6 Ways To Promote Your Online Store
Starting an own online store is a dream for many people. Others already run a local business and realized this year, that an online store can be an independent and secure source of income in addition to the stationary trade. Unfortunately, many merchants imagine that an online store is a self-runner and attracts its visitors virtually "by itself". But especially if you don't have a local store, it takes time for the store to become popular. With the right measures you can speed up this process and make sure that your store becomes popular and attracts visitors.
If you want to increase your attendances, you've come to the right place. To help you with this basic task, we have identified 6 ways to promote your online store. As always, we hope you enjoy reading and that these strategies will help you to get more visitors!
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
To make your store and your individual products more visible, this point is of particular importance to promote your store. Customers from all over the world regularly start their shopping tour via Google search. So it is even more important that you try to be displayed at the top of the list. A matching meta-title and a clear meta-description can quickly help you to increase your visibility and ranking.
The meta description is the text that appears beneath the meta title when you google something specific. The title should be as accurate as possible and not exceed 65 characters. The meta description, on the other hand, can contain up to 156 characters and should give the customer a preview of what to expect when he clicks on the link and opens your store.
Put yourself in the customer's place and ask yourself what the customer wants to read. In a subconscious process of a few seconds, the human eye roughly skims over the content of the individual descriptions and decides which link fits best to what was being searched for.
With branchbob you can edit them without having to program yourself - but you can easily enter your description to the homepage of your store and to each product. More "Do's and Dont's" can be found in our helpcenter article.
Online stores therefore have a wide range of possibilities to optimize their internet presence for search engines. In addition to these technical SEO measures, you can also create detailed category texts with important keywords that Google users could search for and optimize your product descriptions for Google.
2. Google Ads
Besides SEO you should focus on search engine advertising (SEA). With Google Ads you can give your search engine marketing the final touch. Here you can promote your store to the first page using Google Ads. And the best thing about it: You set the price here! Google Ads is based on bids and you only have to pay for actual clicks on your ad.
You place bids for keywords that match your store. The higher the amount of money you are willing to pay per click on your ad, the higher your ad will be rated. You can enter your daily budget and as soon as it is reached, your ad will be deactivated.
Search engine advertising with Google Ads offers a simple and inexpensive way to promote your store on Google. You always keep the financial overview and receive all data in real time.
3. Shopping Feed & Google Retail
The activation of Google Shopping Feed is also suitable for this. It's a good idea from many points of view. You can make your store more accessible and improve your ranking. Most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to use services like Google Ads or sign up for a Google Shopping category.
branchbob explains you how to integrate the shopping feed very easily. In addition, Google for Retail offers you different possibilities to promote your store. For example, you can store your products here and make it easier for customers to discover your store online. You can also place paid advertising. Here you can flexibly determine some search terms under which your store should be found particularly well.
Finally, according to the Google/Ipsos Global Retail Study, 63% of users in Germany use Google to look at products that they would like to buy later in a store or online. So take as many chances as possible to promote your store via Google!
4. Your own blog
An own blog is always a good idea to promote your shop. Starting your own blog and maintaining it is hard work that can be worth it, if it is done right. Be aware that you have to invest a lot of time for this. branchbob reports here from its own experience. We run this blog with a lot of passion and a lot of time spent.
The reasons for a blog are obvious:
-advertising and promoting your store
-presentation of product information and news
-search engine optimization
-customer loyalty
If you frequently publish interesting and up-to-date content that interacts with your store or fits into your subject area, Google algorithms will classify your website as up-to-date. Blog posts therefore increase the chance that users will come to your website and, ideally, browse through your store afterwards. Therefore a certain connection should always be present.
With a good blog you can position your store as a brand and bind returning visitors. Think about topics that could be interesting for your target group. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential buyers and think about what they might be looking for and what they are interested in. This will ease your decision about choosing topics.
The blog articles should fit your target group as well as your product portfolio and ideally build a connection to the reader. Reports about the materials you use, your production countries, a look behind the scenes and at the company history or industry events may be first food of thought for you.
5. Social Media
Of course this topic should not be missing. Social Media is important to make your store popular. However, many retailers who do not use social media privately fail to understand the actual potential for promoting their online store. A presence on various channels like Instagram pays off and offers many opportunities to promote your store and your products. From the beginning, it is important to go live with your social media marketing efforts. So you should be present on all relevant platforms.
Nice pictures of your products with popular hashtags can already attract some leads via Instagram. This also gives you the opportunity to build your own community. You can keep your community happy with raffles and keep them informed about news. The relevance of Instagram for eCommerce is therefore not surprisingly considered very high.
Another possibility is the cooperation with influencers. You don't necessarily have to concentrate on the big names in the scene. It is enough if you concentrate on smaller influencers that also fit to your store. They can make their already built community even more aware of your store, because the influencer's typical content does not need to be changed.
Last but not least, you can also place paid ads on social media. Don't worry, you don't have to spend a fortune on this. Even a small budget is enough to increase your reach in social media.
6. E-Mail Marketing
We believe that e-mail marketing is an underestimated medium of communication. If you offer your customer the possibility to login to your online store, e-mail marketing is exactly the right thing for you! You can inform your registered customers about new products and offers or reward them with discounts in the form of discount coupons, e.g. with the branchbob Coupons App.
The most important thing is that you draw your customers' attention to your products with good texts and nice pictures. Pay attention to the correct spelling and the right choice of pictures. Link your products so that your customers don't have to search for long and are directly forwarded to your articles.
Besides these things it is also important to ensure a certain continuity. You don't have to overwhelm your customers with new mails every day. It is enough to inform them about news in regular intervals, for example once a week.
These were our 6 ways how to promote your online store. With these tips you can increase the reach of your online stores and attract more potential customers. We hope you liked the article and wish you a lot of fun while implementing these tips!
Your branchbob team!