8 Hacks to Boost Traffic & Sales Today

Want to make 2018 your best year yet? Yes of course you do! By increasing the amount of targeted traffic to your store and optimizing your store for shoppers, you can increase your sales to make this year a cash-cow.

As we know, some traffic generators such as SEO is a long-term game, but there are a number of ways you can increase your targeted traffic today to help you start off the year right. And once you have the right traffic, there are things you can do to instantly turn that traffic to gold.

So without further ado, here are the 8 hacks to boost traffic and sales today!

1. Use Your Packaging to Increase Sales & Win Traffic

After-sales service, when done right, not only builds those loyal lifetime customers, but can generate a lot of sales. The psychology behind it is fairly simple: how do you capitalize on the moment when someone receives your product and is super happy? It can be as straightforward as putting coupon inserts into the packaging that offer the buyer extra discounts, or as creative as what one of my favorite online stores, Happy Socks, does.

I recently ordered some of their gift box sets (I have a little bit of a sock fetish…) On their packaging they include their branded hashtag which allows happy customers, like me, who have just received their order to take pics and share. We all know how UGC (user generated content) can drive traffic and sales. Being able to prompt people at that moment to share can be a lot more effective than asking for reviews or content after the fact via email.

2. Get More Traffic With Influencers

Influencer marketing is all the rage and definitely a 2018 eCommerce trend to watch. Influencer marketing is user-generated content on steroids and can have amazing results.  Influencer marketing allows you to put your products front and center to niche markets in your niche; all by utilizing an already popular account. The reason why this kind of marketing is so great for generating highly targeted traffic is that you’re accessing very segmented target audiences linked to micro influencers within that niche’s online community.

With great platforms such as Tribe, you can be linked with an influencer in your niche quickly and easily and begin generating more traffic in no time.

Bonus Tips: Beginners Guide to Instagram Influencer Marketing for Online Store Owner

3. Help Your Way into More Traffic

If you’ve been following our blog you know we say it a lot: being an authority or expert in your niche is fundamental in driving people to your site. You also probably know that the key to being an expert is in your content marketing plan. However, what you may not have thought of is guest posting. Think of UGC, and turn it on it’s head. Guest posting is where you approach other online blogs and submit a guest post to their site.

Now, the key to being successful with this is twofold:

• Stay in Your Lane

Approach online publications/blogs that are within your niche. For example, if you’re selling hair care products, approach beauty bloggers with articles such as “Five Tips to Beautiful Hair.” Before submitting your posts make sure that your content suits their target audience.

• Don’t Send Spamy Posts

This is not about hard-sell, this is about providing valuable, helpful content that the readers of that blog will read. So make sure you know the sites’ guidelines before you submit to save disappointment.

Pro Tip: Getting your content on high-traffic blogs is another form of that good-old influencer marketing we were talking about. Therefore it’s worth the investment in freelancing your guest posts out. Hop over to our eCommerce Entrepreneur’s Guide to Finding Freelancers to guide you through your search.

4. Change Your Email Marketing Strategy

The year 2018 is all about segmenting. Segmenting with influencers in small niches, segmenting by using AdWords remarketing tactics and segmenting with Facebook Messenger ads. Why? Because personalization is the key to upping your sales this year. And your email marketing is no different.  Did you know that there were  269 billion  emails sent last year? If you want to stand out, personalization is a must.  

What you want to do is make sure your specific emails such as abandoned cart emails are automated and for the rest be far more specific in your targeting. Send promotional emails specifically designed for shoppers who have bought those products from you before, or who have very similar geographical profiles. The key is more segmentation, because segmentation means the emails are designed specifically for the reader and therefore will generate more targeted traffic. And as we know, targeted traffic means more sales.

Bonus: Monitor These 5 Email Marketing Metrics for Sales Success 

5. Automate Your AdWords Campaigns

AdWords is still one of your top traffic drivers, although it can seem like a lot of work to keep your campaigns optimized for great results. Most small business owners who are doing most of the work themselves, just don’t have the time to keep a close eye on their campaigns. However, there is an easy fix for this with AdWords automation options. Automation rules will help you optimize your campaigns by adjusting bids and editing campaigns for you. This video guide will help you set it up.

Alternatively give apps such as our Traffic Booster a try which will run, automate, optimize and manage your campaigns for you at an expert level, for a fraction of the costs that an agency will cost.

Pro Tip:

Are you bidding on your own brand names yet? If you aren’t, you should be. Find out how branded keywords help bring in more traffic and convert more sales here: Why Do I Need to Bid on Branded Keyword Terms?

6. Add Subscription Options to Any Store

One of the hottest trends this year is subscription services. Subscriptions mean repeat business, repeat business means staying fresh in the minds of your shoppers and also more UGC opportunities. Now before you shake your head and say it doesn’t fit into your traditional model, think again. I touched on it briefly in my last blog post, but the idea is to add some subscriptions to your existing product base.

Here are some ideas to get you started: Think of something, within the niche you’re selling, that people could use more than once (such as what Dollar Shave Club does with their razors) and build subscription packages around that. Obviously if you’re in the fashion niche, you wouldn’t be sending the same thing twice. Instead, you could start an “accessory package” where people sign up for accessory subscriptions where they get a surprise purse or scarf for the upcoming season.

7. Change Email Subscriptions to Social Follows

It’s time to rethink your pop-ups. By using apps like Coupon Pop you can turn web-traffic into social followers. The beauty of this, unlike email subscriptions that only target one person, is that more social followers means more content likes and shares, which ultimately is a kind of brand exposure that email can not offer you.

Plus, I don’t know about you, but I am getting more and more guarded on who I give my email address too – when there are 260 billion emails being sent yearly, can you blame me? Meaning when I am faced with a pop up asking me to subscribe I am less likely to sign up than If I have to be giving away my email address.

8. Shoot a Product Video

Last, but by no way least, get out your phone and shoot a product video. Yes, right now. Today. Shoot your video and post it! At the end of last year Proven Audience Formula ‘How to get 8 million Facebook Views with an Amature Video’ and demonstrated how their single, short, home-made video took them from selling one to two units per day to 150+ units a day. That isn’t small potatoes.

If you are waiting for a budget to hire videographers, you are missing the point big time. This is where small businesses have an equal playing field with the big guys: Content! The content king Gary V has been saying this for years with his ‘Don’t Create, Document’ philosophy. Don’t know it? Here’s his video to get you inspired:

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There you have it, 8 ways you can get traffic to your store and make those sales. If you do just one thing on this list this week, you are well on your way to being the most successful you can be this year. You’ve got this!

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