Well hey there! Welcome to my little corner of the web. If you clicked on this post, you likely have an ecommerce store and are looking for tips on how to get more traffic and sales. Am I right? Well you came to the right place then because I’m going to show you how to drive traffic to your ecommerce store.
In this post, we’re going to have a nice chat about all the ways you can drive more of the right people to your online shop.
I’ve been running my own small shop for the last few years and have picked up plenty of lessons on how to bring in visitors that convert to customers. I’ll be sharing it all so you can hopefully learn from my experience!
For starters, focusing on driving more traffic should be top priority. The more eyeballs you can get on your products, the more chances someone buys something.
More traffic = more sales. It’s truly one of the best investments you can make, especially in those early days of building your biz.
Every extra visitor you can drive to your shop could potentially become a paying customer. And over time, all those new customers really add up!
More money to fund your business, expand your inventory, and make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality. But you do need the right type of visitors – people genuinely interested in what you’re selling. That’s why targeted traffic is so key.
Ok, now that I’ve hopefully convinced you to jump on board the traffic train with me, let’s start this journey together of exploring different marketing tactics to attract visitors and drive up conversions!
Understand Your Target Audience
Before we dive into different marketing strategies, let’s chat about who you should be targeting with your ecommerce store in the first place.
One of the biggest mistakes I see folks make is not properly defining their target audience. You need to intimately understand who your ideal customers are if you want to attract them and turn them into buyers.
Makes sense right?
So first things first — clearly lay out the key demographics and attributes of who you want shopping on your site.
Details like their age range, location, gender, interests, shopping habits etc. Get super specific here!
For my handmade jewellery shop, my target audience is women aged 30-50 who live in suburban areas, enjoy accessories and trendy styles, have a middle/upper income level, and typically shop online for unique boutique items. See how specific I got?
The next step is conducting thorough market research on the audience you defined. Get to know them! What are their needs and pain points? What’s their buying process?
Send out some surveys, do interviews, get test groups to provide feedback, dig into data on your niche — whatever you can do to truly understand the people you want to buy from you.
The goal is figuring out their preferences, motivations and behaviour patterns when it comes to making purchase decisions.
Then finally, you’ve got all this great intel on your audience. So how do you actually use it? Well my friend, it’s time to optimize your site and products to directly appeal to their interests!
Carefully tailor your product selection, site content, images, messaging, and overall vibe to resonate with the audience characteristics and preferences you uncovered during your research.
You want them to feel like your shop “gets them” when they hit your site. A sense of belonging goes a long way in ecommerce!
Ok, got all that? The better grasp you have on precisely who you should target and what makes them tick, the better chance your marketing tactics will strike a chord and drive that traffic you’re aiming for!
Now, onto how to actually reach those people and influence their purchase behaviour….
Optimize Your Website
We’ve aligned on who we’re marketing to. Now let’s chat about optimizing the place we’re driving all this great traffic to — your website!
Your site is kind of like the front door to your business. You want it to give off a great first impression to all those potential customers right?
So step one is ensuring your site has a design that’s attractive, easy to navigate, and intuitively guides visitors to make a purchase.
Shoppers will bounce fast if they find your site layout confusing or frustrating to use. Prioritize user-friendliness to keep that traffic engaged!
Things like clean navigation, strong visuals, clear calls-to-action, seamless mobile responsiveness, etc. all enhance the visitor experience.
Next, it’s equally important to optimize behind the scenes elements for search engines like Google. This step is what helps people actually find your site when they search for related keywords!
Carefully craft page titles, URLs, meta descriptions, alt text, header tags and other bits search engine bots look for.
Well-optimized pages have a better chance of appearing higher in results for searches like “handmade earrings” or “boho jewellery”, thus driving more traffic.
Another vital part of site optimization is speed. I cannot stress enough how critical fast load times are, especially on mobile.
Large file sizes lead to slow load speeds, which significantly impacts visitor bounce rates. Trim down bulky images, enable browser caching, compress files and optimize code to help those pages fly! Visitors will be more inclined to stick around.
Ok last one – responsive design. Having your site seamlessly adapt across all device sizes is an absolute must these days.
An insane amount of shopping happens on phones now. Your site needs to look phenomenal whether someone visits from a big desktop monitor or small iPhone screen. No tiny, squished text causing poor user experience!
Phew, that was quite a mouthful! But hopefully you now see all the website optimization opportunities to better attract and engage more visitors. Now they just need to be able to find you…cue driving traffic!
Utilize Social Media Marketing
I don’t know about you, but I just love scrolling through social media and discovering new shops or products I like.
And I know I’m not alone – tons of people turn to their feeds on platforms like Instagram and Facebook looking for inspiration and things to buy.
So let’s talk about how to leverage the power of social media to drive more traffic to your online store!
First step is to find out where your audience is actually hanging out online. Do a little research to identify 1-3 main platforms where your target customers are active daily.
For me and my jewellery shop, that’s no question…Instagram all the way! Don’t spread yourself too thin though – it’s best to start with the top spots where you’ll get most traction.
Once you know the best platform(s), establish accounts there and be consistent about posting compelling visual content and storytelling.
No dull product shots! Showcase your brand personality through fun behind-the-scenes videos, cute graphics, or modelling shots. This type of engaging content will organically attract more ideal followers over time.
Another great tactic is running paid social ads. Most platforms allow you to target very specific demographics, interests, behaviours etc. to laser focus your ads.
Show your products directly to women over 40 who live in London and are interested in the latest fashion trends.
That’s powerful! With a savvy paid social strategy, you can get your shop in front of tons more potential buyers.
And don’t forget the power of user-generated content! Encourage happy customers to share reviews, tag your products, repost user-generated images showcasing your items, and spread the word.
Word-of-mouth referrals and UGC does wonders for extending your brand’s reach and influence. After all, people trust real customer perspectives way more than polished corporate marketing speak!
Leveraging social platforms effectively can become one of your top drivers of targeted traffic. Just remember to always keep your audience at the center – create content they genuinely want to see and engage with.
Alright, what tactic should we explore next for getting more eyeballs to your shop?
Content Marketing
Outside of social media, creating valuable content is another fantastic way to organically attract new site visitors who may convert to customers. Let’s explore a few solid content marketing strategies…
First, I always recommend starting a blog if you haven’t already. Share articles, how-to tutorials, and other content that provides added value related to your products.
For my jewellery shop, I publish weekly posts on topics my audience cares about – styling tips, behind-the-scenes of crafting new pieces, interviews with customers, sale announcements, etc.
This content not only brings in regular organic traffic, but also helps build relationships and trust.
Videos are extremely effective too! Short “how-to” clips showing your product in action, creative ways to style it, unpacking new arrivals…these attract lots of eyeballs when shared across your site and social media profiles. And video drives higher engagement and conversions compared to plain images.
Look into guest posting opportunities as well. Reach out to bloggers or sites in your industry who accept contributors to write posts tailored for their audience.
This allows you to tap into an already established readership base full of potential new shoppers for your store! Just stick to sites frequented by your target customer group. And make sure to add a link back to your site in the author bio.
Last but not least – email marketing. Start nurturing subscribers by sending regular campaign emails with things like special promo codes, product launches, helpful resources and other subscriber-only perks.
But focus on providing value in each email, not just sales pitch after pitch. Building loyalty through quality content and incentives leads to higher lifetime customer value!
Alrighty, we’ve covered quite a few avenues for creating content that educates and excites your audience. What other traffic driving tips are you keen to explore next?
Paid Advertising
I know I just covered organic tactics, but investing some money into paid advertising can also be hugely worthwhile for driving targeted traffic.
Now don’t tune out just yet if your budget is small! There are a few key paid channels that are attainable for most shops…
First and foremost, Google Ads. One of the most cost-effective ways to get your products in front of people right as they search for something relevant.
So when someone looks for “chunky knit blanket”, your colourful blankets could show up top with some smart bidding. Very tactical for effortlessly putting your wares where demand already exists.
You’re also likely familiar with powerful social media ads from our previous section. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow drilling down to shockingly specific target audiences.
Budget friendly minimum spends too. I suggest testing these out if you haven’t already.
Influencers can be leveraged too! Lots of smaller “nano-influencers” in the 10-50k follower range are perfect for partnering with small ecom brands through sponsored post/story packages.
Make sure to evaluate engagement levels over vanity metrics. Go for influencers who truly connect with their highly engaged community.
And don’t overlook retargeting – essentially chasing down those visitors who already came to your site but didn’t buy.
Persuade them to come back with tempting ads across other sites they browse. This tactic really works by reminding people to complete a purchase!
Lots of affordable paid advertising options out there that can drive real results. Start small by testing a few channels more aligned with your products, then build on successes over time.
Every little bit counts in aggregating more interested traffic to your online destination!
Implement Referral Programs
Leveraging your happy existing customers is such an overlooked way to tap into new traffic sources! Let’s chat about referral programs and how they can help spread the word about your awesome shop.
One of my favorite retention and acquisition strategies is setting up a customer referral scheme. Simply offer rewards like discounts or free gifts to current customers if they successfully refer a friend or family member to your store.
Sweeten the deal by also giving the new referee something nice like 20% off their first order. This incentivizes referrals!
I’ve found people absolutely love sharing brands they enjoy while also benefiting themselves at the same time. It taps into that innate human desire to “pay it forward”.
And the likelihood of referred customers converting and having higher lifetime value is much greater. After all, they come pre-vetted with a personal recommendation!
You can take this a step further with affiliate marketing programs too. Have loyal customers sign up through a simple affiliate platform, share their custom landing page link across social media or blogs, and earn commission on any sales they drive. Again, fantastic mutually beneficial arrangement!
Referral strategies harness the power of word-of-mouth in driving targeted, prequalified traffic to your online destination.
And there are so many creative ways to set up programs incentivizing referrals – get creative with it!
Collaborate & Partner
Another set of opportunities often left untapped – strategic collaborations with other brands and influencers! Let’s unpack how partnerships can help give your ecommerce traffic an extra boost.
Influencers first. Reach out to nano or micro-influencers creating content around your product niche with engaged, loyal followers.
Sponsorship packages, free products/music in exchange for content, affiliate commissions, etc. When done authentically, the right influencer partnerships expand your awareness.
Seeking out complementary businesses to cross-promote with is brilliant too. Identify where your target audience overlaps with another brand’s following.
Consider strategic alliances to tap into each other’s existing networks through co-marketing campaigns, giveaways, guest blog posts on each other’s sites – endless creative tactics to drive new audiences between you!
Attending relevant industry events and trade shows also opens partnership doors. Nothing beats that in-person networking magic!
Connect with fellow business owners face-to-face, exchange insights and opportunities, meet engaged prospects. Bring plenty of business cards and offsite traffic driving perks to share!
At the end of the day, strategic collaborations allow you to tap into whole new pools of connected, qualified traffic you likely couldn’t reach alone. Partner up!
Analyse & Adjust
Whew, we just covered a whole toolbox worth of strategies for driving targeted traffic! Now the fun part – digging into analytics to see what’s working then optimizing based on the data!
I just love this stats nerd stuff 🤓
It’s super important to actively monitor where your site traffic originates from, which channels reliably convert visitors into customers, where people are dropping off, etc.
Thankfully analytics platforms make this tracking easy for us. No guesswork required!
Once you see those initial traffic and conversion trends, identify areas that are overperforming like email newsletters or Instagram stories for my shop.
Then pour more fuel on those fires with increased investment! Also determine what’s falling flat so you can either improve or pause underperformers to optimize your approach.
And analytics-driven optimization is never a set-it-and-forget-it thing if you want continual growth.
Website traffic building requires constantly evaluating performance, capitalizing on successful channels through expanded testing, then circling back and repeating the process. Stay nimble as trends and algorithms evolve!
The more you can use data to inform your traffic strategy, the better results over the long term as you double down on what converts. Trust me, optimizing through testing and analytics is a game changer!
Conclusion
Well there you have it my friend! We covered a ton of different marketing channels and tactics to drive targeted traffic to your ecommerce store.
From social and content to referrals and collaborations – lots of opportunities to get in front of ideal potential shoppers!
The biggest takeaway I want to leave you with is that successfully increasing your site traffic requires an integrated approach across multiple strategies spanning organic, paid and earned channels.
Try things out! See what resonates best with your audience and products then double down on those winners.
Definitely embrace a test-and-learn mindset here. Analyse the data, figure out what content and campaigns convert visitors so you can do more of that good stuff!
Also cut what underperforms or no longer provides value. Continue optimizing initiatives based on ever-evolving trends and analytics over time. Adaptability is 🔑!
At the end of the day, driving higher traffic numbers alone isn’t enough. You also need those visitors to convert into happy, lifelong customers for your business to thrive.
So make sure increased traffic also correlates with strong conversion rates through an excellent user experience. Traffic and conversions together lets your revenue flourish!
And those are my top tips for ecommerce traffic success! Let me know if you have any other questions. Now good luck, go crush it, and may the traffic be ever in your favour! imaginary fist bump!
