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Laura McLoughlin

 Laura McLoughlin is a Digital PR based in Armagh, NI. She has previous experience as a website editor and journalist. She currently works with Chorus Commerce.

Laura McLoughlin has written 7 articles for SB Informer.
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Shopify: driving customer engagement

Laura McLoughlin

August 21, 2020


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Once you have set up your Shopify store, you cannot just sit there and hope that the customers will arrive. Unlike Kevin Costner with his baseball field, if you build it, they might not come. Therefore, you must work hard to increase your traffic, which will then drive your sales. We are working here with the underlying assumption that if you get a lot of people to come to your eCommerce shop, a percentage will complete the sale.

Of course, you need to shape your store to be appealing, guiding your customer through the sales funnel to complete that purchase. But first, you need to get them to the beginning of that journey, which is dependent on visibility. Here we look at how to make your store visible on the internet, so you have a fighting chance to win custom.

Improve your domain authority

When people use the technical jargon of the internet, you can quickly begin to assume that it is too difficult a challenge. Domain authority sounds too challenging; even if we say work to higher your SERPs position, you might wonder what we mean. All these words and phrases revolve around the same central concept – if you are not in the top two or three search results on Google, you might as well be invisible.

First, you need to know the keywords and phrases your customers would use to search for your products. Many sites can help you find these keywords and explain how the algorithm on search engines work. However, the simple truth is that high-quality writing that uses the search terms organically within the headings, image descriptions and body of your text will improve your ranking. 

Not only should you use your product descriptions for these keywords, but you should also try to include a paragraph at the bottom of each page. Some of the most successful Spotify shops will have such a section if you scroll down. Most customers won't get this far to read it, but this is not the point. The idea of this paragraph is to have the opportunity to use the keywords you have researched on the main products page.

If you are worried that you will never get in the top three listings on Google, you can buy your place there. If you are clear on your target market and can define the demographics precisely, you can use Google AdWords marketing to push yourself up the list. Before you worry about spending money on such advertising, do the maths. If you are going to get more customers because of this clickbait, then it will be worth the pay per click you are investing. Just remember to set a cap on your spending.

Algorithmic Testimonials

Well, we have made this sound more intelligent than it is – but, the central concept is quite easy. The more reputable your site seems the higher up that search engine you go.

One way to appear more reputable is to have links into your site from other parts of the internet that have a well-established authority. You can do this by writing guest posts on your niche and asking to publish these on relevant websites. For instance, if you are selling food products and you manage to publish a guest post on Good Housekeeping, with a link to your products page, then you are on to a winner.

The more links you have, the better your domain authority. You will appear like a significant player in your area and someone Google will want to recommend to their users.

Find a friend with followers

Having a social media account is one way to get yourself noticed. However, getting followers is no easy business. You could spend as much time garnering footfall for your social media as you do to your Shopify store.

One way to get people to see you on social media is with the use of an influencer. You might think influencers work with only the top brands. However, as with anything, influencers come in all sizes. Your Shopify store may be too small for someone with millions of followers, but you might see value in asking someone with thousands of followers to talk about your products.

There are two ways an influencer can help. First, it will make you visible and drive footfall. Second, stats suggest that those coming to your store from the influencer are far more likely to make a sale. It is well worth remembering this salient fact when you cost your marketing approach.

Now use social media

Now that your site is optimised and you have some visibility on guest sites and through an influencer, it is time to build your social media following. You can use the material from your website, your posts, your influencer, to populate your social media accounts. Whatever you choose to share with your customers, do it consistently and regularly. You should post at the same time on the same days to maximise your exposure.

Summary

When you have a bricks and mortar store you can set up your shop window to attract customers that pass by. Attracting customers to an online shop is much more difficult, and you can easily fall into obscurity. It is essential to use search engines and social media to point a sign at your shop and encourage that traffic.


                   



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