Brian Lim — February 12, 2018 As an e-commerce CEO and business founder who has bootstrapped three successful brands with $ 100 to make over $ 20 million a year, I know how to find success in e-commerce.
But I also know what it’s like to launch a new brand and hear crickets.
Nothing is more frustrating.
You may have done everything right: you researched your target demographics and understand your buyer personas, you have a great product, you used Shopify to design an attractive and easy-to-navigate site, you populated your site with beautiful graphics and engaging keyword-rich copy, and you are active on social media.
But, nevertheless, all you hear is the mocking sound of crickets chirping.
Thankfully, every brick wall can be smashed. All you need is the right hammer.
While every business niche and brand experiences unique issues, I’ve found that the following tactics have proven exceptionally useful in terms of taking your site from a stagnant ghost town to a highly trafficked converting machine.
So if you’re not impressed with your current levels of customer conversions and need a jumpstart, try these tips first.
- Use a Customer Review App like Yotpo or Stamped
According to BigCommerce:
- 92% of consumers read online reviews and customer testimonials before making a purchase.
- 88% of consumers hold online customer reviews to the same level of value as personal recommendations
- 72% of consumers feel that positive reviews and testimonials increase their trust in a given brand
First off, if your jaw isn’t hanging open right now, please re-read every one of the above bullets.
Okay, good, you’re appropriately shocked. You agree user reviews are incredibly important, but you’re now struggling to get customers to take the time to write them.
Great news. There’s an app for that!
You’ve probably heard of Yotpo. If you haven’t, it’s basically a tool that garners customer reviews, photos, and Q&As, and then distributes them across your site and social platforms to generate more traffic and increase conversions.
While Yotpo’s great, I’ve recently begun using Stamped instead, as it’s more affordable and has a better customer experience in my opinion.
Both apps are super easy to integrate into your Shopify web store. Both apps also had a demonstrable ROI for the brands in which I used them.
- Email Acquisition: Use Privy and Ab Test Widget Copy
On average 8% of product page traffic will convert to sales.
But what about the 92% that didn’t buy?
It’d be a sin to let all of the traffic leave your site without anything to show for it. After all, you probably spent money driving traffic to that page.
That’s why it’s crucial to have an email acquisition strategy in play. If you can get even 15% of that 92% to signup to your email newsletter, and let’s say half of those people buy something over the next year, you just significantly boosted your total conversions.
Plus, there is perennial value in a large email list. Not only does it offer you a means of communicating sales and discounts, but it’s also a great means of distributing content marketing assets to further boost your traffic and SEO.
I use an app called Privy for many of my Shopify sites. This is an extremely customizable pop-up ad application that lets you create and dictate when a pop-up appears based on a timer, scroll percentage, exit intent, and other metrics. There’s a lot more this great tool can do too. I definitely recommend checking it out.
One point to note: I’ve found that the value of Privy is dependent on one’s diligence to a/b test your pop up copy, images, and metrics settings. If you’re willing to constantly experiment and optimize until you reach perfection, then this is a great tool for you.
- Test for Web Speed: Constantly. Like Every Week.
This is a simple tip, but incredibly important.
A 3 second load time will result in 40% of people abandoning the page.
If that doesn’t immediately having you checking your site speed, I don’t know what will!
While Shopify sites usually don’t have too many issues in terms of speed, things can get sluggish, depending on how many apps, pages, and images you have loaded – especially if traffic spikes.
Thankfully you can easily check your website speed with any number of tools. I use webpagetest.org for my sites and GTmetrix to improve site speed. To guarantee better user experience, I ensure that everything above the fold loads before loading content below the fold.
This trick has had a demonstrable effect for me in terms of traffic retention.
- The About Us Page: Every Website’s Secret Weapon
The About Us page might be the most undervalued page on your Shopify site.
This is often the first page prospective leads visit. It’s also the 2nd most visited page on all of my sites, after the homepage.
It’s the page where prospective buyers first meet your brand and judge whether or not they want continue engaging.
A successful About Us page will show who you are, what you do, demonstrate authenticity, and use a CTA to guide customers to the next stage in your marketing funnel.
While there’s no easy secret to creating a great About Us page, I’d suggest hiring a professional copywriter who’s had past successes using language to affect consumer behavior. It’s worth it.
Also, make your About Us page as visual as possible. Include team / office images whenever possible. This will humanize your brand and give shoppers a reason to support you over the thousands of other faceless retailers.
- Influencer Marketing: Influence the Dang Market
Lastly on my list of Shopify conversion-boosting tips is (drum roll please) influencer marketing!
While using social media to engage and communicate with your consumers is still incredibly important, social media is only useful if people follow you; and if you’ve ever tried to build a social media following solely off posting, you know it’s a fool’s errand.
By partnering with social influencers you can gain a year’s worth of traffic in no time.
That’s why each of my brands has a promoter program. This program has been so successful for my brands, that we’ve increased our budget every single year it’s been in effect. My team and I have also built up an influencer network for every brand, which we work with on a regular basis.
These influencer partners test, review, and post on social media about our products.
Influencer marketing is one of the best strategies to gain targeted traffic, build clout, and grow your social followings.
If you have other awesome tips for boosting Shopify conversions, tell me about it in the comments! I’d love to hear your suggestions.
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