Your products are awesome, your prices are good so why aren’t people buying? In this article, Charli Says gives you 5 proven ways to drive traffic to your online store and increase your sales!
#1 Grand Opening
Did you actually launch your online store? If not then you need to plan your grand opening. This is where you tell people about your store and raise awareness. Having it there, especially if your website is new and low on rankings will not be enough to garner serious revenue. Here are some ideas for your grand opening:
- Blog about it on your website
- Send out discount codes via email
- Post links to your social media pages
- Send flyers to local colleges and businesses
- Host an actual event to promote your store
- Contact local magazines and newspapers
- Send out samples to industry influencers
If you did not yet launch your store then there are opportunities for creating some media hype. Why not generate some excitement by hosting a countdown one week in advance!
#2 Jump on Instagram
Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most effective marketing channels for ecommerce merchants. In fact, on average it generates a higher order value than any other social media platform. So how do you get your online store popular on Instagram? Here are some tips
- Create an account to showcase your products
- Identify Instagram influencers in your industry or in complimentary industries
- To do this you can use WEBSTA to search by keyword
- Network with them to introduce your box and store
- See if you can get a free promotion for your products
- Consistently upload high quality images of your products
- Promote your Instagram account on your site
- Provide special offer coupons with your links
Instagram promotions are not usually an overnight success- especially if your store is unknown. Persevere and be sure to network with others as opposed to merely promoting yourself.
#3. Post your online store to reddit
Everyone hangs out on reddit so if you’re not utilising it then you’re missing a trick! The main page aggregates all the popular content but then you can find a whole subset of niches called subreddits. Subreddits can cover just about any subject you are looking for so don’t limit yourself. Here are some tips for using reddit effectively to promote your store:
- Use short and brief posts to describe your store
- Make catchy and enticing call to action (CTA) headlines
- Pay attention to the rules of reddit
- Avoid spammy and salesy content which is often forbidden
- Avoid placing the same piece of text in every category
Remember that as with any online promotions, there are no quick fixes and you will need to take a bit of time to write your content… however short it is. If you do not yet have a professional content writer then contact me for competitive freelance writing services.
#4 Get Blogging
Your store isn’t going to promote itself so you need to get blogging to spread the word. This means not only writing about it on your own website but also jumping onto popular forums to let people know about your awesome products. Make sure that you are maximizing your success by doing the following:
- Use relevant keywords for your product and industry
- Following rules on other forums and websites
- Search for blogging influencers to help promote you
- Tell a story, offer tips and learn how to be engaging
- Avoid the hard sell… nobody will go for it
- Use alias IP accounts to provide “unbiased” reviews (naughty but commonly done)
Remember that you don’t have to target the world’s biggest influencers. In fact, it’s better that you don’t because they are unlikely to be interested in helping to promote you in their blog. Target smaller and mid level influencers who will be more likely to respond to your content.
#5 Get Tweeting
If you have a Twitter account for your box then it’s time to start using it but use it effectively! Before you start, remember the 80/20 rule . Spend 80% of your time interacting and listening and only 20% promoting. If you spend all day posting links then you will be viewed as a spammer and this just doesn’t work to increase traffic. Here are some more tips for maximizing Twitter to promote your store:
- Use Followerwonk to identify relevant users and connect with them
- Use high quality photos with each promotion
- Shorten all store links using Google url shortener https://goo.gl/
- Tweet at the right times to catch your target audience
- Use relevant hashtags in your tweets to gain more attention
- Tweet regularly throughout the day to be consistent
- Schedule tweets for times you will be away
- Interact well with other users using retweets and replies
- Use promoted tweets to highlight special offers
Of course it goes without saying that your online store needs to be properly set up, mobile optimized and fully functional. If it’s not then no amount of promoting is going to help with generating a high revenue.
We hope that you feel inspired to go out there and promote your online store. Did you love this article? Tweet me @Charli_Says and let me know!