Driving sales is a constant concern for e-commerce entrepreneurs. This is especially true during the Coronavirus pandemic, as businesses worry about lower consumer spending.
Luckily, there are proven strategies to ethically drive more sales, even during difficult economic circumstances. Here’s how to generate traffic to your website and drive sales using effective marketing strategies:
Strategy #1: Social Media
Drawing traffic to your website is crucial for generating sales. Ninety percent of U.S. businesses use social media to advertise. It’s not hard to see why. Many businesses that use social media have a quantifiable increase in sales as a result.
Social media ads are probably the easiest way to put your brand and product out there. Social media sites, such as Facebook, rely heavily on business ad spending for revenue. So of course, they reward those who utilize the platform to advertise.
Boosted posts on Facebook are likely to greatly increase the number of eyes that see your promotion. But this can get expensive, and these boosted posts aren’t guaranteed to lead to sales, as many users ignore these ads.
Another strategy is engaging users through organic social media posts. This is targeted towards those who like your page or share your posts. Organic social media posts are effective because you’re reaching folks who have likely already purchased from you in the past, which means they’re likely to do so again. Plus, it’s free.
There are lots of clever ways to reach potential customers on social media — whichever method you choose is sure to increase web traffic.
Strategy #2: Email Campaigns
Many e-commerce entrepreneurs have found e-mail campaigns to be a highly effective means to advertise their products. By now, you’ve hopefully developed a list of email subscribers, consisting of customers and others who have visited your website and expressed an interest in your products …
This list is invaluable.
Good email copy can really boost sales. Not only that, it’s yet another free way to get users to your website. Obviously, you’ll want to avoid bombarding folks with spam. But promotional emails are a great way to promote new products and sales. Working with an experienced email copywriter could be worth the money, as they’re well versed in persuasive writing.
Strategy #3: Direct Mailing
It may seem old fashioned in this digital world, but direct mailing can measurably improve sales. Not many e-commerce businesses use direct mailing these days, so it can help you stick out.
It’s also cheap. Postage rates are heavily regulated, and haven’t changed much throughout the years. Plus, as an added bonus, you get the help save the U.S. postal system. You’ll want to target potential customers with these mailings. This will require some research, but the payoff will be well worth it.
Again, this may be an area where you want to bring in the professionals. Art directors and copywriters often work on direct mailing campaigns to make yours stand out from the competition.
Strategy #4: Website Content and SEO
If driving traffic to your website is the name of the game, SEO, along with website content, is the gold standard. When creating content, you want to tell a story about your product and brand. Captivate your audience by telling them what your product is and how it can help them.
Good, well-written content is a proven method to increase website traffic.
Website content comes in many forms. Blogs are a popular way to capture Google searchers looking for answers to their questions. If you give them solutions to their problems that involve your product, they’re likely to check it out.
Product pages and descriptions are also important. You’ll want to make it easy for potential customers to find what they’re looking for. They want to know: “do you have what I need?” It’s impossible to answer that question without an effective description of what you’re selling.
When looking to buy something online, most people turn to Google. That’s where SEO comes in. SEO is about capturing keywords users are searching when scouring the internet for the goods they need. Competitive keywords can be tough to rank, even for experienced SEO experts. Amazon is a difficult competitor.
Ideally, you’ll want to find low competition, high volume keywords. There are lots of ways to do keyword research, but why not go straight to the source. Google AdWords research is an excellent resource for finding the right words to locate your customers.
Strategy #5: PPC
PPC, or pay per click, is an easier way to show up at the top of Google search results. That’s because you’re paying Google to do just that.
Pay per click works exactly how it sounds, you pay Google every time someone clicks on your ad. Ads show up based on the keywords you pay for. For instance, you agree to pay $1.15 every time someone clicks on your ad, which shows up on Google when someone searches for “haircare products.”
These clicks can add up, but you can set a monthly budget — say, $50 a month — to limit your monthly exposure. Like SEO, it’s once again useful to find low competition, and therefore lower cost, keywords. A PPC expert can help you do that within your set budget.
When someone clicks your PPC ad, a well-made landing page can be useful in directing potential customers to your product. Once again, an art director and copywriter comes in handy here to make sure your landing pages are eye-catching.
Image Credit:
- Featured Image, Pexels
