Building a paying customer base is the foundation of any successful business, whether online or offline. Online, you can do this by increasing your e-commerce traffic. And the more traffic you have, the better your e-commerce store is doing.
You don’t just want any traffic, either. You want to get the people who are most interested in your particular niche. They should also be involved in your mailing list. Ultimately, the goal is to convert them into paying customers. Traffic just for the sake of getting eyeballs to your site will not cut it. You need to increase the number of conversions. And to do that, you need more of the right traffic.
Increasing your web traffic is an incredibly difficult task. But it’s also something that can reward your business exponentially. And procrastinating or avoiding it altogether is a big mistake. It could lead to your e-commerce store’s utter failure.
So let’s look at six very easy ways to increase the traffic to your e-commerce site.
Table of Contents
1. List, Lists, and More Lists
Staying connected with your potential customer base is key. But your efforts should be strategic and focused. That means connecting with your audience on whatever platforms are most preferable for them.
Email Lists
The most obvious way to do this is an email list. But don’t be afraid to think outside the box here. There are also other ways that people like to receive their information. For example, you can use lists on Facebook Messenger. Many people continue to flock to Facebook to stay updated on news, information, and online shopping. This makes it an ideal way to reach potential customers.
Plus, Facebook is still a great way to connect one-on-one with your customers. You can answer questions, keep buyers updated on orders, and overall, make the customer experience easy and memorable. It’s a great way to encourage repeat business.
Social Media
Another option might be Instagram or Snapchat lists. These are two of the more popular platforms for the younger generations. Let’s also not forget Twitter. It is an ever-growing platform that can be harvested for mass broadcasts with very little effort.
The Scroll Box
Waiting for a customer to randomly make a purchase when visiting your website is like watching a squirrel cross the road in heavy traffic. So you need to be more hands-on to guide that squirrel to the exact place you want them to go. Getting people on a list can help you point the way to the most interesting spots on your e-commerce site for repeat sales.
To grow your list in this way, consider adding a scroll box to your website. As visitors view your site, you can politely ask them for their email address. You can do this through a pop-up box that appears as they scroll down the page. Once they add themselves to the list, you can easily communicate what you need to.
As a result, they stay informed on what they find interesting about your site. These could be certain items of interest or a special discount offer that can be personalized to each name on the list. This, in turn, encourages them to return frequently.
Keep in mind that for every $1 spent on an email marketing campaign, you could see huge returns of $35, $50, or more. That’s an incredible return on investment that can make a huge impact on your revenue.
2. The Influence of an Influencer
If you can find someone influential to bring potential customers to your site, you can see great growth. Look for someone who already has a large following. For example, if your site focuses on outdoor furniture, you can find an influencer that focuses on backyard accessories or outdoor home design.
From there, you can ask if they are willing to work with you. By working together, you can both reach new heights, since you will be recommending each other to your followers. This can lead to new visitors who are already interested in what you have to offer.
Keep in mind that influencers with smaller lists can be just as effective as those with large numbers. Smaller lists can mean more focused groups. As a result, this can lead to more sales on your e-commerce site. While large lists can produce more volume, they can also mean less. After all, we don’t expect every visitor to become a customer.
But you don’t always need an influencer’s list to boost your web traffic. Featuring the influencer on your site can have the same effect. This could be an interview, an open review of their site or a promo they have. Doing this can prompt them to do the same on their site and share your details with their lists.
Remember to diversify your efforts by using every outlet at your disposal. That includes finding YouTube vloggers that have a nice following. You could ask them for a review of your product and instantly show their regular viewers what you have to offer.
Followerwonk is an incredible way to focus your search for the right influencers on Twitter. It lets you use hashtags along with your most successful keywords.
3. Blogging
A blog is a great way to share new information. You can also share peoples’ experiences with your products. Spend some time with it and post on a regular basis, whether that’s weekly, monthly, or any other regular schedule that fits. This will help promote your business by entertaining your readers while also giving them a direct opportunity to click on the item you have chosen to highlight on the blog.
Your blog doesn’t have to just be about your products either. You can post articles on just about anything that relates to your business. This lets your readers stay engaged and informed, even on a personal level. It’s that personal connection that could prompt a reader to become a customer. It can also convert your current customers into repeat buyers.
Remember that the main purpose of your blog is to encourage sales. With that in mind, always be sure to show the reader what you offer. Make it easy to purchase with a simple side-bar button that invites the reader to “Buy Now!”
Blogging Boosts Web Traffic
By blogging on a regular basis, you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche. Authority sites are useful as they allow you to increase your web traffic simply on the merits of your expertise. In doing so, you allow more readers to see your content. With the proper product links in place, it can, as a result, lead to more sales.
Furthermore, blogs give you the opportunity to grow your lists. You can do this by gathering emails from readers who opt-in. So every visit to your blog is another opportunity for either immediate business or the potential for some more down the road. And every post itself is another invitation for new readers. This creates a snowball of potential conversions.
Share Your Blog on Social Media
Remember that blog posts can be shared on your social network. This increases exposure. As a result, your e-commerce site can achieve even more growth potential. And that doesn’t even take into account the number of times people will share your content. This will bring organic growth with it. The right content can go viral, consequently bringing a huge inflow of new visitors.
4. Give Stuff Away
Who doesn’t love free stuff? If you have something to give away, human nature will draw people to it. Everyone will want one, even people who would normally have no interest in it. That’s what makes a giveaway so remarkable.
Now imagine having something to offer that many people will want. This can increase your traffic exponentially – almost overnight. And of course, the more traffic you have, the greater the chance for converting visitors into customers.
How to Have a Successful Giveaway Campaign
There are certain things to keep in mind when running a giveaway. This is so that you can make it a success, and repeat that success in the future:
Be Clear With Your Goal
Determine what level of success you want from your giveaway campaign. Make it realistic. Plan out where you want to focus people’s attention. This can be a specific product, your email list, or something else. Just make sure it ties back to your main goal of increasing your e-commerce traffic.
Make it Exciting for the Visitor
The giveaway should be something that will entice the visitor to, at the very least, give up their email address. Otherwise, what’s the point? These could be free products or a shopping spree at your store. You could also use event tickets or travel vouchers. However, if your goal is to increase traffic, make sure your giveaway is relevant to the visitors of your e-commerce store. Make sure it also encourages them to bring visitors to you.
You can do this, for example, by getting them to share a link back to your store for an increased chance of winning the giveaway prize.
There is No Shame in Self Promotion
Without promoting your giveaway, there will be no one to see your great idea. That’s why you need to spread the word. A very effective – and free – way to promote your giveaway is through a viral loop. This gets social networking sites to work for you by allowing people to increase their number of entries.
This is done simply by sharing a link with their friends and followers. As a result, you can increase the visibility of your brand and your giveaway. You can see how this is done and start up a campaign through a portal that offers a great way to start up.
In conjunction with that, you can also go back to your influencer sites for more promotional opportunities. You can work with influencers to provide prizes. In this case, the influencer benefits from your promotion, and you have a valuable prize to give away that you would not have otherwise had access to. You can also ask them to promote your giveaway to their listings, in exchange for promotion on your sites. Either way, it’s a win-win.
5. Create a Referral Program
Word of mouth is the best advertising you can get. People are much more likely to follow through with something if they have been told about it by someone they trust. This can be a friend or a family member.
There was an old television commercial in the 80s that starts out with one woman telling two friends about her great shampoo. Then each of them tells two friends, who then tell another two friends, and so on. Before you know it, the screen is filled with women telling two friends about this product. This is a great way to promote your business.
As you can see from the commercial, you can start small. Ask two friends to refer your site or giveaway. Make sure they get those referrals to keep the ball rolling through referrals of their own.
Keep in mind that this takes time to funnel through to many people. You are relying on those friends of friends to follow through. Furthermore, it could be that many people are not in a position to follow through right now. But they may still do so later.
How to Have a Successful Referral Program
Now to really watch things grow, you can set up your own referral program. Here are three key things to do to set up a successful referral program that can create plenty of new traffic for your e-commerce site:
Choose a Great Product
Your product needs to have at least some following already. A product that is not churning new or repeat customers may not be the proper fit for a referral program. This is simply because no one will share it. Your product has to hit the ground already running.
Offer a Reward That is Interesting and Easy to Understand
The reward should have some value that has wide appeal. Make things easy for your audience with simple instructions: you provide this, and you will receive that. It should be just that simple.
A Two-Sided Reward Will Reap More Benefits
By taking your reward and offering something for both the referrer and the referral, you make both parties happy. You also retain two valuable potential customers at the same time. So for example, you can offer the person who referred someone a free gift, and you can offer the referral 10% off their first purchase. Both of them win, and so do you!
6. Link Your Social Media Accounts to Your E-Commerce Site
The other tips in this article can take some time and effort to set up and execute. This last one, however, is quick and easy. And any time you have a quick and easy opportunity to increase your e-commerce traffic, you should jump all over it.
Just about any e-commerce site has a connection to other sites throughout the web. These could be social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or they could include YouTube accounts, blogs, review sites, and more. So Make sure that you are linking your online store from those other sites.
If you’re not doing that, you are wasting a great opportunity for more direct traffic. Take note that this traffic also has a proven interest in what you have to offer.
How to Add a Link to Your Social Media
Simply go into each of these platforms, and add your link where it fits naturally.
On Twitter and Instagram, this can be done by adding your link to your profile.
Facebook also has a couple of options you can take advantage of in this regard:
- You can add a call-to-action button at the top of your profile page. You can easily edit it as you see fit for each new promotion. To use this feature, click on ‘Add A Button’ which is located just below your profile picture. If you already have a button there, you can click to edit. From there, you can select the button you like and fill out the information needed. Add the correct link to your site and click Save.
- Another place to add your link is in the About section of your Facebook profile. This will display your link in the sidebar of your page and on the About tab. This will allow viewers to easily see it, and act on it.
Where Should Your Link Send Your Visitors?
Usually, your homepage is a good place to link your visitors to. That’s where most links send interested clickers. But if you have a promotional campaign going on or you want to draw focus on a specific product, then a landing page would be a good idea.
You can even measure the success rate of your linking efforts. You can do this through services that count the number of clicks, such as Bitly. This also allows you to manage and adjust your link or button to draw in more visitors.
More Sales Come From More Traffic
Just like most situations in business, traffic is a numbers game. The more traffic you have coming to your e-commerce site, the more opportunity there is for a sale. So it makes sense to work on getting more traffic. And this is an ongoing endeavor, not just a one time project. An e-commerce site requires constant attention and manipulation to make the most out of every visitor.
Try some, or all, of these suggestions to bring as much traffic to your e-commerce store as possible. You will see a big difference in your sales numbers with that extra push for visitors. If you need help in increasing traffic to your e-commerce site, contact Student Marketing Agency for affordable internet marketing services.
