The goal for any e-commerce website is to earn the most revenue possible – and the best way to do that is always by generating as much traffic as possible. That’s the case regardless of whether you’re completely new to the e-commerce industry or have an established site that you’ve been running for many years. No matter how much traffic you’re getting right now, generating more traffic will always lead to more revenue.
The trick, of course, is learning how to do that. Learning how to generate traffic is especially difficult if you’re new to e-commerce and don’t already know the ins and outs of optimizing your website for search engines. If you’re running an online store for the first time, you might think that bringing traffic to your site is as simple as adding new products. The truth, though, is that you need to do a bit more work if you want to generate traffic every day.
Here’s how to do it.
Add Content to Your Site’s Blog Regularly
You’re probably aware of the value of blogging already – even if you’re completely new to e-commerce – because you’re certain to read about the importance of having a blog every time you look for SEO advice for e-commerce sites. If you’re new to blogging, though, there’s a good chance that you’re not doing it correctly.
When you first start an e-commerce site, your natural instinct will be to write about topics with commercial angles when adding content to your blog. For instance, let’s suppose that you run an online business selling athletic clothing. Your first instinct might be to write a blog post with a title like “The Best Running Shorts for Women.” That’s a topic with direct commercial intent, so anyone who searches for a topic like that is probably in buying mode. The problem, though, is that virtually every other seller of athletic clothing already has an article with that topic. Unless your site is well established, the level of competition for that keyword phrase will be so high that your article probably won’t receive traffic.
If you have a newer e-commerce site, you should focus on informational topics when adding content to your site’s blog because search keywords without direct commercial intent always have less competition. Leverage your industry expertise to offer advice about how to solve problems and how to have the best possible experience with the types of products that you sell. If you keep at it – and if your content has genuine value for readers – your blog will become a reliable traffic generator.
Blogging isn’t just important for new e-commerce sites; a blog can also be a key source of traffic for more established businesses. Let’s say, for instance, that you have an existing e-commerce business, and you’ve just added a completely new category of product to your store. That’s exactly what VapeJuice.com – an established vaping business – did when they entered the CBD industry for the first time. No matter how established your company may be in one industry, entering a new industry is almost going to be like starting over. Blogging is crucially important at that point.
Introduce Your Site with a Splashy Promotion
One of the best ways to introduce a new e-commerce site is by offering a promotion so attractive that people can’t possibly pass it up. For example, you might launch your website by offering a single-use coupon that’s good for all first-time buyers. If the coupon is good enough to make your prices more attractive than what your competitors are charging, you’re almost certain to get some business from the promotion even if no one has heard of your website before. Just make sure that you at least break even on sales.
Don’t forget that a grand opening promotion can only work if people actually know about it. Announce your promotion with a press release. You should also consider reaching out to websites in your industry and asking those publishers to help you spread the word.
So, what’s the point of having a grand opening sale if your prices are so good that you don’t earn much money from the promotion? The point is that you’re getting the word out about your store and establishing a positive reputation. Also, don’t forget that every time someone buys from you, you’re collecting that person’s contact information. Having a mailing list is one of the best ways to keep people coming back to your site.
Start a Mailing List to Keep People Coming Back
Expanding on the previous topic, starting a mailing list isn’t just a great traffic generation strategy for a new e-commerce site; it’s something that you should also consider doing if your site is already well established. Relying exclusively on search engine traffic to drive your site’s revenue is always a dangerous idea because search rankings can sometimes change without notice and for no specific cause. If your site’s revenue comes exclusively from people who find your website through Google, what will happen if your rankings drop? You’ll experience an immediate corresponding drop in revenue.
To keep your income as stable as it can be even during times of search engine volatility, you need a traffic source that you can control. That’s exactly what you get with a mailing list. Once your database reaches a substantial size, you can count on a certain number of subscribers visiting your website every time you send a newsletter out. When your organic traffic is suffering, having a mailing list can help you get through those difficult stretches.
As you can probably imagine, just having a mailing list is only half of the battle – you need subscribers. It’s hard to convince people to join a mailing list when they know that doing so will cause them to receive advertisements. How do you encourage people to give you their email addresses anyway? The best way is by offering something in return. For example, you might consider holding a monthly giveaway. You could offer a free product from your store as a prize. You might also consider offering a general-interest product that’s difficult to obtain, such as a new game console. To ensure that people maintain their subscriptions – and continue to read your newsletters – as long as possible, allow members of the mailing list to remain eligible for all giveaways as long as their subscriptions remain active.
