21 Proven Ideas to Increase Website Traffic
Maybe you’ve invested time and effort in setting up your store and tweaked everything for launch, only to open up shop and wonder where all the traffic is. Maybe you’ve seen steady growth over the past six months, but hit a plateau on traffic and sales. Or maybe you’ve been successful with one traffic-driving tactic and you’re curious about what tactics you can try next.
Whether you’re trying to attract your first customer or your 1,000th customer, generating more traffic to your online store is a crucial part of growing your business. If your site is properly optimized for conversions, getting an increase in web traffic could mean more customers and more sales.
Questions about increasing website traffic
From a marketing perspective, the good news is the process of getting your first customer versus your one hundredth is the same. But for traffic to successfully result in sales and profit, there are some essential prerequisites to ensure that traffic converts and the cost is sustainable. You should be asking yourself:
- Is this a good product? A “good product” means that it’s good enough for your audience and passes their implicit cost-benefits analysis.
- Is there a large target market? A market is a group of people already spending money on something. Are people buying the same type of product?
- Is there an addressable target market? An addressable market is a group of people with visible shared qualities, already spending money on something. Is there a market segment you can focus on?
- Is there a great product story and/or compelling copy? You might have a clear “why” for the product in contrast to competitors, but you need to translate that pitch to compelling web copy. Does your product pitch resonate with them enough to purchase? Ultimately, great content will help you stand out.
- Is there a low-cost way to reach this audience?The goal should be to keep customer acquisition costs low. Are there multiple ways you can reach potential customers?
Get to the top of Google for free
Improve Your PPC Advertising Strategy
If you’re running Google Ads, you’ll not only want to rank well for your key search terms, but you’ll also need to improve your Pay Per Click (PPC) copy and ad layouts to increase clicks from the search results to your landing pages.
Use your keyword research to influence your PPC ads. Pay close attention to the ads that are appearing at the top of the search results. Look at their headlines, copy, any extensions they are using, such as contact details or specific product pages and see if there are any USPs included in the ad.
Don’t be afraid to test different ad copy for your high value keywords. It’s better that you fail a few times in order to learn what works, than try something too safe and get mediocre results.
How to Improve Your PPC Advertising Strategy – Step-by-Step
Use Social Media Marketing
Facebook advertising has become one of the most cost-effective and targeted methods of reaching more customers online. In fact, one of the best ways to increase online sales is to use the data you have about your existing customers to target “lookalike audiences” that behave more like your customer base and are, therefore, more likely to convert. This will greatly expand your reach and give your highly targeted ads a better chance of performing well.
Unpaid social media marketing can also deliver a strong increase in traffic too, but unlike Paid Social Advertising, it requires continual management and a time commitment to keep it running all the time.
How Do I Convert Website Visitors into Customers?
Serve First-Time Visitors a Pop-Up Opt-In Email Offer
It is common practice for eCommerce websites to offer first-time visitors an opt-in email offer. This might be a guide, a discount on a first order or a free demo in exchange for a user’s personal information and the ability to send them emails. It’s a great way to build trust with potential customers, provide valuable information and incentivise future purchases.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Showing limited-edition products, time-sensitive special offers and low stock levels can help you create scarcity and a sense of urgency that encourages immediate purchase. It’s important to be honest and transparent in your time-sensitive messaging though; if you have thousands of a single product in stock and no applicable offer, don’t push customers into a rush purchase. Likewise, if you have a discount set to expire at midnight, make sure users can’t still nab your products at the lower price after this time.
Provide Purchase Incentives
Can you afford to offer free delivery with purchases over a certain value, or perhaps a percentage discount? Where possible, provide a purchase incentive in your marketing messages. It’s even better if it’s a time-sensitive incentive, as discussed above.
Offer a Money-Back Guarantee
Sometimes ordering online can be a bit daunting if you’re buying, say, a second-hand car or a refurbished laptop, or you’re trying out a new brand for the first time. By offering a money-back guarantee and an easy returns policy, you make buying from you a risk-free and easy decision.
Include Customer Testimonials on Key Landing Pages
When Exposure Ninja is working on a website overhaul, we always include honest customer reviews on key landing pages like the homepage, about us page, contact us page and category pages.
If you haven’t already, sign up for Trustpilot or Reviews.io. These independent review platforms plug effortlessly into your CMS (Content Management System) and allow your customers to provide genuine feedback that reinforces the integrity and authority of your brand.
Provide Trust Signals
Website security is vital and trust signals tell your potential customers that it is safe to purchase from you. If you have Norton or McAfee Secured certification, have Verified by VISA status or are VeriSign Secured, make sure that you display these logos prominently on your homepage and other key areas of your website.
Offer a Range of Payment Options
If you don’t already offer PayPal, Google Wallet, ApplePay and WePay as payment options on your site, you could be missing out on sales from a large pool of customers who don’t want to have to constantly enter their credit card details on every new eCommerce site they visit.
It might be time to roll with the changes and invest in the functionality for these popular and secure new payment methods before you’re left behind by your competitors. Customers come to trust the systems they’re familiar with, so making sure you use the most widely known will ensure visitors don’t hesitate before completing the sale.
#9 Send personalized re-engagement newsletters
Not only can you increase online sales on site but you can also sell more even when customers already left the site. Email marketing accounts for approximately 23% of online sales , making it one of the most cost-effective marketing channels in eCommerce.
Long gone was the time of mass promotional emails. Brands now execute personalized email automation to follow up with customers based on their behaviors with tailored content for better conversion.
For example, customers who browse but don’t buy anything will receive browse abandonment emails that remind them of the items they saw and similar options. Those who abandon carts will receive cart recovering emails which direct them back to finish their cart. Customers who buy more than 3 orders can receive a coupon reward email for the next purchase… You can keep in touch with customers at many points, as long as the content is relevant and engaging.
#10 Optimize mobile web for better mobile conversion
Don’t forget that eCommerce traffic is coming more and more from mobile (though sales conversion is far behind desktop). To prepare for the very soon future when mobile takes over desktop in generating the majority of online sales, you should pay attention to optimizing your mobile web.
Mobile users scroll up and down so often to view content that they might miss where the CTA button is. Add a sticky Buy button with convenient options at the top so customers can buy anytime.
Mobile users also have a common habit of swipe left and right to view images. Instead of putting product images in vertical order, add a gallery so they can swipe just like on Instagram:
Sources:
https://www.shopify.com/blog/how-to-increase-website-traffic ^(https://bannerad-design.com/goto/https://www.shopify.com/blog/how-to-increase-website-traffic)
https://exposureninja.com/blog/increase-online-sales/ ^(https://bannerad-design.com/goto/https://exposureninja.com/blog/increase-online-sales/)
https://beeketing.com/blog/how-to-increase-online-sales-effective-strategies/ ^(https://bannerad-design.com/goto/https://beeketing.com/blog/how-to-increase-online-sales-effective-strategies/)
