As the backbone of every ecommerce marketing strategy, your customers should always be kept front and centre across every campaign you are running. Without customers, there will be no online store. Many etailers assume that basic customer service is enough to keep customers happy. It’s a given that your store should offer customer service. Enticing customers to come back and earning their hard-won loyalty is a little bit more than offering the basics, however.
One of the best ways that you can use ecommerce marketing is to empower your customers and build lasting relationships that benefit both you and your customers. In this guide, we share some of the ways that you can empower your customers effectively.
Ecommerce Marketing and Customer Empowerment
Customer empowerment is about giving your customers more choice and more control over the way that they shop. It plays an integral role within the customer experience and also ties in with support. Here are a few ways that you can put the power into your customers’ hands.
Self-service
Customer self-service has become an essential tool for many online stores. From chatbots to USSD, FAQ, and knowledge bases, self-service options allows customers to find the help they need without having to waste time holding on the phone or sending out emails that may not be answered quickly. Making it as easy as possible for customers to help themselves will cut down on support time and give customers a wider choice of service options.
Relationships
Your customers should never be seen as just another sale. Treating customers as numbers or faceless entities that can be marketed to and put through your sales cycles is never a good way to make them feel valued. Building and nurturing relationships with your customers, on the other hand, is the best way to get repeat sales and show customers how much they are valued.
Transparency
Transparency is all-important in the ecommerce industry. When you pull sneaky stunts such as showing ex-VAT prices, hiding important terms and conditions, offering no easy way for customers to get in touch, offering big discounts that you cannot fulfil, putting out campaigns made to lure customers and then not engaging, and hiding negative reviews, you are showing customers that you are not interested in their needs. Being fully transparent across all of your campaigns is key to building trust and reputation.
Customer-Led Ecommerce Marketing
Ultimately, it is up to you how you want your customers to see you… as a store they may visit when they have no other option, as a store they will avoid like the plague or a store they enjoy visiting because they know that they are valued. When you have a customer-led ecommerce marketing strategy, you have a far better chance of finding (and keeping) empowered customers.
