So, you’ve filled your dropshipping store with incredible pre-edited products.
Great! Now you can be sure that your website visitors will be amazed by the way you’re presenting your store offers. Without any doubts, this captivating product display will motivate them to place an order with you.
But wait…there’s a tiny yet important point to consider.
How exactly will people find your store?
There are more than 1.5 billion websites on the Internet, and every hour, this number is getting bigger.
What are your odds of welcoming the right people on your website – the people interested in these particular products and willing to buy them online?
You can spend as much time and energy as you want improving your website and broadening your product offer, but if you don’t take any promotional actions, all your efforts will go in vain.
To never let this happen, you need to try out as many traffic generation strategies as possible and find the combination that works best for you. That’s how you will make it easier for Internet users to stumble upon your store, and that’s how you’ll increase your store profitability!
Shall we begin listing the traffic generation instruments that can do magic to your business?
How to get free traffic for your store: tips for beginners
Okay, let’s suppose your store is brand new: you’ve seen no visitors yet, and you’d like to change this situation!
Here are the strategies you can safely try at this stage of your business development.
Start with SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a great way to make your website shown higher on Google results page. To make it work for your business, you need to do the following:
1. Identify your keywords
Can you express your store idea in 2-3 words (for example, ‘educational toys for toddlers’ or ‘vintage style jewelry’)?
Great! It means that you have a basis for your future keyword.
Enter this phrase here to see how you can modify it. Your goal is to make it very similar to the phrases that people typically put into Google search bar.
The better your store keyword matches common Google search queries, the higher are your store chances to be seen on the first search results page.
2. Use the keyword to optimize your store pages
It’s not enough to simply know your keyword – the trick is to use it wisely!
Ideally, you need to integrate the keyword into the materials you post on your website:
- Product descriptions
Yes, the products imported from DropshipMe already have well-edited and informative descriptions. Yet, to make them SEO-friendly, you can complement them with some emotional and purchase-motivating lines containing your target keyword! That’s how you will make it more likely for these product pages to be shown to the people looking for similar items on Google.
- Images
Since you’ve taken your product images from the DropshipMe extensive database, you don’t have to worry about their quality. These are high resolution pictures without any odd watermarks, and they do a great job attracting your store visitors’ attention.
However, there’s something you can improve in them: alternative texts!
Alternative texts, also known as alt texts, are short descriptions that show the purpose of an image on your website. You can safely include your main keyword in each of these texts: it will make your store images more visible on Google. Seeing them on the results page, Internet users will definitely become intrigued to learn more about the product!
- Other texts
Naturally, your dropshipping store has lots of texts: from persuasive introduction on the Home page to the official statements written in the ‘Terms and Conditions’ section.
Wherever appropriate, put your keyword in them, too!
Pay special attention to the Categories’ pages. As they contain lots of your products, it’s vital for you to make them ranked higher on Google search results page.
Create and distribute text content
Well, since we’ve started talking about writing, let’s continue with discussing larger-scale texts!
1. Blog posts
Does your dropshipping store have a built-in Blog section? If it does, don’t miss out the opportunity to improve the financial performance of your business!
Blog articles can really do a lot for your store. They help your website rank higher in search engines (if you optimize the articles properly!), let you establish yourself as an expert in this industry field, and serve as a source of content that you can transform and reuse on other channels.
If you don’t have any ideas what to write about, these ideas might help you out:
- New product arrivals
- Product unboxing and review
- Upcoming sale announcement
- Advice on product use
- Industry news and trends
By the way, upon seeing a recently updated blog, your store visitor understands that the website isn’t abandoned or unsupervised. It’s a good sign for a person who is in doubt about buying online from a previously unknown site!
So, try to write articles on some regular basis. Or, if you can’t force yourself to do it, at least change the articles’ publication dates from time to time to make them look more fresh and relevant 🙂
2. Forum entries
Much like your own blog articles, forum entries serve several purposes at once. They don’t simply back up your reputation of a skilled expert in the field. Quite naturally, they also let you spread the word about your business, and help you build an emotional connection with your potential customers.
How can you benefit from this strategy? Well, to begin with, think about the problems which your products solve for a customer. Then, find several niche-specific forums that are dedicated to these particular issues. At this point, your goal is to give valuable and helpful recommendations to forum users who need some advice. For you, this is a way to establish yourself as a trustworthy and reliable person in this community. Naturally, you will soon gain an audience of grateful and loyal supporters who won’t take your promotional efforts on the platform negatively.
3. Influential media posts
This strategy requires an advanced writing skill, but it’s totally worth it.
Think of industry-specific online portals like Medium or Entrepreneur. The content of these websites is mostly generated not by journalists or professional writers, but by business owners, social media influencers, eCommerce activists, etc.
You can totally join the ranks of these people! All you need is some specific (unique, probably) knowledge or experience you want to share. Put it into words, and submit your writings.
This, again, is an effective way to build your online reputation and make yourself known all over the Internet. Contrary to your in-store blog posts, these entries allow you to reach quite a wide readers’ audience, which certainly is a blessing for your business.
Work with social media
They say, if your business isn’t featured in social media, it doesn’t exist at all.
Social media entries let even a really young business to quickly gain a significant army of followers – in case the content is picked carefully.
1. Mix entertaining and promotional content
Almost everybody likes memes and inside jokes, so, if you use them in an appropriate context, there is a chance your social media posts will go viral.
Still, you need to remember that your page’s goal is not to simply entertain your followers. Its core purpose is to educate the readers by introducing them to your products, and to make them interested in your offers.
Therefore, the best strategy for your store’s social media account is to combine educational entries with purchase-oriented posts to keep your audience engaged and curious to learn what you are going to post next.
2. Transform content types
Earlier, we’ve mentioned that your blog articles represent the content you can reuse.
Actually, you can do it to any piece of your store-related information you have.
You’ve added several new items to your store offer? Make a fancy collage out of their pictures, and share it on social media. You’ve learned the hottest market trends expected to be in full bloom next season? Create infographics with the new data, and, again, share it on social media.
Your audience will be glad to see you’re not repeating yourself, and, most importantly, it will give you a chance to identify a content type that your audience likes the most.
3. Connect with followers
Business social media account is more than just another channel to discuss the delivery time or return policy with your customers. It’s also a place to see how your audience speaks of you, and to take part in public conversations to make yourself visible.
Your communication style matters: it lets people see what values and practices stand behind your business, and certainly, it heavily influences their decision-making process and the ultimate intention to buy something from you.
How to get free traffic for your store: working with a warmer audience
In the previous chapter, we were talking about a business that has neither customers nor incoming orders yet.
Now, let’s move on and discuss driving extra traffic to an online store that has already dealt with a couple of buyers!
Benefit from user-generated content
People trust regular customers more than corporations. The common belief is that usual ordinary buyers are honest about their shopping experience, while business owners might speak too highly of their offers.
So, how can you turn this fact into your business advantage?
Check the following: did your buyers say anything about the quality of the product they received or the customer service you provided to them?
Make these reviews seen!
Do you know that you can turn a buyer’s review into an awesome social media posts? Or, make a selection of recent reviews and put them into an inspiring blog article? It will be a great piece of content that is guaranteed to grab your followers’ attention and make them more curious to check out your store.
P.S.: Don’t forget to ask your clients’ permission to show their feedback!
Encourage comments
Without a doubt, that’s a totally great strategy if you want to make your store more favorably ranked by search engines (and more positively perceived by social networks’ users). There are at least 2 ways for you to make it work for your business.
1. Approve and answer blog comments
Did someone comment something on your blog article? That’s a great sign – your writing matters, and you just managed to make someone genuinely interested.
If your blog has a moderation system, don’t forget to approve this comment to make it seen by anyone (especially by Google – the system values even the tiny updates happening on websites).
See if you can answer this comment: if you can provide some detailed and helpful insights to the commenter, you will bring additional value to this particular article. Besides, you will create yet another tiny piece of content that will be taken favorably by the search engine and the users: what if someone will be typing just the same question into the Google search bar? They will see the answer on the search result page, and go on your website immediately to read further!
2. Support communication on social networks
Here, the idea is quite similar. Basically, by encouraging and answering users’ comments under your social media posts, you make it more likely for these people to turn to your service.
Besides, as these comments are seen by everyone, you improve the chances of attracting someone’s else attention indirectly – and increasing the number of your store visitors, as the result.
Send emails
Whether your store visitors have actually bought something from you or just left without placing an order, you can get in touch with them again anyway. It’s an effective way to remind them about your business and motivate them to take a look at your offers once again.
1. Collect your visitors’ email addresses
Even if a visitor didn’t buy anything from you yet, it doesn’t mean you can’t establish a contact with this person. For some reason, this potential client has browsed your website, which means that something in your product range made him or her interested.
Don’t lose this opportunity to turn a curious guest into an actual buyer! Offer them a small benefit (a secret word or a coupon providing a 10-15% discount), and, in exchange for this benefit, ask them to write down their email address.
That’s it! This visitor will be happy to come again later and claim the discount, and you will be one step closer to making this person your loyal customer.
2. Set up follow-up sequences
Follow-up emails let you stay in touch with both current and prospective clients. Simply speaking, a follow-up sequence is a series of logically linked emails that motivate the reader to come back on the website to check out new product offers, use a discount coupon, take part in a sale event, etc.
The best part about follow-ups is that they are sent automatically. You write them once, specify the necessary timing settings, and watch these emails bring you extra traffic in a long-term period. It’s quite an easy job to do – especially if you already have the clients’ addresses at hand!
How to get extra traffic for your store: pro level
Have you already explored all the possible ways to get free traffic for your store?
Well, it’s time to switch to the expert-level promotion – and proceed with paid advertising!
For a person with little to no experience in digital marketing, this step might seem a little bit scary – and even quite risky from a financial point of view.
This is why it’s a wise idea to delegate this task to experts with a long history in dropshipping store promotion!
A team of digital marketers we can safely recommend is ready to help our clients out with this, so let’s see what they offer!
Facebook & Instagram ads setup
Whether you need a fresh look on your current promotional campaign or only get ready to launch your first promo, this service is the best choice for you. The team of skilled Internet marketers makes a full-scale ad for you along with the necessary text and image, and even advises you on the audience settings!
As a result, you’re able to launch a high-converting advertising campaign that targets just the right people and appeals to them in the most purchase-motivating way.
You are free to choose any of the 4 packages available: from the Tiny package with 1 ad template and audience ($29) to the Premium package with 16 ad templates and audiences ($199)!
Whatever stage of your dropshipping journey you currently go through, there’s a suitable offer for you – just pick what you fancy!
Emails setup
We have already mentioned the effect that emails can make on your business. Why not take them to a new level?
Ordering the Email marketing setup service, you get a ready follow-ups sequence designed to run during a specific period of time, and several catchy email templates to use in your inspiring letters. Depending on the package, you will safely cover from 2 weeks to 3 months with these promotions!
What excites us most of all in these unmatched services is their generous terms: for a one-time payment, you receive a marketing instrument that automatically works in a long-term period. What’s more, you can use its example to plan and execute your future promotions: the effect won’t make you disappointed.
Did you try any of these strategies that let you get free traffic for your store? Which one(s) of them turned out to be the most efficient for your business? Let us know in the comments section below!
Can Dropship.me work on it own without Alidropship? If so are any Dropship.me template to help build a wordpress website?
Hello Alain,
Of course, DropshipMe can work without AliDropship. But it is focused on inventory only, so it allows to fill your store with edited products from DropshipMe database and import AliExpress reviews to them, and there are no other functions in DropshipMe. So, there are no templates for WordPress websites in DropshipMe plugin.
Yes we have tried it. The part that works most is Pinterest on gradezoo.com and also social blogging. It pulled quite interesting results.
We keep using it to our mix of traffic. Email follow up works great. A customer placed an order and the automated emails added a discount coupon.
Guest what? They came back to order some more. Most was related to the same category.
Thank you for your education provided on this topic.
Interesting, am yet to give it a try…