It’s no surprise that you’re interested in starting an eCommerce store. There are opportunities everywhere on the internet, and when eCommerce sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2022, that makes an online store a great business to start.
However, getting traffic to an online store is easier said than done. Use the tips below to increase brand awareness for your eCommerce store.
Optimize for SEO
The best traffic is free traffic for a website. Unfortunately, free traffic is hard to come by without a lot of work upfront. SEO is part of that strategy to do work now and take advantage of free search engine traffic in the future.
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank on Google for keywords. You build great page titles, descriptions, and content that answer a user’s search query. You’ll get rewarded with first-page rankings if you do a great job.
Of course, there’s a lot of competition on Google, so a well-optimized page may not rank easily. You’ll need to invest in off-site SEO and backlinks to help your ranking chances.
Get Social
Social media is one of the most critical parts of many eCommerce businesses. Many people spend their time online scrolling social media feeds these days. It’s challenging to advertise to those people elsewhere on the internet.
Creating a social media account allows you to point potential customers to follow your page. Once you have a social media following, you can post updates and valuable deals to your followers.
You can also use paid social media ads to grow your presence. You can either pay for traffic to your social media page or eCommerce website.
In some cases, you’ll post a very popular post that gets shared by tons of people. In this situation, you’ll go viral and get exposed to more people than you could do on your own.
Use Google Ads
Sometimes you need to improve your brand awareness straight away and don’t have time with slower branding methods. If you’re in this situation, Google Ads is a great starting point.
Google often offers coupons that allow you to get started with Google Ads without paying any money. This is a great way to set up a few ad campaigns and drive traffic to your website.
Of course, these campaigns probably won’t be profitable when you first create them. If you want to continue running ads, you’ll need to test different creatives to determine which marketing messages convert prospects into customers.
Start an Affiliate Program
Sometimes you just need other people talking about your brand to get noticed. The problem is that unless someone knows and enjoys your products, that’s hard to do.
Luckily, you can pay people to promote your products if you have enough profit to offer a commission. That’s what an affiliate program will do.
You’ll provide your affiliates with an affiliate ID that tracks the people they send to your store. If someone makes a sale with that link, you’ll pay an affiliate commission.
You’ll get a smaller profit per sale, but you’ll increase your brand exposure as a result.
Create Video Content
Of all the ways to advertise your brand online, video marketing is still newer on the digital marketing scene. It’s not easy to create excellent video content. Unlike blogging, where you only need to write, you need a production crew to create high-quality videos.
However, video is a great way to inform people and build your brand’s authority. Many companies take the informational approach and create how-to and other content to educate their audiences. This builds their brand’s authority and keeps them in the minds of consumers as experts.
Another option is to create video advertisements. Instead of creating a video YouTube channel, you can create short ads and place them in existing content. This allows you to target your ideal customer and get their attention directly.
Reach Out to Influencers
Many people don’t turn to traditional advertising to get product recommendations these days. They now turn to social media influencers who they follow every day.
Influencers are ordinary people who have built a following on the internet. They have thousands of followers who follow what they post. In some cases, someone can be followed by millions of people.
This is an excellent opportunity to get your products in front of new people. Many influencers charge a fee per post, so reach out to influencers in your industry to see what kind of deal you can work out.
Most people charge based on their reach. The more followers someone has, the more you can expect to pay.
Focus on Customer Service
You want your customers to talk positively about you when asked. That won’t happen if you don’t serve people well. Even if you have a great product, people won’t return and buy again if they have a negative experience.
Making customer service a priority is one of the best ways to improve your brand awareness. When you provide fantastic support to people, they’re more than willing to spread the word and recommend your products to their friends.
Excellent customer service will also lead to better reviews. Those reviews will bump your products up and lead to more exposure.
Do Everything You Can to Promote Your Online Store
You have a lot of completion in the eCommerce space, so you can’t afford to rest easy and expect people to find your store on their own. You need to stay proactive when promoting your online store. Use the guide above to boost your visibility online.
Check out the blog to find more marketing tips that will help you grow a successful eCommerce company.