Traffic was great now crickets!

[WeeBoxofCheer]

Evening guys - so we launched a few weeks ago - great traffic to start - few sales and now we hear the crickets. Few visitors each day and cart adds, but no follow through. We have a presence on FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram - which we are slowly building. Any thoughts? Advise? Thanks so much for your input guys!

https://weeboxofcheer.com/

[Aria]

Hey!

Aria here, I'm on the Social Care team at Shopify.

First of all, your store looks great! I love your product idea. The main thing you need to do now is to build your Social Media presence and drive a lot more traffic to your store.

Keep in mind, a good conversion rate is considered to be about 2 - 4 %. This means you need to have about 1000 visitors in a month to realistically receive between 20 and 40 orders.

When it comes to growing your Facebook presence, paid ads is definitely the fastest method. I would start with a Like campaign to build your page likes before you focus too much on product campaigns.

It's a lot harder to target your ads to a gift buying audience than it is with other products but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Check out the following guides for some ideas:

• How to Target Gift Audiences on Facebook for the Holiday Season
• 25 Weirdly Specific Facebook Ads Targeting Ideas You Didn’t Know Existed

Instagram marketing can potentially be more cost-effective than Facebook marketing (although I'd certainly suggest doing both). To help get you started, have a look at Instagram Marketing 101: Using Hashtags, Stories, and More to Grow Your Business. I'd also recommend you sign up for the free Instagram Marketing course on Shopify Academy.

I think your particular product is especially suited to Influencer Marketing. I would suggest starting with micro-influencers with a high engagement rate. Typically, they would have between 2000 and 10,000 followers on Instagram. If you can find influencers who have a presence on both YouTube and Instagram, that would be ideal. You'd be looking for people who will do an unboxing video that you can then use on your own store and Social Media. I would offer them free product, rather than payment but depending on your profit margins, it can also be a good idea to create an affiliate program to offer them commission on sales they drive to your store. This can encourage them to give you more exposure than they may do for free product alone. This tool is useful for calculating the engagement rate of an Instagram influencer. I would create a shortlist of people you want to reach out to and calculate their engagement before you do. I would suggest looking for people who have an engagement rate of 5 - 6% at least but the higher the better. Have a listen to our Podcast, The Case for Partnering with Influencers While They're Still Small.

I realize this can all be overwhelming. When you're starting out in business, marketing is the most time-consuming part and a lot of it is trial and error. You may want to consider getting some help. GenM is a great organization who provide free marketing training to students. Businesses can sign up for $49 per month to have a marketing apprentice work with them for ten hours per week.

What other strategies have you been using so far? What has been working best for you?

Aria
Social Care Guru
Shopify

[spiffystack]

Check into how to target with the product(s) (gift(s) that go in the box).  A gift box is often an impromptu decision, a belated gift, or an advance notice gift.  Makes it difficult to simply use facebook / instagram / etc.  Try doing a consumer survey of where gift boxes are bought online, and look for sites that freely or low-cost advertise such a product visibly.  I made a facebook business page for my non-launched site in the past week, and one day there were 11-12 visits, and all other days had no visits since I made it.  I haven't done an ad campaign, posted it to my feed, or anything; I only created the page and wrote a description, and added a few pictures of a product (headphones).  So, facebook is a gamble at the low-cost spectrum.  Try content curation sites, and group or 'tribe' - based community type web sites.  How about submitting the site to search directories and engines?

[WeeBoxofCheer]

Hey Aria - thanks so much for taking the time to review site and offer suggestions - you have been truly helpful! I will be sifting through all the links you mentioned and implementing some of your ideas. We have currently been engaging on Twitter, FB, Instagram, Pinterest, email marketing but of course our audience is small. I will def be regrouping on the FB ads and push for Likes rather than direct hits to site.

Thanks again for the insight!
Cheers!
Lisa

[WeeBoxofCheer]

Great ideas! Thanks so much for the input - recently joined some groups on FB and getting involved there. Hey good luck onm your site luanch - all the best to you!
Cheers!
Lsia

[spiffystack]

You're welcome.  It's best to dodge certain internet gaps in increasing visibility / exposure.  There's a ton of ads on google, facebook, instagram, pinterest, and the like, so it's essential to target and acquire a space that doesn't compete so heavily with those popular channels.  That's my tactical concept anyway.

[Aria]

Hey, Lisa!

You're welcome!

I'm glad it gave you some things to work on. I'm excited to get an update once you're a bit further along. 

Aria
Social Care Guru
Shopify`