Setting up an e-commerce store takes a fair amount of time and energy. Most businesses start with great enthusiasm, creating an online store and providing the best possible services for their customers. However, a common outcome of this process is the lack of traffic to the store and a dip in sales after the initial launch period. For a number of online stores, there is a steady growth period that is associated with launch activities and marketing, after which there is a plateau. Whether you wish to get out of this plateau or jump to the next level of growth, there are simple strategies to increase traffic to your online store. These include both inorganic and organic activities, and are high-impact tactics that will show results within weeks.
1) Paid Social Media Ad Campaigns
For the most part, social media companies and teams prefer organic methods of increasing engagement and interaction, as they do not cost money. That said, there is no reason why online stores should not run paid social media ad campaigns on a regular basis to attract new customers and leads for business growth. To increase website traffic, it is important to show your preferred target audience the products, services, and offers that are available at your online store. This can be done with ease through paid social media, as the campaigns can be targeted at a customized audience that is likely to not only click on your store but also make purchases.
Facebook Ads is the premier social media ad platform that most online stores and brands consider a go-to for their ad campaigns. As of now, Facebook commands an impressive user base of 1.65 billion monthly users. These can easily be sorted as per their age, location, interests, and taste in online merchandise, making the process of creating a targeted user base much simpler. There are many features offered by the website, such as Dynamic Ads, which allow you to present previous customers with automatically-generated ads. This improves the recall value of your brand and encourages them to revisit the online store for additional purchases.
Instagram has leveraged their user base of half a billion for brands, and provide a high exposure among the age group of 15 to 35 years of age. If your online store sells products that rely heavily on images, then using Instagram can be somewhat useful to draw in the Millenial crowd. Additionally, many celebrities use it as the platform of choice when they are creating sponsored ads. To increase traffic to your online store, you can use these features and create audience interest on a weekly or monthly basis.
Pinterest and Twitter are also great platforms for paid social media campaigns, which allows online stores to tap into an audience that is not as active on Facebook and Instagram.
2) Use SEO Effectively
Many e-commerce stores suffer from the lack of discoverability. If your potential customers cannot locate you online, then the traffic is bound to slow down. Creating effective SEO strategies the best way to increase traffic to your online store. This means that not only do you rank high up in the search results, you can be found easily when potential customers search for a variety of products. Search engine optimization is not a simple task, considering that most SEO agencies will simply spam your page with “discoverable key-words.” Organic SEO is the best possible route to take, and it should be paid for. Consider hiring an agency that will be able to put in the time required to update your SEO and gradually shift you to the first page of the results in any search engine.
3) Content Marketing For Online Traffic
Contrary to the popular understanding of content marketing, the process involves a lot more than just creating a blog and spamming it with articles that are peppered with keywords. To drive traffic to your online store, one must create content that is informative, interesting to read and has a value that customers and readers would consider sharing on their social media pages. There is no limit to the kind of content you can produce, either. Instead of simple articles, consider creating short videos, audio files, podcasts, guides, e-books, and slides – depending on how well they match your chosen topic. Content marketing to bring in traffic can also be based on creating contests, polls, giveaways and audience interaction methods. This allows for content to be generated from the public as well, which increases interaction and engagement. The key rule is to stay relevant and original, as this helps in creating a brand image that only grows and becomes a traffic magnet with time.
4) Reach Out With Influencer Marketing
As any good web traffic agency will know, the digital era requires new strategies to improve website traffic and attract new audiences. One such way is engaging in influencer marketing. By creating a good relationship with industry influencers, you can get your online store featured in their social media, blogs or digital assets and find a new audience for your store. There are influencers in just about every industry, and they command a fair amount of command over the public. A top fashion influencer or tech influencer can quickly drive heavy traffic towards a website for an entire month with the help of a single blog post, YouTube video or Instagram post. Customers value word-of-mouth advertising, and this will increase traffic to your online store.
These four strategies are the best high impact activities to create traffic for your online store. Ideally, they should be handled by an agency that is well versed in the process, but they can be undertaken by store owners as well. Start today, and you will notice the gradual upward incline each month and increasing store sales as well.