Marketing strategies that drive shopper engagement

Ecommerce brands face many challenges as they strive to grow their businesses, and keeping up with ever-changing shopper demands is often one of the most difficult challenges. Business owners must continue to innovate to meet shoppers where they are – and do so across numerous channels.

Amazon internal research conducted in December 2022 found that 80% of respondents from merchants of all sizes rated “understanding the drivers behind successful marketing campaigns” and “optimizing advertising spend” as two of their top five priorities.

There’s no one-size-fits-all marketing or advertising strategy that attracts and converts shoppers, but tapping into proven tactics can help you connect with your shoppers in meaningful ways.

From brand building to SEO strategies to promotional campaigns, here are some actionable insights to help you get the most out of your marketing investments. Read on for two strategies that can help you build marketing programs that drives engagement:

Build a brand that consumers love

The first step in brand building is a clear understanding of what you want your brand to be. It’s important to build a story around your brand that authentically represents your values and purpose.

After you’ve narrowed in on your brand story, the following four steps can help you stand out from the crowd:

1. Define your intended audience: Be clear about what types of shoppers will see value from purchasing your products. Look at your current customers, specifically those that make repeat purchases, to find out what their shared characteristics are. Using analytics, you can create customer segments based on demographic and psychographic information to create marketing campaigns that are mapped to your customers’ needs and expectations.
   
   
2. Focus on your brand differentiator: Whether your products are custom made and priced higher or mass-produced and cost less, your online business has a sweet spot. Conducting a competitive analysis of your industry can help you find the “white space” that your brand fills. For some of you, that white space is a void in the industry that inspired you to launch your business in the first place. Lean into that piece of your story to differentiate your brand.
   
   
3. Tell your brand story: Remember that brand story you established during the early days of your business? Now it’s time to share it. Stories about your brand mission and values can help you tap into the emotions of shoppers and encourage them to engage with your brand. Take the time to dive deep into storytelling to bring your brand differentiation to life.
   
   
4. Be prepared to evolve: As your business grows, so does its opportunities and challenges. Brand building isn’t a “set it and forget it” endeavor. Planning for agility can help ensure that you’re prepared for the inevitable shifts that come with running an ecommerce business.

Elevate your marketing to drive conversions

Today’s consumers have high expectations when it comes to shopping online. They want free and fast shipping. They want a convenient checkout process. They want free and easy returns. They want customer service that helps them resolve issues. The list goes on.

One new way to meet consumers where they are is adding Buy with Prime to your ecommerce business. Beyond the fast, free delivery and easy returns that millions of Prime members know and trust, Buy with Prime also comes with a set of marketing tools. There are four main ways Buy with Prime can help elevate your marketing programs:

1. Drive shopper interest with the trust of Prime. The Buy with Prime marketing toolkit is a self-service resource that includes helpful brand guidelines and downloadable assets designed to engage Prime members. Adding the Buy with Prime badge to your product pages signal to shoppers that they can get the Prime shopping experience directly on your site, helping them feel more confident in their purchase.
   
   
2. Reach shoppers on social. Buy with Prime merchants can use an app that syncs your Buy with Prime catalog with your Meta catalog to automatically generate relevant social ads featuring the Buy with Prime badge. Social Ads for Buy with Prime engages shoppers by featuring the trust of Prime. Learn more about social media best practices.
   
   
3. Nurture customer relationships. When you add Buy with Prime to your ecommerce site, you get access to order and customer information, including email addresses, that you can use to run remarketing programs and promotional campaigns to drive brand loyalty. Learn about Buy with Prime information handling policies. 
   
   
4. Boost shopper trust with social proof. Reviews from Amazon for Buy with Prime can help build brand credibility, keep shoppers engaged, and amplify your existing product reviews from Amazon.com. Showcasing your hard-earned reviews from Amazon.com directly on your own website can help increase shopper confidence.