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For any entrepreneur, when they want to start a business, they must face moments in which difficulties will appear daily. It will become bread and butter for them, and that is something difficult to assume. But, let’s be honest, that’s life. Going through difficulties, overcoming them and learning from the experience.

In the eCommerce world is the same. Among our eCommerce friends, we call it “The Struggle Game” because sometimes it is a real struggle to be a business owner.

The positive part though is that, in general, some of those problems are not that complicated to solve, although they might seem impossible at some point. Even more, they are not particular issues for one specific business, but they have a common base which applies to many. That can turn into a benefit for you. Why? Well, you can learn from other people’s experience and apply their solutions or ideas to your problems (or at least try). Isn’t it great? The magic of sharing.

And that is what we want to do. We share with you some tips to overcome some obstacles focus on eCommerce. Curious? Keep on reading.

The Struggle Game

Of course, throughout the process of starting a business, there are different phases to deal with – before starting, during the creation and once everything is running. There are lots of things to consider plus the respective complications attached to each of them. Some of the most common ones are:

• Choosing the right product
• Product return policy
• Shipping cost
• Attract the perfect customer
• Lack of customer trust
• Customer Loyalty
• Brand Identity
• UX Strategy
• Product Review
• Cart abandonment
• Generate website traffic
• Leads Generation

And much more. We could continue with this long list, but we prefer to focus on the last point mentioned: Leads Generation.

Why? Because in Shiptimize, we have asked our clients what their main struggle is, and the answer was exactly that – Lead Generation. Actually, 68% of businesses struggle with this topic as CSO Insights has reported. So, today we are going to give some ideas on how to improve your Lead Generation game.

What is lead generation?

Online stores spend significant amounts of money trying to drive traffic to their eCommerce websites. That’s why they need to put a lot of effort in properly generating leads to get the most out of their marketing strategy efforts to increase their conversion rates. But what is lead generation exactly?

Lead generation is the action or process of identifying and cultivating potential customers or prospects interested in a business’s products or services. Getting useful information from those customers is key to be able to create the leads.

The thing with leads is that somehow you already know who the customers interested in your eCommerce are. Because they have shown that interest in your business before. Well, ok… maybe you don’t know exactly who they are (yet), and maybe they are not that much into your eCommerce (yet), but more into what you can offer. So, once you get to know them (identify), it’s just a matter of making your brand more visible and developing a relationship with them (cultivate).

In other words, it’s a way to make customers aware of who you are because you know they might want what you have to offer. But… How do you know? Thanks to analytics, data, surveys, etc. And we must admit it, thanks to Facebook as well. But let’s go back to our point. 

Why is lead generation important?

It is very important because it can make your business grow. In order to grow, you need new customers, there is no other way around it. The process of buying has changed, and businesspeople need to reshape the ways they reach clients, to stay relevant and be heard among their competitors.

If you contact people who already know about your company, then creating a connection with them won’t be difficult. The process of building that relation won’t be strange or cold to them, and it will develop in a better, more natural way.

How to do lead generation?

Yeah, that is the big question, right? First of all, you need to put your eCommerce out there. How? Through any of the marketing channels you have. Your website, blog or social media pages are some of the most common examples of possible marketing channels, but there are a lot.

Once a customer has discovered your business, it’s necessary to encourage them to click on your Call-to-Action (CTA) which will redirect them to a landing page or similar where you will collect some useful information from them and give them something in return, an offer.

The offer is something valuable that’s being “offered” on that landing page, like an eBook or a course, for example. And it must have enough value for them to provide their personal information (like email or phone number) in exchange for access to it.

Gathering all the useful information that those leads have provided you with is key to start building a relationship with them (yes, the non-strange relationship we have mentioned before). Then it will be easier to turn those leads into real buyers.

Some of the most effective lead generation tactics used nowadays are:

• Company website
• Conferences
• Email marketing
• SEO

Lead Generation: Tips

We have done some research and also asked our data marketing analyst in Shiptimize, Gonzalo Zariaga, who has worked with Buildbox and got thousands of emails to create leads, to share with you some tips (including some of Gonzalo’s favourite ones) on things you can do to improve your leads generation game.

1. Identify and review your personas.

You need to know who your typical customer is and what its needs are in order to maintain your message fresh and relevant for your (future) audience. Review it often so it doesn’t get rusty.

2. Choose a niche. Don’t try to reach everyone.

You need to focus on your audience, the one you know is interested in your product. Don’t try to target absolutely everyone or you will lose your goal. People engaged in what you have to offer convert better than people just passing by.

3. Quality vs. Quantity.

Create relevant content and engaging for your audience. It is always better to have 3 great blogposts than 10 non-interesting ones. Also, if your posts are good enough, readers would share them and with a higher engagement, the conversion will be easier. ?

4. Multichannel marketing for your product.

Be sure you can cover all possible ways in all possible formats to reach your targeted audience. Because some people will like social media post, but others would prefer videos or emails.

5. Be clever with your email marketing.

Nowadays, email marketing is one of the most important techniques, but also one of the most used ones. And leads are on guard constantly. Therefore, you do not flood your audience with emails, otherwise, they will unsubscribe.

6. Be social.

You and your brand need to be present in social media. You need to share your business identity, your content and your image, and of course, be there if anyone wants to get in contact. Social media is where people look for information these days, so don’t miss the chance for them to find you.

7. Be customer-focused.

If you take good care of them, they will respond back with gratitude. They will share who you are and what you do with their families, friends, workmates, neighbours, etc. They would be happy to leave you a good review or a testimonial, and that is something good.

8. Plan your ideas properly.

You need to be strategic and plan everything that will direct (or redirect) your audience to you. From your Call-To-Action bottom, through important keywords, to an organise and clear website. Make it easy, transparent and simple for the leads to reach you.

9. Give it for free.

Create engaging content and give it away for free. Be generous with this, it can be content or another kind of offer, and we can tell you that it will push your leads to be closer to your company.

10. Test it. Test it all!

Don’t assume everything you do is perfect. Things change and trends as well, so you need to test if the effort and work you are putting out there is working. Test your emails, your ads, your offers… Test everything.

11. Track and measure. Your competitors too.

And just as important as testing everything is to make sure you measure everything as well. It is essential to know what your progress is and how good or not you are performing. Besides, keep an eye on your competitors, you want to know how good they are doing it so you can keep up with them.

And of course, last but not least:

12. Keep on trying. Don’t stop.

If you stop in the middle of the process, nothing would make sense. You won’t understand properly how leads generation works and won’t reach your goal.

Conclusion

We know it is a lot of information, but try to see it like this: the main point here is to make your leads, or future leads, engaged with what you offer in the most optimal way using all available tools you have.

Know your customer, make a good planning, give them reasons to engage with you, and test and analyse your results. Be natural, honest and real when working in generating leads, and what you do will pay off.

We are not saying it’s easy to get leads generation or to qualify them, but we can tell you that it’s worth trying. It can enhance your business in a way that you wouldn’t imagine.