The ongoing pandemic isn’t doing anyone any favours. In addition to the continued health risk to society is the growing damage to small businesses everywhere. If you own a small business, you’ve likely placed a lot more attention on e-commerce in recent months. Not being able to welcome customers to your physical store location requires you to utilize this alternative source of selling your products. But what are the best ways to get people to visit your store online?
Here are three ways to drive traffic to your online store:
1. Make your social media posts fun!
If you’re not regularly updating your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts with new posts, it’s important you get on that! Don’t assume that posts should only be of the marketing nature. The most popular of social media accounts are the ones that share fun and engaging content. Do you have photos and/or videos of you and/or your staff engaging in fun activities? Share jokes, anecdotes and stories that will get people liking, commenting and sharing. It’s a great way to generate more interest in your brand.
“In order to make sure you have traffic from the very start of your business, you’ll need to build brand awareness and excitement for your product,” says Beatriz Estay on BigCommerce.com, “In today’s society, thanks to the increased use of mobile devices and smartphones, the fastest way to get the word out is via social media. It’s also a cost-effective option as it’s free to use!”
2. Become a big-time blogger.
If you’re not one for the written word, it’s definitely worthwhile to hire a professional blogger. By having new content regularly posted to your site, you will give search engines many new reasons to rank your site higher. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key ingredient in the online store success game. Blogs are great ways to both engage your target audience and grow your online store’s popularity.
“SEO is a must to drive a long-term source of organics traffic to your e-commerce website,” insists Beeketing.com, “Sooner or later, you will have to come to SEO as a sustainable tactic. So, why don’t you create a blog right from the beginning and gradually build up content that lasts? This tactic is useful especially when you start up small with little budget to invest into paid channels like advertising.”
3. Put links to your online store in your emails.
Email marketing will likely always be an important way to advertise your business. But make sure your list of subscribers hears from you, on a regular basis, throughout the pandemic. Check in on them with some fun messages that aren’t always advertisement-centric. However, be sure to include a link to your online store in every email you send. It will make it easy for them to do some shopping.
“Another way to drive traffic to your store is by building your email newsletter list and leveraging email marketing to communicate to your customers,” contends Estay, “Collecting an email list is one task — the next is creating an eye-catching, value-adding newsletter. You can choose at what cadence you send emails, but we recommend scaling your cadence over time, ultimately aiming for a goal of at least one email newsletter per week.”
Is your company in need of a safe and secure e-commerce solution? Unity Payments can help you take advantage of this ever-growing trend. We’ve made selling online easier than ever! Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca to learn more.
