How to Build a Successful Dropshipping Business? (2)

Previously we have talked about three ways to build a successful dropshipping business include choosing the right niche, building your customer portrait, and finding a reliable dropshipping supplier. In this article, let's continue to talk about how to build a successful dropshipping business from the marketing perspective.

 

4. Build A Marketing Funnel

 

Marketing Funnel is sometimes called Sales Funnel, Purchase Funnel, or Conversion Funnel. It is a customer-focused marketing system that allows you to track every step in the customer journey from being a stranger to a loyal customer.

 

A marketing funnel can make your marketing strategy more targeted. It means reaching the right people with the right marketing strategy at the right time.

 

 

Stages and Contents of A Marketing Funnel

 

 

 • Stage 1: Awareness (Top of Funnel: People Start to Know You)

 

People start their customer journey by looking for solutions to their problems like “My cat keeps shedding hair, what should I do?”. Along the way, those who have been aware of your content, product, or brand will enter the first stage of your marketing funnel.

 

In this stage, your goal is to capture as much traffic as possible. The most direct way is to expose your products and brand to consumers through display advertising. Besides, the content that attracts them the most at this point is the content that solves their problems, such as “How to deal with shed pet hair”. You can present your content to your potential customers in the form of long-form blogs, videos, e-books, etc. Of course, don't forget SEO and advertising to rank your content high.

 

 • Stage 2: Search & Interest (Middle of Funnel)

 

When potential customers are attracted to your content or ads and come to your website, they are interested in your products. Then they enter the second stage of your marketing funnel, where they are likely to search for information about your brand and research whether your product can meet their needs.

 

It's time to let these potential customers learn more about your product and brand. You can display your brand story, product description, values, shopping guidelines, FAQs, or other information on your store website. Also, strengthen SEO to make your website easier to find.

 

 • Stage 3: Evaluation & Consideration (Middle of Funnel)

 

When people take your products into consideration and evaluate whether it is worth buying or which one is the best, they enter the third stage of the marketing funnel. The customer in this stage is already very precise because they need your products.

 

All you have to do is show your product advantages and value, and tell them why they should buy your products and which one is worth buying. You can post content like “Ten most popular pet items you must buy in 2022” or “A and B, which is better?” to make their decisions clearer.

 

 • Stage 4: Purchase Decision (Bottom of Funnel)

 

Once the customers add your products into their shopping cart, they are likely to make purchase decisions. Now they are in the fourth stage of your marketing funnel. This is the most critical stage where many people will abandon the shopping cart.

 

You should be careful and all information including your product reviews, feedback, pricing, shipping times, payment methods, after-sales policies that can gain customer trust will be critical. Optimizing your store is a great way to get the most possible purchase conversions. You can set enough call-to-action buttons, real-time chat, shopping cart reminders, etc.

 

 • Stage 5: Repurchase & Share

 

The successful purchases are not the end of the funnel. Your ultimate goal is gaining loyal customers and long-term relationships, which also brings stable growth to your dropshipping business. After the purchases, some of your customers may repurchase and share them with more people, while others may get disappointed and buy from your competitors.

 

So the after-sales service and remarketing work are necessary at this stage. You can send emails with discounts, coupons, or display your new products by retargeting ads. It’s also a good idea to show your sincerity by contacting these customers yourself, collecting their feedback whether it’s good or bad.

 

5. Fill the Marketing Funnel with Traffic

 

 

Capturing traffic as much as possible at the top of the funnel, you will get as many conversions at the bottom of the funnel. There are three types of traffic throughout the marketing funnel: Cold, Warm, and Hot.

 

Those are at the top of the funnel are called cold traffic because they know little about your products or brand. You have the following ways to capture as much cold traffic:

 

 • Advertising. Find out where your competitors are advertising the most. Usually, they have already found the best channel for advertising.

 • Influencer Marketing. Partner with influential creators on social media to publish content about your product.

 • Email Marketing. Send welcome emails, discount emails to show your respect to new subscribers and attract them to further exploration of your products and brand.

 

Most people will probably just ignore your brand or product. Only those who are interested in your product and get into the middle of the funnel are called warm traffic. You can get and remain more warm traffic through the following channels:

 

 • Content Marketing & SEO. Compare with your competitors by articles like “A vs B”. Create content around a broad range of keywords relevant to your product and brand.

 • Social Media Marketing. Start your own social media channel to publish content or videos about product features, how-to tutorials, etc.

 • Email Marketing. Send survey emails, abandoned-cart emails to investigate customer feedback and increase sales conversion.

 • Retargeting Advertising. Retarget ads to those customers who have visited the price, cart, and payment pages because they are highly likely to make purchases.

 

The traffic that ultimately leads to sales conversions is hot traffic, which usually forms at the bottom of the funnel. You have already done most of the marketing work at this stage. You only need to make the last effort to get maximum sales conversions:

 

 • Store Optimization. After-sales guarantee, live chat, shipping timelines, don't miss any details that customers may need.

 • Email Marketing. Send holiday promotion emails, review invitations, follow-up emails to keep your customers active.

 

Most importantly, to ensure that the marketing funnel runs smoothly, make sure that the content of each stage of the funnel is well-prepared before launching the ad. For example, you can first optimize your store, then improve the SEO in advance, and regularly publish the content required for each stage.

 

The preparation work and result recording and analysis may be cumbersome for beginners. You can try to use marketing automation tools. The most common example is email marketing automation, which automatically sends personalized emails under set conditions and time. It can make your marketing more efficient.

 

6. Connect Marketing Funnel with Marketing Automation

 

Marketing automation can not only help you automate simple and repetitive marketing tasks, but it can also help you implement marketing strategies more intelligently, acquire, nurture and convert leads in a more efficient way. You can learn more about marketing automation in our article The 9 Best Marketing Automation Tools For Dropshipping 2022.

 

There are no shortcuts to building a successful dropshipping business. You must spend time and effort in every aspect of dropshipping. The road to success cannot be replicated, but hope the guides and tips can provide you with direction.