The digital revolution has made it easier and easier for companies to not only function online but to sell online too. As the internet has expanded and become more and more dominant in daily life, it has allowed companies to reach larger audiences and dig into markets that they had never reached before.
Research has shown that almost 25% of the entire global population will be shopping online by the end of 2019. That is 1.92 billion people making online purchases worldwide. eCommerce will, by the end of this year, make up for 13.7% of total retail sales worldwide!
But the growth continues to be exponential. It is estimated that by 2040, over 90% of people will be shopping online and all companies, no matter how big or small will be conducting some kind of business online. So, how do you claim a piece of the pie? The fact is, whether you are an e-commerce store or merely advertising your products and services online, there is an unparalleled room for growth over the next few years, and you need to know how to tap into that. Here are our key strategies that you can be used to drive quality traffic to your site.
Video Content
Content, and video content, in particular, are one of the highest drivers of traffic to sites today. The trick with content like video content is that you have to get it just right. Statistics show that 80% of marketers use visual content like images and video to drive traffic. Not only does the video need to be high quality, but it needs to have a level of education and be informative in order for the viewer to gain something out of it.
The only videos that are watched and shared are the ones that make an impact in the viewer's life. Take time to record and create videos that have a key message behind them, that educate the viewer and that look visually appealing.
You can then share it across various social media platforms. The trick is to post it as often and on as many platforms as possible for maximum reach. But to drive traffic to your site, it is advisable to include a Youtube end screen at the end of the video to encourage people to click through to your site.
Regular and Resonating Mailers
Email newsletters are a key part of any company, especially online businesses. Many companies claim that their main source of traffic daily are from their daily mailers. The mailers need to have several key elements in place to be successful:
- Catchy subject line;
- Fulfilling content;
- Balance of attractive images and text;
- Interesting and useful content that the reader can take away from;
- Highly functional CTA's and banners.
The trick for most companies is to test and test the mailers and the content. Keep checking the open rates of the mailers every time you try something new to see whether to keep doing that or to move on to the new strategy. Google Analytic metrics are the best way to track how much traffic comes from your mailers. You can also track the open rates through the email platform itself. Content and subject lines are vital, and if you can get away with it, try the same content with different subject lines to see what gets opened more. AB testing is the only way you are going to increase your open rate.
The CTA's and banners need to be strong enough to drive the reader directly through to your site, so make sure that you include banners to sales and discounts and special offers that your customer wouldn't want to pass up.
Monitor Your Traffic To Increase It
Right, so you have your social platforms and mailers performing. The only way that you know what is working, and what to keep putting work into is through monitoring your traffic. Google analytics is the best way to track every single visitor that comes to your site, where they land and what path they take through your site.
Knowing where your traffic comes from means that you can more emphasis on that source. As mentioned, mailers are usually one of the highest traffic drivers, so watch GA when a good mailer goes out to make sure that the traffic jumps. Traffic can come from your social platforms, paid search or even your referrals. Keep an eye on all of these every day and if you see traffic waning a bit, try boosting a post on social for a while to increase it for the day.
Organic traffic is certainly one of the trickiest and more uncontrollable sources of traffic that you can monitor. Most people simply do not know how people organically come to their website. There are are a number of ways that you can, however, make sure that your organic traffic is kept at a permanent high.
- Have a memorable website name. Not only does your name need to relate to your services and products, but it needs to be catchy and memorable enough to for people to search it. It also helps if the product or service is part of the name.
- Optimize your website for SEO. Content here is a vital part of SEO. Make sure that all of your pages contain the right keywords to rank highly in Google. Check your bounce rates to as these will massively impact where you sit on the search page.
- Marketing works. Whether it be paid search, banner ads or traditional marketing. You need to keep in mind that someone might see your brand or your product and come back to search for you in a few days or weeks. Keep your finger on the marketing pulse!
Wrapping Up
In wrapping up, it is vital to know where your traffic is coming from, how it is behaving and how it is impacting your business. Not only can you start putting more effort behind the well-performing sources, but you can start creating strategies to get more traffic out of the lower performing ones. Make sure you look at your site as a customer in order to see where how you would behave on your website. You can ascertain how customers would work and function on the site and plot the best way forward for them and optimize that on your site.
