SEO, AdWords, affiliates, advertising, and promotions
Hello everyone,
I have launched my first online business, and I'm still not getting any visitors nor sales.
Can someone please help me with the marketing
Thank you
Hey ,
I've been there, the hardest part, and the first step, is to get traffic to your online store.
Here are my favorite free ways to get traffic to your online store:
1. Facebook Community
According to Statista, there are 223 million Facebook users in the United States in 2020. It means business owners should make the best use of this social platform not to lose potential traffic.
If you don’t have a budget for Facebook ads, then Facebook Community will be your best free way to earn traffic here. There are two ways for this kind of approach:
Join relevant Facebook groups
You can find various groups for any niche on Facebook. If you are selling furniture, communities that are about architecture or interior design will be appropriate. Once you become part of such groups, try to be as active as possible by commenting on posts or write yours. Do remember to attach the link back to your site in any post/comment. Showing it in your account profile is also highly recommended.
If your posts are engaging and informative, lots of people will read and interact with them. From that, you drive more traffic to your website.
Create your own Facebook group
This idea requires much effort and time because it won’t take effect immediately. You will have to build a community from scratch by planning the group’s content, attracting members, and managing. Tips for creating a successful group are:
2. Join relevant Reddit threads
As a business owner, you can’t ignore this large source of potential viewers. Reddit has about 542 million visitors per month, and here are some steps you can follow to drive more traffic to your money site.
3. Answer questions on Quora
Like Reddit, Quora allows users to raise matters and have them discussed by the community. It is undeniably the biggest Q&A site you can find now. A powerful way to get traffic from this site is to answer questions like an expert. So, here are tips to be pro as such.
An example of answers that have a good readability.
4. Leverage visual content for Pinterest (buyable Pins)
In case you don’t know, Pinterest is much more than just a source of images. It allows users to market their products by using a feature called buyable Pins. In short, Pins are bookmarks where people save ideas they love on Pinterest. Steps for beginners are as simple as what we cover below:
Step 1: Sign up for a business account
Create one at http://business.pinterest.com. Once you’ve done, go straight to review Pinterest's Buyable Pins guidelines, which provides information on sellable products, setting up your profile, and customer service.
Step 2: Add buyable Pins to your account
After you get the approval for buyable pins on Pinterest, it’s time to start adding items to the platform via pinterest.com/YourUsername/_products. This board (category) can be seen by you only.
Step 3: Market your products
Now, your goal is to get your pins found. Follow these tips to make the best use of them:
You will get more traffic when people click the website link showing next to each image.
5. Optimize for Search Engine (SEO)
Marketers must be familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of increasing organic traffic to your site through search engines (e.g., Google) by optimizing the website’s content. It is a long-term strategy that most businesses leverage. SEO tactics vary, but the most significant ones are:
6. YouTube video
One of the best ways to increase traffic for your website is through YouTube. Like any social platform, YouTube is a place for people to get to know your brand, but it offers some advantages over Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
The website link shown in the description helps drive traffic to the site.
7. Content Exchange/Guest Blogging
Like Earn Backlinks strategy, content exchange/guest blogging means publishing blog posts on third-party websites to earn organic traffic for your brand. Generally, we need to: 1) Define appropriate sites, and 2) Persuade them to publish your blog post. We break it into steps as below:
Step 1: Identify reputable sites
The easiest way is to search Google for keywords regarding your business field. If you own a furniture company, you can type “interior design” and pay attention to the top 10 websites that appear to be content publishers rather than money sites in search results. Besides, you can use your network to get the list of authority sites in your industry.
Step 2: Outreach
After choosing suitable publishers, now you have to email them to pitch the idea. In your email, basic things need including are:
Step 3: Write & share
Once you get your proposal accepted, start writing your blog posts and send them to your partners. A guest post that touches customers’ insights will benefit both your website and the publisher.
8. Build An Email List and Send Out an Email Marketing
Email marketing is a way of driving traffic to your website that marketers can't miss. According to Statista, there are 254 million email users in the United States in 2020. Although the game is now relatively competitive, not many people are doing it well. Here are five tips for you to get started:
9. Instagram marketing
One of the best ways to drive website traffic is through social media. Statista’s research shows that the United States ranked first for the number of Instagram users (130 million) as of July 2020. To utilize this social network’s traffic potential, here are what you need to do:
(Photo: plannthat.com)
As a beginner, you may have no idea what to post on social media. In this case, the best practice is learning from successful brands in the field!
10. Publish regularly on Medium
Unlike social media networks, where people hardly invest time in writing, Medium is a publishing platform where you find great content delivered by dynamic thinkers and experts. If you want to drive traffic from this site, make sure you will be devoted to every piece of content. Below are tips to get started with Medium.
11. Reach out to your prospect on Linkedin
Marketers often flock to Linkedin when it comes to hiring someone. But trust me, with 170 million users in the U.S, Linkedin is a powerful social networking platform for driving traffic to your site. You must be interested in the tips I cover below.
12. Get listed on free marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon Handmade - for handmade products.
Here is good news for handmade businesses: You have to pay a zero listing fee on Amazon and Etsy, which are the largest marketplaces for handcrafted items in the U.S!
When you get your products listed on these platforms, your store will have more chances of appearing in the search results. Visitors to your product page might then be the traffic to your website.
To get started on selling Amazon Handmade, you have to follow a simple process:
13. Get listed on popular platforms like G2, ProductHunt - for software, service, Saas.
For tech businesses, sites like G2 and Product Hunt are thrilling platforms to get featured. Without saying, they can be stunning ways to get more traffic for your website because G2 and Product Hunt are favorite places for tech enthusiasts. If you own cutting-edge software or services, you’ll want to know the perks of each site below.
G2
Generally, G2 offers fair opportunities to get well-known for all businesses. If you come here with passion and honesty, you will achieve what you deserve.
For detailed guidelines, here you go. To join the community, you only need a Facebook/Linkedin account or business email.
Product Hunt
The first thing you should know is Product Hunt focuses mainly on new tech. So yes, if you are a newcomer, you are fit. Then, you need to understand how the platform works by skimming its Terms of Service and FAQ. Once you’re all set, you can head to tips to drive traffic from this site.
14. Start a podcast
Podcasting is an online marketing tool that marketers utilize to promote a new product/service and increase website traffic. The content of a podcast can be about entertainment, education, or news. Hence, no matter what your industry is, there are endless stories you can tell to capture audiences’ interest. Here are fundamental steps to succeed with podcasting.
Step 1: Develop an insightful topic to attract subscribers to your channel.
Step 2: Produce your podcast.
Step 3: Use email marketing to inform people about your new product.
Step 4: Create an RSS (Rich Summary Text) Feed on your website to distribute your podcasts.
Step 5: Optimize your podcast so that interested listeners find it easily.
Step 6: Post a new podcast regularly to form customer habits.
15. Optimize your content for Voice Search
As people have increasingly used voice search (e.g., Siri) via smartphones and tablets, we need to learn its impact on SEO. Undoubtedly, optimizing your content for voice search is another way to drive traffic to the website.
But first, you must understand how it works. Because how we speak is different from how we type, voice search is more natural in tone and tends to be longer than text queries. So, the SEO of verbal content is not the same as that of written content. Now, let’s get started with tips!
16. Get listed on CrateJoy marketplace
An old-but-gold way to promote your site is through subscription boxes. Most of you might have heard about this term, but for those who haven’t, they are boxes of random gifts that are delivered to your house monthly in exchange for a subscription fee. In other words, it’s like giving yourself a present by being charged a fixed amount of money every month.
So, CrateJoy is a marketplace where your products go as gifts for such boxes. The eligible categories range from clothing, food & drink, home accessories to spiritual items. If the nature of your industry fits the platform, get started with no hesitation!
Though the exact process differs from person-to-person, the basics are:
Step 1: Sign up
CrateJoy offers a 14-day free trial, so try out to see if you like it. Once you decide to join, go ahead and start selling.
Step 2: Create your listing
To drive traffic to your CrateJoy’s store (and later your website), you must prepare a great listing that contains everything customers need to know. The must-haves are 1) clear and short box name, 2) High-quality photos of products and your branded box, 3) A concise, impressive description (link to website included), and 4) Shipping information (when their item will ship).
Step 3: Optimize your content
You must find SEO not strange anymore cause I’ve mentioned it several times in previous sections. Yes, you need to optimize every piece of content the way you do it for a blog post or a YouTube video.
17. Be different and create a viral marketing campaign that people have to talk about you
We nearly come to an end! In marketing life, all marketers dream of an overnight success campaign, which spreads like a virus. Businesses will earn a large amount of traffic to the website thanks to a viral video or story.
So, how can you be successful like that? The answer is there are no principles. Creativity has no boundaries, and the taste of people changes every day. But what I’m sure is, you need to be different.
Here are some examples of a viral marketing campaign.
This video of a Thailand insurance brand is a hit as it caught great attention from the public. The Silence of Love tells the story of a school girl bullied because her father is deaf-mute. She takes the ‘silent love’ for granted and regrets it in the end when her father died. Without saying, such touching TVC drives a lot of traffic for the brand because it gets people to share voluntarily.
This video touches people’s hearts due to its feel-good message: There are always loved ones waiting for you at home, so don’t drink and drive. The ads brought about 10.8 million views in just four days and generated high traffic for Budweiser.
18. Leverage Google Maps
Lastly, you can use Google Maps to make customers find you easily. When people search for a particular demand, relevant local businesses will appear on the results page. The link to these businesses’ website and address will show up next to the map. That’s how it works.
So, the first step is to claim your free listing in Google Places by going to https://www.google.com/business/. Once your listing is active there, you now have your business location marked on Google Maps.
Your business will appear like this.
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Hello!
What have you done so far to attract customers? Some things to think about are:
I hope this helps you a little bit to get started. But of course it makes sense to partner up with someone who has knowledge marketing similar products you are selling.
Hi,
1. Defining the customers and identify the right search criteria, Target your audience and you can also use facebook ads to find data you need and target audiences with similar interest.
2. You should segment your email campaigns to customize your emails for your users.
3. Marketing automation is very important to reach out to customers at precisely the right moment.
4. After creating the best content for your target audience, you should track your data to understand the most popular content on your website. These results will be helpful for your future posts and will increase sales.
5. You can reach your target audience through paid ads. It’s a quick way to increase your conversions and sales.
6. If you want to reach a specific audience that is searching for a respective service or product, SEM will be helpful.
7. Social networks are very helpful to maintain your brand’s fame.
Thanks!
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