What are the Best Marketing Apps for PrestaShop

Becoming an ecommerce store owner nowadays is easier than ever. Just a few years ago, this goal involved hiring a team of developers, securing a solid product inventory, and even renting warehouses to keep everything at bay.

Luckily, those times seem like a very distant past.

Today, applications like PrestaShop allow you to build a fully-fledged online shop with little to no effort. You don’t need to have a technical background or spend thousands of dollars to build a website – the tools are right there for the taking, and the learning curve is as gradual as they come. 

But building your online store is just the first step – you have to carefully think about your target audience and how to bring them in. This is where Marketing takes center stage and where you turn potential users into happy clients, increasing your customer loyalty. 

Read on to learn more about marketing apps in PrestaShop – what they are, what they can do for you, and which are the best ones for your project.

Is PrestaShop Good for Marketing?

Let’s start off by learning more about PrestaShop as an ecommerce shop builder.

So, what do we know about PrestaShop today?

• PrestaShop is lightweight – page loading speeds are one of the most coveted achievements in the current website environment, especially on mobile devices. Every millisecond counts, so having a web building app that doesn’t stress your server is always welcome. Presta is extremely lightweight out of the box, allowing you to focus on building that fast performance everyone is looking for.
  
• PrestaShop is open-source – when building something as important as an online shop, you want to have as much customization freedom as possible. This is what open-source applications give you, which is why developers love them so much. The PrestaShop code is freely available for everyone to download and modify, making your site-building options practically limitless.
  
• PrestaShop is multilingual – one of the most coveted benefits of ecommerce stores is that you’re not bound to your geographical location. You can attract clients from all over the world, and being able to speak their language quickly brings you closer together.
  
• PrestaShop is easy to learn – business owners rarely have time to learn all the technicalities surrounding their web building application. Still, Presta makes it easy to start, even as a complete novice. Couple that with tons of learning materials in the form of tutorials, guides, and forums, and you have an app that is effortless to master.
  
• PrestaShop is scalable – like so many similar open-source apps, PrestaShop relies on a plugin/theme architecture to achieve its visual outlook and set of functionalities. Thousands of Presta add-ons are readily available, and you can easily integrate them with the app’s core. Whether you want to improve your online shop security, performance, SEO, inventory management, or checkout – PrestaShop has got you covered.

The latter benefit is what we want to concentrate on today. With so many add-on options in various marketplaces, there is an entire niche of marketing modules that will take your ecommerce store one step closer to its audience. 

Introduction to Marketing Apps for PrestaShop

Once you build your PrestaShop ecommerce website, your main goal is to drive traffic to it. After all, more traffic means more conversions, more conversions mean more sales and more sales mean more profit for you. 

The best thing is there are many ways to achieve your end goal, depending on your project and the type of audience you are after. 

Some businesses heavily rely on social media to spread the word about their services. Others still see email marketing as an indispensable tool to bring people in. Then there are the people who are after organic traffic, and for them, SEO is the go-to solution. 

At the end of the day, you are not limited to a single source of traffic. Combining different platforms with a specific purpose will allow you to expand your possibilities and attract a larger pool of clients. So, the important question is – how well does PrestaShop handle all those marketing channels?

The answer? Very well!

With over 5,000 different add-ons that you can easily install from its back office with just a few clicks. For your convenience, we have grouped these extensions into categories depending on their main purpose. 

Email Marketing Apps for PrestaShop

Many people think that email marketing is pretty much dead in 2024, but the statistics paint a different picture:

• Around 62% of B2B and B2C companies have increased their email marketing budget in the last year. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
  
• 60% of B2B online marketers have pinpointed email marketing as their most effective communication channel. (eMarketer)
  

• US brands see a $40 ROI from each dollar spent on email marketing. The number is even higher for EU brands – $43. (Litmus)
  
• Marketing experts spend about 12% of their budget on email advertising. (eMarketer)
  
• The average marketer sends about 15 emails per month. (Litmus)

Now that we know how important email marketing really is – what are the best PrestaShop apps that can aid us in our journey?

Check them below:

• Mailchimp – while not explicitly designed for PrestaShop, this versatile solution integrates very well with Presta stores. Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing solutions, with over 12 million people vouching for their services. The app includes tools for marketing automation, AI, social media, analytics, etc., removing the need for different applications with complementary functionalities.
  
• Klaviyo – the platform is an excellent solution for real-time marketing data and AI-driven analytics. Klaviyo not only helps automate your email campaigns but also includes exciting options for SMS, web forms, and review segmentation.
  

Another option is Brevo – formerly known as Sendinblue, this solution is handy for all kinds of email marketing and CRM needs. Take advantage of an easy drag-and-drop builder, real-time statistics, custom webhooks, and many more.

Brevo’s free plan is limited to 300 emails per day, but any of the three premium packages remove that limitation and add new features to the mix. If you are a big enterprise – you can negotiate a custom deal to fit your exact needs.

PrestaShop Marketing Apps for Social Media

Social media websites have been all the rage for quite some time now. We love the ability to connect with like-minded people, discuss favorite topics, and even learn more in the process. Naturally, businesses have followed the trends in the search for new grounds to meet potential clients. 

• Social media websites are utilized by more than 5.17 billion people, with the average person appearing in 6-7 different channels. (SproutSocial)
  
• The social media app market is valued at $49.09 billion, with an annual growth rate of over 26%. (Forbes)
  
• Facebook still holds the leading spot in terms of the number of users (2.9 billion active monthly), but YouTube is not far behind (2.5 billion users). (Forbes)

Which are the best social media apps for PrestaShop, though? Which are the ones that can help us get seen on different channels?

Let’s see more below:

• Hootsuite – this tool offers easy PrestaShop integration. Hootsuite is one of the most multifunctional marketing apps, supporting all major social media networks – Facebook, Twitter (now X), TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and many more. It comes with detailed analytics and reports, which can be fully customized.
  
• Sprout Social – an indispensable tool for creating, managing, and delivering content on social networks. Utilizes AI and ML (machine learning) to deliver some of the most accurate data insights on the market. If you are working with influencers, you can easily set up separate campaigns and see how much ROI they can drive compared to your standard content.
  
• Buffer – allows you to grow your audience across different social channels. You can create a library with content ideas and tailor them to how they appear in each network. 

With Buffer, you can connect up to three channels as part of the Free plan or try any of the three paid packages that add extra features and analytics.

SEO Apps for PrestaShop

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the best way to get sustainable rankings online in the long term.

Here are some numbers to back that theory up:

• Organic clicks make up more than 45% of all search result clicks. (Forbes)
  
• Users utilize search engines to get a first impression of a product/service in 68% of the cases. (BrightEdge)
  
• 73% of clicks are generated from organic search results (BrightEdge)

SEO is a complex combination of web content, backlinks, keywords, and many other factors. As such, you can find tools that encompass as many of those factors as possible, but there are also others that focus on a specific functionality.

• Ahrefs – one of the most popular suites of tools when it comes to search engine optimization. Ahrefs helps you analyze your competition, find actionable keywords for your business niche, and discover new linking opportunities. This SEO app can also make a full audit of your website, pinpoint weaknesses, and suggest optimizations based on your goals.
  
• SEMrush – another solution that is not specifically built for PrestaShop, but any user of the ecommerce platform can benefit from. SEMrush is there for you if you need insightful keyword research, unique link building opportunities, and optimal on-page SEO.
  
• SEO Expert – a PrestaShop-specific module that works wonders if you need to increase your web traffic. The tool specializes in metatag optimization and automation, helping you add this strong signal to your content, regardless of whether you need it on your website or in your social media posts.

While paid advertising can deliver results quickly, proper SEO is what you need to get organic traffic and the above tools can help you with that.

Advertising Apps for PrestaShop

Seasoned marketers know that to achieve the best possible results, they have to employ a balanced combination of organic (SEO) and paid (PPC) tactics. While the former is a slower, more sustainable strategy, paid advertising brings results immediately.

Its impact cannot be overlooked, because:

• Webmasters who employ PPC tactics see an average of 200% rise in returns of investment. (SmallBizGenius)
  
• PPC traffic converts 50% better than organic traffic. (Moz)
  
• Small to medium businesses spend an average of $9k per month on paid advertising. (WebFX)

As with SEO, the most popular PPC tools out there are not tailored to PrestaShop but can fully integrate with your ecommerce shop without much effort. 

• Google Ads – the king of search engines is naturally the most useful channel for investing in paid ads. Knowing that almost half the audience does not make a difference between organic and paid results, you can guarantee to see your PrestaShop store at the top of search results in no time. Google Ads includes a wonderful set of tools for ad creation, management, and tracking, ensuring you are always aware of how your campaign is going and can edit it if needed. How much you invest in the platform to attract new customers depends strongly on your marketing budget and the niche you are in.
  
• Meta Ads – formerly known as Facebook Ads, this solution helps you get seen on the most popular social media platform. With such a huge audience using the service, you can be sure to find qualified leads, drive engagement, and increase your online sales on the app. Similar to the ads for Google, Meta Ads is a service that allows you to set your own budget and work within its limits.

Another tool you can use is Microsoft Advertising. With it, you can start without any initial investments and only pay when people click on your ads. The service includes a platform where you can test your keywords and bids, experiment with different timing, and see what works best.

Analytics Apps for PrestaShop

Even the best marketing app for PrestaShop will be useless if there is no way to track your performance and how your actions affect that.

Pick one of the following tools to do this:

• Google Analytics – a suite of tools that needs no introduction. The platform is divided into groups of solutions based on their purpose – Automation, Reporting, Advertising, Exploration, Integration, and Data Management. Google Analytics is absolutely free of charge for any site owner, but if you want even more advanced features – you can purchase a paid plan called Google 360.
  
• Matomo – formerly known as Piwik, one of the most popular Google Analytics alternatives. Matomo puts a heavy focus on data privacy, how information is gathered, and what is displayed to the end user. It is open-source, very flexible, and in tune with industry regulations like GDPR.
  
• Hotjar – you can apply the Hotjar tracking code on PrestaShop templates or through a module. Once implemented, you can take advantage of some of the most comprehensive heat maps and site statistics out there. Additionally, you can utilize session recordings (for analyzing customer behavior) and surveys (to get a firsthand idea of what your audience wants.

The web analytics are crucial in your site promotion efforts, and it’s best to get one now.

User Reviews and Recommendations for PrestaShop

When buying something online, clients often resort to reviews. After all, if we just listen to advertising – every product is the best in its category.

• 95% of clients check online reviews before making a purchase. (Globe Newswire)
  
• Almost 50% of shoppers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. (BrightLocal)
  
• The average client reads between 10-55 reviews before purchasing a product. (TrustPulse)

We can go on with the statistics, but they will all confirm the same thing – if you have an ecommerce store, sharing client feedback is crucial for inspiring trust and gaining loyalty.

But how to do it in PrestaShop?

The tools below can help you with this:

• Trustpilot Reviews – there are hundreds of review websites, but Trustpilot has consistently remained among the top choices. That’s hardly surprising as the platform is heavily moderated, minimizing the risk of spammy or inaccurate feedback. Getting a high Trustpilot score is a great sign for potential buyers, and PrestaShop webmasters can easily integrate their TP accounts with their stores.
  
• eBay Comments – many entrepreneurs do not limit themselves to selling products through a single channel. Instead, they also utilize major marketplaces like Amazon, AliExpress, Etsy, and eBay. The latter also offers a great integration with PrestaShop. The module, as you can tell by the name, allows you to scrape your eBay product comments and display them on your website as well.
  
• iFeedback – this plugin allows you to connect with your buyers and give them the opportunity to leave feedback on the products they purchased. Once that is done, they receive an email with suggestions to leave a review, and you can even set up a reward system for the visitors who take advantage.

Getting feedback from existing users and loyal customers of the product or service helps us make informed decisions, so it’s no wonder why online reviews are so popular with ecommerce businesses.

Conclusion

To summarize, there are plenty of PrestaShop tools that can supercharge your marketing efforts. Some solutions are free, while others require a premium fee, so each business can choose a set of add-ons that will work for their particular ecommerce project. 

Keep in mind that each new plugin puts a bit more load on your hosting server, so make sure to only utilize the essentials. If a single add-on can help you with multiple goals – this is always a better choice than employing a different tool for each action. 

Integrating marketing solutions into your PrestaShop website offers one of the most important benefits – bringing potential clients closer to your products/services and the coveted sales. If you are still unsure of the best way to achieve that – contact the ScalaHosting Team, and we will gladly hear more about your project and offer recommendations based on your specific needs. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can marketing apps enhance your sales in PrestaShop?

A: By automating tasks like email campaigns, SEO optimization, and cart recovery, marketing apps reduce the manual workload for store owners. These tools improve customer retention and increase conversion rates by offering personalized promotions, reminders, and targeted advertising to users based on their shopping behavior.

Q: Are there free marketing apps available for PrestaShop?

A: Yes, several marketing apps offer free versions or plans with limited features, suitable for small or new businesses. These plans often include basic capabilities, such as sending a limited number of emails or offering simple functionalities, with the option to upgrade for more advanced features.

Q: What should I consider when choosing a marketing app for PrestaShop?

A: Key considerations include the specific features offered, integration ease, cost, and scalability. For example, larger businesses might need advanced analytics and CRM features, while small stores may prioritize affordability and simplicity. Choosing the right app ensures it aligns with the business’s marketing goals and budget.