Organic traffic

Some would say a digital presence is about the most important thing there is these days. Plenty of people do set up an Instagram or a Facebook page to promote themselves — but are they using what those platforms can actually do? Many will tell you Facebook is all but dead, and yet it remains one of the main places online shops are promoted. So is Instagram. Which means making content shaped for the audience you want, and planning posts that match your voice and the way your brand looks. 

Social media also works as a channel to talk to customers. One good comment can bring new sales and new people. 

Another point we have made here more than once is search engine optimisation. SEO matters to any digital business, because a great many people look for products and shops through a search. Search engines try to serve the page that best answers what was typed in. In a field this crowded, the ones that stand out are those who build the site and the content best. 

Which is why so many sites have a blog. Tied directly to your shop, it can raise traffic to the site — as long as the writing is genuinely useful to people who might want your products later. Content marketing is an excellent organic way to attract readers and keep them. Over time, with a body of published work behind it, your brand can become the reference on the subject, which widens both its standing and its reach.

Paid traffic

The unpaid options are above. If there is money to invest, though, other routes open up. Paid traffic brings more prospective customers to the top of your funnel, and two tools will become your closest friends: Google Ads and Facebook Business (which runs the ads on Facebook and Instagram). Hiring a digital marketing agency helps a great deal here, on top of everything else that kind of experience brings — a better return on what you spend, among other things. With that return, and the agency alongside you, the company enters a new phase in how it is organised and planned. 

Now suppose someone comes into your shop. They were interested, they browsed the products, and they left without buying. Was all the effort spent on them wasted? No — this is where remarketing comes in. It is a set of tactics for reaching people who have already looked for your product, whether through search or through your marketing. It can run through display on sponsored links, through email, even through social media. The point is to convert the person who is already flirting with your products.

Know your market and your customers

Joining a marketplace is worth considering too. It lends your brand credibility and widens your reach, and for a new shop it can be essential: your product sits in a place that already has plenty of visitors. Beyond reaching more people, you get the benefit of the marketplace's own marketing and remarketing. Once people know your product and your shop, the first customers start arriving. Offer them exclusive discount codes and promotions on their next purchase. Online, discounts, codes and free delivery are strong nudges for someone who was planning to buy eventually but not today.

Two other techniques matter here: cross-selling and upselling. Cross-selling means offering socks to someone buying trainers. Related products raise the average order value — though the additions should cost less than the main item. Upselling means nudging the customer towards a better version of what they are already buying: if they add a popular product to the basket, the shop can suggest a fuller, pricier one with a decent discount on it.

Be good at selling

Being good at selling is a broad idea and hard to pin down. By now, though, we know it is not defined only by how you sell. Some would say what happens after the sale matters more than the sale, because that is where a customer becomes a returning one. 

So find ways to invite people back. Email is another way of letting customers know about offers and discounts: you can show what is new, always segmented according to your list and what the purchases themselves revealed.

Whichever route you take, what matters is keeping the relationship going. Encourage customers to leave feedback and reviews of the products and the delivery. It improves the business, and it shows people that their opinion and their satisfaction count. The answer to a new customer's question is often sitting in an old customer's comment. 

Part of selling well is keeping an eye on the calendar. Holidays are strong triggers for buying, particularly at the last minute, and handled properly they can lift sales noticeably. Think how many people buy presents for Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's, Christmas. Understand your market and how those dates can help you sell.

Beyond the four ways

Once our team has built your shop properly, a great deal of information about the business starts coming in. Sales, sign-ups, leads — what to do with all of it? At Manáry Digital we also build e-commerce and the whole digital strategy behind selling online. We also specialise in growth hacking, an approach that leans heavily on data. Growth hackers are always after small, unconventional shortcuts with high potential and low cost, because technology gives a clearer view of what actually drives conversions — and therefore where time, energy and money belong.

If you want to read more on the difference between growth hacking and traditional marketing, click here. 

We are ready to make growing your business easier and your processes quicker. To lift your online sales we use tools and plugins that shape everything the way you want it and push your conversions up. With customer relationship and resource management software behind it, your shop moves up a level, with the customer's path to purchase and their behaviour always in view. 

Want to know more? Click the button below and talk to someone on the Manáry Digital team.