1. Ask for referrals
Referrals are always a great way to bring in traffic without spending money on advertising. You can use social sites like Facebook and Twitter but with the right content, you can generate offline referrals as well. Make sure that your customers know how much you appreciate their business and let them know that they also have an opportunity to make good money by referring to your products and services.
2. Include high-quality photos
The power of imagery cannot be overstated when it comes to online shopping experiences. Your potential customers need to see what they’re buying and what it’s going to look like in real life before making a purchase decision. If possible, add videos showing the product from all angles so shoppers will get a complete idea of what they’ll buy.
3. Be active on social networks
Most online shoppers today use popular social networking sites as a primary source of information before buying anything online. On Facebook, you can create product pages and include photos and videos to make your products more attractive to potential customers. Be sure to answer questions from people who have concerns about your products and services so you can continue your conversation with them. You can also post links where interested parties can do further research on the products they want to purchase.
4. Showcase customer testimonials
If possible, write a comment from satisfied customers that is unique, interesting, and most importantly genuine. In this way, the readers will know that your comments are not just some copy-pasted text that you’re trying to pass as real feedback. You can also post photos of your customer holding the products they bought from you so others will be able to see what the item looks like in real life.
5. Track your progress
One problem with traditional marketing is that it’s often hard for business owners to track their results and find out if their strategies are actually working or not. Fortunately, online advertising comes with built-in tracking tools that let you know which advertising channels are performing well and which ones need improvement. Google Analytics provides detailed reports where you can check every nook and cranny about your website traffic including age, gender, region of residence, and even device used (laptop, tablet, or smartphone). This data lets you make the necessary adjustments in your marketing campaign so you can record better results.
6. Use giveaways
You’ve probably noticed that many eCommerce sites give away products for free to active members of their social media channels. This strategy is actually an effective way to increase traffic and surface your products in front of more people without having to spend much money on ads or other forms of online promotion. People will come back again and again as long as they know that they have a chance of winning a prize at the end of each contest. Even if they don’t win, some might sign up as paying members just so they can participate next time around.
7. Provide detailed product descriptions
Asking customers to purchase items from you without providing them enough information about it is a recipe for failure. Your potential customers may end up buying the wrong product or worse, they’ll leave your site without making a purchase at all. To avoid this happening, you need to create a comprehensive set of product descriptions that include photos and videos so shoppers will have a complete idea of what exactly they’re going to buy from you.
8. Keep track of your campaigns
It’s important to record data about which advertising channels are performing well and vice versa. This way, you won’t waste money on marketing tools that don’t work for your business model and instead focus on acquiring new members via more trusted sources like Google Adwords, Facebook ads, etc, you can also hire a Google Ads Ecommerce agency to look after your campaigns. While sources might be working in favour of your competitors, you should thoroughly review their reports to learn what works best for them and adopt the strategy in your own business.
9. Update your website regularly
Online shoppers like websites that are packed with fresh content because it means they will always find new things whether they visit your site or not. If possible, try posting an article every day about something related to the niche you’re in so people will know that your blog is active and there’s something new to read just about every day. Recent articles posted on eCommerce sites tend to rank higher than older articles which also sends more visitors back into the sales funnel because of increased chances of converting readers into paying customers.
10. Advertise often on social media networks
Social media is among the most effective ways to attract new members using nothing but your personal or business accounts. You can easily connect with people all around the world by sharing their posts, photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. There’s no limit to how many times you should promote your website on social media every day. Just don’t overdo it or else your audience will tune out very quickly.