12 Tips to Create a Successful Shopify Marketing Strategy

Getting your online store up and running on Shopify is the first step in getting your products to the world. The second is equally as important as the first. It's creating your Shopify marketing strategy.

Shopify offers a ton of benefits to e-commerce businesses and dropshippers.

These benefits include easy-setup, attractive themes and layout, high security, marketing tools, and a host of apps that you can integrate into your store and benefit from.

But all these benefits won't help you if you don't have a marketing strategy in place. A strategy to drive your efforts to reach your customers, generate revenue, and ultimately increase your Shopify conversion rate.

In this article, we're going to show you how to create an effective Shopify marketing strategy for your online store.

Why do you need a marketing strategy?

A strategy is your plan; it's the groundwork that you to in order to achieve the results that you want.

With this in mind, you can think of your marketing strategy as the process of reaching your customers and turning them into buyers.

The first step in any marketing strategy is to identify who your customers are, where they are, and how you're going to target them.

Your Shopify marketing strategy should contain information about your target customers and where you're going to market your products or services. It's your tool to attract new customers, retain them, and turn them into loyal customers.

In addition, having a strategy will help you see the fruits of your efforts and measure your results.

Data shows that businesses and bloggers who have a documented marketing strategy are 313% more likely to be successful than those who don't. (CoSchedule)

Shopify marketing strategy must-haves

Now let's get to the ideas that you need to include in your Shopify marketing strategy to create a successful business.

To get the best results from your strategy, be sure to use the best Shopify apps for each category. Shopify apps can be easily installed in your store from the Shopify app store.

1. Segment your customers

The first step in attracting customers to your Shopify store is to know who your target audiences are and segment them into groups.

This segmentation process will help you divide your target customers better and get the most of your marketing dollars.

2. Decide on your social platforms

Now that you know who your customers are, decide which social media platforms you'll use to target them on.

If your marketing budget is a small one, then be sure to target one social media platform and expand as your business grows. Otherwise you risk wasting your budget and getting only limited results.

Many Shopify stores have found success using Instagram and Instagram-related apps via the Shopify store.

3. Use SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for any e-commerce business, even a Shopify store that wants to rank on Google.

It's a long-term strategy that should be part of your overall Shopify marketing strategy.

As an e-commerce business, you'll need to use SEO for your products and pages. Luckily, there are many apps for SEO on the Shopify app store.

4. Use brand ambassadors

Brand ambassadors are sort-of influencers. But they're not the super expensive influencers you hear about on social media and YouTube.

Your brand ambassadors are essentially customers who are regulars or who leave lots of product reviews.  

Monitor your customers and see who posts product reviews regularly, responds to your surveys, or gives you a positive rating and use them as ambassadors for your store.

5. Engage your customers

Customer engagement helps you connect with customers and drive them to certain areas in your store.

It also gives you the opportunity to gain insights from your customers.

You can use a customer engagement Shopify app like Gameball to engage your customers with push messages and email notifications.

6. Use an email marketing app

With a high return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every $1 spent, email marketing is an essential element in your Shopify marketing strategy.

Email marketing is big and will continue growing in the coming years.

To start with email marketing, use an email app from the Shopify app store to build an email list and send emails to your customers.

Whether you choose to send emails for abandoned carts or to encourage customers to complete their purchases or send email notifications to customers for special discounts and product releases, email is a great tool for your online store.

7. Use a loyalty program

Another opportunity to attract customers and increase your Shopify store's sales is to use a loyalty and rewards app.

Loyalty programs help Shopify store owners build long-term relationships with their customers.

And since it's easier and less costly to retain customers than it is to acquire new ones, a customer loyalty program offers multiple benefits and opportunities such as retention, engagement, and personalized experiences.

Further reading: 6 Creative Ideas to Boost Your Customer Retention Rate

8. Use a referral program

Referral marketing, known as word-of-mouth marketing, is one of the best and cheapest tools and methods to attract new customers.

Put simply, you'll be asking your current customers to refer you to friends and family in exchange for benefits.

Many Shopify apps combine loyalty and referrals so that you can reward customers with points that they can use in later purchases.

Gameball is one of those Shopify apps that combines loyalty with referrals.

Bonus tip: Follow referral marketing best practices and referral marketing metrics to stand out and get the most of your referral program.

9. Use up-selling and cross-selling

One of the great ways to increase your sales and revenues is to use up-selling and cross-selling.

Upselling is getting customers to buy higher-value products than those they were planning to buy. For example, if a customer was planning to buy a pair of sneakers for $100, you could upsell another pair to them for $150.

On the other hand, cross-selling is getting your customer to buy additional products on their way out. Amazon.com does this often with their "Customers who bought [your product] also bought" and it includes a list.

Let's take the same customer who was buying a pair of sneakers. If you can't upsell to them, cross-selling to them would be giving them a pair of socks.

Both upselling and cross-selling are marketing and sales tactics and e-commerce terms you should be aware of.

10. Ask for customer reviews

Part of your Shopify marketing strategy should be garnering positive reviews, which act as social proof.

This social proof indicates customers' trust in your brand. You can do this by using a reviews app from the Shopify store.

There are many great social proof apps for Shopify. A couple of those you integrated with Gameball are: Judge.me and Nextsale, both of which are on our list of must-have Shopify apps.

By integrating a social proof with your loyalty program, you can make the most of your loyalty program, social proof app, and referral program and accordingly boost your Shopify marketing strategy all at once.

Combining loyalty and social proof, you can offer loyalty points as rewards for rating your products or leaving reviews

More ideas for your Shopify marketing strategy

Depending on your business and what types of products you sell, you can include the following ideas in your strategy.

Some of these tips can be used when you're just launching your Shopify store and trying to attract customers, while others may come in later when you have a large number of customers.

11. Launch giveaways

Who doesn't like giveaways?

Offer giveaways to attract new customers or to reward loyal customers.

Your giveaways don't have to be expensive, but try to make sure they are products your customers want.

12. Use a chatbot

Chatbots offer many benefits, chief among them is a unique customer experience. Customers value fast-paced responses to their questions.

You can use them to answer to frequently asked customer questions (FAQs) or when you're offline.

Make Gameball part of your Shopify marketing strategy

It's natural that as a Shopify store owner, you don't want to overload your store with Shopify apps.

That's why we recommend you try Gameball.

Gameball is a customer engagement Shopify app, offering you loyalty, rewards, and referrals all in one package. You can use push messaging, email notifications, and social sharing – all of which can be rewarded with points.

In other words, it's one app that gives you multiple benefits. One app to rule them all. (Had to use the Lord of the Rings pun here, sorry!)

Want to get referrals from your customers? Use Gameball and award those who referred you to friends with points. Use a variety in point redemption with your customers based on what they do in your Shopify store.

Are customers not being active or is traffic low in your store? Create an online challenge to engage customers and reward them with points.

Create a loyalty tiering system and use cashback rewards in your loyalty program to excite customers.

Make sure your customers are aware of the many benefits they get if they're part of your rewards program by creating a loyalty program explanatory page.

When your store grows, you can personalize your rewards program by adding your branding to it.

Wrap up

You should always have a marketing strategy and a purpose behind that strategy.

But it's also important to have a flexible strategy, one that can accommodate your needs and your customers' needs.

While we'd all like to forget how COVID-19 changed the world a-year-and-a-half ago and continues to do so, as a store owner you really can't ignore market conditions.

As your store grows, your strategy should grow with it.

Start your 14-day free trial with Gameball today and combine the multiple facets of your Shopify marketing strategy into a unique experience, your customers will enjoy and come back to time and again.