So you’ve got your WooCommerce website up and running and all is going OK….
But OK isn’t good enough, is it? What you really want is to be a thriving business with a website that consistently receives high volume traffic.
What you need is a bit of good marketing. Fine. But generic advice just won’t do. You need expert insights into WooCommerce to give you that edge over the competition.
In this article, we’re going to cover the top five methods for marketing WooCommerce websites. Pay attention now! The following information could change everything.
Make it easy to use, or be prepared to lose
That’s a pretty dramatic subheading, right? It’s true, though, that if your website isn’t easy for people to use then you should be prepared to lose customers.
You see, it’s one thing to drive thousands of visitors to your website, but if the site itself isn’t creative and easy to navigate then you won’t convert the traffic.
It all comes down to the UX and UI. If you’re unfamiliar with these terms then get to know them! UX stands for User Experience and is all about the overall experience that your visitors have when they visit your website. It covers everything from the impression they get when they arrive at your landing page, all the way through to the loading time, the transition from page to page and the friendly message you leave thanking customers who have just made their first purchase with you.
UI stands for User Interface and is all about the part of your website that visitors actually see and click on. In other words, it’s all about the buttons, the drop-down menus, the colours, the wallpapers and the controls in general. (If you use the popular music app Spotify, for example, then the user interface would be the black screen with the options in the navigation panel on the left-hand side and the big images of album and playlist covers in the centre.)
The user interface is a really significant part of the overall user experience. A creative and easy-to-use UI really helps drive conversions from the traffic your site gets.
Experience shows that the standard WordPress themes will only take you so far; even if you find it easy to work through tutorials such as this one about WooCommerce Storefront theme, it’s actually often worth investing in the help of an agency to ensure the best possible UI for your site. An agency such as Impression shows just how customizable a WooCommerce website can be, with the help of a little expert know-how in UI and converting traffic.
PPC (pay per click) advertising for WooCommerce
OK, now this is a very hard-hitting driver of traffic for E-commerce and, more specifically, for WooCommerce websites.
As long as what you are selling meets the Google advertising guidelines, you can set up conversion-driven ads through re-marketing and Google shopping listings.
This also works for Facebook when setting up a retargeting audience and producing catalogue ads.
These methods are far more effective than more traditional forms of advertising. The fact is that you can have a brilliantly designed advert with beautiful artwork and really snappy copy, but if the right people aren’t seeing it then it’s a complete waste of money!
The beauty of these methods is that you can hit your target market with absolute precision; they’re like the efficient guided missile of the marketing world and definitely well worth making use of.
Strategic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
SEO, SEO, SEO… people are constantly banging on about it these days, aren’t they? Well, in fairness, they should be! That’s because SEO is one of the most important aspects of any online activity. E-commerce is no exception; in fact, SEO is probably more important for WooCommerce sites than almost any other type of website.
If your website is optimised for search engines, it means that your prospective customers are much more likely to find your site when they search for the product or service that you’re offering.
Good SEO isn’t just something to give a short-term boost to traffic or sales, either. As a long-term method for achieving a strong and steady flow of traffic that converts extremely well, SEO is beyond compare.
You can go about handling your website’s SEO in different ways. If you have a way with words or know someone on your team that does, then you go through all your web content inserting popular search terms into the copy and making sure that each page has clear and attractive metadata. This is a basic approach, but it will make a difference.
A more advanced approach would be to use an agency that can come up with a complete SEO strategy for you. These guys are experts and have a whole arsenal of tricks up their sleeve to increase the traffic to your site, from SEO-rich blog posts to hosted articles that increase your website’s backlinks and overall Google rating.
Creative Email Marketing
You might be surprised to learn that email is still a very powerful marketing tool.
By targeting your customers with automated emails you can keep them coming back for more and turn them into long-term buyers.
The most obvious purpose of any email marketing campaign is to inform your customers of the latest offers you have available or to tell them about the new stock that you’ve got in. The less obvious purpose is to build a relationship with customers by frequently appearing in their inbox and communicating with them.
Of course, one has to tread carefully these days and be intelligent about how one uses email. As we all know, every email service now has a built-in filter to separate the advertising and marketing emails from the rest.
It’s important to be creative with your emails and to make sure that you’re not just pestering customers. Bombarding them with dry information can have a negative effect on business instead of helping to drive sales. Finding a unique tone of voice for your copy and targeting significant events in the calendar rather than just constantly emailing – bank holidays, school holidays, starts of seasons etc. – are strong tactics.
Social Media for WooCommerce
Of course, social media must play a leading role in marketing your WooCommerce site. Companies that do not take advantage of social media today are like those small restaurants that still don’t have their own websites; it’s a ludicrous way to do business, failing to take advantage of one of the most important aspects of modern life. In fact, it is predicted that almost 3.1 billion people will be using social media worldwide by 2021.
The start is simply having a social media presence. That means making regular posts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. It’s important to post regularly, but this doesn’t have to be hard work. 9 You can post information about the latest offers to keep your customers informed of the bargains they could be benefiting from.
Equally, you can post content such as behind-the-scenes photos of the team getting ready for a sale or a business event. Often, the most popular content on social media is the photos and videos that give people an insight into the life of an individual or an organisation.
Don’t forget that we are all fundamentally very nosey people and we take great interest in the lives of others! The TV world shows us this as some of the most popular programmes today are those that show us other people’s lives, such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Made in Chelsea. Online, the prevalence of vloggers now on YouTube – the real-life version of a concept that was mere fiction back in 1998 with The Truman Show – illustrates this very clearly as well.
Remember that social media should be informal and fun, that we are all very nosey and that posting regularly is the way to build followers.