The 3 marketing tactics we use to grow ecommerce businesses

“We can’t afford to market the business.”

“We know we need to do something, but we don’t know where to start.”

We hear both of these regularly. And I understand why. When you’re running a business, there’s always something else that needs your time or money. Add all the different marketing options into the mix, and it can feel overwhelming.

For our ecommerce clients, we focus on three things: a website that converts, paid ads with a clear purpose and email marketing that brings people back.

This approach has helped one client grow from £1,400 to £30,000 in monthly online turnover in just eight months. Another has achieved a monthly return on ad spend of 77 after less than a year working with us. That means £77 in sales attributed to every £1 spent on advertising.

Those are individual client results, but they show what can happen when the different parts of your marketing work together.

Here’s how we approach it, with some tips you can apply to your own online shop.

1. Make your website easy to buy from

Before we start spending money on ads, we look at the website.

You can attract thousands of visitors, but if they struggle to find the right product, don’t understand the delivery costs or get stuck at checkout, you’re paying to lose potential customers.

I want to know what happens once someone lands on the site. Can they quickly understand what you sell? Is there enough information to feel confident buying? Does it all work properly on a phone? Basically, do we make it easy for them to purchase from you?

Some of the things we look at include:

• Navigation: can customers find products without having to hunt?
• Product pages: are the photographs, descriptions, sizes and other details useful?
• Delivery information: are costs, delivery times and any minimum order clearly explained?
• Trust: are reviews, contact details and returns information easy to find?
• Checkout: are there unnecessary steps or surprises that could put someone off?

Sometimes a relatively small change removes a big barrier. Making delivery information clearer or simplifying the route to checkout can help customers complete the purchase they already wanted to make.

My tip: buy something from your own website using your phone. Then ask someone who hasn’t used it before to do the same. Watch where they hesitate and listen to the questions they ask. That gives you a useful starting point.

2. Give your paid ads a clear purpose

Once the website is ready, we use paid advertising to bring the right people to it.

That includes introducing the brand to new audiences, promoting relevant products and bringing back people who have already shown an interest.

These audiences need different messages. Someone seeing your business for the first time may need a reason to trust you. Someone who has already viewed a product might need a reminder, a customer review or a clearer explanation of its benefits.

We look at the whole journey, from the advert through to the page it links to. If an advert promotes a particular product or offer, the landing page should make that product or offer easy to find.

Then we keep reviewing what happens. Which ads generate purchases? Which products attract interest but don’t sell? Where is the budget producing a worthwhile return?

Clicks are useful information, but they don’t tell the whole story. We also consider sales, the cost of acquiring customers and whether the return works with the business’s margins.

Make sure your adverts themselves are engaging; don’t just churn out a load of AI graphics and hope they land. We work with our clients to help them create the right ads for the job at hand and review them regularly.

My tip: give each campaign a clear job. If the aim is sales, check whether it’s generating profitable orders. If the aim is awareness, measure that deliberately rather than assuming every click should turn into an immediate purchase.

And NEVER create an ad campaign and just let it run. If your agency is not checking in on your campaign regularly, you are wasting budget.

3. Use email to bring people back

Email is often where I see businesses missing opportunities. A recent client made £18K in a month from email after we set up automatins and took over the monthly email promotion. This is from a starting point of £0 as they had not considered email marketing.

You’ve worked hard to attract a visitor or win a customer, but don’t let them go by not following up afterwards.

A monthly newsletter has its place. However, email can also respond to what someone does, whether that’s joining your mailing list, leaving an item in their basket or making their first purchase.

Here is the combination of automated emails and planned campaigns we use to keep those conversations going.

Welcome emails

When someone signs up, introduce the business properly.

A welcome sequence can explain what you sell, what makes your products worth considering and what customers can expect from you. If you’ve promised a sign-up offer, make it easy to find and use.

You could follow that first email with popular products, customer reviews or answers to common buying questions.

My tip: don’t cram everything into one welcome email. Give each message a clear purpose and an obvious next step.

Abandoned basket emails

These follow up with people who added products to their basket but didn’t buy, and your email platform can identify and contact them appropriately.

The first message can be a straightforward reminder that shows the products they left behind and a link back to their basket.

A follow-up might address a common concern, explain delivery or share a relevant review.

My tip: start by being helpful. You don’t need to offer a discount immediately. The customer may simply have been interrupted.

Abandoned checkout emails

These reach shoppers who started checkout but didn’t complete their order.

They were close to buying, so make it easy to pick up where they left off. Show their items, provide a clear return-to-checkout button and let them know how to get help.

Basket and checkout emails can overlap, so we make sure customers don’t receive two competing sequences for the same purchase. Once they buy, the reminders should stop.

My tip: check the checkout itself. If lots of people abandon at the same point, an email won’t fix a confusing delivery charge or a payment problem. Add an incentive to fulfil the order, such as 10% off.

Product browse reminders

Where your platform supports it, and the customer can be contacted appropriately, you can follow up with someone who viewed a product without adding it to their basket.

This can be useful for products people spend time considering. The email could revisit the item, explain a benefit or answer a common question.

My tip: keep the message natural and relevant. A useful product recommendation will usually feel better than announcing that you’ve been watching their browsing.

Thank-you and after-purchase emails

Once someone buys, keep looking after them.

Alongside the necessary order updates, a separate thank-you email can add a personal touch. Depending on the product, follow-up emails might include care instructions, recipes, advice or ways to get the best from their purchase.

You can also ask for a review once they’ve had time to use the product.

My tip: time these messages around the customer’s experience. Asking for a review before their order arrives isn’t going to help!

Replenishment and related-product emails

If you sell something customers use up, a well-timed reminder can make reordering easier.

For other products, there may be useful accessories or complementary items to recommend after purchase.

My tip: base the recommendation on what they bought. It should feel useful, rather than like another sales email sent to everyone.

Win-back emails

These reconnect with customers who haven’t bought for a while.

You might show them what’s new, remind them of a favourite product or give them a reason to return.

The timing depends on what you sell. Someone buying food regularly has a different buying pattern from someone purchasing furniture.

My tip: decide what “lapsed” means for your business before setting up the sequence. Don’t chase someone for another purchase before they’re likely to need one.

Add one monthly offer, with a fresh reminder each week

Alongside those automations, a practical approach is to plan one main offer for the month and build your weekly campaign emails around it.

That gives you a clear focus and makes the content easier to manage. You’re creating one core campaign, then tweaking the angle each week to remind people why it’s worth considering.

The offer doesn’t always need to be a percentage discount. It could be a bundle, a gift with purchase, a delivery incentive or a seasonal selection.

Here’s how a four-week campaign could work:

For example, a food brand promoting a monthly box could launch it in week one, share meal ideas in week two, feature a customer review in week three and send a final reminder in week four.

The offer stays consistent, but each email gives people another reason to consider it.

You can reuse the main design and product information, then change the subject line, opening copy, image or supporting content. That keeps the work manageable without sending exactly the same email every week.

My tip: check who should receive each reminder. If someone has already bought the offer, you may want to exclude them or send a different message. Also review engagement and unsubscribes so you can adjust the frequency to suit your audience.

Make the three work together

This is where we spend a lot of our time at Purple Octopus.

The advert needs to attract the right person. The website needs to help them buy. The email needs to follow up at the right moment and give them a reason to return.

We also look at how those messages fit together. Someone who just purchased shouldn’t still get abandoned checkout reminders. Someone receiving several automated emails may not need every weekly campaign as well.

There’s no point working hard on each activity if the customer experience feels disjointed.

If you’re unsure where to start, take a look at these three areas first:

• Can a new customer buy easily from your website?
• Are your ads bringing in sales at a cost that works for your business?
• Are your emails helping interested shoppers and existing customers come back?

That’s our approach: understand where the opportunities are, make the budget work harder and keep checking the results.

Want help working out where your ecommerce marketing could be doing more? Get in touch with me at Purple Octopus and let’s talk it through.