1. Leverage SEO

Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, plays an important role in your quest to increase ecommerce traffic. There’s a lot involved in SEO marketing but for the sake of brevity, we’ll go over the basics. SEO is a marketing tool that helps people looking for the kinds of products or services you have to offer find your website much more easily via search engines such as Google. Here’s how you can achieve this:

    • Add keywords to your website and blog post content related to what you’re selling in your online store.
    • Sprinkle external links to your content directing readers to industry experts relevant to your business, just like this.
    • Make sure to include plenty of internal links pointing readers to other content on your site so Google (or other search engines) can index your entire site (notice we did that in the paragraph above).
    • Write detailed meta descriptions. 
    • Make sure your website is performing at top speed.
    • Refer to this guide for more info on everything we’ve mentioned here and more. 

2. Spend money on Google AdWords

Google AdWords will get visitors to your site quickly, but you’ve got to pay for it. A pay-per-click advertising tool that you only have to pay for when someone clicks on it, views your video or calls your business. According to Gartner, 84% of Millennials have reported that user-generated content has at least some influence on what they ultimately purchase. So, help them find it with Google AdWords. Here’s how you can use it to increase traffic to your site:

    • Display ads for your online store in Google search results.
    • Promote your online store app on Apple or Android devices.
    • Showcase text or banner ads on YouTube and target your audience based on their demographics or interests.
    • Display text or banner ads in Gmail, in apps or on other websites.

Keep in mind that it’s important to track the performance of your Google Ad campaigns and adjust them to boost your return on investment.

3. Ask for reviews and testimonials

When was the last time you bought a brand you weren’t familiar with on Amazon and didn’t read the reviews before you bought it? Chances are it’s been a long time. That’s partly why Amazon has become such a retail giant. According to Business Insider, a product with just one review is 65% more likely to be purchased than a product that has none at all. We like to know what other people like and dislike about certain products online rather than risk buying it sight unseen and having to send it back if we don’t like it. Give people an easy way to review your products or services and then highlight those customers that have given you positive testimonials. Include them on your website, and on social media. You can even ask customers you know well, like friends or family, to get the process started. You can tag customers who give you glowing reviews on social media as part of your social media strategy. Who doesn’t love to get recognition on social media for something positive?

4. Create a lead generation sales funnel

This sounds more intimidating than it really is. The gist of a lead generation sales funnel is to identify who would be most interested in what you’re selling. It’s the beginning of the sales interaction process, a way to generate more leads, or potential customers for your business. Because it’s one thing to have a large social media following, but another thing to convert those people into customers? This is where lead generation comes in. We won’t get into how to create a lead generation sales funnel here, but we will point you in the right direction. The idea is a culmination of everything we’ve gone over in this post, which is making great content that’s easy to find and then leading your readers to purchase from you. Interactive content such as quizzes and polls are great ways to fill your sales funnel. Places you’ll want to…well, funnel people, are your blog, email list, your Facebook Group, and social media,

These are just a few of the ways to get more customers to visit and purchase from your online store. There are, of course, others. For more tips on how to increase traffic to your site, read our blog post “How You Can Convert Shoppers into Paying Customers.”

Becoming a member of NFICA means getting great discounts on products and services that support your online sales, such as TXTSmart, a text-message marketing tool. Learn more about our member benefits here.

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