The pandemic has been tough on most businesses worldwide, with various lockdown measures pulling the brakes on many business operations. However, since shoppers have shifted their spending to the online world, you have plenty of opportunities to attract them and grow your business.
As you may know, you can’t use paid ads to promote your business, but there are many other ways to boost website traffic, generate more leads and conversions, and increase your sales just like some of the reputed brands like madvapes do. Here are a few practical ways to grow your business this lockdown.
1. Optimize Your Content for Search Engines
Search engine optimization is vital for growing your business. With proper SEO, you’ll increase your online visibility, build brand awareness, drive organic traffic to your site, and boost your leads and sales.
It all starts with keywords, as your content needs to contain the words and phrases your target customers use in search queries. Implementing the right long-tail keywords into high-quality, relevant, and informative content will make your site appear high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
To further improve your SEO ranking, follow Google’s mobile-first indexing and enhance your entire on-page and off-page SEO, including link-building strategies. Sharing your knowledge as a guest blogger will get the quality backlinks that will drive you to the first page on Google.
2. Improve Your Local SEO
You can’t ignore local SEO if you have a brick-and-mortar shop. It will help you get on your target customers’ radar, thus boosting online sales and getting more foot traffic once the lockdown’s over.
The essential steps for improving your local SEO include:
- Creating a Google My Business account
- Adding listings to business directories and review sites like Yelp
- Maintaining accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) citations
- Adding a map to your website that shows your shop’s location
- Optimizing your content for local keywords
- Creating local content
- Making your phone number clickable on mobile devices
- Adding schema markup to your site
- Creating a dedicated page for testimonials
When you take all these steps, Google will start displaying a map of your location in relevant local searches, along with all the customer reviews.
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3. Promote Your Shop on Social Media
Social media platforms are excellent for promoting any business. They can help you extend your reach globally and build strong customer relationships.
If you still haven’t, create business pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and start promoting your products directly to consumers. Share informative blog posts, encourage discussions, engage in friendly (not too salesy) conversations, and respond to all comments and messages.
You can also partner with social media influencers to tap into their large audience and drive more traffic to your site. In addition, most of them will promote your brand for free product samples or discounts.
According to the latest influencer marketing statistics, most businesses make $5.20 for every dollar they spend on influencer marketing, while 13% of businesses make over $20.
4. Offer Special Deals and Promotions
Customers love getting discounts and freebies. So offering regular promotions and special deals will help you attract more customers and supercharge your sales.
For instance, you can offer special deals on large purchases, seasonal and new product discounts, and free shipping for all orders or a certain minimum dollar amount. In addition, you can give freebies for large purchases or to new email subscribers.
You can organize contests and giveaways on social media, which will help you enlarge your customer base. Whatever you decide to offer, ensure it’s unique and exciting.
5. Supercharge Your Email Marketing
Email remains one of the most effective channels for building strong customer relationships and growing a business. With email marketing, you can deliver personalized messages, communicate with an already engaged audience, and drive more sales and ROI – all in a fast and cost-effective way.
Email marketing is perfect for targeting consumers in every stage of your sales funnel, thus guiding them effectively to conversion and loyalty.
But how to get people to subscribe to your email newsletter? Give them an offer they can’t refuse.
Freebies, discounts, coupons, vouchers, and giveaway entries are some of the best incentives you can use. Any kind of exclusive content will do the trick, too. For instance, you can offer an eBook or anything else that addresses your target audience’s pain points.
6. Collect Customer Feedback Using Surveys and Polls
Customer feedback is the cornerstone of improvement. When you know what your customers like and dislike about your products, you’ll know how to improve and grow your business.
Include surveys and polls in transactional emails, email newsletters, and on your website and social media. Encourage people to share honest opinions about your brand because they’re your greatest sources of improvement.
Surveys and polls will also help you identify your brand advocates, so you can nurture them and get more sales and referrals.
Conclusion
The booming business industry has quite fierce competition, so it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd. But with all these tried-and-true tactics, it becomes much easier than you may think. Follow them, and you’ll drive more website and foot traffic and grow your business before you know it.
