How to increase my online sales

Increasing traffic to your online business or eCommerce site is no easy feat. You might already have decent traffic month after month, but that doesn’t mean you should stop there. The truth is, whether you’re based in Orpington, Beckenham, Biggin Hill or Bromley, you need to make extra effort to increase your online sales.

That’s why we have listed some practical ways you can go about it.

Improve your website navigation

Do your website visitors spend a long time searching before they land on their destination page? If you answered yes, you need to optimise your website navigation. 

Start by looking at the following things:

• Invest in good analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics) and keep an eye on your most popular pages.
• Monitor how long people stay on your pages and where they click the most.
• Monitor onsite search and look out for the pages that people keep searching for. Then ensure the pages people search for the most can be found easily via your website navigation. 
• Reduce the number of clicks from your homepage to your basket. Do this by adding access to your basket right from a prominent part of your homepage

There is so much more to optimising website navigation, but once you start with these steps, your website visitors will have a much more streamlined user experience. 

Improve your digital marketing efforts

Digital marketing is an essential part of improving your online sales. Once you have a website, you will need to promote it using different online marketing methods. First, you need to decide on your budget and then pour your efforts into finding the best channel to promote your website.

Improve your SEO efforts

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it is the process of improving your website so that it ranks well on search engines such as Google, Bing etc. However, it takes a while to improve your SEO efforts and rank highly for your targeted keywords. On average, it takes about six months to a year to start seeing the results of SEO work.

Here are some key things to remember when optimising your website for search engines:    

• Ensure that your website is indexed on search engines by submitting your website to tools like Bing/Google Search Console.  
• Fine-tune your efforts by shortlisting the keywords you want to target, then use these keywords in prominent parts of your landing pages such as headings, META titles, and on-page content.   
• Scour the search engine results pages to find out what your competitors are doing well.
• Update your website consistently.
• Blog regularly.
• Improve your content marketing efforts.
• Be patient and keep trying new things.
• Keep track of your keyword rankings.

Invest in PPC advertising

PPC stands for Pay-per-click, which is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays the platform (e.g., Google) when the ad is clicked. These paid adverts are the links you see on the side and top of search engine result pages. Businesses that run PPC ads pay an agreed fee whenever a user clicks on their ad. If you have a decent budget for paid advertising and want to pay for the traffic, it might be worth investing in PPC.

PPC advertising tips

• Keywords are also essential for PPC, so ensure that your landing pages are optimised for your targeted keywords.
• Combine your SEO efforts with PPC efforts. For example, you can share data between your PPC and SEO teams. Then reduce your acquisition costs by making efforts to rank organically on Google for those same terms.  When you rank highly for a targeted keyword, you can focus on other relevant keywords.
• A/B test your PPC ads and look out for keywords that convert the most.
• Continuously work to fine-tune your PPC efforts.

Improve brand awareness with content marketing

Content marketing is the action of promoting your content to your targeted audience.  It is used to attract and retain customers by sharing helpful content such as videos, articles, podcasts, or other media.

Content marketing goes a long way to help any business establish themselves as thought leaders in their respective industries. Lastly, its ultimate goal is to promote brand awareness and increase sales.

Get on social media platforms

Social media marketing is another affordable way of advertising online.  You can start by setting up social media accounts for your business to keep on top of industry news and share updates with your existing customers.  

Instagram advertising

There are plenty of ways online businesses can use Instagram. Advertising on Instagram is a no-brainer, especially when your business has a strong visual element. If you have an eCommerce company within the Bromley Borough, you can use Instagram to showcase your new products on sale and include a call to action straight to your online shop. 

Furthermore, if you want to improve your content marketing efforts, you can use Instagram to work with relevant thought leaders in your industry and have them showcase your content. According to Mediakix, 90% of marketers think of Instagram as the go-to place for influencer marketing.

Tips for advertising on Instagram  

• Start on Instagram by setting up a page and elaborate on what you do.  Then use the latest features such as reels, videos, status stories to share exciting updates.
• Create engaging and valuable content with your audience and promote the posts that get the most clicks.
• Add a call to action to any paid advert to drive visitors back to your website.
• Review your competitors approach to Instagram and optimise accordingly.

Facebook advertising

According to Wordstream, Facebook has 1.49 billion members worldwide and boasts a total of 22 million ad clicks per year.  With such impressive statistics, it’s no wonder why many online businesses choose to advertise on Facebook.

Tips for advertising on Facebook

According to Wordstream, Facebook has 1.49 billion members worldwide and boasts a total of 22 million ad clicks per year.  With such impressive statistics, it’s no wonder why many online businesses choose to advertise on Facebook.

• If you are working with a lower budget, set daily budgets to avoid excessive spending.
• When you find an audience that converts well, create a Facebook lookalike audience to further increase your reach.
• Run a contest to increase engagement.
• HubSpot says Facebook is the second leading video source online. So, for increased engagement, consider creating a video and then sharing it on Facebook. 

More social media options

Over the past year, several social media sites have gained prominence, such as Twitch Snapchat and TikTok to name a few. Where applicable, test newer platforms before investing heavily to increase your online sales.