People tend to be very loyal to their favourite brands and this is a luxury online few brands can afford thanks to their greate client services and details that make their customers feel unique. Nowadays, reaching customers and addressing tailored messages can be even easier thanks to the social media and, as an e-commerce business owner, you will need to customize your communication as much as possible to create a community around your brand.
Before doing so, however, you will first need a store and a brand to build around. The good news is that this is now far easier than ever.
Creating an e-shop never been that easy
In the past, building a website was a highly technical affair as knowledge and experience in computer coding was necessary. This meant that owning a website was out of reach for many people that had neither the skills to build one, or the budget to pay costly website builders.
This has all changed, however, with online store builders such as Shopify. These solutions are designed to make it as easy as possible for anybody to use. You can choose from a variety of themes to get you started, while they also have drag and drop features that allow you to place what you want, where you want it, with ease.
It’s not just that you can now build an e-commerce site easily, but platforms also come with an array of useful features that help you to get the most from your online store.
Here’s a look at some of the features that will help to make your site a success.
- Affordable Pricing: A basic Shopify package will cost you just $29USD/month. This package will have all that first-time store owners need, while more advanced packages are available for owners of stores that are busy and need more advanced features.
- Customer Profiles: E-commerce builders can be integrated with apps that allow you to track your customers’ shopping habits. This will provide valuable information that enables you to offer the right products at the right times, generating brand allegiance and additional revenue.
- Social Media Integration: With so many people using social media apps like Facebook, it makes sense to integrate your store with these platforms to tend to what we call social commerce. This will give you access to a greater market, as well as additional features that can help improve customer satisfaction and your bottom line.
- Dropshipping: Buying stock is one of the most expensive and riskiest aspects of starting a business, but e-commerce site builders help to do away with that risk. E-commerce dropshipping apps mean that products are shipped directly from the supplier, meaning you don’t have to pay a penny for the products before you make a sale. It also overcomes headaches involving storage and other logistical issues.
With such an easy to use and intuitive system, it is easy for people even without technical skills to build an e-commerce store that competes with the best in terms of appearance and functionality.
Turn your customers into ambassadors
The next task is to attract customers and build up your brand, and there is no better way to do this than to build a community surrounding it. Word of mouth is the best tool to sell your products and your ability to build a positive feeling about your brand and your products will be an asset to take over your competitors. Question is, how to develop a community?
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a method of growing your brand and generating further revenue without actually pitching for sales, mainly by creating high value pieces of content to build your audience and community, which can be achieved by releasing surveys and articles that will tackle all the questions your prospects have about your products.
It can be incredibly effective when done right, helping to generate loyal brand devotees rather than one-time customers. One of the best examples of this is GoPro. The brand uses the videos filmed by their own users to build its community, by uploading them on its own platform. While there are many ways to use content marketing to build a community, help your customers and creating a positive image are two important strategies to set-up.
Key Opinion Leaders
When people in a position of trust, respect, or authority say something, others tend to list. Imagine having Beyoncé say that she bought an accessory from your fashion e-commerce store. The only problem you will have there is being able to keep up with the orders that flood in.
This might be an unlikely example, but if you can, you should do what you can to get your products mentioned and establishing partnerships through influencer agencies or directly by outreaching them on Instagram is an essential part of a proper marketing campaign.
Create Events
E-commerce sites may do their business in the virtual world, but that does not mean to say they should not be noticed in the real world as well.
One great way to get yourself noticed away from the world-wide-web is to create events for others to get involved in. Here, you can have people interact with your products as well as with you and any team members you may have. If you can’t create events yourself, then look for other events that your business may be able to take part in and contribute to.
Story Telling
Story telling is a fantastic opportunity to help your potential customers really relate with your brand. The right story can push the right buttons and even help your audience form an emotional attachment to your brand. When creating your story, you should make sure that you understand your audience well and know what makes them tick. Appeal to their desires, their needs, and their problems and demonstrate how your products are just what they need. Even if it does not make a sale immediately, the right story could still have you well on your way to acquiring loyal followers of your brand.
Building an e-commerce store is the easy part, the harder part is attracting customers and keeping them. Building a community around your brand is one way to achieve this.
