In the face of growing competition, increasing the attendance of an online store is becoming the No. 1 problem for many entrepreneurs: here are some tips.
Are you wondering how to attract traffic to an online store?
Unlike traditional retail, encouraging people to buy from you is not an easy task, and predicting success is difficult. Even if you have exactly what buyers need.
According to state of Inbound experts, generating traffic and leads is a major challenge in e-commerce today.
We’ve compiled a list of proven ways to increase online store traffic so you can build on your current success and start competing with the big guys.
1. Invest in Google AdWords
One of the fastest ways to drive traffic to an e-commerce site is to pay for it. Fortunately, even entrepreneurs on a budget can afford to pay for ads using Google’s AdWords tools.
Google AdWords is a pay-per-click advertisement designed to attract additional visitors to a website, whether it’s a blog or an online store.
A pay-per-click (PPC) system means that you only pay for an ad when a user clicks on it, watches your video, or calls your manager.
There are several ways to take advantage of this advertising strategy:
- Show your online store ads in Google search results
- Show text and banner ads in Gmail, websites and apps
- Show video ads on YouTube and target your audience based on their interests or demographics, including age and location
- Promote your online store app on Android and iOS devices
It is extremely important to properly monitor the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns and optimize them in order to increase your ROI.
In some cases, Google Analytics can’t identify your campaigns, making them less effective. For proper ad tracking, you can add UTM parameters to your landing page URL.
Finally, set a pay-per-click budget before you begin so that you never exceed the allocated project budget.
2. Premium Content
Publishing consistent, interesting, comprehensive and enjoyable content attracts tons of traffic to the online store site, and this should be used.
While 92% of content marketers believe that blog content is key to the success of their business, only half have an established schedule for publishing content on websites.
Your online store is not only about selling goods and services.
Most consumers are looking for more than just another store.
That is why creating a blog on 1C-Bitrix is a great way to give potential and real buyers high service, advice and advertising information in its most pleasant, unobtrusive and informative form.
Great content gives shoppers a reason to come back to your store again.
Consider posting product reviews, tutorials, news, and other informative articles that will encourage people to visit the site.
Also, make sure your content looks flawless against the competition. Consumers are looking for reliable information when it comes to purchasing.
In a recent study, about 84% of millennials reported that user-generated content has some impact on what they end up purchasing.
3. Use SEO
To increase the attendance of an online store, you must first break through to the top positions where most people begin to plow the Internet - in search engines.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an important marketing tactic that helps interested people find your website in the SERPs.
When it comes to SEO, it’s important to put in a comprehensive and consistent effort beyond putting keywords in articles (although that’s one factor). Hire a professional with whom you will begin to move in the right direction.
Among the possibilities of search engine optimization:
- Add keywords related to your business to your blog
- Publish external links pointing to experts in your industry
- Create internal links so that Google has a better idea of the image of the site
- Create a sitemap for the main search engines – Google and Yandex
- Include keywords in descriptions and even product images
- Optimize your website so that it loads at maximum speed
- Provide links to your website with quality resources
- Write detailed meta descriptions
By taking the time to use even a few of these SEO tricks, you’ll be able to boost your SERP rankings and drive traffic to your online store.
4. Run the referral program
Running a referral program is an easy way to leverage existing customers and increase online store traffic. For example, invite friends to sign up in exchange for free premium services.
Incentivize your current customers and blog followers to share your favorite products with friends and family via email and social media.
In return, give them discounts or free shipping on future purchases, valuable gifts, or even credit to use on their next purchases with you.
5. Guest blogging
While creating awesome content on an ecommerce site is essential to retaining loyal customers and attracting new faces, the power of guest blogging to boost traffic should not be underestimated.
All it takes is great expert-class content designed to inspire, inform, and engage. If your guest post is published, you get a link.
In addition, you may be allowed to include one or two backlinks in the article in order to send interested people straight to the online store after a click.
While this is a time-consuming method of driving traffic, it helps establish you as an authority in your industry, spreads the word about your online store, and showcases your brand to the widest possible audience.
6. Email Marketing
You’ve probably heard that building an email list is one of the most effective tools to increase online store traffic.
One of the greatest mistakes you can make as an online store owner is to focus on attracting new customers while forgetting about existing ones.
You can run email campaigns for new customers who have never bought from you, remind “old acquaintances” of their existence (and prosperity!), and bring back people who abandoned the cart in the buying process.
Using special software tools, you can create a personalized marketing campaign focused on the needs of individual users.
For example, inviting new customers to sign up for a newsletter, targeting existing customers with personalized ad campaigns, or even targeting them to abandoned carts to complete some of the transactions.
The reception works great when a guest is offered a discount when trying to leave the site.
If you can convince a customer to make a lucrative purchase after visiting the site, the person is more likely to leave a good review, share their favorite products on social media, or participate in your referral program.
All this helps to attract additional visitors to your online store.
7. Video content and social networks
The popularity of video content is growing, and marketers are aware of this. So good that this year Facebook is lifting the ban on video ads on its channels.
While this may not be appropriate for the average Facebook user, the truth is that Zuckerberg is up to something more.
Here are some startling facts about the power of Facebook’s promotion that are sure to get you thinking about video ads right now:
- By 2020, online advertising will exceed 80% of all traffic
- Over 65% of U.S. marketers post video ads on Facebook
- Facebook is the #1 source of video content among social platforms
- Videos garner 135% more views and comments than images
- 8 out of 10 consumers say they’d rather watch a video about a product than read a text story about it.
And that’s just one social platform — and then there’s VK, Odnoklassniki, YouTube, and Twitter that haunt Facebook when it comes to building brand awareness, connecting with potential customers, and driving traffic to websites.
We hope that our proven tools will help you increase your online store traffic and ultimately increase your sales.
To analyze how your e-commerce site is performing, speed up page loading or order professional SEO optimization, call our specialists or leave a message. We know what your business needs.