eBay Marketing Tools – Take your eCom Business to the Next Level!

You have been selling on eBay for quite some time now and are ready to take your store to the next level! You understand that effective marketing is key to your success as an eBay entrepreneur but are unsure how to approach eBay marketing. In this article I will give you eBay marketing tool ideas – choose one or two which you dell are most suited to your niche and business strategy. What works for you may not work for others and vice versa. 

Inbound and Outbound Marketing on eBay 

First let’s talk terminology. Inbound marketing is when you put out clear Calls To Action in an array of forms in order to stimulate lead generation. This is in contrast with outbound marketing which is more concerned with appealing to a larger audience who is not necessarily interested in making a purchase now. Many sellers on eBay are primarily concerned with marketing to people who are already shopping on eBay. While this is excellent, as we will discuss in a little bit – what about all those audiences who are not currently on eBay? 

Practically speaking, you should build an inbound marketing strategy which is right for you. Here are some ideas of where you can publicize your eBay store and eBay listings:

• Create dedicated business profiles on various social media accounts – you can try Facebook, Instagram and even Twitter. You can use these accounts to create a brand narrative as well as promote certain items or even special seasonal discounts. 
• Consider dabbling in backlink acquisition which when creating content typically means getting links from third-party blogs in order to build up your own blog’s reputation or Domain Authority [DA] as it has come to be known in digital marketing. In the event that you don’t have a blog you still want to ‘acquire’ links to your store and listings on third-party websites. Take an hour out of your schedule and send email to relevant sites potentially offering them something in return for their willingness to link to your eBay account. 
• Start advertising through Google Ads, Bing or Yahoo. Paid Pay Per Click [PPC] can be a very effective tool in bringing in new business. After all, most online shoppers begin their retail journey on Google. 

In terms of your Outbound marketing strategy consider :

• Consider starting your own eBay blog. I would recommend choosing a topic relevant to your niche in a general sense. For example if you sell things related to wine such as openers, corks, stem wear etc, then consider starting a blog about the newest wines on the market or a wine travel blog. Think of topics which can potentially excite and engage your target audience and then write about it. A blog can double as inbound and outbound marketing as you can link to your eBay store and include strong CTAs in middle of blog posts. 
• You can also consider buying a domain name – this domain can include a few subdomains such as your blog and an independent eCommerce store. Additionally you can use this site to drive traffic by prominently linking to your eBay store on your homepage. Though if your website turns out to be successful in terms of sales you may choose to avoid linking to eBay in order to make direct sales and save on rBay’s fees. 

Take advantage of Currently Existing Channels of Communication

Most people tend to look for the ‘exotic’ or ‘sexy’ both in life and in business. But more often than not we tend to overlook resources which have been at our disposal all along. In this instance, my advice to you is to leverage tools and information you currently have access to:

• Buyer information – When buyers choose to ‘follow’ your store, this gives you the ‘ok’ as far as eBay is concerned to send them promotional emails. Take advantage of an entire audience who is interested in your product offering, most of whom have already made a purchase from your store in the past. You can do this in an array of ways from sending out a value packed newsletter (outbound marketing) to sending out seasonal discounts or special promotions on specific products (inbound marketing).

• Physical mail – Newsletters aside, you have actual physical access to your customers. Everytime someone places an order and you send out a package, lies a marketing opportunity. You should not view a shipment merely as completing a transaction rather view it as a way to initiate and nurture a beautiful relationship with customers. Your ultimate goal is to turn one-off customers into long-term customers. Things you can consider doing in order to successfully market to exiting customers could be including a sample of another product you have in stock or including coupons for merchandise in your store. With a little imagination, you can be bringing in a whole lot more business.

eBay SEO 

<iframe width=”1280″ height=”720″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/9MUybtpqBiQ” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

If we take a step back to what I was saying earlier – eBay itself is its own stratosphere. Whether or not you choose to focus on third-party marketing opportunities, there is no denying that sellers need to be actively promoting themselves on eBay itself. eBay is ruled by its own search algorithm called Cassini. In order to market yourself and rank high in search results you will need to optimize your business practices and listings so that eBay’s search results algorithm ranks you high in results. Consider trying:

• Creating a good listing title which typically means you have used 12-16 keywords and have created a title for real shoppers and not for algorithms. 
•  Write original listing descriptions instead of copying and pasting from other listings or sites. 
• Be sure to use high-quality images in your listings which include Alt text with relevant keywords. 
• Make sure all listings are categorized properly as you can lose out on a lot of potential business when shoppers use filters. 
• Fill in product specifics which can also be affected by buyer filters. 
• Make sure to maintain a high buyer feedback score. The more shoppers like you, your product and your customer service, the higher Cassini will rank you. 
• Offer generous shipping terms such as free worldwide shipping. eBay favours sellers who set shipping as cheap or free.
• Make sure to keep your listings are recent. The newer a listing, the more favorably eBay will view it (pending your performance on other parameters). 

It is by following the above that you can ensure your eBay listings receive the best on-site organic marketing attention. 

eBay Paid Promotion: ‘Promotion Manager’

eBay offers its own paid promotion options through its Promotions Manager which allows you to market your merchandise through sales and discounts. Setting up promotional campaigns with eBay is a fairly easy three step process:

• First off head to the marketing tab of your eBay Seller Hub.
• Then choose which products you want to promote and which kind of ‘campaign’ or promotion you want to apply to said item. 
• Lastly, choose your promotion dates and launch your campaign. 

eBay promotions created through Promotions Manager help you:

• Stand out in search results and appear higher. 
• Group items which are categorically related putting relevant options in front of interested shoppers. For example if you group all your winter apparel including scarves, gloves and hats. 
• Capture more attention and conversions as eBay will boost your visibility when your promotion has special relevance as would happen with Christmas decorations being run under a promotional campaign in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  

What type of promotions does eBay Promotions Manager offer?

eBay offers a nice variety of promotions which you can leverage and take advantage of. These include:

• Order size discounts – This is meant to incentivize shoppers to buy more for example, buy one and get the second item half off. 
• Markdown sale events – This is usually categorical, for example, you can offer 20% off all Christmas items. 
• Shipping discounts – This is similar to ‘order size discounts’ except instead of the incentive being a discount, the incentive in this instance is ‘free shipping’. A good example of this would be, spend over $150 and receive ‘free worldwide shipping’. 
• Codeless coupons – This option is great for ‘inbound marketing’. Here eBay allows you to create a unique URL with a dedicated promotion such as 10% off of a certain item, say boxers. You can then share this link on social media as a special discount for friends and family or have it shared on a men’s fashion blog for example. 
• Volume pricing – This basically means, the more you buy the less you pay per item. For example, one t shirt costs $50, three t shirts cost $130. 

Summing it up 

Whichever tools you choose to market your eBay store never forget that marketing in its many forms is one of the most effective growth engines out there. If people do not know that your store exists or that your items are for sale and at great prices – how will they ever find you? I recommend choosing one of the above methods and implementing it in your business. Day by day, week by week you can add more and more marketing tactics and see which are most effective for your businees. Don’t forget to optimize campaigns based on results and customer feedback.

Good luck and let us know in the comments section which eBay marketing tools are currently working for you!