Are you looking to drive traffic to your online business?
With the number of online businesses currently in operation, it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd and generate leads.
In fact, 63% of businesses report that generating new leads is their biggest challenge with the online business. To help counteract this, every business should be making an effort to encourage consumers to visit their website.
If you want to ensure that you are doing everything you can to drive the utmost traffic to your online business, you’re going to want to continue reading.
We’re Outlining 10 Proven Methods on How to Drive Traffic to Your Online Store
#1. Email Marketing
First things first, if you have an online business it is essential to collect the emails of your customers.
Email marketing is one of the most simple and affordable means of marketing in today’s world. For this reason alone, every business needs to ensure they are sending emails to your network on a relatively constant basis.
After all, email is still considered to be one of the most effective means of reaching customers. Sending emails to your network helps to connect with your consumers on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis.
Companies such as Mailchimp offer free email marketing to their users. This allows users to send out automated emails to their consumers. With the ability to save a number of different templates, sending emails to your network doesn’t have to be time-consuming.
#2. Be Present on Social Media
For anyone starting an online business, having a strong presence on social media is a must.
To start, be sure that you are appearing on the big three – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. From here, it’s vital to remain active and engaging on each platform. This includes posting, commenting and sharing videos with your audience.
For consumers, businesses that appear active on their social media are always assumed to be succeeding. On the other hand, businesses that are on social media but not active are assumed to be dead businesses.
Social media also gives businesses the unique opportunity to interact with their audience on a daily basis. This interaction helps to personalize the business and develop trust with the audience.
For a new business, developing trust is one of the most important factors in starting a business.
#3. Send Your Products to Influencers
Instagram has become a hot spot for users being connected to new brands.
Let’s consider the fact that 80% of Instagram users follow at least one brand on Instagram. Of these brands, the most successful brands are those that utilize influencers.
Influencers provide brands with the opportunity to showcase their products in a way that is less forward and arguably more effective.
Related | 6 Vital Things to do to Become a Powerful Influencer
The fact is, consumers like to see influencers that are of a similar age bracket and locale. This helps consumers connect more realistically with the influencer and the product.
Start by locating popular influencers online and sending them free products. If they are satisfied with the product, you can then discuss working together.
#4. Videography
Video marketing has become one of the most popular means of present-day marketing.
Why you ask?
It’s simple. The reason video marketing is so successful is that people simply love to watch a video that teaches them something. In fact, 45% of people watch more than an hour of videos on Facebook each week.
As compared to reading content or product descriptions, video engages with the consumer in a way that is simple and efficient.
Remember, video marketing doesn’t have to be such a challenge. If you’re unsure what to document, try filming videos based on these subjects:
- One-minute company blurbs
For online businesses, video marketing can be simple. Platforms such as Facebook allow users to upload videos directly. From here, videos can be posted and shared with audiences.
#5. Blogging
Content marketing has become a go-to strategy for brands looking to drive traffic to their website.
Not only does content marketing provide your audience with engaging content, it also helps to connect your business to new leads.
These new leads are often brought to your website by clicking on your content post. From here, they are introduced to your product and have the ability to turn into a profitable customer.
Not sure where to start? Don’t fret, you don’t need to be an English major to create engaging content.
Begin by writing about bloggers that are popular within your niche. For example, a travel business may want to create a blog listing the top ten digital nomads everyone should be following on Instagram.
From here, the featured users will more than likely “share” your blog and drive more traffic to your website. You can even reach out to the users personally and introduce yourself and your product.
#6. Use Facebook Ads
In today’s market, Facebook is one of the best platforms for business advertisements.
This is due to the fact that there is such a large number of monthly users, the ability to customize ads the low costs associated.
For businesses looking to reach a specific audience, the ads can be customized to target customers based on age, sex, location, and interests.
This helps drive traffic to your website and grow your audience list.
#7. Operate a Referral Program
For online businesses, referrals are one of the best means of generating new leads.
To increase your chance of referral, encourage your customers to share their experiences with your product.
Once they have shared their experience, you can feature them on your social media pages as well as offering a discount on their next purchase.
Not only does this eventually drive more referral traffic to your website, it also helps encourage the initial customer’s next purchase.
#8. Run Monthly Contests
Running a contest is one of the most timeless means of generating leads.
It encourages more consumers to “follow” your brand or “sign up” for your newsletter. This, in turn, increases your network and familiarizes others with your product.
Start by encouraging the public to share a post documenting your product. Based on the number of shares, the winner receives the product for free and perhaps a certain percentage of their next purchase.
Remember, you want to run a contest that relates to your product. This is the best way to ensure that your leads are somewhat qualified and have a future with your product.
#9. Join Facebook Groups in Your Niche
All businesses need to ensure that they have a strong presence wherever their audience is.
Because such a large percentage of our audience is now on Facebook, it’s vital to develop a presence in every way that we can. This means joining Facebook groups that are related to our niche.
For example, a company selling pet accessories will want to join Facebook groups relating to pets. This may include dog walking groups, select dog breed groups, etc.
From here, brands can showcase their products and cater their advertisements to the populations on the groups.
#10. Use Hashtags
Adding hashtags helps to extend your reach beyond your initial network.
This is an effective way to generate new leads and introduce your products to outside customers. It also allows businesses to connect with social media users based on a common interest or product.
Remember, it’s not uncommon for users on Facebook and Instagram to search hashtags when looking for a certain product or service.
Be sure to keep your hashtag simple and relevant. You want it to be something that is searched often and is easy enough for consumers to remember.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Online Store
For businesses operating online, generating traffic and new leads can be an everyday challenge.
Fortunately, there are simple and effective marketing strategies that can help to counteract this.
From content creation and video marketing to influencers and a strong social media presence, it doesn’t take being a marketing genius to employ these tactics.
Interested in learning more about the best ways to increase traffic to your website? Be sure to check out our tips for creating a blog.
