Marketing a BigCommerce store, it’s always important to keep consistent branding. From your products to your customer service responses. Branding goes far beyond adding your logo to everything.

But when marketing a BigCommerce store, it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and forget the importance of making a good first impression.

The most important part of your customers’ experience is the first impression, followed by your effort to continue that experience through the course of their buying journey.

We are going to go through some marketing trends that are making a real impact in e-commerce. You can test these trends out for yourself – no extra spending needed!

Focus on the new generation

Generation Z were born between the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s. They make up over 25% of the US population. The oldest of this generation are now in their early 20’s and building careers.

Ultimately, this means their buying power will only increase. Marketing a BigCommerce store, it’s important to consider these people. Your brand must shift strategies in order to accommodate this demographic.

This generation is the most up-to-date with current trends and internet language. They’re the first generation born into the digital age. So, it’s no surprise that they’re more knowledgeable when it comes to navigating and buying from online retailers.

Build customer confidence

As we shop and manage more of our lives online, stories of scams via fake accounts and bogus offers only seem to be increasing. It’s more important than ever to reassure your customer base that you are a legitimate business.

Assurance in your privacy policy and what you intend to do with any personal data collected will help customers navigate your store with confidence.

Anything you can do to comfort customers at the very beginning can lead to a more enjoyable buying experience for them. As a consequence, that creates a more profitable outcome for you.

Potential customers are constantly looking for any signs of dishonesty or any clues that may undermine your legitimacy as a trusted retailer.

What may cause your visitors alarm? Your sales copy, ad design, and even the quality of the images or video you use to promote your products are all possible suspects.

Along with these components, visitors also look at customer feedback and the frequency with which you engage with your customers on social media.

Confidence once only mattered at the point of sale. But, customers can now provide their feedback in real-time, publicly. So customer service is now a crucial pert of marketing a BigCommerce store, and you need be sure to address concerns fast.

Be transparent

Fake news floods social media daily. There are endless articles with click bait headlines and ads for “free” products where the product cost is actually just included in the shipping cost.

This noise has trained users to be increasingly cynical and unresponsive to anything they deem too good to be true.

Successful brands have taken notice and have begun implementing branding and marketing tactics that humanise their brand.

They speak to customers like friends, responding to their messages with enthusiasm and kindness.

You must be prepared to deliver exactly what your offer promised. Always be honest about what you’re providing, and don’t hide any details when telling customers what you need from them.

Content over commerce

It takes a lot more than good product images to make your offer stand out.

Many brands post visually stunning content for their offer. They even go so far as to forgo the product itself. In Gary Vee’s book The Thank You Economy, he stresses the importance of front-end value, stating: “nobody likes being sold to, but everyone loves buying.”

An example of this is how most social media influencers market themselves and their offers. If you follow a travel inspiration page on Instagram, you will see a feed of beautiful images.

90% of these profiles are filled with breath taking photos to captivate the viewer and gain their following. Visitors don’t necessarily convert because of the photographer or the locations of the portraits. Rather, it’s because of the overall consistency of the page’s content.

The account provides 90% value and only makes a sell or an ask 10% of the time. This builds rapport with followers and creates opportunities for future asks to be well-received.

When you do something for someone else and don’t ask for anything in return, they will more than happily return the favour down the line.

Only then do they suggest that you check out their store to apply the tips they’ve provided in their content. At the end of each piece of content, they tell you that if you don’t want to check out the store, you should still feel free to watch more of their free content to learn instead.

Build a community

Most of the consumers you’re going to reach are ones searching for a product to help them solve an issue or improve an area of their life.

Normally, the sale ends with us providing the solution. The best we can hope for is that we’ve provided a good enough experience for the customer to come back.

If we’re lucky, they’ll even leave a positive review. But the relationship doesn’t have to end there.

Returning customers are easier to convert than new prospects. Brand familiarity removes most of the hesitation a buyer has when purchasing a new item, and that knowledge about the product can help solidify their “need” to acquire it.

So why not roll all of that into one place where buyers can come together to help one another? Where can they make friends with those who have similar interests and are able to interact with the brand they love directly? The answer is a community.

Starting Facebook groups for your verified buyers, or even those who haven’t bought, allows your brand to establish itself as an authority in your niche.

Having moderators in the group who can answer questions in real time builds trust as well as an emotional connection to your brand.

Allowing customers to have a place where they can exchange information and tips on how to better use your product creates a community—a friendship group lead by your brand name.

Conclusion

The best marketing a store can have is positive organic feedback from a verified customer. Word-of-mouth can make or break a business. So it’s important to always try to give every customer the best customer experience they’ve ever had.

Most of these trends have been used to some extent for years by companies outside of e-commerce. They are only now catching on with retailers so there’s plenty of time to improve your online sales with these techniques.

So take what you’ve learned here and build your brand into the caring and knowledgeable brand you know it to be. Your customers will appreciate the extra effort and repay you for doing so.