A 14-Step Plan to Boost Your E-commerce sales in 2022
No 14 is likely to brake your all-time sales record
- Donatas Ranonis
- 2022-06-14
- 22 min read
Running an e-commerce store is a fun and exciting way to develop your business and build a brand.
At the same time it can become the most daunting and frustrating way to lose money.
As a business owner you probably have numerous questions, yet the worst part is – there are so many different answers and opinions.
Facebook Ads, SEO, YouTube, Display…
Does email still work?
Should I be on TikTok?
Should I document everything on Instagram?
What apps should I be using for my store?
And so on.
No worries! I’ve created this article for you so you can get started as quickly and effectively as possible without hiring an agency.
This article is full of fundamental tactics and concepts for anyone involved in the e-commerce space.
You’ll find some advanced but easy-to-implement strategies that even some very expensive marketing agencies aren’t using.
After reading this article, you will learn:
-How to grow your e-commerce brand from 0 to 500k and more without outside help
-How to create an irresistible offer people won’t be able to refuse
-Basic and advanced strategies that even some agencies wish they knew
-How to take advantage of paid advertising
-How to set up effective e-mail marketing that generates sales while you sleep
-An advanced product launch strategy that might break your site (from too many customers)
The best part is that all these tactics and sales hacks are backed by experience and tested in real markets.
Ready? Let’s begin.
01. Make sure you get the most important thing right
I’m talking about your product or service.
Before we dig in deeper into the strategies and tactics, make sure you have a great product which solves real problems people actually have.
No marketing will help if you are selling something useless.
Now, assuming you already have an amazing product, we can begin.
02. Don’t get lost in vanity metrics
You might be overwhelmed by dozens of metrics and KPIs but essentially there are 4 key metrics every e-commerce owner should care about:
LTV – lifetime value of the customer
AOV – average order value
CPA – cost to acquire a customer
CR – conversion rate of your website
When you know your target LTV and AOV, you can estimate how much you can spend to acquire a new customer and what’s the lowest conversion rate your website should have.
Remember, in the long run an ecomm biz that can spend the most to acquire a new customer, wins.
LTV is the name of the game.
That’s why in some hyper-competitive niches some brands can postpone their profits for up to 6 months and more!
Meaning negative ROI for half a year just to get new customers!
So knowing your numbers is key.
03. Build an irresistible offer
“This is our product, buy it!”, – the majority of ads today scream in their customers’ faces.
But it does not work like that.
Unless you are competing for the lowest prices in the race to the bottom.
But that is really the worst game to be competing at.
Unless you are Amazon.
Ask yourself, how is your product different and what kind of problem does it solve?
Also, why should someone buy it right NOW?!
Here are a few quick steps to help you craft an ideal offer:
- Be specific
- Give a reason
- Include scarcity
- Use strong guarantees
- Make the offer so attractive it would be stupid not to take
- Unleash the power of the word FREE
People buy when the perceived value of the goods is higher than the monetary value of the product.
Let’s compare these 2 offers:
20% OFF sitewide
VS
20% OFF last 200 items in the warehouse. Order now, get free shipping with a 30-day return guarantee, no questions asked.
The first one is a standard one and the bigger the discount, the better it works.
Meaning, the better it works, the lower your profits.
Some quick ideas to replace standard discounts:
- Buy 2, get 1 FREE(instead of 33% OFF)
- Spend $50 to get a secret gift
- Every 3rd customer today gets product X for FREE
- Bundle with 40% OFF
- Buy a bundle and choose a free gift
- Spend $100 and get 30% OFF
- Spend $100 and get $30 OFF
Experiment with different offers and see what sticks to your brand.
Also, be sure to rotate and change them up from time to time so your customers won’t get bored.
And it goes without saying: test everything!
04. Tap into the exponential power of the Pareto principle
I bet you know what the 80/20 rule is.
If you don’t, here goes: 20% of your customers generate 80% of revenue.
It might be 70/30 or even 90/10, you get the idea.
It is pretty powerful.
Essentially, this is the law of nature expressed mathematically.
And it exists everywhere, including the world of business.
How do most people view it?
Nurture and give special care (or even a royal treatment!) to those 20%.
Sure, that’s a start.
But very few realize that this rule leads us to an island with a hidden treasure.
A secret so effective that simply applying it might be enough to crush your competition.
I am very serious.
A lot of 100-million brands are using it.
It’s best to show it using an example.
Let’s say we have sent an email offering a $40 product to our VIP list (the best of the best customers, 20% of the overall number of customers).
- 400 recipients
- 21 bought the product
- $840 in revenue was generated
Now, let’s take a look at these graphs:
80/20 is a rule of mathematics and implies that:
- 3 people would buy a $200 product (green graph in picture b)
- 46 people would buy a $20 product (picture c)
- 234 people would go for a $5 product (picture d)
We could have generated $1850 from this campaign!
The best part – we still have a lot of white space left on those graphs!
Now think about how much profit you are leaving on the table.
And what a difference this would make if you could spend all that money for marketing or product development.
Action points:
- Create a cheaper version or bundle of your products
- Create a very expensive bundle or version of your product
- Create a super-expensive version of your product
Which brings us to the next point…
05. Keep in mind that people are predictably irrational
Do you believe that people make buying decisions using logic only?
Of course they don’t.
They are influenced by emotions and certain irrational patterns:
- People tend to focus on what they might lose instead of what they might gain.
- People tend to focus on the relative advantage of one thing over another, and estimate its value accordingly.
- People always look at the things around them in relation to others.
- Price tags become anchors when people contemplate buying a product or service at that particular price.
- The first anchor influences not only the immediate buying decision but many others that follow.
It’s best to illustrate this by using a real-world example.
Can you see what they did there?
What kind of idiot would go for the 2nd option?!
And the 3rd one looks very attractive, doesn’t it?
By looking at this offer, the prospect:
- Eliminates the question whether to subscribe or not to subscribe at all
- Chooses between the first and third offers
Now, let’s look at the numbers:
16% of buyers went for the first option
0% have chosen the second (told you!)
84% took the most expensive one
84% took the most expensive offer!
This example shows how important price tags and descriptions of the other products are.
When you have a great product and a compelling offer, the time comes to…
06. Build a high-converting website
Yet it looks like still too many entrepreneurs forget that…
…a website is the place where the sale happens.
Your e-shop is one of the most essential parts of online business.
And still, it is very, very often overlooked.
Imagine a physical store where the salesman is a jerk or there’s none at all. You can’t find anything you are looking for, it’s difficult to figure out what is being sold there…
Sadly, a lot of beginner entrepreneurs start their e-shops like that.
The good news is that it is pretty easy to create a decent website that sells by following a few simple steps.
Since a lot of e-shops look the same and STILL don’t apply ALL of these fundamentals, this might give you an unfair advantage against your competitors.
You have been warned.
Home page
Most of your potential customers are going to land here, so make sure it captivates them enough that they decide to stick around.
Your main page is also the most important one as it makes or breaks a good first impression on your potential client.
Before we go deeper into the structure, I would like to stress 3 things:
- Your home page must be so clear that even a five-year-old could understand what you sell.
- Always check the mobile version. At least 70% of your traffic will come from mobile devices so this should go without saying (a lot of e-shops are still not properly optimized!).
- The structure is more important than the design. The website has to be clear and easy-to-read. Remember: if you confuse, you lose.
Above the fold section
This is the upper part of the home page the user sees without the need to scroll down.
Can you see what they did there?
What kind of idiot would go for the 2nd option?!
And the 3rd one looks very attractive, doesn’t it?
By looking at this offer, the prospect:
- Eliminates the question whether to subscribe or not to subscribe at all
- Chooses between the first and third offers
Now, let’s look at the numbers:
16% of buyers went for the first option
0% have chosen the second (told you!)
84% took the most expensive one
84% took the most expensive offer!
This example shows how important price tags and descriptions of the other products are.
When you have a great product and a compelling offer, the time comes to…
06. Build a high-converting website
Yet it looks like still too many entrepreneurs forget that…
…a website is the place where the sale happens.
Your e-shop is one of the most essential parts of online business.
And still, it is very, very often overlooked.
Imagine a physical store where the salesman is a jerk or there’s none at all. You can’t find anything you are looking for, it’s difficult to figure out what is being sold there…
Sadly, a lot of beginner entrepreneurs start their e-shops like that.
The good news is that it is pretty easy to create a decent website that sells by following a few simple steps.
Since a lot of e-shops look the same and STILL don’t apply ALL of these fundamentals, this might give you an unfair advantage against your competitors.
You have been warned.
Home page
Most of your potential customers are going to land here, so make sure it captivates them enough that they decide to stick around.
Your main page is also the most important one as it makes or breaks a good first impression on your potential client.
Before we go deeper into the structure, I would like to stress 3 things:
- Your home page must be so clear that even a five-year-old could understand what you sell.
- Always check the mobile version. At least 70% of your traffic will come from mobile devices so this should go without saying (a lot of e-shops are still not properly optimized!).
- The structure is more important than the design. The website has to be clear and easy-to-read. Remember: if you confuse, you lose.
Above the fold section
This is the upper part of the home page the user sees without the need to scroll down.
It usually consists of the hero picture (product photos most of the time) and headline.
All these elements explain what you sell, what the benefits are and why one should even care to move their finger to scroll down.
Below the fold
When you have piqued the visitor’s interest enough for them to scroll down, you should explain more about what the benefits are, what your product does and why one should consider buying it.
Keep it simple and stupid, add some icons, graphic images, product photos, etc.
Also, add categories and display more of your products.
Increase trust and likability
People buy from someone they like and trust.
- You should collect and show your customers’ feedback.
- Having at least a couple of testimonials is crucial. Make sure you have genuine testimonials, don’t ever make them up.
- Add logos of magazines and news portals you were featured at.
- Giving away some profits to charity? Your home page is a good place to mention it.
Easy navigation
Add clear call-to-action buttons sending users to your shop, product or category pages.
Product page
This is the most vital page of your e-commerce website.
A great product page should follow the AIDA (attention-interest-desire-action) principle.
Remember, people make their buying decisions emotionally, then rationalize and talk themselves into buying later.
That’s why you need to have both emotional and logical triggers laid out.
Some great product page examples of brands that are crushing it online:
For your product page, use this checklist with proven conversion principles:
✅ Does your product page include testimonials and star ratings above the fold?
✅ Have you included trust elements such as guarantee badges, bank logos, etc.?
✅ Does your product description sell?
✅ Have you answered all possible customer objections?
✅ Are you using pictures and graphic elements to communicate your message?
✅ Do you have a strong call-to action?
✅ Have you included enough of real customer testimonials?
✅ Do your product photos sell?
✅ Is your product page easy-to-read?
We could talk about the importance of design, layout, UI/UX and all the other stuff all day.
But these are the necessary basics to get you going (and still become better than 80% of e-shops out there!).
07. Make sure you understand the 3 types of traffic
You have products, offers and a well-converting website set up. Great job. But that’s not all!
Now comes the fun part – we are ready to drive lots of quality traffic and make that register ring!
There are 3 types of traffic:
01. Organic
Also known as free traffic. Customers that Google you or come directly fall under this category. You don’t have much control over it, so at the beginning organic traffic is usually very low.
It also depends on your niche and how many customers are searching for your brand’s keywords. The more searches, the more competitive the niche and the more difficult it will be to get on the first page of Google organically.
02. Paid
You buy traffic by using Facebook Ads, Google Ads and other digital marketing channels. You can get as many visitors as you want if you have the cash. Usually you pay per click or per thousand impressions (aka CPM).
03. Traffic you own
It’s your database of email and SMS subscribers, customers, and fans. You can reach them almost for free anytime you want. This is one of the most valuable business assets you can have.
The goal is to move as many customers from the 1st and 2nd category into the 3rd.
Why?
The money is in the backend, meaning your biggest profits will come from repeat purchases.
When it comes to SEO, it definitely is worthwhile to invest in it and come up with a proper organic strategy.
But we are going to leave this topic to SEO professionals and won’t be covering it here.
At first, 90% of the organic traffic will be generated by the keywords of your brand.
These are going to be people looking specifically for your website or for products made by you.
And the more you spend on Facebook or Google, the more organic traffic you can expect that way.
However, if you suddenly stopped your ads, organic traffic would decrease dramatically too.
08. Acquire new customers with Facebook/Instagram Ads
Still, the easiest way to generate a lot of initial traffic and sales for a pretty low price is by using these channels:
-Facebook/Instagram Ads
-Google Ads Search
-Google Ads Display/Youtube
90% of the time, the best channel to acquire a new customer is Facebook Ads.
Before you spend even one dollar on Facebook Ads, make sure that you have your Business Manager properly set up:
- Pixel set up and working (obviously)
- Domain verified
- Conversion events prioritized for iOS devices in “Aggregated Event Measurement”
- Conversion API is set up
09. Use attention-grabbing creatives
The creative also acts as a hook which attracts your dream buyer’s attention.
So they should be built accordingly.
First of all, keep in mind that Facebook Ads require a lot of testing.
You should try a bunch of different angles and offers to see what sticks and then capitalise on that.
There are some general things that help to attract the users’ attention:
- Bright colors
- Different colorful objects
- Grayscale or black and white filters
- Lots of white space in the background
- Smiling people looking directly into your eyes (into the camera)
- Fast moving shots in your video
- Something unusual, shocking or sexy
- A lot of engagement on the ad (comments, likes, shares)
- People showing something in their hands
Ask yourself, what would make my target customer so excited that they’d drop everything and visit my landing page?
This is the key question.
Need some inspiration?
These free resources are complete goldmines for that:
Use them for your research and competitor analysis.
But here’s the deal.
Unless you’re already working with an agency, you probably don’t have a lot of content for your ads.
Here are some ideas on how to get some creatives on the cheap:
- Hire a freelancer or a micro influencer to make some lifestyle pictures. Usually they are pretty good and know how to make beautiful photos that grab people’s attention.
- Hire a TikTok influencer to create a review video of your product. TikTokers really know how to make engaging and entertaining videos which works quite well in Facebook Ads
- Make some home-made videos and pictures of your product. A lot of brands are afraid to do this, but such medium-quality pictures and videos look great in Facebook Ads. It’s clear why: they look as though your friend posted them in the news feed.
Remember, there is such a thing as ad blindness and the more your ad doesn’t look like an ad, the better its performance is likely to be.
Otherwise make sure your offer in the ad is so good that it is impossible to ignore it.
The more an ad looks native to the platform it is displayed on, the better the performance!
As famous quote by H.L.Gossage says: “Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them; and sometimes it’s an ad.”
Bonus Facebook Ads tips:
- Ads manager might report as few as 40% conversions. Make sure you use utm tags and also compare the results with Google Analytics.
- Try creating other Facebook/Instagram pages to run ads from. It usually helps to get more engagement and better CPMs.
- There is no silver bullet in Facebook Ads. You always need to change tactics and look for something that works now.
- Test mobile experience ads. They are like mini landing pages that can be viewed without leaving the app.
10. Capture ready-to-buy customers using Google Ads Search
Google Ads is a great but often more expensive way to show your offers on the first page of Google.
The budget you should be spending depends on the volume of the keywords you are targeting.
Meaning, the more people look for your products, the more you can spend.
When you have your Facebook Ads running, you can put 20% of your budget aside for Google Ads.
Once you’ve done this, let’s…
11. Retarget your visitors effectively with Google Display Ads and Youtube Ads
Following the iOS updates, Facebook Ads remarketing campaigns (targeting your visitors and customers) have become less effective.
In addition to that, try remarketing your warm audiences with Display and Youtube Ads.
They are really easy to set up and can be done using Google Ads.
Here’s what you need to do to start collecting remarketing audiences:
- Create a Google Ads account
- Create a Google Tag Manager account
- Install Google Ads Tag on your website
- Set up conversion tracking on Google Ads
- Create a conversion linker tag
There is a lot of info on how to do that on Youtube and other blogs, so I won’t be covering it here.
12. Bump up your profits by 15% to 30% using effective email marketing
When you have your Facebook and Google Ads up and running, it’s time to start using one of the most powerful (yet still wildly underused) tools there is – email marketing.
Why?
- It is relatively free (you only pay the email sender platform fees)
- There are no restrictions for the content
- You can reach your audience anytime you want
- You can talk directly to each customer and build rapport that way
- It’s automated
Some say email is dead yet some manage to generate as much as 30% of extra revenue from this channel.
So let’s flesh it out.
Here is a 5-step plan on how to start generating at least 15% of extra revenue for free (almost):
01. Choose a proper email marketing software built for e-commerce
The software must be fully integrated with your e-commerce platform and have proper automatisation features.
Probably the best product at the moment is klaviyo, which is widely used by many successful ecom brands.
It has amazing automatisation features, advanced analytics and machine learning.
02. Set up a high-converting pop-up to capture new visitors
A pop-up with a great offer (20% OFF, free product, pdf, contest) is a great and fun way to grow your list and drive sales.
The goal here is to capture at least 8% of new visitors’ emails.
Try different offers to see what sticks best.
A few quick ideas for your pop-up offer:
- 20% OFF your first purchase
- Enter to win
- Free e-book, pdf or checklist
Don’t trigger the pop-up immediately, let the user warm up their feet and look around.
You can copy and try these settings in klaviyo:
03. Send automated emails to new subscribers until they die (unsubscribe) or buy
A lot of brands are so afraid of sending too many emails that their welcome flow consists of… only 1 email (usually with 10% OFF).
Building a proper welcome flow is key to building a relationship with your customer and helping them make the right decision (to try your product).
The goal here is to have very few subscribers with 0 purchases.
First of all, it is very important to set the right filters and rules for your welcome flow so customers stop receiving automated emails after the purchase.
Here they are
Trigger: when someone enters your list
Flow filters: 0 orders since starting this flow, not suppressed for email
For starters, set up at least 6-7 emails for your welcome flow.
Here is an example of what this could look like.
Email 1: Your 20% discount inside
Wait 1 day
Email 2: Top 3 products
Wait 2 days
Email 3: What our customers are saying
Wait 2 days
Email 4: Our story
Wait 2-3 days
Email 5: Have you received your 20% OFF discount?
Wait 3 days
Email 6: 25% OFF is valid for 48 hours!
Wait 2 days
Email 7: 25% OFF expires today
Wait 3 days:
Email 8: 30% OFF
Wait 4 days:
Email 9 (text only): Is everything alright?
We gave you this structure so you have a proven formula on what you should be sending.
Of course, you need to test different subject lines and offers to see what works best for your customers.
Aim for at least a 60% open rate for the 1st email and 50% for the 2nd.
If your 1st email is opened less than 50% of the time, go back to the whiteboard and come up with a different idea for your pop-up. Then don’t forget to..
04. Set up cart abandonment flow
This is a low-hanging fruit that every e-commerce shop should have.
In fact, if you don’t have this one, you are literally losing money every day.
Cart abandonment flow automatically sends a reminder if a person abandons checkout.
You can find a lot of great ideas in this article here→
05. Set up browse abandonment flow
You can dynamically insert products your customer viewed and send them a reminder.
You can also add a discount or free shipping.
Some ideas for the subject line:
- Did you see something you like?
- Recommended for you
- You deserve it!
- Hurry, the stock is running low
The money is in the repeat sales. Sending a reminder to restock is a great way to increase your LTV and drive sales.
The best part is that klaviyo has a machine learning tool which predicts when the next purchase is likely to happen for each subscriber.
Take advantage of this tool!
You can even set up such a flow and send a reminder or a special offer.
07. Set up a customer-winback campaign
When a customer hasn’t bought anything for a while, it’s time to send a reminder with a special offer.
Set up a come-back campaign in klaviyo and test which time frame works best for you.
Remember to offer a bigger discount or a very special deal.
08. Send regular campaigns at least once a week
Segment your audience by engagement or actions they took, products they bought and send at least 1 campaign per week.
You should also send some useful content, not only offers and deals.
Remember, people like to be entertained and tend to check their emails at least a couple times a day.
If you have up to 10,000 subscribers, don’t focus so much on segmentation and focus more on the educational, engaging and entertaining content.
09. Extra treatment for your VIP customers
First of all, define the conditions of your VIP customers.
Here’s an idea on how to do it:
- Extract all your customers from your e-shop
- Group them by total money spent
- Take the top 10% and calculate how much they have spent on average and how many orders they made
For example, our top customers have made an average of 4 orders and spent at least $167.
Then create a segment in klaviyo:
- Placed order is at least 4 over all time
- Revenue is at least 167 over all time
Create a special flow greeting a subscriber that they’ve been included in the VIP segment. Send separate campaigns for this segment.
If done properly, the VIP segment has an unsubscription rate close to 0!
10. Send text-only campaigns from time to time
These are powerful campaigns with crazy open-rates (40%+).
Use a person’s name in the Sender name field.
Use smart segmentation to boost open rates even further.
The trick here is to make this email look as authentic and real as possible.
For example:
Segment: Bought product x at least 2 times
Email: Asking to express an opinion and share feedback on the website + giving a special discount.
11. Set up an automatic flow thanking repeat purchasers
When somebody buys from you for the 2nd time, it’s a great opportunity to thank them and ask to leave a review.
Social proof is a principal part of the buying decision. So the process of getting genuine reviews must be automated!
Also, this automated sequence is a nice way to drive sales by including a special discount code as a thank you for your customers’ opinion.
12. Use the power of Facebook Ads lead generation campaigns to grow your list even faster
Lead generation campaigns are a very powerful way to generate leads. It allows users to leave their contact data after clicking on your ad without leaving the Facebook app.
Create an ad with a lead magnet: a special discount, pdf or whatever your customer might be interested in.
Then using Zapier automatically upload these leads to a list where they enter your well-crafted welcome flow.
You can also use lead generation ads to build an audience before big events like Black Friday or your new product launches.
Apply these 12 steps and I guarantee you that you will be generating at least 15% of your revenue from email marketing (or I’ll eat my hat).
13. Track sales performance using store level ROAS
You probably already know that the biggest problem in marketing is attribution.
Someone famously said: “Half of the money I spend on marketing is wasted. The problem is I don’t know which half.”
This is more true than ever today.
Every channel, every marketing tool wants to credit its ads.
But the users’ journey is so complex, that sometimes it really is difficult to tell which marketing action had the biggest impact.
To better navigate through this:
- Use store level ROAS to determine your return on ad spend. Meaning that you look at actual sales inside your store and divide by money spent on ads (all channels together).
- Compare ads performance in Ads manager to Google Analytics data.
- Use discount codes to separate various campaigns that cannot be tracked (e.g. influencers).
This won’t solve the problem completely, but can help you navigate through the complexity of digital marketing data.
You can copy paste this chart to track your daily ROAS–>
14. Break all your sales records using a “gated-launch strategy”
Careful, this strategy is so powerful that it might drive too much traffic.
Make sure your e-commerce site is ready to carry an unusually big load of customers.
I’m for real, this actually happened to me a couple of times.
The idea is to run a password-protected product launch, where only pre-registered customers can access the site.
Here is how such a product launch could look like:
- Create new products that people get excited about.
2-4 weeks before the launch, build a list of interested customers. Collect both their emails and phone numbers. Tell them this is going to be a unique chance to try new products and get amazing deals that will be available that day. - Send a few teaser emails talking about the new products. Build excitement and interest.
Explain that it is going to be a closed, VIP sale not available to the public. - On the launch day at 9:00 am, send an email with a link and password. Add clear instructions on how to login.
- At around 11:00 am, send an SMS with a link and password for non-buyers.
- Send another email to non-buyers at 6 pm informing that the sale is going to end soon.
- You may extend the launch and send another email and SMS next morning.
- When a VIP launch ends, make these products available to the public, offer slightly lower discounts.
- Send a regular campaign to all your subscribers, post on social media, etc.
This can break your all-time sales record by at least 3 times, I promise.
Remember, building excitement is key.
Now, kudos to you, dear reader.
Not many people make it till the end of this article. If you’re reading this, congratulations.
You’re one of the few, who’s got the steps which will give you an unfair advantage over other ecom businesses.
If you found this article valuable, please share it with your friends and colleagues.
Ready to make some serious money?
Let me and my team help you in applying these strategies.
Book a call and let’s chat!
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