Research indicates that 8 out of 10 consumers shop online regularly. If you’ve recently started an ecommerce business, your new company could benefit from implementing a few strategies.
Growing your following is not difficult if you follow a few of these strategies.
1. Keep the process simple
Launching an online business starts with a website or social media platform that is easy to use. Consumers will be looking for excellent product photos, clear pricing that is not difficult to understand, and a streamlined shopping experience that is intuitive. You want your ecommerce store to be user-friendly, so your customers will not struggle to navigate and shop. Provide more than one or two options for payment, and find innovative ways to discourage shopping cart abandonment.
If you are using more than one site or social media platform for sales, be sure to be as consistent as possible with your branding aesthetics. Use your logo on all of the sites or consider site themes that have color or styles that look similar. Closely aligning site aesthetics with your brand will help your customers quickly identify what’s “you.” People are attracted by familiarity, so growing your following means thinking about what will attract your consumers, and to help them remember who you are, what your business looks like, and what you sell.
2. Continue posting content
While sales are your ultimate goal, it is important not to be self-promoting all of the time, which can ultimately turn potential consumers off to you and your brand. Post interesting and appropriate content to your site will draw an audience of readers who will, hopefully, stay to learn more about you and your product and eventually buy items.
Adding a blog, inviting guest bloggers, or reposting content from others in your industry will also generate enthusiasm for you and your business site. You can also create a discussion board or a product review forum to curate content both for and with your consumers.
Increasing the amount of online traffic also means increased visibility and interest and will grow your following more organically than any other means.
3. Acquire followers
An alternative to gaining followers organically, you can actually acquire followers; real followers, that is.
You may be asking what is meant by “real followers.” In other words, “Aren’t all followers real, like me?” Unfortunately, it is easy to falsify a digital number; as a result, the appearance of “real” and what is “true” can be falsified at any given time. Just because it appears that someone can gain 10,000 Instagram followers overnight doesn’t mean they are real.
But why such numbers are important? Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, the most important factor in social media success is deemed to be the number of real followers a person or company has. This is because businesses looking to influence people must have real people behind those numbers.
Becoming a leader in your field of expertise or your business industry means that you are providing innovative ideas and concepts worth paying attention to. You can achieve that using different means – for example, looking to gain Facebook fans and followers through Facebook ads solutions or earn legitimate Instagram followers for acquiring social proof quickly. Real followers can engage with you and your content online, making yours a community worth knowing and buying from.
4. Invest in mobile
A mobile ecommerce platform plan is crucial since consumer use of mobile devices for browsing and purchasing is at an all-time high. As your business grows, you may want to consider mobile sites that are more responsive and diverse. Using real-time notifications, click-to-call tools, and other types of applications will increase your reach and improve your following. Small business owners can consider a wide range of automated systems that do everything from monitoring and protecting your home office to providing business protection and notifications.
While it may be difficult to justify the expense, know that investing in mobility will provide you with immediate access to your client base and expand your reach.
Remember that expanding your following for your business can also mean an expanding income for you and your family. Invest time, effort, and money as important resources and you will see a return on that investment. Social media marketing strategies and mobile ability should be at the top of the priority list because if your ecommerce shop isn’t present, functional, and consistently engaged on multiple social media platforms, you may as well not even exist to a huge number of potential consumers.
5. Offer complementary products
If you are currently producing and offering a product or service that your loyal customers like and are buying, break out related items that will increase your reach. Provide your customers with a wider selection, and that will improve your chances of repeat sales and higher customer satisfaction ratings. Complementary goods do not have to become more work or expense for you if you take into account that these could help dramatically boost your business.
What are some ways you have grown a following in your company? Share your ideas here.