How do I get traffic for my website?
Getting traffic to your website is not as easy as before but you could do well by promoting your website to your target audience in the right way.
For new website, it is important to make use of social media to get your website exposed. You could get traffic in the following ways:
1. Facebook
Focus on building up a solid fan base should be the priority. Do not get too eager to promote your products on facebook but spend time on making posts and engageing with your fans. A great way to get more Facebook page engagement is to post:
Industry trends and news
Funny, cute, and high-quality photos
Uplifting stories
Inspirational quotes
Fun polls or surveys
Although some of these updates won’t have anything to do with your brand per se, they will bond a stronger relationship between your brand and those that have “Liked” your Facebook page. What you are doing here is strengthening your fan base, which generally pays dividends down the line.
Here's the key: Do not overly promote your brand and your products - only post a couple times every day. Most importantly, be sure to respond to comments and keep the conversations going.
After building up a solid fan base, here are some stretegies you could use to promote your products:
Sell the Lifestyle Around Your Products
Use images and label them as "New", "Back in stock", "Summer 2016 collection" etc.
Run Giveaways and Contests
Offer Time Sensitive Discounts
Offer Free Shipping
Offer quick tips
After creating your facebook page, let's get into some actionable stuff you can do right now:
Create a list of all your family and friends. Go through your Facebook page and email contacts one by one. We suggest putting their names and email addresses in a spreadsheet.
Reach out to each person with a personalized email or Facebook message. You don’t have to ask them to buy your product, but simply ask for their feedback. Even ask if they will write a testimonial.
A few days later, ask each friend and family member to Like your Facebook page. You may not want to send a spammy all-inclusive email to everyone, but actually take the time to message each person individually.
At a later date, ask them to post a message about what you are doing on their Facebook feed. Don’t forget to give them information on where they can purchase your products.
2. Youtube
Get busy on youtube is the key to let your target audience learn about your products. One of the main advantages of YouTube, is that your video will be included in Google and YouTube search results. Each video you create is a piece of inbound marketing content that will help you sell for years to come. You can also use YouTube videos on your own website to help communicate the benefits of your products.
When you upload your videos to YouTube, there are three things you need to pay close attention to:
The Title – The title of your video is what will bring the targeted customers in. So be very mindful of how you title your video. Think of keywords your target customers may be searching for to find your products.
Link Back to Your Product Pages – In the description of the video, be sure to link back to your product pages. That’s how you can get the casual YouTube video viewer to become a customer.
Your Tags – Tags are a good way to attract YouTube users by interest. They also act as keywords that help people find your video. The important thing to remember with tags is to list your most important tags first.
When it comes to the content of the video, the most boring thing you can do is simply film your product and talk over the video. “We have this widget in red, blue and black. Please click the link below to buy it.” But we understand that it will come down to a battle of creativity vs. how much time you have to make videos.
If you decide to really invest time into making an awesome YouTube channel and dedicate a lot of time and energy into it (and yes, it will take a lot of time and energy), you may find this will be your go to marketing source for years to come. In our opinion a YouTube channel is as powerful as having your own Cable television channel.
In general, some categories of content for you to consider are:
Educate – Chances are you know a lot about your products and the world surrounding them. Produce videos such as visual buyer’s guides, compare and contrast demonstrations, and “how-to” videos.
Solve Problems – One of the main reasons people conduct searches on YouTube is to find a solution to a problem. Instructional videos always make great video content. You could probably go on for years showing your customers how to solve problems through videos.
Describe Phenomenal Products – If you have some truly newsworthy products in your inventory, then go ahead and create videos explaining the amazing features of these products.
Unboxing The Parcel - This is one of the hottest video titles that most viewers like to watch. When you are unboxing something, it always brings out surprises and curiousity. Viewers like to watch things which have these elements.
Product Testing - Videos showing someone throwing an IPhone from 8 storey to the ground or blending an IPhone in a fruit blender have caught a lot of attentions from viewers on youtube. Think out of the box some better ways to showing/testing your products which could catch immediate attention.
3. Pinterest
Pinterest is a great new visual social platform that is increasingly becoming a powerful source of customers for online store owners. Since it’s primarily a visual experience, it’s a great place for your product photos to shine. However, you must have a few creative bones in your body to get it to work. The effort is well worth it though, especially considering that visitors referred from Pinterest are 10 percent more likely to make a purchase from you.
Use The Pinterest Button On Your Website - Thee easiest thing you can do to drive brand awareness and eventually sales to your website is to let your visitors do the “pinning” for you. Every product page on your turnkey store would come with the social media buttons and Pinterest is one of them. By clicking on the Pinterest button, your website visitors can post images from your online store to Pinterest. This is a great strategy since you’re getting a third party endorsement from outside your company.
Creating “Smart” Boards - When you pin an image in Pinterest, you can assign it to a “board.” It’s better to create boards that focus on a specific theme. It turns out that when you assign themes to your boards, you tend to attract more interest. To give you some ideas for your online store, you could create boards representing:
Holiday gift ideas (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween etc.)
Homecoming
Specific themed vacations
Clothing ensemble themes
Gifts for your boyfriend/ girlfriend/ classmate /parents
Your strategy on Pinterest should be to inspire. The power of Pinterest lies in its ability to get people to discover amazing images, videos and products. Instead of just plastering your Pinterest boards with product images, your goal should be to inspire potential customers with the products you sell. If you’re an online fashion boutique, it’s all about presenting your clothing in a way that gives potential customers an idea for an ensemble they would want to create.
Try creating groups of products that can inspire potential customers. If you’re good at creating these groups, you’ll strengthen your brand’s authority in your niche. Other things you could do with Pinterest are outline as follows:
Create a testimonial board – If you receive hand written testimonials from customers, snap a photo of them and pin them to a dedicated board for testimonials.
Use hashtags – Just like Twitter, Pinterest allows hashtags. For specific subjects, be sure to use hashtags. For example, if you run an online store specializing in women’s dresses you might use hashtags like: #pendants, #homecoming, #summerfashion, #sheerlingerie.
Host a contest – You can promote a contest where your fans and followers can create boards about your brand or around the products you sell. This is a great way to generate interest in your brand and get other Pinterest users involved.
4. Instagram
What makes Instagram so popular is that it’s basically Facebook boiled down to its single most engaging function: sharing photos. Throw in some brilliant photo filters and you’ve got one of the fastest growing online communities to date. And of course, Instagram is also a great marketing tool for your business with a lot of potential for getting you that first sale.
Delight the World with Your Photos - The whole point of “Instagraming” is to take photos that will generate some sort of positive and viral reaction. The worst thing you can do on Instagram as an online retailer is to upload thousands of white-background product pictures and hope to get tons of traffic.
Photo Tips - Instagram doesn’t let you link to your online store from individual posts (they only allow you to link in your bio). So you have to be clever about how you get people to know what you do. One way to get people to your store is to watermark your images with your domain name. The next thing you may consider testing is to put in coupon codes on your photos.
Frequency - You should be conscious of how often you post on Instagram. The general rule of thumb is to only post a few times a day. However, some people are very successful posting once an hour. In these cases, these posters are successful because they have exceptionally good image content. You’ll have to test to see what works best with your audience. Keep track of your follower count closely. If too many people start unfollowing you, then it’s probably a good idea to tone down your posting frequency a bit.
Use Instagram with the intent to engage your followers with something fun, entertaining, and eye-catching. Otherwise, you’ll end up putting mediocre content out there that won’t attract interest from others, much less their hard-earned cash for your goods.
