Posted on Having a successful offline business means you have experience with marketing. However, to drive traffic to your online store, you need a different strategy.
It will take constant promotion and work if you want regular customers, and part of that will be taking risks and trying new things that might even be outside of your comfort zone.
To promote an online store effectively, you need a complex strategy. All the traffic channels, including paid advertising, social media management, email marketing, and SEO should be coordinated.
We will discuss some ways to promote your new online store so it can be seen by potential buyers. Among other topics, we'll discuss integrating marketing between your online store and your offline business in order to make the most of all your channels.
Marketing Tactics for Promoting Your Online Store
Let's take a look at tactics you can use to drive traffic to your new online store, from marketing to existing customers to acquiring new ones.
1. Go Social media presence organically
Besides Facebook, there are other social networks that work great for promoting your online store. A few that are worth a try are: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
You should take every opportunity to boost your online business's engagement. You can increase engagement and brand recognition by adding vibrant images and engaging videos to your social media platforms.
It's time to build on your existing presence on social channels if you have a core audience. Spend more time creating short, engaging videos and rich visual content and post more frequently. You increase your following's chances of becoming aware of your brand by boosting engagement with them. Integrate content created by users.
Now is the perfect time to work on your social media presence. You don't have to be everywhere. Put your effort into the channels where your target customers are most likely to be active.
2. Make your site SEO-friendly
SEO-friendly websites are necessary to achieve good rankings in search engine results.
The SEO industry is constantly changing and there is fierce competition for one of the first positions, so you need to keep your SEO on-going and fresh.
On-page content is important. Content on a page includes product titles and descriptions, images, blogs, etc. The content you use on your site should use language your visitors might use for searching for products related to the one they purchased.
Meta tags are also important. These title tags tell search engines what the page is about, like headlines do for a newspaper. There should be a title tag for every page on your website. The meta description is a short summary of each page. The title tag and meta description of your site will appear first on a search engine results page.
3. Start a Blog
A great way to bring traffic to your site is to create great content that helps customers make an informed purchase decision, positioning your brand as an authoritative voice in your industry.
Provide one relevant link back to your store in each blog post (either the home page of your store or a direct link to a product) and ensure that each blog is informative and helpful. (Keep in mind to link images back to your web store or to a product as well!).
It won't help you if the content isn't strong. In any case, writing quality blog posts can help you grow your online business, so if you're able to take the time, I recommend it.
4. Build an Email List
It's important to have an effective email marketing strategy. Obtain as many emails as you can from existing customers, prospective customers, interested attendees, etc. As soon as you launch, you'll be able to send an email to all of those people inviting them to visit your online store.
If you are on an email list, you can think about offering a promotion or a referral discount to encourage subscribers to refer friends and family to your website.
In the ecommerce toolbox, email remains one of the most effective marketing tools, so keep collecting email addresses on your site. Brands use pop-up boxes to have users enter their email addresses in exchange for a small discount or free shipping offer.
Keep a steady flow of communication with your email list as well. You can encourage customers to visit the website by sending out regular emails covering promotions, content updates, product launches and other important information.
5. Using influencer marketing
There are a lot of influencers on the internet, from bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs, to vloggers, from a variety of industries. The right ones are out there, you just have to find them.
They have large followings on social media and loyal audiences on their websites.
Sending free samples of your product to influencers in your industry or related to it in some way gives you a chance to tell them that you appreciate their work. Perhaps, one of their sites or platforms will feature your work.
By working with the right influencer, you can expose your product to a large number of potential customers, increasing your brand's visibility. Influencer marketing works best when your targeted influencer's following aligns with your target audience, and their values align with your own.
6. Try out Google Ads
In search engine marketing, Google Ads offer the possibility of bidding on keywords to rank higher on search engine results pages. To achieve a top ranking, search engine optimization must be done correctly - Google Ads will still be displayed first, however.
A great way to advertise your website is through search engine marketing, since it requires no design and can drive a lot of new traffic to your site. Based on the results, you can adapt your campaigns as you go.
Google Ads is known for its speed and massive reach. Within minutes, you can create and launch an advertising campaign which will deliver your text, image, or video adverts to browsers across the web.
AdWords campaign options let you create targeted ads that automatically appear when Internet browsers type in predefined keywords on Google. In addition, your ads will also appear on websites and articles with similar keywords.
7. Advertise on social platforms
Advertising on social media is a great way to catch people's attention, since you know they spend a lot of time there. Where would be the best place to put a billboard if you were going to buy one? Consider social media advertising as well.
Photos and videos can be used in your ads, but start small. An ad with a photo can help you reach new customers. If you anticipate your product performing well in the first couple of weeks, try simple, engaging imagery of it in use.
Conclusion
Don't get overwhelmed by doing too much at once; be consistent and patient. Pick a few marketing tactics that you believe will be most beneficial for your business. As you see results, tweak and adjust.
Setting up an e-commerce store is not easy, but there are plenty of consumers willing to spend money online. You can use these tips to generate sales for your online store.
It will take only a few of the strategies listed above for you to make the first of many sales. Reach out if you need a create online store.