Online business and marketing go hand in hand. Having a successful dropshipping store and killer product range isn't enough to get you sales. It is necessary to implement suitable marketing tactics to double your dropshipping sales and conversions.
If you're looking to start your dropshipping business yet unsure how to start, you have come to the right place. In this post, we're going to highlight 11 dropshipping marketing tips you need to implement right away to market your dropshipping products this year and beyond.
What Is Dropshipping And How Does It Work?
Dropshipping is a profitable business framework that allows business-minded individuals to establish an online store and sell dropshipping products to their customers without having to stock inventory themselves.
When you create a dropshipping store, you'll have to buy a product from a third-party vendor and get it delivered to your customer's doorstep directly from there.
Shopify is a wonderful platform for interested dropshippers who want to experiment with new dropshipping product ideas while working in a low-risk working environment.
Many people do not start their business online because they don't have the budget to purchase inventory upfront. Dropshipping remains an accessible way for new sellers to connect buyers with their desired products without stockpiling inventory.
Despite dropshipping being a pretty straightforward model, it still confuses many budding sellers. Keep reading if you have doubts about starting your dropshipping store on Shopify. This guide includes everything you need to start, run, and market your dropshipping store.
Getting Started
While our goal is to share our tried-and-tested dropshipping marketing tips in this article, we'll also have a quick look at the steps you must follow to create a feature-rich dropshipping store.
Finding A Profitable Dropshipping Niche
The first step in establishing a dropshipping business is finding a niche. Researching a niche helps you market your product to the right audience and makes it hassle-free to choose the most profitable dropshipping products for your audience.
But considering the competition we have in the dropshipping space, it can be overwhelming for the new sellers to choose the right dropshipping niche for their business.
How Do You Know The Products You Have Selected Are In Demand?
Should you choose a category you're most passionate about or go with a popular niche - something that your target audience demands?
Yes, it will help you work more creatively for products you're passionate about, but you'll experience a hard time making money if nobody wants your product. So, measuring demand for a product is an essential step you must carry forward before you think about starting your dropshipping store.
Finding The Right Dropshipping Suppliers
After knowing your niche, the next step is to find the best dropshipping suppliers. Like everything else in life, not all suppliers are created alike. Here are a few things you should consider before you contact suppliers for your store.
For more, you can read our guide on "How To Find US Suppliers For Your Dropshipping Store" to know about a few steps you can take to ensure that you find the right US supplier for your dropshipping online store.
You Need To Be A Legal Business
Before collaborating with any business, most suppliers will need evidence that you're a legal business entity. They only disclose their pricing to approved businesses, so you'll have to be legally incorporated before contacting any dropshipper.
You Should Convince Your Suppliers The Right Way
Suppliers get collaboration requests daily. Many people approach them with feasible business plans, but they never order anything from them. Here, it is crucial to understand that suppliers aren't going to go out of their way to help you out.
Do not engage with their support team for hours before you have made your first sale. Also, never ask for discounts as it will portray your negative reputation and may also hurt your collaboration with a supplier.
Make The Call
The biggest mistake new dropshipping business owners make is they keep their communication limited to emails only. You might be able to use this channel to address some problems, but eventually, you'll have to pick up the phone and make the call to get your queries resolved.
The good news is suppliers are supposed to answer your calls, and they have a dedicated support team for this purpose. Next time you have any concerns, don't be afraid of a phone and call your supplier directly to clear your doubts.
Look For Suppliers With Expert Staff And Industry Expertise
The best dropshipping suppliers have a professional team of sales reps familiar with their offers and products. So before collaborating with any supplier, make sure you talk to their support team to see how helpful they are in terms of assistance.
Look For A Vendor Who Has Invested In Technology
Another important thing you must consider before partnering with any third-party vendor is to check if they have invested in recent technological trends. A few things you must look for include:
- Real-time inventory
- Personalized feeds
- Online Catalog
Choose A Centrally Located Dropshipper
This step is critical. If you're planning to start an online business in the US, you must choose a supplier that's located centrally. Doing so will help you deliver your orders within 2-3 business days.
Look For Suppliers Who are Organized And Efficient
As mentioned earlier, not all suppliers are created alike. While some of them have organized and efficient staff, others make you want to tear your hair out.
Here are a few things you can check to test how a supplier operates:
- Their average order processing time
- How quickly does it follow up order tracking and payments?
- How does it handle the order process from the start till the end?
After knowing your niche and finding suppliers, it's time to start marketing your products. This is the most critical step as even stores with the best products fail as they cannot promote them the right way.
11 Marketing Tips To Double Your Dropshipping Sales
1. It All Starts With Attracting The Right Type Of Audience
Dropshipping marketing revolves around sending the right message to the right audience at the right time. All successful dropshipping stores invest their resources in knowing about their target audience.
Having a clear idea about your prospects helps you streamline your other marketing efforts. The overall look of your site and content should resonate with your potential customers.
Let's suppose you run a luxury jewelry store online. The overall look of your website should be clean and minimal. The tone of your content should be formal and address the needs of the customers interested in custom-made jewelry.
2. Implement The Best SEO Tactics
How many times have you checked the second, third, or fourth pages of Google? No matter how premium your website design and content are, all of your efforts will flush down the drain if you haven't optimized your site for on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
The biggest mistake digital marketers make is they exclude SEO from their marketing plans, assuming it is no longer alive. SEO is still the king of digital marketing.
Make sure you create a fast and responsive website with perfectly optimized content on all of your category and product pages. Guest posting and backlinks can also help you increase your site's visibility in front of search engines.
3. Build Credibility By Integrating Reviews And Ratings
Building trust and credibility are the biggest challenges present-day dropshipping store owners face. That is where reviews, ratings, and testimonials come in. They act as social proof and help visitors trust your brand and make a buying decision.
Almost all big dropshipping brands, including Amazon and AliExpress, display reviews on their product pages. You can also spot product ratings on top of their pages. The idea is to motivate other potential customers that the products they have shown are reliable and people like them are also investing in them.
4. Run Facebook Ads
With more than 2.01 billion active monthly users, Facebook is one of the best marketing platforms for new and established dropshipping businesses.
Facebook Ads have emerged as a result-driven approach that enables dropshipping stores to collect data and be as specific as possible to target the prospects for your ads.
Also, Facebook ads are highly customizable. You can choose your preferred format and select a platform where you want your ads to be seen.
Last but not least, you can measure performance and tweak settings and budgets according to your needs.
5. Leverage Retargeting Techniques
Studies reveal that 98% of buyers do not purchase anything from a website on their first visit. Do not let those potential customers go as you can recapture them through retargeting techniques.
For those who haven't heard of this term earlier, retargeting refers to targeting those visitors who have previously visited your store but didn't complete the checkout process for some unknown reason.
There are several ways you can use to retarget those confused customers. For instance, you can display ads or send emails to remind them of their incomplete transactions.
6. Streamline Your Content Marketing Efforts
Whether it's your blog posts or descriptions on your product pages, make sure you use them to drive traffic to your store. Do not post generic descriptions or descriptions you got from your supplier. Create unique and optimized product descriptions that reflect the creative and professional nature of your business.
Blog marketing is another low-cost content marketing strategy that many dropshipping businesses use today to prove their industry expertise and knowledge. Share long-form how-to guides, tutorials, case studies, and conversational reviews to let your customers know you know what you're doing.
7. Use Email Marketing To Drive Engagement
Email marketing, if done right, can go a long way. You can use this channel to keep in touch with your prospects and customers.
You can use email marketing to inform your customers of the latest offers, deals, and discounts. You can also send newsletters from time to keep your buyers informed about an upcoming product launch or an event.
8. Upsell And Cross-Sell
Your goal as a dropshipping business is to improve your average order value (AOV). Upselling and cross-selling techniques can help you maximize your transactional value and also reduce your customer acquisition cost.
Here, it is critical to understand that both these tactics are different. But they can increase your store's revenue by up to 70% if used in combination.
9. Make Your Customers Come Back
The cost of acquiring customers is more than retaining the existing ones. It can also help you save a lot on your marketing costs as you don't have to get your message across to the same buyers again and again.
That is why dropshipping stores need to have customer retention strategies to earn from the same traffic they're receiving.
Here are a few things you can do to improve your customer retention rate:
Simplify your checkout process
Start a customer loyalty program
Offer deals/discounts/cashback offers
Show reviews on your site
Display trust seals and quality assurance certificates (if you have any) on your checkout pages
10. Recover Abandoned Carts
There are many reasons why a customer abandons their cart - poor customer service, complicated checkout process, and complex web design to name a few.
If you're experiencing a higher cart abandonment ratio, make sure you send follow-up emails and try to convert those unhappy visitors into paying customers.
11. Create A LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is an ideal platform for businesses that want to maintain professional relationships with other businesses working in the same niche as theirs. Also, you can get recommendations from the people you have worked with earlier - both your customers and clients.
Are you ready to launch your dropshipping store? We hope our dropshipping marketing tips have cleared some of your doubts and helped you establish a loaded dropshipping store like a pro.
