You’ve taken the first big step and you’ve created an eBay store. You have your stock waiting to go and your courier on speed dial. Time for the money to start rolling in, right? Wrong. Without applying effective eBay marketing strategies, you’ll struggle to make sales.
Why eBay marketing is so important
One of the major benefits of selling on marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay is that theoretically, you’ll have your digital storefront exposed to a much larger amount of people.
Don’t take this for granted though!
Although you’re selling on a site where there are millions of consumers looking for items like yours, you still need to get your eBay marketing right to ensure maximum exposure.
First things first, let’s look at the eBay marketing you should be doing on your account to increase eBay sales.
On-site eBay marketing
There are lots of marketing tactics and optimization techniques you should be using on your eBay store itself. These can have a huge impact on the visibility of your listings in search results, as well as conversion rates and sales.
Get as many testimonials as possible
It may sound obvious, but the best way to market your eBay store to a potential customer is to let your happy customers do the selling.
It’s common knowledge that buyers’ purchasing decisions are strongly influenced by a seller’s feedback. Therefore it makes perfect business sense to invest time in maximizing your positive ratings.
There are several steps to increasing your positive feedback on eBay and acquiring some great testimonials. The most important is consistently providing excellent customer service.
If you answer customer questions promptly and effectively, you’ll notice the positive impact on your seller reputation. eCommerce customer service software sets you up to manage multiple customer queries across a range of platforms, with ease. eDesk is designed specifically for online retailers and has AI-powered features that help you to resolve tickets in seconds.
Maximize positive feedback on eBay
If you’re confident that your customer service is as good as it can be, there are some handy tactics you can employ to maximize positive eBay feedback. The first is to utilize feedback solicitation software.
The majority of times when a customer has had a great experience, they don’t leave a five-star review. They might not know how, they could forget to do it or perhaps it didn’t even occur to them in the first place.
By asking them directly to leave a review, you’re giving them a polite nudge in the right direction. You’re also making it super-easy for them by including a link in the email.
With eDesk Feedback, for example, users can target customers who have bought a product on eBay and send a personalized message to fit your brand voice. It’s automated, so all you have to do is write the message, choose the cohort you’d like to send it to and watch your positive feedback rise.
Related: The Best eBay Software for Online Sellers
Try eBay advertising
If you have money to spend on marketing, then it can be worth looking into the advertising options that eBay provides.
eBay promoted listings are a great way to get your products in front of relevant buyers. Rather than an upfront cost-per-click, with promoted listings on eBay you pay a percentage of the sale fee, which varies depending on the product category.
Promoted listings are easy to set up and offer great targeting options. They may not be the best option for all industries or sellers, but they’re certainly worth researching into and experimenting with.
Get eBay top rated seller status
If you’re committed to providing an excellent buying experience to your eBay customers, you could be eligible for eBay top rated seller status.
Top rated sellers on eBay can take advantage of benefits that can make a significant difference to your sales and profit margin. These include:
- Better visibility for your eBay listings
- $30 credit every quarter to contribute towards your eBay promoted listings
- Discounts on shipping when using eBay labels
You’ll also have the top rated seller badge on your eBay listings, which gives shoppers a reassurance which boosts your conversion rates.
You do have to fulfill some pretty strict criteria to be eligible for top rated status, however. As the name suggests, this status is reserved for top sellers only!
Related: eBay Top Rated Seller Status: How to Get it and Keep it
Use consistent branding, images, and video
If you are running any form of advertising or display campaigns, you need to ensure that the visuals of your ad line up with the visuals of your storefront.
For example, if you have a blue banner but your store is all orange, then potential customers need to take a few seconds to work out if it’s the same company. It’s very important that you maintain consistent branding.
Even more important than branding, is consistency with your images and product videos. The last thing you want is to accidentally mislead a customer and be left needing to remove negative feedback on eBay as a result.
eBay keyword optimization
eBay’s search feature, like most other global online marketplaces, works somewhat like Google. It provides a good user experience by showing the most relevant results from the best sellers first.
This means you need to optimize your eBay listings to appear high up in the results. If you nail it, you’ll be featured in the eBay Best Match position. If you achieve this, you’re winning at eBay marketing!
eBay claim that there’s no secret formula to winning the Best Match position, but there are certainly pointers to follow that make a big difference.
Firstly, you should create accurate, clear listings that follow eBay’s guidelines.
You should also use keywords wisely. This doesn’t mean stuffing any relevant search term you can think of into the product title! It means discovering your focus keyword, long-tail keyword and combining them naturally in your title. You should also use synonyms in your product description and ensure your product image is relevant and of high quality.
Off-site eBay Marketing
If you think eBay marketing ends when you leave the site, you’re leaving quite a few important rocks un-turned!
You can link to your eBay store from elsewhere and utilize a variety of other eCommerce marketing tactics to drive sales. Check out some of these crucial offsite eBay marketing tactics below.
eBay Campaigns with Adwords
Advertising your eBay products on Google AdWords is a great way to get your listings in front of lots of people.
While it can be a daunting interface to get started with, Google provide amazing support and setup guides to help you start marketing your eBay store extremely quickly.
You don’t even need to spend a lot of money, because you can ensure that you are tightly targeting your eCommerce niche and not wasting ad budget marketing to the wrong people.
Email marketing for eBay
Don’t listen to the naysayers, email is certainly not dead. It remains as one of the most effective ways of communicating with customers and prospects.
eBay has a built in newsletter facility to help you build your list of potential customers. You can also build an email list on your website, if you have one, and use it to sell your listings on eBay.
One of the reasons why email is such a good eCommerce marketing tool is its cost effectiveness. You can keep building your list over time and as it grows, your sales will too. Try different campaigns such as a newsletter to build brand awareness, to related product emails to cross or up sell.
Social media for eBay marketing
An important element of a well-rounded eCommerce marketing strategy is social media marketing. This applies to eBay marketing as well!
As consumers spend ever more time on channels like Instagram and TikTok, forward-thinking sellers are incorporating them into their marketing plans.
Why not make an eCommerce product video to share on Instagram, then link back to your eBay listing? What about sponsoring a TikTok influencer and dropping a link to your eBay store? Sellers that experiment and don’t rely on a single tactic are often the ones who achieve lasting success.
