How To Generate Traffic for Your eCommerce Site
If you have the world's most beautiful eCommerce website, congratulations! But your work isn't done. All of our ecommerce clients in Kelowna ask about how to increase sales. Some want more local web visitors, others want more visitors from across Canada and the USA. Our Kelowna marketing and web design company has spent the better part of 10 years designing and marketing online businesses and there are lots of things we've tried along the way.
Below are some tried and true tactics that work! eCommerce marketers can influence 3 big things that make a difference to the bottom line--web traffic, conversion rate, and amount ($) of your average sale. Improving any one of these will increase revenues. In this article, we're going to take a look at the first item: web traffic generation ideas. However, it's becoming more important to not simply aim for high traffic numbers, but instead aim for the right kind of traffic. Having a little traffic comprised of your ideal customers is much more valuable than a ton of random traffic.
First Ensure Your Website is Mobile Optimized or Responsive
Some eCommerce websites still haven't developed a mobile-friendly site, and with 25-50% of ecommerce traffic coming from phones and tablets, this should be a priority. Sites made for desktop computers usually don't look good, are slow to load, and hard to use. Sending more people to a site that isn't optimized for a large percentage of your visitors is a waste.
Get Active On Social Media
Social media is becoming increasingly important for eCommerce sites, especially, in regard to traffic generation. There are a variety of methods below that we'll touch on.
1. Twitter search
Twitter has a unique search feature where you can search for people that have questions relevant to your niche. Once you've found a few questions to answer you can respond to the user with helpful advice. Potentially, you may be able to recommend a product that you offer.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest is great for generating sales. The amount of traffic to this site is enormous, so you'd be doing your business a favor by becoming active. Since Pinterest is mostly visual you'll want to make sure you're posting very high quality images of your products. It's also important to include price tags and product descriptions in your posts as well so as people "pin" them and share them with friends, the purchasing information is right there with it.
3. Facebook
Facebook offers a variety of ways to generate traffic for your website. The easiest way is to create enticing posts that will draw the reader in. When you're creating content or a product page to share via Facebook make sure you use high quality images to entice people to click. You'll want to sell the lifestyle your products can bring, instead of just the images of your product. You'll be able to find what's the most effective by testing out a variety of different formats. It's also a good idea to run contests, offer gift cards, and even free shipping.
4. Google+, Tumblr, StumbleUpon½ and on and on
There are too many social media platforms for us to mention. Each one is a bit different and will have varying degrees of success at sending referral traffic to your website. The principles are the same though. Focus on providing interesting content to your target audience using the social media hotspots in your industry. People share what they like with others which amplifies your initial efforts. Measure what works and do more of it!
Content Marketing
Content marketing can take many forms and shapes. Overall, the more amazing content you create the more traffic you'll send back to your website. This includes content for your own site and others.
1. The Golden Rule - Creating Shareable Content
Shareable content touches on a deep need of the readers, or provides massive value. Every piece of content you create for your readers should be done in order to wow them, while providing as much value as possible.
2. Utilize Guest Blogging
Use your expertise to create content for high quality blogs in your niche. If you're able to provide a ton of value to those readers there's a good chance they'll come and check out your website. You can also provide valuable information to your niche in forums and other online communities. Guest Blogging has the additional benefit of providing links back to your own website, which gives Google signals that play into your search engine ranking.
3. Use Video
Video marketing is continuing to have a growing impact. By making videos that feature your products, or people using your products you'll be able to drive traffic back to your website. Videos are great for Facebook, YouTube, and even linking in email blasts.
4. Try Alternative Forms Of Content
Info graphics are a hot trend right now. By creating an info graphic that showcases the use of your product or a related use you'll create something that users are encouraged to share. The key is to create something interesting to a wide audience that has a high shareability factor.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising has been around for a long time. It still continues to exist today, because it's effective. It does a great job at sending traffic and qualified leads back to your website.
1. Google Ads / Facebook Ads / Twitter Sponsored Posts
It may take a little time to have a set of ads that convert, however this time is well spent. Once you've been able to create an ad that converts you'll be able to use it well into the future. Just remember to test your ads. The more you can test the more you'll increase conversions.
2. Classified Ads
There are two types of classified ads that exist today. The first is the classic print, while the second are online classifieds. Both of these can be used to send traffic to your eCommerce website.
Have A Strong Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing still produces some of the best conversion rates. Make sure you're doing whatever you can to retain the email addresses of your customers, or are offering an incentive to get new subscribers to signup. Once you've been given permission to market to a person via email, you've already gained a little of their trust. Every email you send should attempt to build trust on some level.
Use The Offline World
The offline world is still very much alive. Mass marketing is becoming less effective, however you still can use targeted marketing in the offline world. For instance, you could purchase an ad within a magazine that's in the same niche as your eCommerce store. Another way to reach your customers is through TV ads or radio commercials. Although, these options may be a little more expensive they get your business in front of a lot of people.
Don't Forget to Focus on Building a Brand
The best long-term strategy for traffic is to focus on building your brand. You can do this in a variety of ways, but mostly the focus will be on creating high-quality content that encourages people to share, and using tactics to distribute that content. The goal for your brand should be to provide as much value to your customers as possible. You can provide value via your blog, and even guest post on websites where your ideal customer is most likely to hang out.
Slowly, your audience will grow and your reach will expand. Getting quality traffic takes time. Like we mentioned earlier, it's not simply traffic that matters, but it's getting the right kind of traffic. Have a long-term vision and take steps forward every single day, soon you'll reach and even eclipse your traffic goals.
Bonus Tactic: Develop "Rich Snippets"
Rich snippets are essentially what your product looks like in the search engines. By optimizing these correctly you'll be able to increase your click throughs and conversions. Although, this usually doesn't result in an increase in traffic you will be able to get more from the traffic you're already getting. Make sure you take the necessary steps to fill out this information, especially the price of your product.
If you want help crafting a plan to grow your traffic, then don't hesitate to get in touch with your web design Kelowna team today.