You’ve finally got yourself a modern, professional-looking ecommerce website and you’re ready to start selling your products online. There’s just one small problem, you don’t have any customers yet!
With numerous different methods to increase your online customer base and grow your ecommerce website, let’s look at a few of the options to consider…
Blogs
Perfect for small businesses just starting out, blogging can be a very cost-effective way to push more traffic to your website. Not only can blogs be used to showcase new products and seasonal offers, they can also help your website rank for popular search terms, leading to an increase in your brand’s visibility in Google search results. Stuck for ideas on what to blog about? Check out this post.
Try to identify any common questions within your specific industry, then write blog posts that relate to and answer those questions. You’ll be amazed at how many new visitors you’ll be able to attract with an informative, well-written blog post.
Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, you name it they all offer your business a nigh-on limitless amount of opportunities to reach new customers. Albeit overwhelming at first, you can start a simple social media campaign by posting engaging content and linking it back to your ecommerce website. This method of promotion is completely free and can draw in a huge number of potential customers if you take the time to post consistently appealing and relevant content at times when your followers are online.
Promotions
One of the quickest and easiest ways to generate interest in your brand and its products, promotions, such as seasonal sales or site-wide price reductions, can be a fantastic way to grow your ecommerce website. Customers gaining a good deal will be much more likely to tell their friends about it, and in the case that the product exceeds their expectations, may even return to purchase more products from you once the promotion has ended.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The big three words that scare almost every small business website owner, but they don’t have to be. An SEO strategy for an ecommerce website can be as simple as setting one or two keywords for each page on your website, that are relevant to that page and that page alone.
Every category and every product on your website is another chance to be seen (and rank) in Google search results so separating them with their own keywords will help search engines work out which page to show for any given search term.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
Another scary three-word acronym? Really?! While some ecommerce websites do fairly well without opening their wallets at all for paid advertising, Google Ads and Facebook Ads can do wonders for those looking to get their brand in front of a wider audience.
The beauty of PPC advertising is that you’ll only be charged when people actually click through to your website, so if your ad isn’t generating any traffic, it wont cost you a penny. You’ll of course have to be sure that your website is turning that new traffic into actual customers in the end!
Reviews & Influencers
Don’t be afraid to reach out to bloggers and other influential people within your industry/niche, it can be a great way to spread the word about your business quickly. You could consider sending them some of your products to review, or (if a vlogger/youtuber) inviting them to visit your premises/workshop for a video, there are many different approaches and the best will depend on the type of products or services you offer.
Bear in mind that some may charge a fee for promoting your brand and so you should always choose personalities that already have a large following online, ensuring that you’ll recoup any fees paid in new orders gained from the exposure.
Here at TD Digital, we specialise in ecommerce website design as well as search engine optimisation, blog writing and a variety of other techniques that can help you to grow your customer base. Find out more about our services.
