Whether you’re new to the online retail space, or an existing business looking to grow and expand in the new year, there are plenty of tools out there for you.
All of them claim to be the best investment for your hard-earned revenue – so it can be hard to decide where to start.
That’s why we’ve put together our list of the top e-commerce marketing tools you need in 2022 – to take your business to the next level.
None of the below are sponsored promotions – they’re all recommendations taken from working with clients across many industries.
The Best Website CRM Platforms in 2022 – Shopify and WooCommerce
If your business doesn’t yet have its own website, it may be time to start looking at investing in one in the new year.
From marketing data gathering to customising your user journey and optimising customer experience around your specific product niche – there are literally hundreds of reasons to have your own e-commerce enabled website (and very few reasons not to).
One of the easiest ways to get an e-commerce site up and running is using a (CRM Customer Relationship Management) system.
These are typically designed to let you create your own website, and expand its functionality, all with minimal web design experience.
As we’ve covered before, the two best CRM systems we’ve found are the ever-popular Shopify and WooCommerce systems.
WooCommerce or Shopify in 2022 – Which is Better?
Much as we covered earlier this year, the two platforms are still neck-and-neck in terms of functionality. Each has different tradeoffs and advantages to contend with.
Shopify is much better as a plug-and-play system, where you need very little technical expertise to set up your store.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is more technically challenging – but much more customisable than Shopify.
All in all, in depends which platform you prefer and which features are most important to you.
WooCommerce and Shopify Pricing in 2022
Shopify offers flexible pricing starting at 9 USD per month for the barebones “Lite” version to 300 USD per month for their “Advanced” plan.
They also charge a percentage of each transaction when not using their payment processing gateway.
WooCommerce is a bit harder to define. There are a variety of factors to consider, such as paid themes, hosting costs and the payment processor.
You can technically start a WooCommerce store for free, but the additional costs mean you’ll be paying to get the store up and running properly.
Regardless, you can expect to pay less than the comparable Shopify plan for the same features – but with a lot more work involved getting to that point.
The Best Email Automation Platform in 2022 – Mailchimp
Email marketing is one of the most effective means of re-engaging customers and creating repeat sales once you’ve captured customer data.
This is because you can automate sending highly personalised messages or promotions to clients, creating sales funnels that are as simple or complex as you like.
Another important strategy worth mentioning is cart abandonment – sending customers email reminders for carts of goods they’ve abandoned is often all it takes to massively boost conversion rates.
Why Choose Mailchimp in 2022?
Mailchimp is our top pick for a few reasons, it has an intuitive and easy to use email creator, it can be used to create some basic custom flows and audience segmentation – and much more.
On top of that, its free plan is fairly generous compared to many other mailing platforms out there.
Mailchimp Costs 2022
Mailchimp is free up to 2000 contacts, after which you need to pay a monthly subscription. This ranges from R190 p.m. to R5 500 p.m. depending on the features you need.
The Best SEO Management Tools in 2022 – Semrush and Ahrefs
If you’re looking at investing in SEO for your business, and you should be, these are our top two recommendations for SEO tools to help boost your search performance.
Both are incredibly pricy for new businesses – so be forewarned – but both can let you get insights into your search performance, identify issues with your website preventing it from ranking, help you create better SEO content and much more.
You’ll need some technical skills to make the most out of these too – but if you can they’re well worth the price for the long-term growth of your business.
Should You Choose Semrush or Ahrefs in 2022?
In general, Semrush is better for content-driven SEO strategies and Ahrefs is better for link-building strategies.
This is largely due to the additional features they offer – which are geared towards those respective niches.
Semrush and Ahrefs Pricing in 2022
Semrush plans start at 125 USD p.m. up to 450 USD p.m. – with additional charges for certain limits on some features depending on your plan. For example, you get 5 “Projects” on the first plan and pay an additional fee for each one you load afterwards.
Ahrefs plans start at 99 USD p.m. up to 999 USD p.m. – plus additional charges as above.
The Best Live Chat Service in 2022 – LiveChat
If your product requires a little more “selling” to create purchases online, or you’re just interested in closer contact with your customers, “Live Chat” software such as the aptly named LiveChat are the ideal solution.
These platforms let you either hire out people to chat with customers on our behalf or install your own salesforce as live chat assistants on the site to answer any queries customers may have.
If your business is struggling to create conversions – it may be worth checking out.
Why use LiveChat in 2022?
We like LiveChat specifically because of its huge number of integrations with other platforms and sales channels. In addition it lets you create custom routing rules and sales funnels on the fly – ensuring your sales people waste the least amount of time possible.
LiveChat Pricing 2022
Livechat starts at 19 USD to 59 USD on the month-to-month plan and has a 14 day free trial.
Conclusion
We hope this gave you some inspiration for the best e-commerce marketing tools to take your business to the next level in the next year.
You can also always look at an outsourced marketing solution – many of which often have access to some of the above tools as part of their packages. Be sure to enquire ahead of time – if that’s what you’re looking for.
If you enjoyed this article or found it helpful, check out more e-commerce marketing content on the inSyte blog or listen to the inSyte Podcast.
This article was brought to you by Syte.
We’re a specialist e-commerce and lead generation digital marketing agency dedicated to driving up your bottom line.
If you need any help running your business’ digital marketing strategy, feel free to reach out with the form below or check out our case studies page to see what we’ve been able to do for our clients.
