(Even If You Don’t Know Where to Begin)
“How do I drive more traffic to my online store?”
At some point, that thought crosses the mind of every entrepreneur selling online.
Maybe you’ve invested time and effort in setting up your store and tweaking everything for launch, only to open up shop and wonder where all the traffic is. Maybe you’ve seen steady growth over the past six months, but hit a plateau on traffic and sales. Or maybe you’ve been successful with one traffic-driving tactic and you’re curious about what tactics you can try next.
Whether you’re trying to attract your first customer or your 1,000th customer, generating more traffic to your online store is a crucial part of growing your business. If your site is properly optimized for conversions, getting an increase in web traffic could mean more customers and more sales.
What you should know about increasing website traffic
From a marketing perspective, the good news is the process of getting your first customer versus your one hundredth is the same. But for traffic to successfully result in sales and profit, there are some essential prerequisites to ensure that traffic converts and the cost is sustainable. You should be asking yourself:
- Is this a good product? A “good product” means that it’s good enough for your audience and passes their implicit cost-benefits analysis.
- Is there a large target market? A market is a group of people already spending money on something. Are people buying the same type of product?
- Is there an addressable target market? An addressable market is a group of people with visible shared qualities, already spending money on something. Is there a market segment you can focus on?
- Is there a great product story and/or compelling copy? You might have a clear “why” for the product in contrast to competitors, but you need to translate that pitch to compelling web copy. Does your product pitch resonate with them enough to purchase?
- Is there a low-cost way to reach this audience? The goal should be to keep customer acquisition costs low. Are there multiple ways you can reach potential customers?
How to drive traffic to your website
We’ve gathered a list of 20 proven, high-impact tactics for driving more traffic to your online store.
Navigate this guide:
Run paid social media ad campaigns
1. Facebook Ads
2. Instagrams Ads
3. Pinterest Ads
4. Google Ads
Engage in conversation on social media
5. Get friends and family to share
6. Proactively engage on Twitter
7. Post your store to Reddit
8. Drive excitement with contests & giveaways
9. Offer time-sensitive discounts
Reach new audiences with influencer marketing
10. Send free samples to Instagram influencers
11. Reach out to bloggers and press
12. Write a blog post featuring influencers & their advice
Attract customers with content marketing
13. Write blogs to provide information or solve problems
14. Produce podcasts to reach new audiences
15. Use video to educate or entertain
Use SEO to increase your store’s discoverability
16. Write titles that match search intent
17. Write irresistible meta descriptions
18. Leverage internal links
19. Add long-tail keyword variations to your pages
20. Stand out with rich snippets
Which tactic is best for your business?
Some of these sources will generate higher quality traffic for your specific business and some will generate lower quality traffic.
For example, let’s say you’re targeting young professionals interested in buying wacky office supplies. LinkedIn might be a better option over, say, Pinterest.
Traffic acquisition success is found by doubling down on the most relevant traffic you can find. Of course, “the most relevant traffic you can find” is incredibly subjective and different for everyone, so let’s break down each tactic you can use to increase web traffic:
- Tactic type. Whether the idea is a short-term or long-term traffic generator. Short-term tactics usually see results quicker but require more maintenance or reinvestment. Long-term tactics take longer to see results but are more evergreen and require little to no maintenance.
- Effort. How much time, skill, or experience you’ll need to put into the tactic.
- Time to return on investment (ROI). Whether you invest time, effort, or money into a traffic-driving tactic, it will take days, weeks, or months to see that investment increase traffic and sales.
- Cost. The upfront budget you’ll need to launch the tactic.
- Traffic potential. The total amount of traffic that could be sent to your store.
💡 TIP: You should aim to choose one tactic you can do consistently. If you spread yourself thin with trying too many tactics at once, you’re not going to see results—and that’s when you get frustrated, and feel like you should give up.
Run paid social media ad campaigns
To increase website traffic for your online store, you need to be able to get your business in front of your ideal customers. With paid social media ads, you can create highly targeted campaigns that serve tailor-made ads to the customers who are most likely to click through and purchase your products. (by Adam Rogers)
Source: Shopify’s Blog
