Starting from the bottom can be one of the most difficult times for your eCommerce website. Not only is it hard to get backlinks, it is hard to convince people to visit your site and buy from you.
But you have to start somewhere. You need to start with one visitor before you can get a million. Similarly, you need to start from one customer before you can get a thousand. If you will let this problem faze you, you will not get anywhere.
Today, you’ll learn about 6 strategies that you can use to get more traffic to your eCommerce website. These are designed for new eCommerce website owners. So you don’t need to worry even if you don’t have a list of customers. I’ll handhold you from the bottom so that you can reach the top.
Start with Your Family and Friends
You cannot reach a hundred if you don’t start from one. So start small. Often, business owners would set their goals high. They would set their bar as high as getting a hundred customers per day right from the launch of the website. But this is a setup that is doomed for failure. After all, a website’s popularity grows over time. No one will read your blog just because you have written it. You are not as special as you think.
But there is one segment of the market where you are special. To these people, they will support anything that you will do. In fact, some of them may even bend backwards for you. The people that I am talking about are your family and friends.
If you have just launched a new website, it may be best to start with your family and friends. These people will not judge you and they will not be skeptical about what you have to offer. Sure, they may not give you your initial boost of sales but they can help you jumpstart your marketing.
Remember, every family member or friend also have their network. They also have family members and friends that they can refer your website to. The good news is that direct recommendations from family members and friends are usually stronger. This means that people tend to act on recommendations given by people who are close to them. So you should use this to your benefit if you are marketing your eCommerce website. You should use exhaust your existing network before you proceed with the next strategy.
Offer Something More than the Regular Online Store
If you have done the first strategy, you should already have at least 10 visitors or customers in your website. Getting 10 people is not that hard. As long as you have at least 5 family members or friends that know another person, you are on your way to getting 10 new people into your website.
But getting people into your website is just one part of the picture. You also need to give your visitors a reason to stay. You need to give them a reason to choose you over your competitors.
This is where most eCommerce marketers fail. Often, they will set up a website with the same items as their competitor and offer the same service. Then, they will stand back and wait for sales. When no one is coming to buy their stuff, they start to wonder. “Why are they not buying my stuff when I am already doing what my competitor is doing?”
But that’s the problem. The problem is that you are content with providing just what your competitor is providing. You don’t want to offer more. You don’t want to exceed expectations. So you stay in the safe zone hoping to be noticed.
In this world where the Internet is loaded with businesses and information, it is time for you to step up and offer something more. It can come as a simple free shipping or it can be in the form of the product that you are selling. As long as it is unique and it fulfills a particular need in your target market, you are bound to make some sales.
Target Big Influencers By Featuring Them
One of the best ways to get more traffic to your website is to be featured by influencers. These people are more than just online celebrities. They have command over what people will buy or use. So if they recommend you, you can expect an influx of sales.
However, getting a big influencer to feature you is easier said than done. After all, these people are busy. On top of that, they are so used to getting business proposals that they expertly ignore them. They are so used to it that when they get an email from a business, they delete it right away.
So how can you get past their ignore zone? Here’s a secret. While influencers often appear cool on the outside, they are not as cool as you think. Just because they have cool videos or they talk cool in their blogpost doesn’t mean that they are not human. Inside is an ego that is constant need of stroking or a business owner that desperately need some sales. If you know how to approach these, then you can easily get them to promote you.
Fortunately for you, it is not that hard to do. In fact, this is a strategy that has been done by business owners in the past and it instantly got them in the good side of influencers. All you need to do is be part of their community. Join their coaching program or buy their products. From there, you can review their products and show the world how the product has helped you.
From here, all you need to do is email the influencer. You’ll be surprised that a simple act like this can instantly gain their attention.
Get Social Media Influencers to Promote You
Let me introduce you to a different breed of influencers. These are the influencers that don’t have millions of followers yet there are people who follow them everyday. These influencers may not have a huge following but they are still called influencers because they influencer their audience’s buying decisions.
These influencers are called social media influencers. You’ll rarely see these people on television and they will often post in their Youtube channel or just update their blog. But while they may not be on mainstream media doesn’t mean that they have less of an influence. In fact, some of them have massive influences in highly targeted niches.
The good news is that reaching these influencers are not that hard. Since they are available on social media, their contact information are often shown on the Internet. From here, all you need to do is contact them.
But here’s a technique. Instead of just contacting them to say ‘Hi’, you can do something more. You can offer them your product for free. Why should you do this? It is a way to get on their good side as well as getting them to review your product for you. Of course, it’s a risk. But if they like your product, they would be more than happy to promote it to their followers.
Of course, there is a chance that the strategy will flop. Some influencers will not reply to your proposal while others will just take the free product without giving it a review. Even if that happens, you should just dust yourself off and look for the next influencer.
Free Samples Can Get You Traffic
You have seen the power of free samples in the previous strategy. This is where you send influencers some samples with hopes that you will get a review in return. While this may not work all the time, its percentage for working is pretty high. Why is that? It’s all because of the ingrained concept of reciprocity.
You see, human beings are very fascinating. While most of them close themselves off from the world, they will often open up with the slight show of care. Sending free samples can show that your business cares about them no matter how they feel. And this care can often move their hearts and make them move according to how you want them to move.
Because of this, free samples really has its power. And it is not just for influencers. I think that you can also use the same strategy for your customers. You may have already observed how free samples work in a grocery store. People tend to buy the product once they taste it. It works in the same way online. If you will give people some free samples, they are often more than happy to recommend your product to their family and friends.
Don’t Forget about Micro-Influencers
Now that we are talking about influencers, let’s stop and define what influencers are for a minute. These are people who have a significant but indirect influence in the purchasing decisions of their audience. Celebrities are natural influencers. Once people see them using or wearing a particular item, they would often like to get the same item. However, it is an entirely different world online. While celebrities may have millions of followers online, they are not the only people that you can target. There are also the micro-influencers – people who have a small but highly engaged market.
A good example of micro-influencer is a blogger in a particular niche. This blogger may not be the most popular but his website is steadily getting some traffic each month. This is an example of a micro-influencer and they are highly valuable when it comes to promoting eCommerce products.
You see, micro-influencers may have a small market but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore them. That’s because these people are more open to collaborating or promoting online stores than the big guys.
Since they are more open, their chances of agreeing to your offer is often higher. With this, you can ask multiple micro-influencers to promote you with a higher chance of success. The result? You’ll get more people to promote your site.
Have a Referral Marketing Program
If you can only use one strategy out of this guide, you should use this one. Referral marketing is by far the easiest and best way to build traffic to any eCommerce website.
Let me illustrate this by narrating the experience of PayPal. PayPal started as a small player in the industry – This means that they only have a few signups. But when they implemented their referral marketing program, everything changed.
Here’s what PayPal did. They opened a program where they will pay every person that get them a new signup. They paid real money and they were losing money in the beginning. But they didn’t care. They know that this is crucial to getting them off the ground so that they can become the primary payment processor online.
And they managed to become like that after a few years. Today, no one tops PayPal when it comes to online payment processing. It is the most used online payment platform today.
You can learn from PayPal’s story. It really helps to encourage your audience to refer their family and friends in exchange for a reward. This is the quickest way to boost your eCommerce traffic.
NOTE: If you don’t know how to code, you’ll need a referral marketing software. The software should be able to set up the program automatically for you.
Conclusion
Looking at the strategies above, you’ll find that starting from the ground is not that bad. In fact, most online businesses that already made it on top lack the tenacity of those at the bottom. So even if it is hard to get that first visitor or sale, don’t give up. Just keep on promoting. Change your strategy if needed. Eventually, you’ll break through and make that sale.
So what strategy did you like from the list above? What do you plan on using? If you have any questions on the implementation part, don’t be afraid to ask me.
