Shopify Marketing Demystified: Actionable Tips and Tools for Success

Let’s face it: regardless of how stunning your online store looks or how innovative your products are, you won’t have customers placing orders if you don’t market on Shopify.

Fortunately, Shopify has made marketing easy and effective by providing a range of built-in tools and features that allow you to launch, manage, and track your marketing campaigns.

But with so many options available, how do you know where to start? 

The key is to identify your market niche, product, budget, and time constraints to determine which Shopify marketing strategies and tools will work best for you and your targeted audience.

Lucky for you, we have created the ultimate guide on Shopify marketing that will equip you with the knowledge and skills to launch successful eCommerce brands that drive high volumes of traffic and sales. 

Read on to learn what it takes to get ready to take your Shopify store to the next level.

Understanding Shopify Marketing

Marketing on Shopify requires a different approach compared to other eCommerce platforms.

Why? According to Mihaela Elena Tudorache, product manager at Videowise,

"Shopify has a vast app store that integrates with third-party marketing tools, which allows marketers to leverage the latest marketing technologies to enhance their campaigns. This makes it easier to track customer behavior, analyze data, and optimize campaigns."

So, you get access to multiple marketing tools and features within the platform to launch successful marketing campaigns.

For example, Shopify Inbox allows you to chat with store visitors and answer any questions they may have, and detailed analytics and marketing reports help you reduce guesswork and make informed business decisions.

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Shopify is also a mobile-responsive platform, offering mobile-optimized templates and an easy-to-use mobile app to manage your store on the go. By integrating with various third-party marketing tools, such as email marketing and social media advertising, the platform makes it even more effortless to leverage additional marketing channels and enhance your marketing efforts.

But to make the most of these tools and features, you need a solid understanding of your target audience and marketing goals.

Know your target audience and buyer personas

The more you know about your ideal customer, the more effectively you can market to them.

So, dig deep into their pain points. Figure out what makes them tick and create detailed buyer personas. With this level of insight, you can then tailor your marketing messages and campaigns to resonate with your audience like never before.

Let us explain—imagine you're selling luxury handbags on your online store. 

If your ideal customer is affluent women aged 28-60 who cherish exclusivity and top-notch quality, you should create marketing campaigns that showcase the unique features of your bags—like their limited availability and premium materials—that appeals to them to make a sale.

Get it?

Here are a few tips to understand your target audience and develop detailed buyer personas:

• Apply customer feedback. Ask your existing customers why they chose to buy from you, what they like about your products, and what they wish you offered or did differently. This will help you understand how to speak directly to your customers' needs and desires.

• Use social media. Analyze your existing customers’ social profiles, including what they’re posting about and who they’re following, to get valuable insights into their interests and behaviors.

• Do A/B testing. Leverage A/B testing and analytics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to refine your buyer personas.

Set marketing goals and track analytics

Set clear marketing goals and measure success through analytics to save yourself from getting lost in the digital world. 

By monitoring metrics like website traffic, sales revenue, and conversion rates, you'll know what‘s working and what’s not. You can then adjust your strategy accordingly to steer toward success.

For example, if your marketing goal is to increase website traffic, you can track the number of visitors on your site using Shopify’s built-in analytics tools. If you notice your traffic isn’t increasing as quickly as you’d like, you can include traffic-boosting activities like social media advertising or influencer marketing in your Shopify marketing strategy.

Keep the following guidelines to keep in mind when setting Shopify marketing goals and tracking analytics:

• Focus on metrics that truly matter for your business. Although important, metrics like website traffic and sales revenue may not tell the full story. For example, higher website traffic may not translate to more sales if the traffic doesn’t comprise your target audience. So, focus on identifying KPIs most relevant to your business — and tracking and improving those metrics. 

• Prioritize quality over quantity. If the leads or traffic you’re generating aren’t of high quality, it’s unlikely they’ll translate to actual sales. Therefore, your best bet is to target your ideal audience through relevant tactics like niche advertising and search engine optimization (SEO).

• Focus on driving lifetime customer value. Consider the long-term value of a customer and their potential for repeat purchases instead of making immediate sales. By focusing on building relationships with customers and providing exceptional customer service, you can increase the likelihood of repeat purchases and long-term loyalty.

6 Shopify marketing tips to boost eCommerce sales

Let’s get straight to business!

Here are six of the best Shopify marketing strategies you can to drive traffic and sales:

1. 1. Use your blog as a promotional tool

2. 2. Implement shoppable videos

3. 3. Apply Shopify-centered site optimization techniques

4. 4. Add a chatbot and live chat feature

5. 5. Reward your loyal customers

6. 6. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns

1. Use your blog as a promotional tool

Not having a content marketing strategy or a blog is a missed sales opportunity in eCommerce. 

Your blog is a valuable tool to promote your products and increase sales. When writing the content, you’ve likely already taken measures to make it SEO-friendly and give your audience genuine advice. So why not take it a step further and use it as a channel to increase visibility and drive sales without breaking the bank?

Yoga Clothing brand Alo uses its blog to provide valuable information to their audience while also promoting their products. For instance, the blog posts focus on giving clothing and dressing up tips with topics like ‘What to Wear on Thanksgiving Day‘ and ‘3 Shades of Need-Now Browns.‘

The blog content then includes subtle mentions of Alo products, encouraging users to click without being too pushy. Look at how the brand shows a model wearing Alo clothes while mentioning the product links to the same.

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Smart, right?

Before you start promoting your products, think about your business goals. Blogging is only suitable if you don’t mind waiting to bring more organic traffic to your website. But if you're looking to earn quick revenue, running paid ads would be more effective.

2. Implement shoppable videos

Shoppable videos combine the power of visual storytelling with commerce, allowing viewers to directly buy products from the video itself. This helps create an immersive shopping experience that streamlines their eCommerce journey and increases product awareness and sales.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…. 

Shoppable video marketing also keeps customers engaged and interested in your products. Through the embedded links, customers are instantly directed to your product pages and can place orders without the need for additional navigation or browsing.

According to Joshua Wilkins of Adjust Studio, “Video viewers are 1.7x more likely to purchase than new viewers and by integrating your social media video content and placing it on your product pages.“

So how do you start adding shoppable videos to your Shopify store? 

Videowise is an eCommerce video platform providing end-to-end video infrastructure for brands and retailers. Use it to create highly customizable and responsive video widgets that look great on any device or screen resolution. Personal care brand Dr. Squash saw a 3.2% increase in revenue per session and a 12% video shopper average conversion rate by using Videowise to power their entire online store video infrastructure.

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Book a demo with Videowise today to install interactive video widgets and convert your visitors to customers.

3. Apply Shopify-centered site optimization techniques

As a Shopify merchant, you’re responsible for ensuring shoppers can explore your products and take action without any glitches or confusion.

Here are a few proven Shopify site optimization techniques that can help you offer valuable customer experiences:

• Choose an up-to-date Shopify theme that loads quickly. Although mobile responsiveness is necessary, all Shopify themes are designed to be responsive across all devices.

• Use a system font to save customers the trouble of downloading a font to access your website.

• Remove any unnecessary redirect and redirect loops to avoid breaking the flow of your customer’s shopping experience.

• Limit your product collections to smaller batches so that it’s easier for shoppers to browse through your offerings.

• Get rid of any redundant Shopify apps that run in the background and slow down site performance.

Another crucial element here is placing large yet subtle calls to action strategically across your product pages. Your CTAs should be distinct and tappable/clickable, be it on your online store or in your emails.

4. Add a chatbot and live chat feature

Offering a live chat feature along the chatbot allows you to add a personalized human touch to transform the customer experience.

Take Sephora’s Live Beauty Help, for example.

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The beauty brand uses the 24/7 availability of a chatbot with the expertise of human beauty advisors to provide customers with quick answers to their questions along with the opportunity to connect with real beauty advisors who can offer personalized advice and recommendations.

While several eCommerce brands today offer a live chat feature, a chatbot can be an equally valuable addition to your store that can:

• recommend additional products that would complement a customer’s previous purchase or current items in their carts

• send automated responses offering discounts and limited offers to prevent cart abandonment

• automate returns to allow customers to quickly return items

The fact that a chatbot can handle multiple customers helps prevent anyone from waiting and provides seamless experiences. Add to this the personalization of a live chat, and you’ve got a game-changer tactic for improving customer satisfaction and sales.

5. Reward your loyal customers

Acquiring new customers is undoubtedly important, but it shouldn’t be your only focus—retaining your existing ones is equally important. The fact that it’s considerably more cost-effective compared to other Shopify marketing strategies doesn’t hurt, too.

One way to reward your customer’s loyalty and incentivize them to continue shopping with your brand is to build a customer loyalty program. Your loyalty program can take many forms, but the basic concept is to offer perks and rewards to customers who make repeat purchases or spend a certain dollar amount.

Why should you implement a customer loyalty program? 

For one, it's a powerful way to motivate your customers to make more purchases, leading to increased sales revenue. Not only that, but a loyalty program also strengthens your brand's relationships with customers, making them feel valued and appreciated. 

Plus, by offering a personalized and unique experience, you set yourself apart from the competition. You'll be able to create a memorable and positive impression that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Popular watch and accessories brand MVMT’s MVMT Insider is a great example of a successful loyalty program. Customers get points for making purchases, following MVMT on social media, and leaving product reviews, among other activities. 

Here’s a breakdown of how MVMT rewards its customers: 

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MVMT’s main focus is to create a sense of community and exclusivity among its loyal members through its loyalty program. It offers tiered benefits based on a customer’s spending level, with higher tiers unlocking more exclusive rewards and experiences, as well as access to new product releases, which helps build anticipation and excitement.

In addition, you have complete control over how your loyalty program works. 

Decide how to reward customers, how frequently, and for what actions. For example, you can offer your loyal customers exclusive access to new products or sales—or you can have a point-based program with its own point-based currency that can be redeemed for free shipping, discounts, or free gifts. 

6. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns

PPC advertising involves placing targeted ads in search engines and social media platforms—and Facebook and Google are their dynamic duo.

Facebook ads run on—you guessed it—Facebook and Instagram and let you target specific buyer personas with a variety of ad formats. On the other hand, Google ads show potential customers detailed information about products related to their search directly on the search engine.

But the real magic of PPC advertising lies in its ability to let you get super-targeted with your Shopify campaigns.

You decide who to advertise to, what type of ad to show to customers, and whether to run retargeting ads for those who have previously viewed your landing pages or ads.

Overall, PPC campaigns are a scalable and data-driven strategy that offers a great bang for your buck and helps you reach ready-to-buy customers to instantly boost sales.

Note: These are a few of the many ways you can market on Shopify. Check out our comprehensive Shopify marketing tips guide that digs deeper into the best Shopify marketing strategies in plain language and with many examples.

5 Shopify marketing apps to grow your online store

The success of your marketing strategy highly depends on the digital marketing tools and apps in your Shopify arsenal. From lead capture and conversions to store design and visuals to analytics and tracking, you’ll find hundreds—if not thousands—of different types of marketing tools.

But which ones are worth your time? The answer will vary depending on your eCommerce business type and budget.

While not an exhaustive list, here are some of the best Shopify marketing apps and tools you can try:

1. 1. Videowise

2. 2. Shopify Email

3. 3. Omnisend

4. 4. Unbounce

5. 5. Product Reviews

1. Videowise

Videowise allows eCommerce owners to embed shoppable videos anywhere in their store to showcase and sell their products and services directly to shoppers. And the best part? Your site's speed won't be impacted one bit! Videowise uses compressed thumbnails, lazy loading, and small scripts that are less than 100KB in size.

Below is a list of all the services on offer:

• On-site shoppable videos

• Video analytics

• Shoppable video marketing

• eCommerce video player

• Find UGC video

• Video management

Videowise helps you understand which videos are converting and why, so you can turn your TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts videos into money-making machines.

Moreover, you don't need any coding skills to get started. With Videowise's no-code widget and player editor, you can customize every aspect of your video components and make them uniquely yours. Installation is a breeze, too—simply drag and drop an app block into your Shopify theme editor or copy one line of code and you're ready to go.

Not only that, but Videowise's video components are fully responsive and can adapt to any device or screen resolution. And with different customization settings, you can create a tailored shopping experience for desktop, mobile, or tablet users.

2. Shopify Email

Shopify Email is a native email marketing tool that lets you create, run and check email marketing campaigns directly inside Shopify marketing.

It offers a host of amazing features, from highly customizable email templates to existing brand assets, that makes creating and executing marketing campaigns easy and effortless. Use it to build meaningful relationships with your customers and gain a competitive edge in an increasingly crowded commerce landscape.

Shopify Email also lets you send emails using your domain—no setup required—and offers in-depth campaign analytics to keep you on top of success metrics like email open and click-through rates.

You can also track customer activity on your site (number of products added to carts and purchased) to accordingly send cart abandonment and order confirmation emails. With this personalized approach, you'll make them feel like VIPs and keep them coming back for more.

3. Omnisend

Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing automation platform designed to help you drive more revenue with minimal effort. With the power of email and SMS marketing, Omnisend helps you connect with your customers and boost your sales.

Choose a pre-built automation workflow or create your own set of customized automated messages using the new code automation editor. You're the boss, so adjust the sequence, add or remove channels, clone messages, and customize automation to fit your needs.

What’s more, the entire process is visual, so you see what your customers see.

Features like the Product Picker are the ultimate time-savers for busy eCommerce sellers like you. Simply choose a product from your online store and insert it into your newsletter—no coding or manual product image and description insertion is required. 

With Omnisend's centralized dashboard, you can easily keep track of the number of channels your customers are using to contact you and send targeted messages within the channel of your choice.

4. Unbounce

With Unbounce, a landing page builder and conversion intelligence platform, you'll have all the tools you need to boost conversions and optimize your Shopify marketing campaigns.

With over a hundred customizable landing page templates to choose from, you'll have no trouble finding the perfect fit for your online store. There's also a design assistant who recommends templates specifically tailored to your audience and industry, so you can rest easy knowing your pages are optimized for success.

Other features like page duplication, custom scripts, and built-in Google fonts help you get your web pages up and running in no time.

But that's not all. Unbounce's Smart Traffic features, like visitor attributes, time to learn, and conversion mapping, help you learn more about your target audience and buyer personas as quickly as possible. And with robust A/B testing capabilities, you can ensure you're getting the best possible results from your campaigns.

5. Product Reviews

Aptly named, the Product Reviews Shopify app allows you to add customer reviews to your products. This not only makes it easier for customers to share their feedback, but it also lets you serve social proof to convince other customers to purchase from your store.

This is a huge advantage considering 98% of customers look at product reviews as part of their purchasing process. What’s more, the content you publish helps with SEO, improving your chances of ranking in the local search results.

A 4-part Shopify marketing checklist to get started 

At this point, you’re likely overwhelmed with the marketing options and tools available at your disposal. It’s why you should take a methodical approach that eases your mind and helps you stay organized.

Our in-house marketing experts recognize conversion rate optimization, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and email marketing as the four main pillars every Shopify merchant should focus on, as they help you:

• refine your Shopify store’s user experience

• increase its visibility on search engines

• build an engaged social media audience

• drive repeat business through targeted and personalized email marketing campaigns

This essentially ticks all the boxes to increase store traffic and drive sales revenue.

Now, let’s discuss the four pillars of Shopify marketing in more detail.

1. 1. Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

2. 2. Search engine optimization (SEO)

3. 3. Social media marketing

4. 4. Email marketing

1. Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

According to BigCommerce, the average eCommerce conversion rate is around 2.5%-3%. This means that for every 100 visitors to your store, only 3 are likely to make a purchase.

Not exactly what you’d call an ideal situation, would you?

This is why CRO is a critical element of successful Shopify marketing. Even if you’ve already optimized your eCommerce website for launch, you may still need to fine-tune it using specific CRO strategies like displaying social proof and leveraging coupon codes and real-time purchases to turn more visitors into paying customers.

Another crucial aspect here is to A/B test your CRO strategies, where you analyze shopper behavior and make data-driven changes to your website to optimize the user experience and ultimately drive more sales. Think of it as testing different hypotheses to identify the better-performing option.

Here are five actionable eCommerce conversion rate tips to keep in mind:

• Optimize your eCommerce checkout process; the shorter, the better

• Make your website easy to navigate and optimized for mobile devices

• Clearly mention the shipping info and return policy

• Implement shoppable videos to drive engagement

• Add social proof (customer reviews and testimonials) and trust signals (SSL certificates and site seals)

2. Search engine optimization (SEO)

When it comes to marketing on Shopify, very few digital marketing channels are as cost-effective and impactful as SEO. In fact, a BrightEdge report established organic traffic is responsible for 53% of all trackable website traffic. 

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If you want to direct a part of this percentage to your Shopify store and attract more organic traffic, you need to optimize your store’s content and metadata and add targeted keywords to improve your brand’s ranking in the SERPs. What’s more, as shoppers looking up on Google have a stronger buying intent, the traffic often translates to more sales.

Alongside improving your store’s visibility on Google and other search engines, SEO also establishes your Shopify brand as a trusted authority in your target audience’s eyes and industry.

Here are five actionable eCommerce SEO tips to keep in mind:

• Use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner to choose the right keywords and Ahrefs to find keyword opportunities

• Optimize product pages, including images and customer reviews, to improve organic ranking

• Improve your site loading time

• Simplify your site architecture so that shoppers can reach everything within three clicks

• Create a strong content marketing strategy, where you regularly post original and value-driven content

3. Social media marketing

With billions of people using social media globally, it’s no surprise social media marketing should be a part of your Shopify marketing strategy.

Building an engaged following on social media and leveraging social media advertising helps you attract more customers to your Shopify store and encourage repeat business. It also builds brand awareness and opens up new communication channels to engage with customers, increasing your sales significantly.

Add to this the fact that global sales through social media platforms will reach nearly $2.9 trillion by 2026, and you know this is something you absolutely don’t want to miss out on.

The good news is Shopify lets you include buttons on your store’s product pages and blog posts that you and your customers can share on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit. 

Some Shopify themes are also designed with social media buttons to direct customers to your social media profiles, but if you want to add more social media features, that’s also possible—simply search for an app on the Shopify App Store or customize your theme code.

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Here are five actionable eCommerce social media marketing tips to keep in mind:

• Post user-generated content and partner with prominent influencers in your target niche

• Create shoppable posts to sell products directly on the social media

• Implement an AI-powered eCommerce chatbot to offer customers 24/7 one-on-one interactions

• Provide excellent customer service across m social media platforms

• Leverage social listening to track and understand customer needs and preferences

4. Email marketing

Email is a powerful tool for any Shopify sellers looking to drive more sales and build customer loyalty.

As a Shopify seller, you also have access to Shopify Email which allows you to create and manage email marketing campaigns from directly within the platform. This way, you can send targeted and personalized emails to your customers without extra hassle. 

Shopify also offers tons of additional features to create and execute custom email campaigns and connect with customers on the go. 

For example, Shopify Inbox allows you to leverage the power of chat for answering customer questions to potentially turn browsers into buyers. You can also use Shopify Forms to create lead capture forms with compelling offers to convert visitors into subscribers.

Customer segmentation and audience insights are other useful offerings to drive growth and build long-term relationships through personalized marketing. 

Here are five actionable eCommerce email marketing tips to keep in mind:

• Create and send value-driven emails that are impactful and on-brand

• Make your Shopify emails mobile-friendly to ensure a good user experience

• Segment your audience based on factors like age, gender, demographic, online behavior, and purchase history to send the right email and get them to take the intended action

• Keep your email subject lines short and avoid aggressively salesy or spammy language

• Always A/B test your emails, including subject lines, email timings, email copy, visuals, and CTAs

Note: Check out our 16-point Shopify marketing checklist to cover your bases and easily reach your target audience, capture their attention, and convert them into loyal customers who keep coming back for more.

Promoting your Shopify store

Shopify may not promote your products for you, but that doesn't mean you can't take charge and unleash a barrage of free and paid marketing tactics to get your brand and offerings out there.

Start with the free stuff: content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. These strategies don't cost a dime (initially) and can pay off big time by driving organic traffic to your site. And when you're ready to take the plunge, launch a Facebook Ads or Google Ads campaign to expand your reach further. Add email marketing to the mix, and you’re all set to have sales rolling in.

If you really want to wow your target customers, leverage the power of video marketing and embed shoppable videos on your site to turn browsers into buyers. Want to know more? Book a demo with the Videowise team today