Anyone who’s worked with Walmart understands just how committed they are to delivering great prices to their customers. Value is a fundamental part of the retailer’s DNA and for that reason Walmart closely scrutinizes all of their supplier costs including (sometimes especially) marketing. Marketing your online assortment can in fact be expensive, but If you’re smart and creative about it, you can get a lot of juice for just a little squeeze. Below, we’ve laid out five thrifty ways to grow your Walmart.com sales.
First of all, it's worth noting that omni-channel shoppers spend lots more (even before COVID) - that's because delivery purchases are often incremental to planned store or pickup visits. Depending on your business model, you may also have a broader assortment on Walmart.com that can help you capture more market share by meeting a broader range of shopper needs. Finally, your opportunity to educate customers about new or high-consideration items is much greater online than on a shelf where space (and time) constraints limit the possibilities.
1. Spark Intrigue With Solution Selling
Most marketers have used social ads and promotions to drive traffic to item content. If you don’t do so in the right way, you can end up wasting a lot of valuable resources. When someone’s checking their Instagram feed in “relaxation mode,” the last thing they want to do is go to a retail site to buy a $4 bottle of Sriracha. Your item ad will get very little engagement and even less conversion unless you market it in a different way.
One answer is to bring contextual relevance to your offer. Although that Sriracha offer may not entice a shopper to visit your item page, a recipe for a fresh take on spicy cocktail sauce a few days before the latest video game (or movie) launch might be enough to reel-in a fan. Combine this with an existing deal (such as a coupon, special pack, etc.) to create even more urgency.
2. Master Your SEO and PPC
Although Walmart has its own search engine in place, Google is still an incredibly important jumping-off point for Walmart shoppers. After you get the basics right on-platform, ensuring that your listings are Google-optimized may be the best “bang for your buck” when it comes to driving Walmart.com item traffic. Although you’ll likely want to enlist the help of an expert down this road, you don’t need to hire a fancy agency, a Ph D in SEO, or a high priced consultant to get started… A little commitment, research, and some time spent with inexpensive tools like Long Tail Pro or SEMRush can help you chalk up some major wins.
Revise your content to incorporate these keywords in an organic, human-friendly way (avoid making your content read like it was written by a robot). Don’t forget about neglected terms that have less competition but high search volume such as long-tail terms and misspellings. These overlooked keywords can be pure gold!
If you're looking to accelerate your results even more, Walmart has dramatically increased the range of advertising tools available and there are bargains to be found on their new "self service" ads platforms. With a good strategy and the right optimization tools, you can get a lot of bang for your buck with these tools and rocket your item to the top of search results. Let us know if you'd like to learn more!
3. Make it Vivid with Video
When it comes to engagement, video outperforms other media... and it's not just for item pages! The possibilities are endless - create helpful product demonstration videos on YouTube and include links to your listings or use Instagram to demonstrate how your product is being used by customers. You should of course use these videos on your listings in your enhanced item content!
4. Drive eCommerce Awareness In-Store
It’s no secret that eCommerce marketing content can drive in-store sales. Well, guess what? In-store marketing can also influence eCommerce sales. Even though traffic is significantly down right now, the Walmart aisle is still a great place to find shoppers.
With the exception of some Walmart technology pilots now underway, your options to communicate online offerings in-store may still be limited. That said, there are almost always workarounds. Consider how your in-store displays could support your awareness objective. Better yet, if you have Walmart-specific items, what could you do on (or in) your packaging to drive eCommerce repeat?
5. Get Help from Affiliates
You can take things further with Walmart affiliate “Buy Now” buttons. Bloggers, influencers, and other publishers can make it easy to buy everything needed for the recipe with these simple buttons that will add products directly to the shopper’s cart. This offers greater convenience to the shopper and generates more sales for you!
Marketing in an everyday low-cost (EDLC) way on Walmart.com requires some creativity, but can have big payoffs. If you’re looking for ideas on how to drive more traffic to your listings and earn more return on your marketing dollars spent, we’d love to brainstorm with you. Schedule a free consultation below!
