Business growth is almost always hard. Finding new avenues for revenue generation, optimizing costs, inventory, marketing spends etc. only add to the complexity of ‘business as usual’. If, like most businesses, you see one rapidly-rising opportunity via e-commerce, then this is an article you should continue reading. Whether your business is a traditional brick & mortar that is either transitioning to, or adding an e-commerce arm; or a new-age startup that plans to be exclusively e-commerce, you need to build a solid and reliable e-commerce foundation.
So, maybe like most businesses, you go out and either hire a technology development agency or hire people with the necessary technology skills to help you build your website in-house. You spend days debating technology platforms, features and functionality. Spend weeks working on your website content, tweaking layouts and code, shooting product images etc. After all, without a website there can be no e-commerce and therefore no sales; without sales, there is no revenue; without revenue there can be no business and no growth.
Three months+ have passed not to mention spending hard-earned money building your shiny new e-commerce platform, and your focus as a business leader shifts to “How can I drive more traffic to my website?”
But before we get down to answering this question, there are a few things to consider in order to make sure that your e-commerce site is built on a strong foundation, and therefore truly ready to turn the increased traffic into increased sales.
Related Reading: Customer Centric UI/UX design & development
E-Commerce SEO Checklist
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Have you integrated your website with Google Webmaster Tools & Google Analytics 4? Is it visible and showing on My Local Business?
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Have you integrated your website with Bing Webmaster Tools?
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Have you used Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends or SEMrush to validate search volumes of keywords and phrases you want to rank for and get keyword and phrase ideas to try ranking for?
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Have you ensured that your H1 tag is assigned for each page? And that there is only ONE H1 tag assigned?
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Have you ensured that your page titles are under 70 characters?
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Have you ensured that your Meta description is at least 150 characters?
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Have you ensured that your page titles are understandable to humans vs. only to AI?
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Have you ensured that your page UR’s have 1 keyword in them?
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Have you ensured that all images across your website have their respective description ALT tags?
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Have you ensured that your URLs don’t have underscores and dashes in them?
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Have you checked your competitors’ backlinks and SEO? Tools like Open Link Profiler can help you do this quickly and effectively.
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Have you checked how well optimized your competitor websites are; including their domain authority using tools like Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs, to see what they are doing right and what you need to do?
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Have you embedded press/ media links to your website media page?
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Have you set up your business on other social platforms like Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Google Places, Yelp, Flipkart etc.?
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Have you ensured that your e-commerce platform is mobile-responsive?
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Have you ensured that your e-commerce platform is fast?
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What is your content strategy (3, 6, 9 month) plan for your e-commerce platform?
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Have you ensured that each page of e-commerce platform has at least 500 words?
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Have you ensured that each of your blog pages have at least 500 words of quality content?
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Have you ensured that there is no duplicate content, or at least minimal duplicate content?
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Have you ensured that each of your products’ description is unique?
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Have you ensured that consumers can add product reviews against each of your products available, and that it is visible for other potential buyers to read?
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Have you set up redirects to ensure that if customers request for deleted pages, they get redirected to your home page or another relevant page?
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Is your website secure? Does the URL show “HTTPS” or just “HTTP”?
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Have you ensured that there is adequate internal linking within each page and across your website?
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Have you ensured that Structured Data Markup (SERP) for your e-commerce pages is done?
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Have you ensured that your Calls to Action (CTAs) are prominent, clear and action-oriented?
So, now that you’ve dotted the “I”s and crossed the “T”s, here are 16 tips to help drive traffic to your e-commerce website.
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Attract Customers with a Sales-oriented Campaign: Run a competition or giveaway on your website. Leverage coupons that prospects can claim only on your website sales. Offer time-limited deals (flash sales) and discounts on your website. You can further leverage cross-selling to try new products without discounting another product.
Related Reading: How to drive outcomes not outputs, how to understand Customer Pain Points, how to develop Customer Personas, how to understand Customer Biases, how to Sell from Your Why, how to write Copy that compels.
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Leverage social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest etc. to Target your Ideal Customer: Running paid campaigns generates awareness and enables prospects to purchase directly from your website. Create stories on Instagram to showcase new offers or products and drive traffic back to your website.
Related Reading: how to leverage Social Media Marketing, how to identify your Ideal Customer, how to leverage Omni Channel Marketing, how to leverage Paid Media, How Influencers marketing actually accelerates growth and sales
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Leverage Email Marketing: Repeat customers spend unto 67% more than new customers (depending on the industry). Leveraging highly-personalised D2C campaigns not only makes existing customers feel uniquely special, but also encourages repeat orders (as they already trust the brand and know what you have to offer). Email Marketing can also be used to convert non-buying customers (i.e. orders left in the Kart) or old prospects (i.e. those who did not convert).
Related Reading: how to leverage E-Mail Marketing, how to Build your Tribe.
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Utilise Content Marketing: Build your business authority by offering engaging and relevant content (i.e. blogs, videos, infographics etc.) from which prospective customers will derive value and will be interested in reading.
Related Reading: how to leverage Blogs, how to leverage Videos.
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Activate Influencer Marketing: To improve brand awareness and engagement. Identifying influencers (tik-tok, instagram, youtube etc) that have high active followers not only opens new avenues for revenue but also builds credibility for your business and brand as they create honest, unbiased and relatable content that will help attract new customers.
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Advertise on Google: The Google Ad Network allows your business to reach out to customers looking for products and services that you offer basis very specific criteria (i.e. location, age, demographics, keywords & phrases etc.) at a fraction of the cost of traditional media.
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Referral Programs: Not only brings the cost of new customer acquisition down by almost 30% (depending on the nature of the business solution) but also incentivizes the person referring and also the person being referred to experience the brand.
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User-generated Content: Requesting and rewarding existing customers for sharing their reviews of your product aids prospect buyers in their purchase decision. Prospects are more likely to trust you when they see other people enjoy your products.
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Optimizing Calls to Action (CTAs): Leveraging colors, font sizes and content to drive an action (i.e. a purchase) is crucial. Explore options to see what works best in converting a site visitor into a paying customer.
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Optimise the Check-Out Process: With nearly 70% of online carts being left abandoned due to a variety of reasons ranging from unclear shipping costs, hidden fees, unclear pricing etc., it is critical to ensure that the last mile is absolutely frictionless for every prospect customer.
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Loyalty Reward Programs: these offer businesses an opportunity to demonstrate gratitude to existing customers and encourage them to buy from you again. Building a simple yet robust Loyalty Reward Program is crucial in driving e-commerce sales.
Related Reading: how to Build Customer Loyalty, how to Listen to Your Customers.
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Offer Value Upfront: Just having a product so sell isn’t enough anymore (especially if it’s a commoditised product). To convince a prospect to open his/ her wallet to you, you must go beyond the product features and benefits to add value upfront (e.g. offering free shipping, free trials, fast shipping, etc.).
Related Reading: how to Create Value, how to create Revenue Models, how to leverage Ethical Marketing, death by commodity.
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Sell Benefits, not Features: Customers today want to know how your product or service is going to make their lives better. They don’t really care if your product has X features. Communicating how each of those X features will improve their lives for the better, and how it will make them feel after using it, is what they really care about.
Related Reading: how to create powerful Stories that Improves Sales.
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Establish & Reinforce Trust First: Prospects are highly suspicious of any product or service they buy for the first time from a new business (or at least someone they have not bought from before). Ensuring that every step and interaction during the sales process constantly reinforces trust is critical to closing the sale.
Related Reading: how to Build Customer Trust, how Promises Kept Makes Customers for Life.
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Data Safety: Customers are always wary when sharing sensitive information (especially their data). Assuring them that their data is not only safe with you but you will keep their data away from third parties is another step towards building their trust and loyalty.
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Innovation and Upselling: Upselling is another way to convert both existing and prospective customers to try more than what they intended on buying. Through upselling, your business can increase its average order value, which over time, can add up to a lot of money. Suggesting complementary products that go along with the original product is a great start. Innovation also allows your business to explore new extensions and territories into which to venture. Whether competition copies your product or your business decides to improve something that already exists by making it bigger, better, smarter, or more affordable; there are prospects out there looking for the next level of solution.
Conclusion: Driving e-commerce traffic and chasing sales is never going to be easy and these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. Organic growth is always a slow burn and is never a replacement for paid advertising (be it online or offline mediums). Knowing where to start, how to setup success milestones and then accelerating for business growth requires time, effort and money. Evaluating what currently works for your business, new marketing activities to try and maybe even exploring external professional help to get you either started or take you to the finish line is always money well spent.
Trigger Worldwide is a Brand Marketing Agency, built specifically for businesses to create Sustainable Growth. Our proprietary tools and process methodologies harness Technology, Creativity & Innovation, leverage Economic Drivers and Consumer Beliefs to help businesses overcome marketing inefficiencies and achieve their Growth Agendas.
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