So, you have your business up and running, your website is looking good, and you are starting to get a stream of customers in. One of the most prominent questions asked by most business owners and marketers is how to firstly double the amount of traffic to their site, and secondly, how to convert that traffic to leads.
Over the last decade, there has been a very steady increase in digital shopping and online consumer engagement. But, with the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, eCommerce in all of its forms, has reached all-new, unexpected heights. eCommerce stores have actually likened the increase of traffic and sales during the lockdown periods to that of Black Friday rushes, and most have seen unparalleled surges in customer visits.
Research shows that globally, retail website visits soared from 16 billion visits in January 2020 to over 22 billion visits in June. This unprecedented growth in traffic is also not expected to dwindle anytime soon, and experts are claiming that the face of eCommerce has changed forever.
You might be asking yourself, how do I get in on this, and how can I start pushing that kind of traffic to my site? We unpacked some of the key ways that marketers from some of the most successful sites have managed to capitalize on the current global trends and doubled, and even tripled their traffic.
They Have Paid Attention to Their Data
Data and metrics are a key aspect of your business, and if you are not paying attention to what is going on behind the scenes on your site, you are most certainly losing out. Let’s break it down into simpler terms. Having everything digitalized means that you can actually track and measure everything that is happening on your site. Unlike previously, you don’t need to rely on asking customers what they want and trying to fish for their thoughts.
Now, you can actually track, measure, test, and monitor how your customers are behaving and what they are actually doing on your site. So, if you change a key image on your landing page, or a CTA on your product page, you can monitor how your customer responds to it and ascertain whether they are reacting positively to it.
This is where process mining comes in. What is process mining, you may ask? Data and key statistics make up the key elements of process mining in the digital marketing realm. Process mining essentially uses digital footprints from your site and from the relevant traffic to improve processes and operations. Because it is using real-life data, you can have an accurate view of your customer’s preferences.
Content Plays A Key Role in Digital Marketing
We cannot overstate just how important content is in your marketing strategy. Content needs to be the basis of all marketing campaigns and processes that are executed in your business. But, the trick is, to make the content informative, relevant, educational, entertaining, and empowering for your customer.
Create a content calendar at the beginning of the year, marking down all key seasonal events, holidays, and absolutely anything during the year that might be relevant to your brand. Each month you can flesh it out further from there, and create intricate and relevant content campaigns that integrate your products.
Let’s say that you are an organic food retailer. Keeping key events like Thanksgiving, the festive season, and various seasons in mind when creating content is key. Writing blogs and articles that are informative and educational will not only increase your SEO rankings but will draw customers to your site to actually learn something.
5 Reasons Why You Are Not Losing Weight or How To Add Superfoods To Your Diet Without Breaking the Bank would be highly sought after content. They would also be rich with relevant keywords, so they would rank on search engines, and you will be able to slip in a CTA with a link directly to a product page. And luckily, that product just happens to be on special. What are the chances?
They Make SEO A Very Big Deal
Statistics show that 54% of all traffic to your site comes in organically. That means, that people are looking for your types of products and services and are finding them in the search engines. Well, if you are paying attention to your SEO, that is.
Search engines like Google regularly scrape your site to ascertain where to rank you on the search results. It will look for repetitive keywords and phrases to understand how to categorize you and where you should be listed in comparison to your competitors.
But it doesn’t just end at keywords, unfortunately. SEO can be quite intricate, but once you start getting the basics right, you can start paying attention to the other vital aspects. Here is a useful, but basic checklist:
- Take a look at the size of your images on your site. They need to be high quality, but they also need to be sized correctly. If they are too big, your site will take too long to load and your customer will bounce;
- When it comes to your articles and blogs, pay attention to your SEO. If you are using WordPress, Yoast is usually incredibly helpful with getting it right, but if not, there are a few key rules. Make sure your headings and subheadings are optimized and contain the keyword. Add a keyword-rich description to your image, and make sure that the URL is simple, short and, you got it, contains that keyword.
- Pay attention to link building. Writing and posting articles on your site will only get you so far. The next thing would be actually getting it out to other sites. Not only will their audience see your posts and your brand, but Google will see that you are affiliated to another, relevant site, and rank you accordingly. The trick here? Quality over quantity! Make sure you are linking to authoritative sites that actually have a good reputation. Google does actually care about that, so if you have a good relationship with a solid site, you will find your organic traffic start increasing significantly.
Wrapping Up
Keep in mind, when constructing your site, and mapping out your strategies, just how important the customer journey is. Whether they are entering your site from a search engine, or have found you on social media, each and every touchpoint is key for your customer. Not only do they need to reflect your brand and key messaging, but each part of the journey needs to be effectively structured to entice your customer to buy, and become a loyal fan.
Make changes regularly to your site. Google will have to re-scrape the site, and rerank you, and you can monitor whether your customer reacts positively to the change or not. Even the smallest changes could increase your conversion rates monumentally.
