For businesses looking to increase the amount of revenue they generate from online stores, it’s essential to keep abreast on the latest inbound marketing trends. In particular, three types of traffic generating sources have proven to be indispensable for new e-commerce businesses: Email, SEO, and Social Media. Below is a quick overview of the efficacy of each channel and insights into which one provides the best conversion rates for your digital marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing

Although it requires extensive hands-on management, investing in strategic email campaigns can provide businesses with a significant return on investment. Not only can email provide immense returns through database remarketing, but it also proves its weight in gold by generating high conversions rates across the board. Monetate analyzed over 500 million shopping experiences during Q1 2013, and the data compiled confirmed that email marketing was the top converting source, generating an average success rate of 3.19%. Encourage new leads and dormant users to come back to your site by leveraging the effectiveness of email marketing, and advertise promotions to generate repeat sales.

Search Engine Optimization

This online marketing tactic has proven to be valuable for e-commerce advertisers. According to the Monetate study, over 31% of all e-commerce website traffic originates from search, proving its value for business owners looking to generate more traffic and revenues organically. The latest algorithm updates place an importance on producing original content, and you can heighten your SEO efforts by creating guest blog posting campaigns. While these campaigns may provide conversions in the short term, building link authority will eventually increase your website’s ranking on the major search engines.

Social Media

Brands of all types are still in the process of figuring out how to effectively monetize traffic generated from social media campaigns. While social media may never be the main driver of revenue for e-commerce businesses, it does provide additional benefits in the form of brand awareness, community building, and customer loyalty and retention. In terms of revenue generation, the Monetate study showed that only 0.71% of conversions in the realm of e-commerce originate from social traffic, with Pinterest generating the highest spend per order ($80.54). If you want to effectively leverage social media for your e-commerce business, invest in developing high-quality product images that will break through the online clutter and capture the attention of your targeted audience. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest provide a multitude of opportunities for building brand recognition and persuading users to view the products you carry.