7 Sales Promotion Ideas To Boost Your eCommerce Brand


Published: | By Ron Stefanski

If you’re looking for ways to increase your eCommerce sales, you’ve come to the right place. 

This article outlines seven insanely powerful sales promotion ideas to boost your online presence, increase brand awareness, and generate recurring sales. 

We’ll look at ways to promote eCommerce sales using various digital marketing channels, including your website, social media, search engines, paid advertising, and email. 

Let's get started if you’re ready to take your eCommerce brand to the next level. 

1. Promote Sales on Your Website

screenshot of dress company promotinng a 60 percent off all dresses sale-1Source

Your website is a powerful marketing tool allowing you to leverage sales promotion ideas and discounts. 

Some eCommerce sellers may wonder if discounts are worth it or if they only increase your short-term sales while reducing your overall profits. 

However, savvy marketers understand that a customer's lifetime value is more critical than one transaction's cost/benefit ratio. This concept makes it possible to increase your business profits by giving things away.

You can use discounts on your website as part of your online store promotion strategy to help you build a robust eCommerce channel.

A recent study shows the effectiveness of using discounts to boost sales in eCommerce. The results show that over two-thirds of customers who get an offer end up making a purchase, even if they weren't planning on doing so before receiving the request. 

Here are a few simple ways to promote sales on your eCommerce website:

  • Offer discounts for those who sign up for an email newsletter on-site
  • Segment your email marketing strategy to automate messages to reduce abandoned shopping carts
  • Use an industry-leading website builder that specializes in eCommerce stores 
  • Offer flash sales on your website homepage
  • Create SEO blog articles that highlight your brand offerings with strategic keywords
  • Use social media channels effectively to target the audience most interested in your brand offerings
  • Offer free samples or low-priced products within your site pages

Everyone loves a deal, and these discounts, coupons, promotional deals, and reductions offer customers a more enjoyable shopping experience and boost your conversions, resulting in more sales for you. 

Just make sure that you prominently display your eCommerce sales promotions on your website homepage and the header, footer, and sidebar of other pages on your site.

2. Use Exit-Intent Popups for Higher Conversions

screenshot of a popup offering a 10 dollar discount coupon by entering first name and email addressSource

Another great way to increase your eCommerce sales is through the strategic use of pop-up notifications to remind website visitors of ongoing promotions in your store. 

Exit-intent popups, in particular, are very effective when used correctly. You can use them to offer things such as:

  • Limited-time coupons
  • One-time offers (OTOs)
  • Discounts to sign up for your email list

…and more. 

Regardless of what you use your exit-intent popups for, make sure your offer is compelling enough to stop your visitor dead in their tracks, so you have another opportunity to convert them before they leave your site. 

This tactic is very effective for enticing customers to make a purchase or join your list, but you can further increase your conversions by using additional tactics, like: 

    • Suspense: For example, “Claim your mystery offer before it disappears
    • FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): E.g., “Grab this before it’s gone!” 
    • Gamification: This is a powerful and exciting way to attract, engage, and reward your visitors for more conversions. 
    • Social proof: When social proof is used effectively, you go further than just showing leads and prospects that there is a demand for your product; you illustrate how your service or product is used and the positive impact it brings to others, incentivizing prospects to make an initial purchase — or at least learn more about a brand 

Here’s an example from an eCommerce site that uses gamification as a spin-to-win exit popup to keep site visitors engaged and get them to sign up for their email list. 

animated spin to win discount wheel. enter email address and receive codeSource

3. Participate in Email Marketing to Build Relationships

Among other digital marketing services and solutions, email marketing is a powerful channel that you can leverage to get better results from your eCommerce marketing campaigns.

But, to participate in eCommerce email marketing, you first need to build a list. 

Tactics like the ones outlined above will help you build a list on your website. You can also use social media to get people to subscribe by offering the same deals and discounts on your social profiles. 

Your list will provide an easy way to connect with people eager to hear from you. This includes customers, prospects, people interested in your industry and events, etc. 

You can then start promoting your online store and encouraging more sales by sending your list of valuable information, tips, discounts, etc.  

  • Offer referral discounts to encourage subscribers to share your site with others
  • Offer free shipping on their next order as a way to encourage sales
  • Use email for automated abandoned cart recovery to increase conversions

In addition to offering discounts and promotions, you can also use email to keep a steady flow of communication with your audience. And use as much personalization in your emails as possible, from starting with the lead's name to finishing with an email signature.

Please provide them with valuable content, such as industry news, product tutorials, etc. Tell your brand story, share user-generated content, tips and tricks, and more.

To help you find the best email marketing software for your eCommerce brand, I’ve created this list of the best email marketing tools to make things a little easier for you.

4. Use Targeted Push Notifications for More Engagement

screenshot of push notification from sendpulse dot comSource

Yet another effective way to boost your eCommerce brand is to send push notifications or SMS texts to people who visit your site. 

This works straightforwardly. Display an opt-in box to a first-time website visitor, asking them for permission to send push notifications. 

When the visitor clicks “Allow,” they’re added to your list, after which you can send them messages (via desktop or mobile browser) to engage with them at different stages of their buyer’s journey. 

Here are some ways you can use push notifications to boost your sales: 

  • Send notifications to tell customers about flash sales and discounts
  • Segment your audience to send relevant offers 
  • Keep your audience informed about new products, launches, etc. 

You can also use push notifications to get more signups for your email list. Keep in mind that not everyone who lands on your site will want to buy, so this is a great way to keep in touch with new visitors and nurture them while guiding them toward conversion. 

5. Use Social Media to Announce Sales Promotions

screenshot of market overview for january 2021 from hootsuiteSource

Social media is used by many eCommerce business owners as a way to promote their online stores cost-effectively.  For many brands, it’s crucial to a successful eCommerce marketing strategy

You, too, can use your social platforms to boost your organic social presence, increase audience engagement, and generate more revenue for your online shop. 

The best way to do this is by sharing vibrant, eye-catching images and engaging demo videos of your business, products, or services. 

For instance, you might create a series of Style or How-to Videos for your products or brand.

You can even share UGC (user-generated content) of your customers interacting with your brand or enjoying your products. This type of content helps you maintain engagement and serves as powerful social proof. 

eCommerce brand, BonBonBon uses its Instagram channel to showcase beautiful images of items on the store’s catalog, which helps drive interested users to their online store.

nine various pieces of baked goods in different colors and designsSource

You can also use social media to host contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways. People love these types of promotions, which offer you the chance to boost brand awareness with new crowds while maintaining engagement with your current audience.

Alternatively, you can work with bloggers and influencers in your niche or partner with complementary brands to expand your reach. 

Thalita Ferraz, Influencer and owner of fashion and beauty website HerBones.com, says, “When I first launched my own fashion beauty brand I couldn’t seem to sell my products with paid ads.  I got frustrated and started to push the products through a network of influencers I know and was able to increase revenue by 60% within my first few campaigns.  At this point, it’s one of my core marketing strategies for success.”

Use appropriate hashtags to make your content easier to find, and you can even encourage user-generated content, which you can then incorporate into your overall marketing strategy. 

When using social media to boost your eCommerce brand, remember that you don’t have to be everywhere. Start with the platform where most of your core audience hangs out and build on that. However, you must include essential brand elements such as a logo made with a logo generator or relevant business colors. 

6. Use Customer Value Optimization Techniques

Customer value optimization (CVO) refers to creating an incredible customer journey to maximize your marketing activities' return on investment (ROI). 

The process focuses on optimizing every stage of the customer lifecycle to improve customer satisfaction, increase brand loyalty, and create customers for life.

Marketers who understand customer value optimization can build an unstoppable eCommerce business, and the best way to improve customer value is by enhancing the buying process. 

Here are some of the CVO techniques you can use to boost your eCommerce brand: 

  • Add value outside of your actual product or service
  • Use automated re-sales for replenishment (if possible)
  • Offer multi-purchase deals and exclusive/complementary cross-sells
  • Create promo videos from UGC and social proof to highlight the benefits of your products to existing customers
  • Create tutorials for software or digital services using video editing and screen recording tools (I prefer Movavi Screen Recorder for Windows and Tella for screen recording Mac).

Bundling best-sellers with some of your high-margin products is a great way to maximize your profits while providing value to your customers. 

7. Optimize for SEO to Attract Targeted Traffic

screenshot from similar web on eight steps to optimize your content for seoSource

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a commonly used method for generating a consistent flow of qualified traffic to a site. 

Optimize your eCommerce site for SEO by creating valuable, quality content that provides information and answers your target customer's questions. Check keyword rankings so you can pick and Include essential product keywords in your content to make it easier for your content to be found by searchers. 

The more high-quality and relevant content you can provide, the easier it will be to position yourself as an authority in your niche, leading to even higher search engine rankings.

However, it's important to note that search engine optimization encompasses many things and can lead you down a bottomless rabbit hole, so when implementing SEO for your eCommerce store, place yourself in the mind of your target user to discover how they talk about your business, products, or services. 

What questions do they want to know the answers to? 
  • What are their challenges? 
  • What are their goals or needs?

The answers to these questions will help you create better, more relevant content that naturally includes the type of language used by your customers when searching for related products. 

Conclusion 

This article has outlined seven creative ideas to help you promote your eCommerce brand. Pick one, and get started right now to see an increase in engagement, conversions, and sales in your online store. 

Over to you. Which of these sales promotion ideas do you intend to use first? Sound off below!

BYLINE:

author ron stefanskiRon Stefanski is an online business expert and owner of OneHourProfessor.com, which has over 100,000 monthly visitors and helps others create and grow their online businesses.

You can also connect with him on YouTube or Linkedin.

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