To succeed in dropshipping, you need to have a solid marketing strategy. Without one, you will struggle to get traction and grow your business.
In this article, we are going to share nine marketing tips that will help you boost traffic and sales.
Let's get started!
9 Tips to improve the marketing strategy of your dropshipping business
As any business owner knows, marketing is essential for attracting new customers and growing your company. However, it is also an element that many people struggle with the most.
In other words, it's common to be challenged with finding a profitable marketing strategy.
In this article, we will show you our top tips to improve your dropshipping marketing strategy!
Fancy a sneak peek already? Here are our best dropshipping marketing strategy tips:
- Invest in your marketing creatives
- Clearly list the benefits of your products
- Find which marketing method fits you best
- Set up retargeting campaigns to recapture lost customers
- Research and target the right audience
- Use conversational SMS marketing
- Find inspiration in the best-performing social media ads
- Use post-purchase upsells
- Optimize your customer lifetime value
Following these tips can optimize your marketing strategy and grow your business.
Let's look at them in more detail now!
1. Invest in your marketing creatives
Marketing creatives are one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign. They help to capture attention, convey messages, and ultimately persuade consumers to take action.
Marketing creatives form the ads you show to your target audiences and consist of product images, videos, and audio.
Whether it's a well-designed logo or an eye-catching ad, good marketing creatives can make all the difference in a campaign, so it is important to put time and effort into creating them.
When done right, they can help to drive sales, build brand awareness, and create a loyal customer base.
Of course, designing effective marketing creatives is no easy task.
So, if creating videos and images for your ads isn't what you excel in, we recommend investing in someone from Fiverr:
Alternatively, you can use a service like Billo to buy some user-generated content (UGC) videos from one of their thousands of vetted video creators working from their home studios all over the United States!
It's the most accessible and affordable way to get UGC videos for your ecommerce business!
Interested? You can learn more about Billo's services and pricing on their website.
2. Clearly list the benefits of your products
When you're selling a product, it can be tempting to focus on its features.
After all, that's what makes your product unique, right?
But if you want customers to buy from your ecommerce store, it's more important to focus on the benefits of your product.
That's because customers want to know what your product will do for them, not just what it is.
How will it make their life better? How will it solve their problem?
Here's a great example from the same company you saw before, Indestructible Shoes:
When you focus on the benefits, you're much more likely to convince someone to make a purchase.
Here's another example; if you're selling a new type of toothbrush, you might want to focus on how it can help to whiten teeth or how it's gentle on sensitive gums.
In other words, you want to sell the result, not the brush itself.
When you focus on the benefits of your product, you will be more likely to convince customers to buy from you!
3. Find which marketing method fits you best
Marketing is a vital component of any business, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
There are multiple marketing methods you can use for your dropshipping store, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
To make the most of your marketing budget, it is important to carefully consider your options and choose the strategies that fit your business.
But how do you know which marketing method fits you best?
If you’re looking for an easy-to-understand infographic on how to pick the proper marketing method for your dropshipping store, check this out here:
However, it goes without saying that there is much more to it. Take a look at this article to learn everything about marketing methods for your dropshipping store!
Tip: If you haven't already, experiment with incorporating TikTok into your marketing strategy. Many people have had success with it recently!
4. Set up retargeting campaigns to recapture lost customers
Any dropshipping store owner knows that one of the most frustrating things is seeing a customer add items to their cart only to leave without completing the purchase.
In fact, the average conversion rate of an ecommerce store is less than 2%. This means that 98 out of every 100 visitors will leave your site without making a purchase.
But what if there was a way to optimize your conversion rate, bring those customers back, and give them a nudge in the right direction?
This is where retargeting campaigns come in.
By setting up a retargeting campaign, you could target ads specifically at customers who added a product to their carts but didn't initiate a checkout.
Facebook, for example, allows you to create custom audiences to enable these retargeting campaigns:
Ads in retargeting campaigns can be highly personalized, which helps to increase the likelihood of conversion. Here's an example:
In addition, retargeting campaigns can be customized to target specific products or pages that a customer has viewed, making them even more relevant.
Ultimately, retargeting campaigns provide an opportunity to recapture lost customers and boost sales on your ecommerce store!
5. Research and target the right audience
When it comes to dropshipping, researching your target audience is crucial.
By understanding the needs and wants of your target market, you will be able to create marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate with your target audience, leading to more sales.
Let’s say you are running a store in the fitness niche.
In that case, you could choose a dropshipping target audience of teachers who love puzzling, drinking beers, and watching tv.
While there is nothing wrong with those people, they likely aren’t interested in buying your products!
Instead, your ‘ideal’ target audience might be males or females who love going to the gym, are interested in healthy food, and love sports.
This group of people is much more likely to purchase your products!
In short, your dropshipping target audience has a significant influence on the success of your marketing campaigns.
And this isn’t just our opinion. For instance, Philip Kotler, an American marketing expert, even said the following:
There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market.
Philip Kotler
So, before you launch your store, take some time to learn about your target audience and what they're looking for. With this knowledge in hand, you will be well on your way to success!
6. Use conversational SMS marketing
Email marketing is great, but SMS marketing might be even better.
That's because SMS messages offer a number of advantages for online businesses.
First, they are personal and immediate, which helps to create a sense of urgency and encourages customers to take action.
SMS messages are also highly effective at reaching customers who may not be that active on social media or other channels. And finally, they are relatively inexpensive to send, making them an affordable way to retarget your past visitors.
The result?
You can recover up to ten times more abandoned carts with SMS than email!
One of our favorite SMS marketing services is Cartloop:
The unique thing about Cartloop is its ability to take a conversational edge. Along with the added advantage of the human touch, it assures revenue growth and longer-lasting customer-brand relationships.
When used correctly, SMS marketing is definitely a powerful tool for boosting your marketing strategy!
Today, using social media is one of the primary marketing strategies for dropshipping stores. With a few clicks, businesses can reach a massive audience of potential customers.
However, with so many businesses competing for attention, it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd.
One way to make your social media ads more effective is to take inspiration from other businesses. See what ads get the most engagement and try to replicate that in your campaigns!
Also, pay attention to the overall tone and style of successful ads and see if you can apply that to your own brand.
By taking inspiration from other businesses, you can create social media ads that are more likely to capture attention and convert visitors into customers.
Here are a few articles you can check that show some great examples of social media ads:
- 14 Great Facebook Ad Examples for Ecommerce | Inspiration
- 9 Awesome Dropshipping Facebook Ad Examples | Inspiration
- 10 Instagram Shoutout Examples for Ecommerce | Inspiration
8. Use post-purchase upsells
Have you ever heard about upselling?
It’s a common sales technique to persuade your customers to buy additional or more expensive items.
For example, if a customer buys a pair of shoes from your store, you could offer them a discount on socks or insoles. But you can also offer them a more luxurious version of the shoes for a small discount!
Typically, upselling happens when a visitor is browsing the product page or has added a product to their cart. (For example, through a pop-up)
However, what if the pop-up distracts visitors and prevents them from ordering the product?
That's where post-purchase upsells come in.
These upsells are only shown once a customer completes their order. In other words, you don’t run the risk of missing out on your order in the first place!
It's our favorite type of upselling, and one of the best Shopify apps that will help you with setting this up on your store is ReConvert:
Here is an example of a post-purchase upsell from ReConvert
Upsells are an easy way to increase order values and generate additional revenue, so don't be afraid to use them. Just make sure that you're offering products or services that are actually relevant to your customers' needs.
9. Optimize your customer lifetime value
If you want your dropshipping store to be successful in the long term, you need to focus on optimizing customer lifetime value.
In simple terms, customer lifetime value is the amount of money a customer spends on your store over their lifetime.
So, once you have customers, you need to work on retaining them and increasing their spending over time.
One way of doing this is by rewarding loyal customers and big spenders through a customer loyalty program.
With such a program, you can provide targeted discounts and rewards or offer unique and personalized experiences.
An example of an ecommerce store that took this to the next level is REI. Visitors can sign up for their customer loyalty program for $30 and receive access to exclusive sales, coupon codes, get cashback on their purchases, and more:
You can also improve your customer lifetime value by focusing on email marketing.
For example, you should regularly send newsletters to alert subscribers of new deals, products, or other news.
You can even create a separate email campaign for loyal customers to show appreciation for them and offer an amazing deal!
With a strong focus on customer lifetime value in your marketing strategy, you can increase the chances of your dropshipping store thriving for years to come.
What is the best marketing method for dropshipping?
When it comes to marketing a dropshipping business, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The most effective marketing strategy will vary depending on the products you sell, your target market, and your budget.
In our opinion, you should utilize a combination of marketing methods for the best results. Take a look at our infographic from earlier or this article to help you choose your marketing methods!
How do you increase sales by optimizing your dropshipping store?
In this article, we focused on optimizing the marketing strategy of your dropshipping business.
However, even an excellent marketing strategy needs to start with a strong foundation, and that's why it's important to optimize your website for conversions as well!
A few strategies you can use to optimize your dropshipping store include having outstanding customer support, adding GIFs to your product page, or writing converting product descriptions.
An optimized website will load quickly, be easy to navigate, and provide a seamless user experience.
However, achieving this isn't easy or simple.
So, if you are struggling or looking to improve your store itself, here are some articles you must read:
- 11 Amazing Tips to Increase Dropshipping Sales in 2024
- Shopify Dropshipping Conversion Rate Optimization: 12 Ways to Get More Sales!
Summary
Before we go to the conclusion, we’ve created a quick summary of this article for you, so you can easily remember it:
- Be sure you find the best possible marketing method and target audience for your dropshipping store.
- Before starting your marketing campaigns, try to find some inspiration first. Also, don't forget to invest in your marketing creatives and clearly list the benefits of your products in your ads.
- Don't forget to use SMS marketing, retargeting campaigns, and post-purchase upsells in your marketing strategy.
- Focus on optimizing your customer's lifetime value for sustainable success.
Conclusion
There is no single silver bullet regarding the marketing strategy of dropshipping stores.
Just as each business is unique, so must its marketing strategy be tailor-made to fit its specific needs and goals.
There is also a lot of competition out there, making it difficult for dropshippers with limited budgets or no marketing experience to stand out from the crowd.
So, we hope today's tips will help improve your online store's marketing strategy!
By constantly testing and tweaking your strategy, you will eventually find a formula that works best for your dropshipping store.
Good luck with everything!
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