Congratulations, you’ve set up your Shopify store and are ready to conquer the world of e-commerce! But, wait, how do you ensure your target audience discovers your online store amidst the vast digital landscape? Building a stunning Shopify store is just the first step; effective promotion is the key to attracting potential customers and turning them into loyal patrons. With the right strategies and techniques, you can propel your Shopify store to new heights of success.
As one of the world’s most powerful ecommerce platforms, Shopify gives businesses a simple way to run their online store. But while it brings the advantage of selling products and services in a simple capacity, driving traffic to your platform will still be an age-old challenge.
Luckily, with the right knowledge in your weapon belt and the determination to succeed, there are plenty of tried and proven ways to get your Shopify store seen by your most influential audiences. From marketing through your social media accounts to content marketing via email, search engine optimisation (SEO) and beyond, there are always ways to maximise your Shopify’s visibility.
Join us on this enlightening journey as we unlock the secrets to promoting your Shopify store effectively. Whether you’re a new Shopify store owner eager to make your mark or an established e-commerce entrepreneur looking to revitalize your promotional efforts, our aim is to provide you with the knowledge and actionable strategies needed to drive online success. Let’s embark on this transformative exploration of Shopify store promotion together and carve a path towards sustained growth and prosperity in the competitive world of e-commerce.
So where should you start?
The most commonly used tactics to promote a Shopify store include:
- Using mainstream social platforms like Facebook or Pinterest
- Leveraging Google Shopping campaigns and paid ads
- Getting extra traffic from YouTube videos
- Collecting extra interest through Pinterest boards
- Maximising growth via Instagram
- Utilising email marketing campaigns to cross-promote and land a successful sale.
And that’s just to name a few. But naturally, we’ll delve into these fundamentals in this helpful guide, helping you to get the basics down to these potentially explosive channels for your Shopify store.
Understand why you need to promote your Shopify store effectively
In the ecommerce space, the success of your business is largely dependent on your ability to promote your Shopify store. And, if you don’t have the best promotion strategy down pat, you may end up losing more conversions than you collect.
So, to get started, you need to understand the power of digital marketing in terms of putting your online store in front of audiences. For example, 43 percent of ecommerce traffic comes from organic search results on Google alone, making SEO crucial.
With a little effort and knowledge, you can take advantage of this activity, delivering your Shopify store into the hands of your target audience, before they even realise it. And now that you know that nifty little fact, here is some of our top ways to promote our Shopify store to your target market.
Use push notifications to your advantage
Push notifications are an overlooked way of communicating with your customers, especially if they’re prone to browsing on their smart devices. Additionally, they make for a compelling way to get their attention when you may not have been top-of-mind in that particular moment.
Some examples of good push notifications include reminders of important dates like anniversaries, birthdays or other events, as well as special offers, deals and new product launches.
Push notifications are also effective at letting target customers know something is on the cards that they may have not otherwise have known about. (For example, “We’re running a limited special this week on X and Y.”) You can also remind them of something they might have forgotten to do (“You forgot to check-out! Don’t miss out on your items.)
The challenge, however, is that push notifications are very easy to miss, and can quickly be dismissed by users. You’ll need to send out the same notification in multiple ways at different intervals to get around this. Be careful, though – annoying your prospects will only end up in a lost sale altogether.
Pro tip: Avoid using Shopify push notifications for mass communication; your customers won’t appreciate messages that could have gone through email channels or your social media.
Don’t underestimate promoting your Shopify store with chatbots
This is one of the most overlooked ways to promote your Shopify store, but one of the most effective. Live chat features are on the rise with 69% of customers demanding brands use this functionality in their customer journey.
But when it comes to live chat and chatbots, you’ll need to think outside the box. For example, you can write your scripts to include:
- An offer or discount: Maximise profitability and conversions by offering appealing incentives to those who send a chat message. They are already on the fence and considering purchasing from your brand, so this may just win them over.
- Provide a promotional code: Just like a special offer, you can include a promotional code for someone that shows interest by engaging with your brand and asking questions through this channel.
- Giving great support: Sometimes, it’s all about the basics. Your customers want service that makes their experience easy – so give that to them. Live chat features give them a clear way to interact with your staff and get answers when they need them most.
Promote your Shopify store with website popups
A website popup is essentially an advertisement you can use to promote your Shopify store in a streamlined, more direct way. The difference is, users will already be on your page, but it further encourages them to complete your desired conversion.
To do this effectively, you’ll want to make sure the pop-up is relevant to your target demographic and aligned with their intent when visiting your website.
For example, if your top-selling products are to do with activewear, but conversions need a boost for a particular period, you can use pop-ups to offer a special promotional code for a further discount on this category.
However, it’s crucial to make sure your pop-ups aren’t too invasive and don’t impact the overall user experience. Nothing is more annoying than those little windows that won’t disappear or have a missing X to dismiss them.
Use customer reviews strategically for your online store
In any industry, word-of-mouth is extremely vital, with 93% of customers looking at product reviews before making a purchase. Additionally, even a one-star decrease in your ratings can lead to a 5 to 9% reduction in ecommerce revenue; every positive review matters.
The idea of getting these positive words can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Provide quality customer service, great products and a high-quality user experience and you’ll land these bright and cheery words naturally. Plus, you can tie in a referral program to also drive this action further, and offer incentives at the same time.
If you do happen to get a negative review, make sure you respond appropriately; acknowledge their words, offer support or a resolution, and carry on.
When you are able to provide real-time feedback, it creates an environment where people feel more comfortable talking about how they feel without feeling judged or pressured by other people’s opinions. And it will only do good for your brand image.
Advertise to target customers on Instagram
The importance of Instagram for Shopify is undeniable. Social media is one of the most effective methods to spread your brand awareness and to generate more sales, no matter the category your ecommerce store sits in.
Source
How to do that
Basically, you’ll want to carry out a few key steps, and then review them over time to keep them up-to-date:
- Create an Instagram account for your business
- Write an appealing bio
- Use Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories to attract customers
- Produce Instagram Ads (which can also tie into Facebook advertising)
- Share discounts and coupons
- Create consistent, valuable content
- Analyse Instagram insights regularly
- Consider influencer marketing and offer free samples.
Remember that half the job on Instagram is to show up. That means not falling off the face of the earth after a few posts and leaving at that; traction on this platform is all about consistency if you’re looking to get your target customer in your pocket.
Additionally, consider using communities on Instagram by strategically weaving in hashtags for more engagement, or by using Facebook Groups alongside your ads.
Drive traffic and conversions with Google Shopping
Google Shopping is a great tool for promoting your Shopify store because it’s targeted and simple to run. It’s easy to use and gives you an amazing amount of flexibility to advertise your brand and your products at the top of Google search results.
One of the best features of Google Shopping is that it allows you to target specific demographics or interests. You can target with the intention of promoting your brand or products towards users based on specific keywords, giving you a competitive edge in your niche.
Additionally, the tracking options also allow you more control over where ads appear on search engines and for what keywords, so you can keep in control of your entire campaign. Plus, this aspect of search marketing is not impacted by Google algorithms, which is always a bonus.
Get creative with Pinterest
Promoting your online stores on Pinterest is a good way to get your name out there in the digital world, especially to audiences who like to get visual. To do this effectively, start small and grow slowly. This way, you can make sure that any promotional posts meet the expectations of your followers and will continue to grow in value over time.
Not sure what Pinterest is? This platform is essentially a marketplace for images posted by other users (or “pinners”) that can be shared across user boards. And with the ability to link directly to your product, you can drive easy conversions that send an interested prospect straight to the checkout.
Additionally, Pinterest now has its own advertising option, with the ability to promote your pins to specific users.
Pro tip: If you want something even more advanced, Pinterest is extremely effective at letting online store owners use referral marketing and affiliate tracking software to reel in customers through other peoples’ pins. For example, you can offer users a commission for promoting your products and landing you a sale, enticing them to attract referral users.
Pinterest is online one of many advertising platform options that use this marketing tactic, with other websites also creating opportunities for affiliate marketing.
Convert your target audience through email marketing
Email marketing is a big part of any business’s marketing strategy, ecommerce or not. Far from being an afterthought, it’s also one of the most effective ways for online store owners to reach and convert visitors. The more you know about how to use this kind of strategy to promote your Shopify store online, the more likely your potential customers are to continue coming back for more.
The best way for ecommerce website owners to promote a Shopify store through email marketing is through an email list built up over time. To create this community, you’ll need to:
- Create a newsletter for your online store through a platform like MailChimp or ConvertKit.
- Promote your newsletter by creating an attractive landing page for users to opt-in on.
- Run discount offers to those who sign up for your newsletter – i.e. “Get $5 off your purchase by subscribing to our free newsletter.”
From there, it’s all about keeping them engaged and offering valuable communication over time.
Amplify your Shopify store with Facebook Ads
If you decide to promote your Shopify store with Facebook Ads, you should know how to do it first, or enlist the help of a social media marketing agency to do it for you. Why? Because targeting is the be-all and end-all of this platform, and you’ll need to understand how your audience operates.
The reason Facebook Ads are so beneficial for ecommerce is that you can advertise multiple products at once and target various audiences who are most likely to convert.
So how do you do this? Follow these steps:
- Create a Facebook Page for your Shopify store
- Identify your target audience
- Create engaging ad copy and visual assets for your ads. If you’re not sure how to do this, opt for the help of a creative agency
- Promote your products and announce any launches
- Communicate and interact with your customers
- Add your Facebook Pixel for precise tracking
- Monitor your campaign
- Retarget your ads as necessary
- Connect Facebook to your Shopify store.
Of course, our Facebook advertising experts can also set this up for you, taking the hard work off your shoulders.
Finally, discover the power of SEO
SEO is a crucial part of a marketing strategy for Shopify stores, working wonders for your online visibility and traffic-building potential.
So, let’s take a closer look at how SEO works, what it can do for your brand, and how you can take the first step to promote your Shopify store through this tactic.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is a fairly simple concept in that it basically boils down to leveraging products on search engines so that they appear more prominently to users. The higher your rankings, the more traffic you’ll receive to your site – it’s as basic as that (in theory).
Unfortunately, the actual practice of SEO is far more complex and requires a reputed SEO agency to help you ensure all aspects of your store are optimised accordingly. That’s where we come in, ensuring all areas of your pages appeal to both Google and users alike. This includes optimising:
- On-page elements
- Off-page elements
- Backend material on your platform
- Site architecture, and more.
Final takeaway
Digital marketing is the ultimate tool to promote your Shopify store, whether you have invested in it already or not. To be able to do this effectively, however, you have to have the knowledge of how the space works and where your competition sits. From there, it’s all about using strategies that get you ahead in the most influential ways.
Don’t forget…
So, let’s round up the key points we highlighted in this article so you know exactly where your focus should sit from hereon.
- Use digital marketing strategies to your advantage by knowing who your audience is and what your competitors are doing.
- Remind customers of special offers and what they’re missing out on through push notifications.
- Use chatbots or live chat features to communicate with your prospects when they’re most likely to convert.
- Create attractive and non-invasive website popups to relay offers and discount codes when users browse your ecommerce website.
- Leverage customer reviews to help interested buyers decide to purchase from your brand.
- Build Instagram, Facebook and Google Ads to put your products right in front of interested audiences.
- Use Pinterest for evergreen website traffic or another social media account/channel.
- Create value-driven email marketing material to drive traffic back to your store or to remain front-of-mind.
- Harness the power of SEO for explosive website traffic that lasts long-term.
Psst..
Need a hand getting all of these marketing elements sorted? Contact Shout’s SEO experts in Sydney or Brisbane SEO team for a free X-Chart, tailored to show you exactly the number of sales you can expect when we promote your Shopify store online.
