eCommerce marketing can be divided into 2 categories: inbound marketing and outbound marketing, each of which takes a different approach to earning customers. The purpose of inbound marketing is to attract customers who are actively looking for the type of product you provide, or trying to solve a problem your products work to solve. In contrast, outbound marketing involves reaching out to potential customers via more traditional methods such as advertising.
A complete eCommerce marketing strategy involves both inbound and outbound marketing. However, you should always focus on inbound marketing first. The main reason is that inbound marketing is much more cost-effective, costing 62% less per lead than outbound marketing. The second reason is that many of your inbound marketing tactics, like SEO and content marketing, have the side effect of producing a better website that will serve as a stronger foundation for all your future marketing efforts.
Shift4Shop comes with a full suite of eCommerce marketing tools to help you build and implement a solid strategy for reaching new and existing customers online. Let's go over the different areas of eCommerce marketing and how Shift4Shop can help you perform well in each channel you choose to pursue.