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As we come to the end of what has been another eventful year, it’s time to start preparing for a brand new one in 2023. One way in which people mark the event is by making personal resolutions like going on a diet, stopping smoking or exercising more. But what resolutions have you made for your Shopify store to make it more efficient and profitable?
More than 1.7M merchants sell using the Shopify Platform
- StrikeTru
The great news for Shopify store owners is that there are many adjustments and enhancements that you can implement to make your store more attractive to potential customers. So, that’s what we look at here, as we offer up a range of options that ensure enhanced operational efficiency, improved visitor interaction, and increased visibility online. Additionally, if you are looking to grow your Shopify store, check out this resource on how to increase Shopify traffic.
Enhancing Your Operations
When the operational side of your eCommerce enterprise runs more smoothly, you get happier customers and reduced stress for yourself. Let’s examine a few of the ways it can be achieved.
Optimizing Shipping And Logistics
Our first operational enhancement that can be implemented is 2-day shipping, which allows your customers to get their goods quickly, resulting in increased customer satisfaction. Fast shipping represents common practice for eCommerce store owners, so it’s what people expect.
80% of shoppers surveyed want same-day shipping, while 61% want their packages even faster
- Invesp
Modern customers, in the US in particular, now expect fast delivery as standard, so if your competitors are offering it and you’re not, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.
The ShipBob Integration
Another way in which your logistics setup can be improved is through the use of services like ShipBob from the Shopify app marketplace. The platform specializes in the fulfillment of orders for direct-to-consumer eCommerce brands.
Offering a ‘hands-off’ shipping service that lets you concentrate on growing your business comes with a range of benefits that include:
- Automation of order fulfillment with synced tracking data
- Easy integration with your Shopify store
- Transparent pricing offered in line with delivery speed
- Affordable same-day and 2-day shipping
What we’re talking about is a best-in-class affordable fulfillment services platform that gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your shipping setup is functioning perfectly.
Marketing Automation
Next, we look at marketing automation, which essentially relates to getting all of those monotonous, time-consuming tasks taken care of. Whether talking about social media posting or even email marketing, this approach not only makes your day-to-day operations efficient but also ensures your customers get a much more personalized experience.
95% of companies have reported some benefit from marketing automation
- Adobe
The technology now exists for automation to be deployed across the entire lifecycle of the customer and when done correctly, you can create the perfect environment in which will facilitate the building of great, long-term relationships with your clients.
The many advantages of this approach can be placed in three main categories:
1. Personalized workflows
Every time a potential customer carries out an action, you obtain a new data point that informs you of what your customers are seeking at that precise moment. To attempt to track these interactions manually would be impossible. However, with automation, they can be monitored across numerous channels, helping you to better understand customer needs and deliver the correct content at the correct time.
2. Streamlined processes
When your marketing processes are streamlined, your customers are kept front and center. By creating processes that reduce the effort potential customers have to make, you achieve what all eCommerce store owners strive for - a unified experience, right from the initial touchpoint. Effective automation of marketing results in simple hand-off procedures, with all data auto-saved centrally and tasks, prioritized when required.
3. Integrated Analytics & Data
Marketing automation creates a wealth of useful data that can be used to drive qualified leads to content that helps them, the result of which is a warm lead that can be gently nurtured into paying customers. It doesn’t end there though as this method also leads to repeat custom and new business through referrals.
Installing Marketing Tools
There are many helpful marketing tools out there that can make the job of attracting new customers simpler and less stressful. Shopify allows for easy integration of a wide range of software platforms and here’s a small selection of what we mean.
Yotpo
One of the most effective solutions available for encouraging referrals, customer loyalty, and feedback is Yotpo - the cloud-based commerce marketing tool. What this enables is the easy collection and displaying of a range of different types of content like photos, videos, and reviews from key points along the purchasing journey. This results in increased social proof, trust among your target customers, and ultimately better sales.
Klaviyo
Don’t let anyone tell you that email marketing is dead, as it most decidedly is not. Setting up a Klaviyo account can help you get the most out of your email list with features like segmentation that allow you to tailor your messaging to your reader. You will also be able to provide more personalized experiences over SMS, web, and in-app notifications, which can truly unlock your brand’s full potential. To learn more speak to our Klaviyo experts today.
InstantSearch+
Another great Shopify eCommerce option is InstantSearch+ which is something that allows site visitors to find precisely what they’re looking for while they’re there. Given that finding the ideal product or service for their needs is a crucial part of the buying process, it stands to reason that the ease with which products can be found is pivotal to driving revenue.
Organic Search Optimization
Now we come to the measures that need to be taken to ensure your Shopify store is actually getting found by people who’re actively looking for what you offer. What we’re talking about is Google optimization (organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)).
Let’s take a look at each part in isolation…
On-Page SEO
To put it simply, on-page SEO represents the optimization of each of your shop’s pages for specific keywords in order to enhance online visibility and of course, organic traffic. This involves ensuring that all elements like content, headings, titles, tags, and internal links are aligned correctly.
Google Only Loves When Everyone Loves You First
- Wendy Piersall
Also included within the remit of on-page SEO is page loading speed, which can have a huge bearing on your bounce rates (people leaving after viewing just a single page). Optimizing the loading speed of your website can dramatically increase the amount of time that people spend browsing your website, which ultimately leads to better conversions.
Off-Page SEO
Conversely, off-page eCommerce SEO describes all the actions taken away from your Shopify store, which again has a big impact on how highly your site ranks in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). What this does is inform Google about your SEO ranking factors with regards to authority, trustworthiness, and relevance.
Here are a few examples of off-page SEO methods.
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Backlink Creation - this represents the main thrust of off-page SEO and if you have any ambitions of reaching page one of Google, it’s something you’ll need to get involved with. Backlinks are the number one ranking factor in Google’s eyes, with the search engine placing domains that have the most backlinks at the top.
Google also takes account of the link quality i.e. the authority of the domain that the link is from, with those coming from low domain authority being viewed less favorably.
- Social Media Marketing - another effective off-page SEO method is social media marketing, which offers a fantastic way to extend your content’s reach. You can use social media to gain more clicks for your content, shout about an exclusive offer or simply discuss your customers’ needs - all the while publicly demonstrating your ability to solve customer issues.
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Leveraging Guest Content - when you offer your content to 3rd party websites, you leverage an effective method of online marketing that also comes with a range of off-site SEO advantages. This content could be a captivating video or a thought-leader piece, both of which may be of interest to sites that share a similar target audience to your own.
This results in three major benefits; 1) you increase your exposure, 2) your brand awareness is heightened and 3) you increase the likelihood of referral traffic coming from the site you’re guest posting with. This relationship can be nurtured too, with a continuous flow of insightful content.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Finally, we look at Pay Per Click advertising or PPC as it’s otherwise known. As the title would suggest, it’s a marketing model that involves advertisers paying every time a user physically clicks on an online ad. There are a number of different varieties of PPC ads, however, the most commonly used is paid search.
Paid advertising returns $2 for every $1 spent - a 200% ROI rate
This kind of advertisement appears when people conduct online searches with Google, particularly when the search is for commercial services i.e. when they’re in the market to make a purchase of some kind. This could be as simple as someone looking for a ‘hairdresser near me’ or ‘trainers in New York’, with PPC ads being triggered when they do. As a part of our search marketing services, we offer PPC programs to help boost your search engine optimization.
What 2022 Resolution Are You Making For Your Shopify Store?
If your Shopify store is not performing how you’d like, you can use any or indeed all of the techniques we’ve talked about here to encourage brand awareness, loyalty, and profitability in 2023. The great thing is that many of the methods are easy to implement, even for those new to running an eCommerce site. Alternatively, if you’d like some expert help with the more advanced techniques, our is available to assist whenever you need us. All it takes is one phone call to speak to our Shopify experts.
