As an e-commerce marketer or entrepreneur, your number one struggle is probably how you can drive more traffic to your e-commerce website.
But here’s the thing ‒ there is no quick and easy way to gain traffic unless you pay for it.
Gaining a steady amount of traffic to your site takes a lot of time and effort on your part. That’s why the best thing that you can do is to lay out a solid foundation right from the very beginning. That’s how your online traffic will steadily increase over time.
Here are tips on how you can effectively drive traffic to your online store.
INVEST IN PAID ADVERTISEMENTS
One of the quickest ways to drive traffic to your e-commerce store is to invest in paid ads. These ads will help you place your business in front of your target customers.
Through paid ads in social media, for instance, you can easily craft highly targeted campaigns that are tailor-made for users who are likely going to click-through and purchase your products.
DEVELOP A ROBUST SEO STRATEGY
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of organically driving traffic from search engines to your website.
What happens is that someone will type a query on search engines, such as Google, and then your online store will be included in the results. And then, from there, the user will click on your blue search results, and then he will land on your website.
Hence, it is important to develop a robust SEO strategy to ensure that your website will appear front-and-center on search engine results. Doing so allows you to drive organic (free) traffic to your e-commerce website.
To ensure that you craft out a brilliant SEO plan, you need to understand some essential SEO terms, such as keywords.
Keywords are words or phrases that make it easier for people to find your e-commerce store on search engines.
Note that some keywords are relatively more popular than others, so take your time researching the most suitable keywords for your content. Also, find ways to incorporate these in your SEO titles, headings, descriptions, and throughout the pages on your site.
Now, when all of your SEO efforts are done properly, note that landing on the top spot of the search engines takes time, so you have to be patient.
COLLABORATE WITH INFLUENCERS
In a nutshell, influencer marketing is all about building relationships with key opinion leaders in your niche to get your store in front of a much bigger audience.
Most of these influencers are highly trusted by their followers, so getting these people to feature your products is a highly efficient way to boost your e-commerce website’s brand awareness.
You can reach out to relevant influencers in your niche and leverage that trust that they have formed with their audience.
In fact, according to research by Nielsen, 92 percent of people value word-of-mouth recommendations from people that they trust rather than put their trust in a faceless brand or business and other conventional forms for marketing.
INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA
Now that you have established a paid ads and social media strategy, you also need to ensure that you are getting attention and traffic on social media.
For instance, Shopify has recently partnered with Instagram to make shopping on the platform easier than ever. Instagram now has a feature called “shoppable posts” where users can tap on an icon on an image, to find specific details about a product.
Also, do you know that 75 percent of consumers check first with Facebook before eventually deciding whether or not to make a purchase? That reason is why you should be active on social media.
It is also a great way for customers to keep in touch with you and stay updated with the latest happenings.
HARNESS EMAIL MARKETING
Here’s the thing: if you are not gathering emails on your online store, you are missing out big time. With email you can market to:
- Prospects who are not ready to buy yet
- Existing customers who previously purchased from your store
- Customers who have abandoned their shopping carts
Once you have an email list, you can use it to send customers interesting content and offers and get a steady stream of traffic to your site.
PUBLISH GREAT CONTENT
By creating engaging, relevant, and high-quality content, you will attract more customers to your online store.
From blogs, guides, podcasts, e-books, and videos, there are endless opportunities for businesses and brands to venture into the world of content and capture new audiences.
HOST GIVEAWAYS AND CONTESTS
To give your e-commerce store the boost that it needs during the early stages, why not host contests and giveaways?
You can give away something for free, making people excited to get it. If done right, this somehow creates a viral effect, driving traffic to your site.
No matter what you are selling online, the bottom line is you are going to need a decent amount of website traffic to achieve it. Apply these strategies in your online store, and see what works best for you.
