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How to drive quality traffic to your eCommerce website

As an online business owner, one of your primary goals will be to attract as much website traffic as possible. However, one common eCommerce mistake is that many store owners simply focus on the number of website visitors, rather than the quality. Not all traffic is created equal and, in order to make as many sales as possible, you need to ensure you’re attracting the right kinds of internet users.

High-quality traffic should be made up of people who are genuinely interested in potentially paying for your products or services. And there are a number of tricks you can use to increase your chances of attracting the perfect online audience. Here, we’re going to outline exactly how you can drive quality traffic to your website for the best results. 

Make sure you target the right keywords on every webpage

Keywords are the terms and phrases that your ideal customers are typing into search engines when they’re looking for the types of products, services, or content you have on your website. Targeting the right ones can help you to climb the most relevant search engine results pages, making you a lot more visible on the likes of Google and helping you to reach more of your ideal customers.

If you want to optimize your website to drive more conversions, you need to be very strategic about which keywords you choose to target and where you place them on your website. This will then help you to attract the highest quality traffic possible.

To identify which keywords you should target on your website, you’ll need to use a specialist tool like the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer or SEMrush. Once you’ve chosen your platform, input some simple words that are relevant to what you do or sell. You’ll then be provided with a long list of terms that your audience often types into Google, along with their levels of competition and how many searches they receive each month. Put together a long list of popular keywords that are particularly relevant to your website, and you can then get to work on assigning different phrases to different web pages.

To avoid confusing search engines and ruining your chances of ranking well, you need to be very particular about which keywords you target where. For instance, you won’t want to target a specific phrase on multiple pages of your website, or search engines won’t know which page you want them to rank for similar queries. 

You also need to look out for both commercial and informational keywords. Commercial keywords indicate that someone intends to buy something straight away and should be targeted on selling pages, such as your eCommerce category or service pages. On the other hand, someone may be using informational or question keywords to do some research and might be looking for content that will help them to answer an important question or address a pain point. Phrases like this should be targeted in the content you publish on your company blog. 

By targeting the most appropriate keywords on every page of your website, you’ll attract the right people, provide them with exactly what they need, and make more sales as a result. 

Take full advantage of email marketing 

If you aren’t already focusing on building a mailing list of people who are interested in your products or services, it’s about time you started. Having the contact details of past customers or people who are already seriously considering buying from you is invaluable, as it gives you a direct line to the most relevant people when you launch a new product line, publish a new piece of content, or need to boost your sales.

Because people need to actively sign up to your mailing list to receive emails from you, this means you’ll essentially create a database of people who are primed and ready to hear more about what you sell. Therefore, by nature, your mailing list can be a fantastic source of high-quality website traffic. The people who click on any links you email to them will already be interested in what you sell, so giving them a reason to visit your website can be a great way to make more sales.

For the best results, you should email your mailing list on a regular basis and ensure you mix things up so you aren’t always sending promotional emails that encourage people to part with their money. You could also provide them with exclusive content, links to your blog articles, news about any sales you’re going to be running soon, and more. You need to provide as much value as possible if you want people to continue opening your emails and click on your website links when it really matters. 

Publish expert content that provides genuine value 

Another way you can attract high-quality traffic to your website is by consistently publishing content that you know your ideal audience will genuinely want to read. This will lower your website’s bounce rate and give visitors a reason to return to your website time and time again, increasing the chances of them eventually converting. Plus, it will give you the chance to show you truly understand your audience, which will help you to earn their trust and loyalty.

To identify the questions and pain points you need to be addressing in your content, again, you can use keyword research to find out what your ideal customers are researching. You could also speak to your customer service team to see if there are any relevant queries they get quite frequently, and even ask your audience directly through online surveys and social media polls to see what they would like to learn more about.

Doing this preliminary research will then allow you to create guides, tutorials, and helpful articles that will draw the right people to your website. To give you an idea of what this content might look like, let’s take a look at a few examples from businesses that are already using this tactic well.

The Tinker Law Firm PLLC is a law firm that specializes in cases of medical malpractice and birth injuries. So, they regularly populate their blog with content that answers any questions prospective clients might have about these kinds of cases.

They’ve covered a wide range of topics, including what is and isn’t considered to be medical malpractice, what to do if you think you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice, and what you need to know before launching a case against a medical institution. Prospective clients may first learn of the firm through its content while doing their own research, so it’s a great tool for driving the right traffic to their site. This means it’s very likely to help them increase their caseloads and secure more clients.

Using a similar technique could attract more of your target customers to your site, too. Write a long list of questions your audience tends to have and then aim to answer them in a series of blog posts. It’s an effective but subtle way to promote your services and will help you make more sales. 

ScrapingBee is another company that does a fantastic job of providing genuine value with their content, which is sure to help them attract high-quality traffic. They specialize in preventing people from getting blocked when scraping the web, and they also publish helpful content their ideal audience is sure to appreciate. For instance, they have a great guide to Python web scraping, which outlines everything someone would possibly need to know to carry out such a task.

Again, it’s likely the company’s audience will come across their website while doing their research and may even invest in their services off the back of this. That’s why it’s such a great tool for attracting high-quality traffic that has a good chance of converting into sales.

Is there an important process you could outline for your ideal customers to attract their attention, win their trust, and subtly promote your services? If you can take inspiration from ScrapingBee and create a very detailed guide that will provide your audience with some helpful advice, you’ll be on to a winner.

Our final example of great content that attracts high-quality traffic comes from Venngage, a graphic design platform that helps people and businesses to create professional standard infographics. Their blog offers a wide range of helpful guides that their audience is sure to appreciate, and this includes a tutorial on how to create an infographic in five steps.

Again, someone doing research related to what Venngage does — particularly about how to create an infographic — could come across this guide and learn about the company as a result. The guide also provides a lot of valuable information and even comes with some helpful templates that will allow users to get off to a great start. So, it’s sure to earn people’s trust and make the company more sales.

Could you create a detailed tutorial to help people understand a process closely related to what you do? Better yet, if you have templates or people can use your tool to make their lives easier and complete their tasks to a higher standard, you’ll effectively promote your services and make more sales as a result. 

Stay active on social media

The more active you are on social media, the more you’ll be likely to attract the right people to your website. This is especially true if you regularly share links to your website and give people a good reason to click through. This could include if you’ve just published a great new piece of content, you’re running a limited-time promotion, or you’ve launched a new product line your audience will love.

But, just like with your email marketing, you need to ensure you aren’t just using social media to promote your business — you also need to provide real value for your audience so they genuinely enjoy scrolling through your feeds.

Staying active on social media can be easier said than done, especially if you’re running a small business and need to manage your accounts alongside the day-to-day running of your company. So, it can be helpful to plan an entire month’s worth of social media content at a time and then bulk schedule all of your posts to ensure a consistent output.

A social media marketing platform such as a Facebook publishing tool can take a lot of the work out of ensuring you always have something ready to post for your followers. And you can keep track of what you’ve promoted when so you can ensure a great balance between both promotional and informative posts that will drive the right people to your website. 

Write guest posts for websites that are relevant to your audience 

Our final tip for driving high-quality traffic to your website is to guest post for other websites that your audience will already be visiting. Guest posting involves writing an article for another company’s blog or a publisher’s website in order to spread the word about your company, demonstrate your expertise, and build a link back to your own website. It can be a great marketing tactic and is generally very cost-effective, so it’s certainly worth a try.

To get the best results from your guest posting efforts, you’ll want to ensure that you write for the right websites. To drive high-quality traffic to your site, you’ll want to choose reputable sites within your industry, as this will mean that some of your target customers will already be visiting your chosen website and may be interested in buying from you.

You’ll also want to give off the best possible impression of your business, so the articles you write need to be very detailed, helpful, and free of any grammatical or spelling errors. The subjects you cover should also be very relevant to your area of work and you should focus on those that demonstrate your skills and knowledge perfectly.

If you simply don’t think you have the time to write great content for a range of relevant websites, Loganix offers a guest posting service that will take this task off your hands. We can do everything from finding the right sites to producing the content, so you can sit back, relax, and reap the benefits. 

Summary

If your website is attracting a lot of traffic but that isn’t converting into sales, you’re probably drawing in the wrong people. In this article, we outlined how you can ensure you’re only driving high-quality traffic to your website so you can reach your ideal customers and make a lot more sales.

And, if you would like to learn more about growing your business, make sure you visit the AbanteCart blog. They have lots more guides that will help you to ensure you succeed in the eCommerce world. 

5 tips for using website imagery to sell more products

Choosing the right website imagery can have a huge impact on your eCommerce store’s conversion rate. The right imagery can evoke certain emotions, get visitors excited about your products, and ultimately make you more sales.

In this article, we’re going to outline how you can use imagery to sell more products on your website. Let’s get started.

Connect with customers by humanizing your business

People don’t want to feel like they are spending money with a faceless corporation. So, to earn more sales and grow your customer retention rate, you need to focus on using images that humanize your business.

For instance, showcasing photos of your team can help website visitors to put faces to your name, building trust and encouraging them to buy from you. You can also show the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to work at your company — this will help people feel like they know your team and business well, encouraging them to invest in what you’re selling.

Let’s take a look at an example of a business that does a great job of humanizing itself with images for inspiration.

Florin Roebig, a trial attorney law firm, effectively puts faces to its business right on its website's homepage. Above, you can see the two partners of the law firm in the hero image. This helps to humanize the Florin Roebig name and ensure people feel a connection to the firm, so they find getting in touch less intimidating. This is very important for a business like a law firm — legal issues can be nerve-wracking, and this image helps to show that there are real people behind the company, waiting to help those who require assistance. This can then help them to secure more clients. 

On your website, you can use images of yourself or your team to humanize your business. This will help you build trust with your website visitors and make them feel at ease. In turn, this will make it more likely that people will make a purchase, increasing your sales!

Help customers to imagine themselves using your products

If you can help your customers imagine themselves using your products, they’ll be much more likely to buy them. This is a huge part of optimizing your website and will help you drive more conversions. You can do this effectively by using images of people who represent your ideal customers — for instance, if you’re targeting an elderly demographic, use images of older people. You could also use user-generated content, like pictures from your customers’ social media pages, to get your website visitors excited! Just be sure to ask permission from your customers before posting them on your website.

You can also show off images of your products in action. This will help people get a better idea of how to use your products and how they work. As a result, they’ll start thinking about how your products will help make their lives easier, making it more likely that they’ll make a purchase.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that help their customers imagine themselves using their products with imagery for inspiration.

Bounce, a luggage storage company, helps their website visitors imagine themselves using their services on their location pages. They show off some of the available spots in Boston where a customer can store their luggage. Providing these images helps website visitors to start thinking about their upcoming trip and using Bounce’s services to make their time in Boston as convenient and enjoyable as possible. This can help encourage visitors to make a purchase!

On your website, you can use imagery to help website visitors think about how your services can help them. Use images of where and how your customers can use your products to encourage more sales.

GSD Painting and Decorating Contractors, a commercial painting company, also helps their website visitors to imagine themselves using their services on their homepage. Throughout the page, there are images of GSD Painting and Decorating Contractors’ past work. Seeing these images can help website visitors imagine what their own spaces will look like with a new paint job, which is likely to significantly improve the company’s conversion rate.

You can use images of your products or past results to get customers to imagine themselves using your products or services. Show these images off on your website to get people excited and you’ll increase your chances of making more sales!

Use images to demonstrate how your products work

People like to make informed purchases. So, if you can show exactly how your products work through your website imagery, you can increase your chances of making a sale. You can do this with product photography, GIFs, graphics, or images that show your products being used.

Let’s take a look at an example of a business that uses imagery to show how their products work for inspiration.

FreshBooks, an online accounting software provider, uses imagery to clearly show how their platform works. For instance, on their product page, there is an image of a user holding a phone with a screenshot of their software. This image can show people just how easy the tool is to use and that it’s ideal for sending invoices and ensuring they get paid quickly. With this image, FreshBooks shows that they’re capable of addressing a common pain point for their customers, which will encourage them to try out the software. 

On your website, consider using imagery that shows exactly how your products can solve a common problem that your ideal customers have. This will help give website visitors a better understanding of how your products work and encourage them to make a purchase!

Choose imagery that shows off your brand’s personality

If you want people to feel connected to your brand, you’ll want to show off your personality. This will help people relate to you more, which is sure to encourage a lot more purchases. 

When choosing eCommerce website imagery that reflects your brand’s personality, keep in mind that the requirements will vary depending on the type of business you run. For instance, a kids’ toy store will want to use colorful images, while a law firm will want to use more polished and professional imagery.

If you’re not sure about what kinds of imagery will work best, start by thinking about how your ideal customer expects to be communicated with. You could even browse your competitors’ websites to see what types of imagery they typically use to get some inspiration. 

Try to stir up emotions among your audience 

Emotional marketing is a very helpful sales strategy. If you can inspire a strong sense of emotion in your customers, they’ll feel more connected to your business and be much more likely to shop on your eCommerce website! There are a lot of emotive images you could use, depending on what you sell. For instance, you could show people joyfully using your products or pictures of people who are sad because they have a problem you could solve.

Here are a few examples of ways you can stir up emotions in your customers with imagery:

  • Happiness: Everyone likes to feel happy! Show off images of your customers enjoying life while using your products.

  • Sadness or fear: If you work with people in trouble, like at a law firm or healthcare company, show images of people who are upset because they don’t yet have your products or services to help them.

  • Belonging: Show images of your customers using your products in a community or family setting to show that your products will help them feel less alone.

Let’s take a look at an example of a business that uses this strategy well for inspiration.

Helix Hearing Care, a supplier of hearing aids, uses imagery well on their hearing aids and solutions page. As you can see above, they use an image of two older people enjoying a glass of wine and presumably benefiting from the use of the company’s hearing aids. This image will encourage a visitor to imagine how their life could improve if they buy these hearing aids. For instance, they’ll be able to enjoy carefree conversations with their loved ones, and hear sounds they may have been missing. This will make them feel more connected to Helix Hearing Care as a company. Seeing these people enjoying life will increase the likelihood of them making a purchase.

On your website, consider showing off pictures of people who have had their lives improved by your products or services. This will provoke an emotional response in prospective customers, which will make it much more likely that they’ll make a purchase!

Summary

Imagery is one of the greatest tools you have at your disposal to sell more products! In this article, we outlined how you can increase your sales with emotionally evocative imagery, user-generated content, and the like.

The Best Online Courses for Small Business Owners 

When you decide to start your business, it can be a combination of both an exciting decision and one filled with trepidation. A lot of the time, those feelings of trepidation can be because you simply don’t feel prepared for that level of responsibility. Those feelings are totally normal. You’re taking a big step, and this will be a challenging experience. A lot of the best businesspeople in the world will tell you to fail in order to succeed and just throw yourself into it. Although, if you would rather feel more comfortable in yourself, there are a lot of online courses you could take to ready yourself more for the business world. 

Online Marketing Courses 

The internet is the greatest tool that you can use to promote your business. Every kind of organisation now has an online presence and there is an increasing number of consumers who take to the internet as a means to buy new products. As such, learning how to market yourself online is crucial for any business. Not only can the conventional form of marketing help you, but you can also find innovative ways to draw in customers as well. 

For instance, take Click Intelligence, a CBD SEO agency. It’s an expert in developing content that is both unique and SEO friendly so that organisations are able to stand out in what to many would seem like a saturated market. Yes, there is no doubt that learning online marketing is crucial for businesses. 

Become a Small Business Owner With a LinkedIn Online Course

This course is incredibly helpful and comes with over 11 hours’ worth of content. It comes with information about the basics of starting a business, the complications that can come with starting a business and what you should be prepared for when you step into the world of entrepreneurialism. The basics include the likes of the legal side, operational side and the financial side of the business

What makes doing a course with LinkedIn so helpful is that they usually focus on what you need to do if you start a business by yourself or with friends and family, which is common for a lot of small businesses. As such, you get to learn exactly how you can build a business model and develop a business plan accordingly. That way your business will not only be viable but also legally legitimate. 

Start a Profitable Business Online (a Course by Lewis Howes)

You’ll struggle to find a more credible business source than entrepreneur and podcast host Lewis Howes. On this course you will be given the chance to learn everything about creating a profitable online business. It comes packed with step-by-step information about the entire process of getting your idea and then creating, launching and building upon your successful online business. You will be given the low-down on how you can continue to develop your product, which includes developing practical strategies that will assist in its overall growth. 


5 Steps for Planning a Successful Seasonal Marketing Campaign

Planning a marketing campaign is no easy feat. A lot of effort and collaboration goes into ensuring that it can be implemented and will yield excellent returns. But what if your company is promoting a seasonal product?

A seasonal product certainly adds a layer of complexity to any marketing endeavor. However, it also presents a unique opportunity for the marketing team to flex their creative muscles and develop something special.

But before jumping directly to the steps, let’s first talk about seasonality.

Defining Seasonality

Seasonality can be defined as the periodic fluctuations that regularly occur in a predictable pattern based on a particular season, quarter, or month. Another way of putting it is any predictable change or pattern in a time series that recurs or repeats over a year.

In Western countries like the United States, seasonality takes its cue from the actual weather seasons―spring, summer, fall, and winter. For example, you’ll have lots of people gardening in the spring, visiting the beach in summer, going leaf-peeping in fall, and building snowmen in the winter. Online businesses need to consider this well ahead of time. 

Seasonality can also occur during certain holidays that present ripe commercial opportunities. For example, most businesses experience an uptick in sales right around the Christmas holidays (more examples below).

Seasonal opportunities are tremendous, and often, they’re the most commercially critical times of the year. So it’s only fitting to conclude that it has a significant influence on the strategies that e-commerce organizations put in place. 

Purchasing habits tend to shift based on consumer activities. As such, a lot of companies can benefit from tapping into their consumers’ holiday psyches, warm fuzzies, and spirits.

Seasonality from a Marketing Standpoint

When we talk about marketing, seasonality goes way beyond throwing a few light-hearted and festive posts on your brand’s social media accounts.

Why is this so?

Each season is different. There are specific noteworthy holidays celebrated during those times. The events and activities that take place are also different. People don’t typically carve turkeys or wear ugly sweaters in July.

Retailers can increase their customer base by 30 to 50 percent during the holidays by investing in effective seasonal strategies every year. 

Some examples of seasonal opportunities that can increase revenue dramatically and create a connection with your target audience are as follows: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, New Year’s Eve/Day, and Valentine’s Day.

Adjusting Your Message, Budget, and Approach

Seasonal marketing is all about having phenomenal timing, unique content, and perfect campaign execution that earns engagement and, ultimately, sales.

Because purchasing habits can and do shift, businesses need to take this into account well ahead of time. It’s essential to start preparing for peak season as early as possible, so you’re not left wondering what your next move should be.

In its Holiday 2016 eCommerce Report, the content monetization platform Skimlinks pointed to a notable trend in consumer behavior.

“Consumers start and finish their shopping earlier than ever before, and that means publishers, advertisers and agencies alike need to be readier earlier than ever before to capitalize on the holiday season’s opportunities from an editorial and advertising standpoint.”

How to Plan a Seasonal Campaign

Several factors come into play when planning a seasonal campaign. You’ve got timing, demographics, the content/message, physical and online events. And at these events, you may have to come up with custom packaging so the product fits the season.

Hitting on all these factors dramatically increases the likelihood of having a successful marketing campaign and sold-out products.

Having a systematic and step-by-step approach prevents your team from being overwhelmed. It makes it easier for everyone to be organized and on the same page throughout the planning process.

So, without further ado, here are the steps.

  1. Choose the right seasonal opportunity

Every season has something different to offer; the key here is to be selective. Do your research and collect data on when your customers are most likely to engage and then choose events that somehow relate to your business. 

Jen McKinnon says, “The online stores who perform the best on public holidays are the ones that are most well prepared for the local calendar, tailoring their shopping events to their audience and making the most of the vacation vibe that a public holiday provides.”

Here are a few popular holidays, events, and themes you can start with:

Spring

Holidays

  • Easter
  • April Fools’ Day
  • Earth Day
  • Mother’s Day
  • Memorial Day

Events and Themes

  • Spring weather
  • Spring sports
  • Green initiatives
  • Bright color schemes

Summer

Holidays

  • Flag Day
  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day

Events and Themes

  • Summer weather
  • Barbecuing
  • Vacations

Fall

Holidays

  • Halloween
  • Veterans Day
  • Thanksgiving
  • Black Friday

Events and Themes

  • Back to school
  • Fall activities (e.g., pumpkin picking, haunted houses)

Winter

Holidays

  • Hanukkah
  • Christmas
  • New Year’s Eve/Day

Events and Themes

  • Super Bowl
  • Snow
  • Staying warm

Creative marketers can make every season work. Whether you create season-related content (e.g., social media posts, blogs, and infographics), host a themed contest, or promote a sale for relevant products and services, this list should be in mind.

  1. Use the right message and approach

As with any marketing campaign, your seasonal campaign messaging is essential. To help you get started, you should be thinking of the following:

  • Mapping the customer journey and the story you want to tell. A customer journey map shows the story of the customer’s experience, from initial contact, through the process of engagement and into a long-term relationship.
  • The emotions you want to evoke in your audience. The goal of appealing to emotion is to connect with your audience and make them receptive to your message. If you can do that, your audience is more likely to understand where you’re coming from, accept your views, and take action.
  • A call-to-action. The ultimate goal here is to make your audience take action or the desired next steps you want to encourage.  
  1. Work out your budget

The key to a successful seasonal marketing campaign is fine-tuning your budget, so there are no surprises.

First things first, you’ll want to start by creating a list of your baseline costs. These are the minimum expenses required to keep the doors of your business open from month to month, which include the following:

  • Monthly lease or rent payments 
  • Utilities (e.g., electricity, internet service, and cellular service)
  • Taxes
  • Insurance

Next, look at your existing budget and make allowances for what you’ll need to get your business ready for the season.

Things you may need to consider include:

  • Bonuses or gifts for employees or customers
  • Gifts for vendors or clients
  • Ongoing marketing or advertising expenses
  • Added payroll costs for seasonal employees
  • Postage and shipping if you’re mailing out orders to customers
  1. Model successful campaigns

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Have a look at some of the last few years’ most successful content campaigns for a particular occasion using tools like Ahrefs and BuzzSumo.

When evaluating existing, successful campaigns, spend some time thinking about how each piece approached content format, distribution, messaging, and emotion.

Furthermore, one of the best parts of seasonal marketing is the ability to recycle your best-performing ideas the following year, as long as you make your content as evergreen as possible.

A great example is Hershey’s Christmas Bells commercial. The brand has run the TV spot every year since 1989, making it the longest-running Hershey’s commercial of all time.

  1. Treat every customer individually

For seasonal marketing to be effective, your customers should be tailored to individuals, regardless of channel, and the best way to do this is through customer profiling.

A larger segment may have several thousand customers in it, but brands still need to treat each member within that segment as an individual.

Review and Repurpose

It’s essential to document your campaign results carefully. Treat them as points of reference for future campaigns.

Try to not only repurpose the successful elements but also identify the weak sides of your promotions so you can eliminate them next time.

Pay Attention to the Results

It’s worth noting that there’s no such thing as a perfect seasonal marketing campaign. You can be widely successful, but there will always be little things that can be improved upon or changed entirely. 

Seasonal campaigns can be tremendously fun, but you need to take the data seriously. If you’ve gone through the trouble of meticulously planning every aspect of your marketing campaign, have the same attitude when accessing the results. Examine all available data and meet with your team to see how you could have done things differently and do even better next time around.

You can find opportunities for improvement to keep in mind for your next seasonal campaign by tracking your follower engagement on social media, the campaign’s ROI, and other KPIs,