Are you currently running an eCommerce online store? Are you planning to launch one? If yes, then you need to know how to generate leads to make your business successful.
Increase in leads will lead to an increase in revenue.
But do you know what is a lead, who you need to target and how to do lead generation for your eCommerce website? Before we discuss further, here are some interesting facts
- India is expected to surpass the US to become the second-largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034.
- Internet users in India are expected to increase from 445.96 million in 2017 to 829 million by 2021.
- As of September 2018, internet subscribers in India stood at 560.01 million people.
- Online Shoppers in India are expected to reach 220 million by 2025.
Contents
- 1 What is Lead generation?
- 2 How do you generate leads?
- 3 1. Shopping campaign and ads
- 4 2. Build & leverage your email list
- 5 3. Cookies and push notifications:
- 6 4. Re-marketing campaigns:
- 7 5. Create referral programs
- 8 6. Host social media giveaways
- 9 7. Create a sense of urgency
- 10 8. Search Engine Optimization:
- 11 9. Offer a freebie or samples
- 12 10. Simplify the checkout process
What is Lead generation?
A lead is someone who shows interest in your product or service by taking action on your website. This could mean subscribing to your email list, participating in your offers, viewing the demo or starting a free trial.
How do you generate leads?
Here are 10 proven marketing techniques that will help your business to grow:
1. Shopping campaign and ads
If you own an eCommerce website, then Shopping campaigns is the best way to find better-qualified leads.
You can start running shopping ads by setting up a Shopping campaign in Google ads. All you need to do is send your product data with the merchant centre and create a campaign in Google ads.
The product data you sent consists of the details about the products you sell. Google map these details with the user search and it will show the most relevant product ad.
You will pay only when a user clicks your ad. This will lead them to the landing page from where they buy the product or engage with your ad.
2. Build & leverage your email list
When you visit websites in India such as Flipkart, Amazon.in, Koovs, Pepperfry etc. you will realize that they try to capture the email ID of users in different ways. They know that collecting email addresses and building an email database is the best marketing technique to generate leads for creating long-lasting contacts.
Related read: Cold Email Hacks you can use to increase the customer response rate
All you need to do is try to grab your customers attention. It may not be as easy as it sounds!
They are different techniques by which you can grab the attention of a user.
Show them different offers such as discount offers, coupon codes etc. For example, every new user on your website will get 20% off or Free shipping.
Related Article: How to improve your online sales using Discount Codes
3. Cookies and push notifications:
Cookies are an excellent tool for retargeting. First-time users who browse on the website get cookies stored in their web browsers and leave a trace that helps the company track their web-behavior.
These cookies let you retarget people who have visited your store once – people who have shown interest in your products. For example, you must have seen websites pitching a ‘last-minute sale’ whenever OnePlus/Redmi launches a new phone.
Once a user clicks on “Allow”, he/she will get added in your push notification subscriber list and you can retarget them and attract them by sending offers, sharing valuable content, etc. through push notifications.
4. Re-marketing campaigns:
Re-marketing campaigns not only helps in converting a lead but also gives your brand recall value. One of the best branding activities for your website is to run remarketing campaigns.
For example, you looked for a product but you don’t feel like buying it the same day. You leave the website and a few days later, you see that product appearing in your Facebook news feed, display ads on different websites. That is all because of remarketing campaigns.
This might not help you get conversions (once a lead converts into a client) at a cheaper rate but this is a good branding activity for your business.
Read more: Why does your business need to run Remarketing Campaigns?
5. Create referral programs
There is a theory in marketing that I always follow, called the AARRR Theory.
AARRR stands for ( Acquisition > Activation > Retention > Revenue > Referral). This marketing theory gives you the flexibility to leverage more from your customers and contribute to business growth.
The best way to leverage your customers when it comes to eCommerce websites is to ask them for referrals. Well-converted clients tend to refer more about your product then a new one who visits your website for the first time.
You can create an email referral program for those who have converted to a client from a lead (i.e. contributed to your revenue). You can also target them through Facebook and other social media channels.
By hosting free giveaways across social media will give you an opportunity to generate more leads for your eCommerce website. A lot of big brands follow this strategy when they want to generate leads in bulk. If every new business follows this strategy, this will not only help in eCommerce lead generation but also increase your brand awareness.
Create a strategy for a free giveaway and target users through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp etc. For example, you can ask them to share your product with at least 10 people to qualify for a free giveaway.
7. Create a sense of urgency
Many eCommerce websites tend to throw irresistible but time-limited deals at customers.
Try to create a sense of urgency among the users that you are targeting by throwing last minute special deals towards them. This will result in more leads for your online business.
8. Search Engine Optimization:
Update your product details regularly and optimize them to the full extent, such as adding meta title & description of the product and regularly updating them so that you can find the best possible scenario to generate more leads.
Related Read: How link building is essential for your SEO business plan
As an eCommerce industry in India growing at a very fast pace, the competition is also fierce. Keep finding new techniques and implement the above-mentioned techniques with a clear strategy to attract the right buyers for your platform.
9. Offer a freebie or samples
Who doesn’t love free stuff right? You can leverage this basic human psychology to get leads for your eCommerce business.
If your budget allows it, you can offer free samples to new customers to get them to try out your product. This eliminates any doubts they have in their mind about your business. This strategy works well if you sell products that needs a lot of quality checking before customers buy.
You can also giveaway freebies with product purchases in exchange for their email address.
10. Simplify the checkout process
Nobody wants a complicated check out process. Once customers decide to make a purchase, they want to complete the payment process easily. Here’s what you can do to simplify the checkout process on your eCommerce website:
- Invite users to register an account but also give them an option to continue as ‘guest/
- Offer more payment options
- State your shipping and return policy clearly before checkout
- Show shipping charges on your product page
Streamlining checkout process improves lead generation because even if the person abandons cart, you can get their email address to target for marketing campaigns.
If your business is just starting out, you can check out this video to get a clearer understanding of the basics.
Start your business journey with Instamojo today.
3 comments
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really appreciate your post and agree with you. Thanks for good information and way of explaining., This will be really useful. Thanks for posting such information.
Sense of urgency is the best method I have ever seen.