Increasing inbound traffic can help eCommerce merchants boost their revenue—but all website traffic isn’t created equal. For best results, you should aim to drive targeted traffic to your eCommerce store, which simply means attracting prospective customers who are already qualified and interested in your products. As a result, you can earn higher conversion rates for your business. Let’s discuss how online merchants selling on platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce can achieve this goal.
What is targeted traffic and why is it important?
Targeted traffic refers to people who visit your eCommerce site intentionally, whether they are looking for a particular product, have received a recommendation from friends and family to shop with you, or are actively trying to learn about your brand. Shoppers in this group arrive at your site because they believe it offers the product or service they want or need. Unlike other visitors, targeted visitors usually have a clear goal and purpose and are prepared to act on it.
Think of regular website traffic like people who visit a mall to window shop. They may see something they like, and they may or may not buy it. Targeted traffic, on the other hand, is like people who make a trip to the mall for an item in particular. They’re highly likely to make a purchase because they know exactly what they’re looking for.
People with a clear shopping list are more likely to place an order, as long as your product meets their needs. They may also become repeat customers if they’re satisfied with the item. That’s why driving shoppers like these to your site can increase conversions and reduce customer acquisition costs overall.
Five ways to increase targeted traffic
Read on for five techniques you can use to drive more targeted traffic to your online store.
#1. Use SEO to improve your store’s ranking in search results
The top three search engine results get 75% of clicks, which is why SEO is so important. If your website doesn’t rank well for keywords related to your products, it’s much harder for targeted traffic to find and then consider you as a provider for the item they need. Users who search for products with keywords are almost always looking to buy something specific, so make sure your store shows up on their screen as an option.
SEO is a complex discipline that requires a lot of constant adjustments to your website. A few key factors to focus on are improving site speed, creating high-quality written content, and optimizing the navigation and shopping experience. Get more tips on SEO for eCommerce stores.
#2. Manage owned media (blog, newsletter, social media accounts)
Owned media refers to the online content that you control as a brand, like your own blog, email newsletter, and social media accounts. As long as you focus on topics your ideal customer will find helpful or interesting, you can dramatically increase targeted traffic through these channels. (Just make sure to always include links to your store in any owned media content.)
Let’s say you’re an online apparel retailer, for example. You can post to your blog, newsletter, and social media accounts about the latest trends and beauty tips, or share interviews with your designers or other experts. If a shopper is in the market for products like yours and they come across this content, they’re likely to choose you for their purchase. It puts you on their radar, and shows that you’re trustworthy and an expert in the industry.
It’s best to use a variety of media platforms and outlets, as each one has the potential to reach different segments of the market. Just make sure to cater the content to each platform’s format and style.
- Your website’s blog is a highly valuable media platform for two key reasons. First, you have full control over the content and its format. You can use images, text, and video, and you can link to product pages on your site to encourage readers to browse and buy. Plus, posting high-quality content to your blog can help improve your site’s SEO, which will help you attract even more targeted traffic. You can also add a pop-up there that invites blog visitors to sign up for your email newsletter. That way, you can build loyalty and increase repeat business.
- Facebook and Twitter are social media platforms that are great for sharing written content and links. You can use them to post URLs with interesting captions that direct readers to your blog.
- Instagram and Pinterest are more visually-oriented social media platforms, which is great for brands in the apparel industry. You can post photos of your products and send prospective customers to your website to buy.
#3. Run digital ads
There are two key scenarios in which eCommerce merchants might want to focus on paid advertising. If you’re new to selling online, online ads can help you get that initial visibility for your brand and products and start building a following. Or, if you’re looking to create a significant breakthrough in sales performance, ads can help you drastically increase qualified traffic to your website to help you achieve your goals.
Compared to conventional advertising, digital advertising has an important advantage: You can make sure your ads are shown only to very specific users who are most likely to be interested in your brand. That way, you can get more conversions without wasting money on people who are unlikely to buy from you. Experiment with different ad platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.) to see which produces the best results for your particular brand. Make sure to deploy ads only to your target audience by entering their age range, location, interests, etc. in the ad platform, and choose ad creatives that will catch their interest and get them to click through to your brand’s profile or website.
#4. Build a strong influencer marketing strategy
People are more likely to trust in brands and products that have been recommended to them by others. That’s what makes influencer marketing so powerful. If you find an influencer whose audience overlaps with your target audience, having them endorse your product is extremely likely to produce returns. It’s a great way to build brand awareness and trust much more quickly than other methods.
There are lots of different ways to do Influencer marketing. Here are a few suggestions:
- Send free samples of your product to relevant Instagram influencers and invite them to share their thoughts with followers.
- Connect with bloggers who write about your niche and give them early access to product news and updates that they can share with their followers as exclusive content.
- Collaborate with YouTubers who create content about your industry to review your products on their channel.
These are just a few examples of how you can build an influencer marketing campaign. The most important part is to start by researching influencers on different platforms whose audiences match your own, and then brainstorm creative ways to get them to review or promote your products on their channels.
#5. Create an affiliate program
Affiliate marketing is the practice of paying people a commission for bringing you new business.
Affiliate programs all have different structures and rules, but the idea behind each one is to build a network of people who actively promote your items. The best affiliates are the ones who have access to an audience that would be interested in your eCommerce products, so they can help drive targeted traffic to your store.
For even better results, consider combining affiliate marketing with influencer marketing. For example, you could pay influencers by giving them a percentage of all sales that they’re responsible for. To track this figure, you could give them a coupon code to share with their audience. That way, anyone who buys from you because of them will be easy to identify in your system. It’s a win-win: The influencer is motivated to help you increase sales because they’ll get paid more if they do so. You increase your revenue from the partnership, and so do they.
Focus on attracting targeted traffic for best results
These five tactics have the potential to help you boost brand awareness and trust, increase revenue, and win loyal customers. Just make sure that it’s easy for targeted traffic to find the right product in the right size once they get to your online store. To help with this, use Kiwi Sizing to add custom size charts and size recommenders for different product types. They’ll help shoppers choose the right size, resulting in a smoother shopping experience, more conversions, and fewer returns for you.
Read next: Drive traffic to your store using owned, paid, and earned media
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