3 Digital Marketing Strategies Your Dropshipping Store Needs

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August 23, 2022 Marketing

Opening a dropshipping store is just the beginning of a long road to success in the e-commerce field. To increase sales systematically, you need a properly planned digital marketing strategy for dropshipping to pay off.

The first thing you need to do is to inform potential customers that you exist. How to reach the target audience? Which channels to bet on? Check out our guide to know the answer!

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is an online sales model that is becoming increasingly popular among e-shop owners. Put simply, it lies in transferring the process of delivering goods to a wholesaler, i.e. the customer buys in an online store but gets the package from the warehouse.

As the data by Oberlo shows, the dropshipping market will reach $196.78 billion by the end of 2022. In addition, continuous and rapid growth is predicted in the coming years up to $300 billion in 2024.

How does dropshipping work in practice?

The main principle of dropshipping is the elimination of storehouse facilities from the operational chain. And when the customer makes an order, your task is to redirect it to the wholesaler you work with. As a rule, it happens automatically, especially if the business is built on a ready-made e-commerce engine. Sending the product to the customer’s address takes place on the contract terms. As a seller, you earn the imposed margin.

What to be aware of in the dropshipping niche?

If you’re ready to start a dropshipping business to compete with retail giants and multiple other stores in the branch, you will go through all of the pitfalls below.

First of all, price and delivery time are the most vulnerable points. Customers assume they will receive the product within 2-3 business days. A longer time will make your offer less attractive than the competitor’s.

Of course, complaints are legally guaranteed (after not meeting certain conditions), but returns are the wholesaler’s goodwill. Be careful about additional fees for handling returns.

When it comes to prices or the choice of the offer, the topic is open. You can look above the lowest price if you do not focus on selling on popular auction sites. When dealing with the second point, it is necessary to have in mind a specific social group as a target.

The importance of marketing

If the business is not on the Internet, it is not operating. Not all entrepreneurs adopted this maxim, but it becomes evident to most. The importance of online marketing and business promotion cannot be limited to one section, and the topic is worth a separate article.

Any online business activities should be preceded by the preparation of a comprehensive marketing strategy. All you need is to carry out the appropriate analyzes and, on their basis, select the advertising channels suitable for your store. Of course, the type of business form may influence it. However, best marketing strategy practices can be reduced to three ultimate ideas.

Boost your content SEO

One of the essential elements of marketing strategy for a dropshipping business is website positioning. It is well known that unique, original content, written under the principles of correct language and tidy formatting, works well. The selection of key phrases is best based on the keywords that appear most often in search engines, but it is worth making sure that they sound natural.

The use of video materials also brings exciting effect – people tend to convey a lot of information in visual form, and nearly 82% of internet traffic already comes in video form. In the era of the enormous availability of advanced technologies, the high quality of the recording in every aspect, both image, and sound, is vital. Some video marketing solutions can be performed even using a smartphone.

Cooperate with influencers

Recommendations from others or ‘word-of-mouth marketing’ is probably the oldest form of promotion. An obvious solution is to allow users to share opinions both on your platform and on Facebook.

In the beginning, feedback is difficult to get, and negative comments will inevitably appear. That is why it is also worth obtaining opinions in a simulated way. You can ask blogs/websites related to your industry to do product reviews or simply recommend your store by linking to it.

Another option is traditional influencer marketing, which, unfortunately, has a bad reputation among some people. However, this is due to its misperception – in reality, 93% of marketers have stated to use it in their campaigns.

We advise you to focus primarily on micro-influencers. These are people known and appreciated in a given industry who provide valuable content. They usually don’t have thousands of followers, but they have a loyal audience around them.

Do not neglect paid advertisement

If you are creating a marketing strategy for your dropshipping store, Google Ads should be its foundation. Even if your store has not yet achieved high positions in the search engine, Internet users will still be able to find you.

What types of Google Ads ads should you bet on?

Search Network Ads is the most basic form of Google advertising. It is simply a sponsored search result that appears in the browser above the organic links.
Shopping ads are displayed directly on the search page: they contain a photo of the product, its price, and the store’s address.
Remarketing campaigns help you reach users who have already visited your store.
Finally, YouTube Ads have been gaining importance for several years now.

You can also run paid advertising campaigns with Facebook Ads. The integrated store will allow you to display offers on Facebook, bring users directly to your store, and make purchases conveniently. Of course, it comes with a cost, but the benefits are usually worthwhile.

Analyze and optimize the marketing results

After you complete your first few marketing campaigns, you can start looking at the results of your hard work. First of all, analyze the following factors:

Sales: What are my best advertising channels? Where should I put more money on my ad? What are my best-selling products? Who are my devoted clients?
Buyer Behavior: Do people buy more from their computers or mobile? What is the conversion rate for each device?
Profit margins: What products are the most profitable? What are my sales and gross profits from month to month?

The perks of data analytics

A successful e-commerce store should rely on a data-driven analytical system. Be consistent with your analysis over time and measure your store’s performance with clear KPIs. The most obvious way is to transfer the results of Google or Facebook Ads to BigQuery. This will help you make smarter promotional decisions and take your business to the next level over time. You can use specific big data analytics tools to measure search traffic over time and improve your SEO efforts.

To sum up, if you want to sell anything, you need to conduct marketing activities first. The dropshipping store is no different from any other venture. It benefits from advertising in the search engine, social media, or other websites, smart positioning, selling via blog or social media, cooperation with influencers, and promoting the brand on a large scale. If you take care of the three marketing strategies of your dropshipping store listed in our guide, you will quickly gain publicity among internet users.