Let’s be honest, driving traffic to an online store is an expensive or frustrating process. As if that’s not enough, it’s often just as difficult to encourage online users to buy from you, as opposed to established names in the industry. It’s true, and even when you have the most impressive layout and best products, generating traffic is still one of the most challenging aspects of owning and operating an online store.
Now, that’s not to say driving traffic needs to be so difficult or expensive but rather to explain how many website owners are faced with the same uphill battle. In fact, there are many effective techniques for driving traffic to your online store without spending a fortune.
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to generate this traffic and stay ahead of the competition:
5 Best Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Online Store Without Money
1. IMPROVE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF SEO
Believe it or not, learning how to master search engine optimization (SEO) is completely free. As you know, this will enable you to drive traffic to your online store using organic results in search engines.
More importantly, SEO is also one of the most effective ways of generating traffic for your online store and this is certainly true over long periods. Needless to say, this is mostly because people who come across these organic results are already in the process of searching for your Ecommerce product or service.
While many businesses hire SEO experts to take care of this task, you can easily take advantage of the best SEO strategies by performing your own keyword research, creating blog articles or publishing guest posts on other websites.
2. MAKE BETTER USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is a really big deal and traction is near impossible without a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin etc. In fact, more than one third of the world’s population is now using one platform or another on a daily basis. For this reason, posting regular updates on social is a great way to get more traffic.
At the same time, it’s not simply enough to gain this traffic but you should also be making better use of social media by taking time to appreciate this attention. In other words, you should make every effort to thank these viewers and respond to each and every comment. Posting interesting content and images on a regular basis is just as important, while a call-to-action is probably the most powerful aspect that most people forget to include on social.
It’s worth considering an offline gift insert into each Ecommerce order, your fulfillment service provider can add this before shipping. A gift can influence customers to share the good news through social channels.
3. REQUEST CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE REVIEWS
Make it a priority to request reviews from your customers. Not only do you want to receive feedback on your customer service and product, you also want these reviews to influence prospective customers.
You see, recent statistics show that at least 92% of consumers consider online reviews as part of their decision-making process. It is also essential to remember that even if you get a bad review, you should acknowledge the feedback, propose a solution and even apologise if necessary.
4. REACH OUT TO INFLUENCERS
Influencer marketing has become immensely popular these days and most professional marketers continue to focus on this are for good reason. After all, recent studies show that most consumers are more likely to be influence by an actual person than a brand or company name. With this in mind, you should identify and connect with Instagrammers, bloggers or vloggers with a large or active following in the same industry. Whether you send free samples or provide mutual exposure, there are many ways to work with influencers that do not require any financial commitment.
5. PAY MORE ATTENTION TO QUORA AND OTHER FREE RESOURCES
In case you might be asking yourself, Quora is a free resource on which users can post questions about any topic. When you find certain topics on Quora which relate to your business or industry, you can provide valuable answers to these questions and this can be a fantastic way to drive free traffic to your online store. What’s more, Google has shown a very strong preference for websites like Quora in its most recent update which makes this a great way to improve SEO at the same time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As you can see, each of these methods is entirely free and with the right approach, they can also drive just as much traffic as paid-promotion. Either way, following these steps can help you build authority and presence for your online store, while increased traffic and sales will most certainly follow soon-after.
If you would like to learn more about how Autofulfil can help, please call us on: +353 1 541 5460 or email: sales@autofulfil.com.
