Many people are confused about how to drive traffic to their online store. This is because the methods that worked for them in the past may no longer be effective.
This guide will help you understand what are the best strategies for driving traffic to your online store and how you can use them in your business.
How to drive traffic to your online store
There are three main strategies you can use to drive traffic to your e-commerce store: SEO, promotions, and content marketing.
a). SEO
SEO is a process of optimizing websites to be found by search engine algorithms. It is used to increase website traffic and improve rankings.
There are many different ways that SEO can be implemented in order to achieve these goals, including content marketing, link building, keyword research, and technical optimization.
SEO has been around for many years but has recently become more popular with online stores due to new developments in technology and the rise of digital marketing.
Through SEO, you can drive organic traffic to your online store fast without paying anything (well, unless you hire someone to SEO your product pages).
Now, to understand how to do eCommerce SEO, you need to know how search engines work.
How search engines work
Search engines are the most popular way to find information on the internet. They work by crawling through websites and indexing content that is relevant to a given keyword or search term.
The search engine crawls web pages and websites, looking for specific words or phrases, which can be either in text form or hidden within images, videos, etc. The search engine then ranks these pages based on how relevant they are to the keyword or phrase you entered.
Now, making sure that your pages are crawlable and indexable, is what is known as SEO.
How to boost your product page’s SEO
Here are some of the best practices to improve your rankings on search engines:
- Make pages mobile-friendly. With the increasing demands of mobile browsing, it is essential to use a responsive layout when designing your online store. This increases your appeal to a wider audience and can make it easier for potential customers to find what they are looking for.
- Improve speed. Site speed is becoming increasingly important, and users will leave your website if it’s too slow. When it comes to page speed, Google recommends aiming for two seconds or less.
- Submit a sitemap. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.
- Add well-crafted metadata. Ensure your product descriptions and URL links are relevant to your target audience by including keywords that they would search for.
- Add backlinks – These are links on other websites that point to your website or content. If someone is referring to your work, it’s a powerful marketing strategy and will encourage others (and search engines) to think of you as a reliable source.
- Implement Onpage – interlink related pages on your product pages
b). Promotions
Promotions are an effective way to drive traffic to your online store, especially when you need a quick spike in sales. Promotions can include anything from discounts, free shipping, and giveaways.
Promotions can be used in different ways with the goal of driving traffic and sales. Some businesses use them as a one-time event while others use them as a recurring offer that they run on certain days of the week or during specific periods of time.
Through promotions, your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your website as you can. Now, with the increased traffic, there is more likelihood of seeing an increase in sales as well.
If this sounds interesting, here are some of the best promotion strategies you can use now:
- Create contests/giveaways – a social media contest giveaway is the best way to drive a ton of traffic to your online shop. Here, the participants enter the contest by completing a series of tasks which might include sharing a link to your shop.
- Build an email list – by using email marketing, you can drive consistent traffic to your blog. Just collect emails from your customers and keep sending them promotions whenever they are available.
- Influencer marketing – you can partner with someone with a huge fan base to endorse your products.
- Affiliates – you can create an affiliate program for your store. Here, you can pay 5% of the sales to whoever refers a successful sale to your shop.
- Reclaim abandoned carts – some of your customers will leave without checking out. Using techniques such as a messenger bot that sends a message say 7 minutes after someone abandoned a cart, is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your online store.
c). Content Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful tool for driving traffic to an online store. It provides the business with the opportunity to reach potential customers in a cost-effective and efficient way.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a type of marketing strategy that relies on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract, engage, and retain a clearly defined audience.
And in the past few years, content marketing has become an essential part of eCommerce marketing strategy. It consists of three steps:
- Identifying your target market
- Creating content that appeals to your audience
- Distributing content through various channels
The content we are talking about here includes blog posts, social media posts, and videos.
Here is what you need to do:
- Add a blog section to your online store and start publishing articles related to the products you are selling.
- Research what issues your target customers are struggling with and create guides providing solutions to these challenges.
- Use social media to promote your posts. You can break down your blog posts into pieces that can be shared on your social media accounts.
- Add videos to your content strategy. You can record videos of yourself reviewing some of the products you are selling in your store. Upload the videos to YouTube and even add them to the respective product pages.
- Write persuasive product pages and optimize them for SEO.
Driving Buyers With These 6 Top Strategies
The key to driving more revenue is to find the best way to get your audience to buy what you’re selling.
The six strategies for driving buyers are:
- Use high-quality content that’s valuable and relevant
- Provide a compelling call-to-action at the end of your content
- Build trust with your audience by telling them about yourself and how you got started in the industry
- Create a sense of urgency with scarcity tactics like limited offers or discounts
- Offer personalized recommendations based on your audience’s needs and interests, such as product recommendations or travel suggestions
- Offer a clear value proposition that includes clear benefits, price points, and value
How to Create a Killer Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Store
A digital marketing strategy is a plan that helps you understand your target audience, build your brand, and improve your conversion rates. Content strategy is important because it helps you figure out what type of content to produce on your website in order to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Creating a digital marketing strategy can help you:
- Understand your target audience better
- Create engaging content that attracts new customers and retains existing ones
- Improve conversion rates, which is key for the success of your digital marketing strategy
Content strategy always starts with a problem or opportunity. You need to know what your customers want in order to offer them the right content. Then, you need to understand how your current digital marketing channels can help you reach those customers.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself in order to create your content strategy:
- What is my target audience?
- What interests my audience?
- What concerns does my audience have?
- How can I serve this concern?
An effective digital marketing strategy is one that will help you focus on providing value to your target customer.
To provide value, you need to make sure that your digital marketing plan is focused. If you’re not providing value or have multiple objectives in mind, you’ll be wasting time, effort, and resources.
Focus on what will drive the most impact on your business.
What are the Best Ways to Find New Customers and Keep Them Coming Back?
There are many ways to attract new customers and keep them coming back. While some of these methods can be expensive, there are cheaper options that can get the same result.
The best way to get more customers on your site is to focus on your strengths and build a brand that attracts people.
The second best way is to make sure that you offer a great product or service at an affordable price and have clear branding. The third way is by offering discounts and coupons for returning customers and doing the right things like social media marketing, email marketing, etc.
The fourth and last way to get more customers is by focusing on the customer experience. This can be done by having amazing customer service and handling any issue that your customers have quickly and effectively.
The customer experience is everything from the moment a customer notices you to when they check out and leave your business, and it includes making sure that there are no interruptions and that you can convince customers to come back.