: investing in a customised packaging or a private label product will surely pay off. Find a dropshipping suppliers that can help produced your very own packaging or private labelled products;
- create a newsletter: you can communicate on your latest blog articles, news in the store;
- animate your social networks: a useful post on Facebook can bring you a few clicks, improve your store’s presence, and encourage a few customers to come back for their purchases. In short, the customer does not forget you;
- offer a gift: whether physical or digital, purely advertising or not, a gift is essential in commerce as in any human relationship. It creates a reciprocal relationship and shows your customer that you value them. If you want advice, think of a useful everyday gift that doesn’t end up in a closet or in the trash;
- send promotions and special offers.
You should understand that increasing your dropshipping sales is a long-term job. In dropshipping, there is no single answer. You are going to have to test over and over again until you find the key to success.
These twelve (12) marketing tips will help you increase the number of sales in your dropshipping store. However, there is another factor that you could not dismiss, such as the fact that you must humanize your brand.
You could achieve this by making your audience see that behind your business name there are people with a name and a surname who work every day to make the client feel satisfied. Remember to show images and allow the public to get to know you and your staff.
By applying these tips, and humanizing your brand, you will be able to double your dropshipping sales.
12. Last Tip before you go…
The last thing you need to consider is the quality of the products that are shipped to your customers. In order to avoid returns and make sure that you customers come back buying from your store, you have to find a supplier who can guarantee good quality products and speedy delivery times.
A supplier who can do that and personalise your products or packaging is Yakkyofy.
While you think of the marketing of your products we shall do everything else:
- Source your products with some of the best suppliers in China at B2B prices;
- Provide you a web-app that can help you automate your dropshipping business;
- Arrange a fast shipping of the products to your customers on your behalf;
- Provide you after-sale assistance.
These are just a few of the services that we can provide to you!
So what are you waiting for?
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY:
Julija Televiciute is the Head of Content Marketing at sixads, an app that provides ad exchange and ad automation services for online stores. Specialized in copywriting, social media, and dog memes, she helps businesses get creative with ideas for content that creates value and sells.