Top 10 Actionable Tips to Increase Your Store’s Traffic

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So today I want to dive into some out-of-the-box ways to increase your storeโ€™s traffic. Ranging from smart ads to sponsorships, these tips will give you a unique look into the business of increasing your online business. Keep reading to learn about some of these more unusual techniques, and feel free to try them out.

Use a Tool Like PropelAd to Smarten Up Your Ads

Use a Tool Like PropelAd to Smarten Up Your Ads

Shopify has thousands of apps you can use to push more traffic to your site, but one of them is particularly important since it works directly with the ads you may or may not be utilizing already.

Sure, you may post Facebook ads or use a pay per click ad system through Google, but what if there was a way to retarget the most relevant products and nurture the most relevant customers?

Thatโ€™s where PropelAds comes into play. The app is available as a standalone service, but I would recommend that Shopify users strongly consider trying out the integrated app. Instead of just posting ads and hoping they do alright, this handy tool uses methods like cart abandonment retargeting, dynamic product retargeting and non-customer lifecycle campaigns to make your ads a little smarter.

Consider Switching out an Email Subscription Form for Social Signups

Consider Switching out an Email Subscription Form for Social Signups

The email signup form is a wonderful way to grab people who stop by in your store and send them emails for promotions and other cool stuff. In short, emails work wonders for getting customers to return to your store.

The only problem is that many consumers are becoming numb to the email list signup form. You see them all over the place, and people are less and less likely to sign up for yet another campaign that clogs up their inbox. Consider swapping out your email signup form for a social sharing or social sign up option.

The screenshot above shows how a portable charger company simply asks people to share the company on Twitter, or Instagram to receive a $4 coupon. People are often more willing to share on social media, and this share is seen by all of that personโ€™s followers.

I would recommend the Social Coupon plugin if using WordPress and Coupon Pop for Shopify.

Sponsor a Local Event

Sponsor a local event

This may sound like something a brick and mortar company would try out, but itโ€™s actually not uncommon for online companies to reach out to their communities to sponsor live events. When you sponsor the live event you will give your company tons of exposure, bringing in additional traffic for your site.

Even if most of your company works from home, and in different locations, you can decide on a location that is filled with a significant amount of your current customers. This way, those people will come to the event and share the word about it when you start advertising.

Put Coupons in the Packages You Send Out

Coupons in your package

A coupon on your email receipt is a nice touch, but thereโ€™s something about receiving a tangible gift when a box shows up at your home. Zappos is know for giving away some free stuff when they send out their boxes, and I received a 15% off coupon from Moo.com when I ordered a few business cards.

With email coupons, customers are more prone to forget about the email or delete it. With this, they get the joy of getting an actual present, and they can post it on their refrigerator to return to your online store at some point.

Find Companies in Your Industry and Cross-Promote

This usually comes in the form of guest blog posts, but thatโ€™s not exactly what Iโ€™m talking about here. Chances are you have various other companies in your industry (or not in your industry) with which you can cross-promote with.

I recently went to a hardware store open house where they gave away free pizza. Each plate had a little slip of paper with an ad for the pizza shop that donated the pizza. How can this work with online shops? Consider giving some free items to another store in your industry. When that store makes sales they can give these out for free and mention your store during the sale. Those customers are then pushed to your store for more traffic!

Accept Videos and Images of Customers Using Your Products

Images and videos

Hair and Makeup by Steph is a wedding hair stylist company that constantly shares images of customers who have recently gotten their hair done by the company. This isnโ€™t exactly an online store, but it shows how powerful sharing images and videos on social media can be.

When potential customers see that real people are satisfied with your products, they are more likely to head over to your online shop and start buying.

Publish Comprehensive eBook Guides to Your Products and Sell Them on Amazon

Publish eBooks

This technique has two options. You can sell your books on Amazon or just give them away for free on your website. MailChimp has a wonderful Resources area with dozens of high-quality eBooks that outline everything from Common Rookie Mistakes to MailChimp for Musicians.

The key is to stray away from creating yet another short, useless eBook. These need to be worthy of publication – Guides that are filled with content and make people want to share the books with other potential customers. If you go with the Amazon route, and the books are actually good, you open your company up to every single person who goes on Amazon to shop.

Turn Your Brand into a Case Study

Brand into a Case Study

In the article How 7 Companies Increased Revenue by an Average of 425% we get to read a few case studies on companies that turned around their profit margins based on a few simple changes.

How does this apply to you? You can turn your brand into a case study as well. The key is to create a goal (profits, margins, sales, return customers) and document how you eventually achieve that goal. Write up the story and send it out to blogs in the industry. If the story is intriguing enough you will get all the press you can imagine.

Take Advantage of Deals Websites to Guarantee Sales with Your Marketing

Raw Generation

Raw Generation is a raw juice company, and they take deal sites quite seriously. The brand saw that deal sites provide quality marketing, but they have a primary advantage over traditional marketing: You receive guaranteed sales for what you pay for.

Basically, you only pay for the marketing when someone buys one of the deals. Although your margins may not be all that large, it brings in lots of customers who may come back for more.

Interview the Top Dogs

Interview

Image credits: Kevin Krejci/Flickr

We all know that blogging is great for online business. You donโ€™t need another speech on that. However, what you may need is a tip on what type of content to produce that will bring in customers.

Consider focusing the majority of your blog posts on interviews with the big dogs in your industry, or just big dogs in general business. This way, once the article goes live, you may receive a social media share from that famous person, who most likely has lots of followers. Not to mention, more people are willing to click on a blog post when itโ€™s an interview about someone they admire.

Image Credits: Phil Roeder, jamiesrabbits, kevin krejci

Feature image curtsey of ranganath krishnamani

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