Strategy to Attract Online Customers: 8 Ways to Get More Traffic

In today’s digital landscape, having a strong online presence is crucial for the success of any business.

With so many consumers turning to the internet to research products, compare prices, and make buying decisions, establishing a successful business website is essential.

Case in point, 63% of shopping journeys now begin online and 20.8% of all retail purchases are expected to take place online in 2023.

However, simply having a business website is not enough.

To thrive in the digital marketplace, you must strive to both attract consumers to your site and engage them effectively once they get there.

In this article, we’ll detail eight powerful strategies to help you not only drive consumers to your website - but to convert the traffic you acquire.

We’ll cover:

• The importance of attracting consumers to your site
• 8 ways to drive more traffic to your website
• Getting started with your strategy to attract online customers

The importance of attracting new customers to sites

With 79% of consumers shopping online at least once per month, attracting customers to your website has become more important than ever.

The following are some key reasons why driving traffic to your site is an important and worthwhile pursuit:

• Increased visibility: With countless websites competing for attention, improving your online presence is imperative for establishing brand visibility in the marketplace. The more consumers who visit your website, the more familiar they become with your brand, increasing the chances of converting them into customers.
• Expanded reach: Unlike physical store locations with geographical limitations, a website allows you to reach a global audience. By attracting more traffic to your website, you can expand your customer base beyond your local area and tap into new markets. This opens up new opportunities for growth and enables you to connect with consumers who might have otherwise been inaccessible. To further capitalise on these opportunities, you can alsoregister your company, a strategic move that can enhance your business’s credibility and access to international markets.
• Showcasing products and services: Your business website serves as a virtual store, enabling you to showcase your products and services to potential customers. High-quality product images, detailed descriptions, and customer testimonials on your site all contribute to building your brand image and driving online sales. By attracting consumers to your website, you provide them with an opportunity to explore your offerings in detail, thus increasing the chance of a purchase.
• Building credibility: A professionally designed and user-friendly website is a powerful tool for building credibility and trust. When consumers search for information or seek solutions to their problems, they expect to find reputable and reliable businesses. By attracting consumers to your website and providing them with valuable content, relevant information, and a seamless user experience, you establish your business as a credible authority in your industry.
• Lead generation: Attracting potential customers to your website allows you to capture, nurture, and convert leads. Through various tactics such as lead magnets, email marketing campaigns, and persuasive call-to-actions, you can entice website visitors to engage further with your business and guide them through the sales funnel. Ultimately, a website that attracts leads effectively becomes a powerful tool for generating revenue and driving business growth.

Overall, attracting consumers to your business website is a critical aspect of building a successful online presence.

By engaging and converting more website visitors, you’ll position your business for long-term success in the digital marketplace.

8 top strategies to attract more online customers

Now that we’ve covered the importance of building your online presence, let’s dive into how you can achieve this.

In this section, we’ll provide eight key strategies to help you attract, engage, and convert more website visitors.

1. Maximize your SEO efforts

One of the best ways to drive more traffic to your website is by improving your SEO strategy.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of optimizing a website in order to improve its visibility and rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs).

This process is important because 95% of all search engine traffic goes to sites that appear on the first results page.

You can work to improve your site’s SEO with the following practices:

• Keyword research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is likely to search for. Use keyword research tools (e.g. Ahrefs) and Google scraping techniques via tools like Scraper API to find keywords that are relevant to your target audience and have manageable competition. You can build your content around these keywords and phrases.
• Quality content: Regularly produce high-quality and engaging content that will intrigue your target audience and provide value. Develop a content strategy, integral to your content operations, that focuses on providing informative articles, blog posts, videos, infographics, and other types of content that can attract a variety of visitors. You might consider investing in SEO content editing software (e.g. Surfer) to aid your efforts. If you don't have the internal resources to create quality content at scale, you can work with a content marketing agency.‍
• On-page optimization: Optimize your website’s on-page elements to make it more search engine-friendly. This includes optimizing meta tags (alt text, meta description, etc.), using multimedia, structuring your content with relevant subheadings, and ensuring keyword-rich content throughout your website. You can maximize success by using a comprehensive SEO content analysis tool to help you with this process.‍
• Link building: Use outreach and collaboration with other content creators to build high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in your industry. Guest posting on reputable websites can also help you acquire valuable backlinks.‍
• Analytics and monitoring: Implement website analytics tools like Google Analytics (GA) to track your website’s performance, or connect GA to your rank tracker to track all essential metrics in a single marketing dashboard. Monitor key metrics such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, bounce rate, and conversions. Analyze the data to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance your SEO strategy.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process of trial and error, and it can take time to see significant results.

Be sure to stay up to date with the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates so you can adapt your strategies accordingly.

2. Invest in a PPC campaign

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a digital advertising model where businesses pay a fee each time their ads are clicked.

It’s a highly targeted and measurable form of advertising, typically conducted on search engines like Google or social media platforms.

With PPC, businesses bid on specific keywords or target criteria.

Then, their ads are displayed to users who are searching for relevant terms or fit the specified targeting parameters.

Consider conducting a PPC competitor analysis before running your campaign to ensure you're on the right track.

You can get the most out of a PPC campaign by:

• Conducting keyword research: It’s important to conduct thorough keyword research to identify the keywords and phrases that potential customers are likely to use when searching for products or services related to your business. Use keyword research tools to find relevant keywords with a good search volume and moderate competition.
• Creating compelling ads: Ensure your ads are compelling, engaging, and align with your business offerings. Aim to create catchy headlines, include relevant keywords, and highlight unique selling propositions (USPs) to attract potential customers. Focus on delivering a clear message and call-to-action within the limited ad space.
• Optimizing your landing pages: Put time into producing dedicated landing pages that align with your ads and goals. Optimize your landing pages by ensuring they load quickly, and have a clear and relevant headline, persuasive content, compelling visuals, and a prominent call-to-action. Be sure to align the content on the landing page with the user’s search intent.
• Targeting effectively: PPC platforms offer various targeting options, including demographics, location, interests, and device targeting. Make sure you utilize these options to reach your desired audience effectively. Narrowing down your audience ensures your ads are displayed to the right people, increasing the chances of attracting potential customers.
• Monitoring performance: Continuously test and refine your ads to improve their performance. Experiment with different ad variations, headlines, call-to-action phrases, and visuals to identify what resonates best with your audience. Monitor the performance metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates to optimize your campaigns. Make necessary adjustments, tweak your strategy, and refine your ads to stay ahead and attract more customers. If you're looking for a new way to do this, try Voluum. Using Voluum, you can track click-through rates, conversion rates, and other key metrics, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your advertising campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

Although PPC campaigns can be costly, they’re a worthy and lucrative investment if you have the funds.

Case in point, PPC has been found to generate twice the number of website visitors compared to SEO, which isn’t surprising considering that 65% of consumers click on PPC ads.

If you have a SaaS business, consider integrating a SaaS spend management software to ensure you monitor your PPC budget accordingly.

3. Take advantage of social media

There’s no denying the power of social media in today’s digital market.

With billions of daily users around the globe, it allows businesses to expand their reach to a vast and diverse audience.

And, as 80% of consumers now use social media to connect with brands, there’s an opportunity to make this channel a lucrative tool - for driving users to your website.

You can leverage social media in this way with the following practices:

• Share website links: Regularly share links to your website’s pages, blog posts, and other valuable resources on your social media profiles. Use captivating captions and CTAs to entice users to click on the links and visit your website.
• Create visual content: High-quality visuals (images, graphics, videos, etc.) play a crucial role in attracting attention on social media. If you have existing visual content, but it's not quite up to the standards expected by social media audiences today, you can use tools to overhaul it. For instance, you can upscale your photos online and make them ready for the limelight, even if the source files are a little low-res. Visuals tend to get more engagement and shares, which can drive traffic to your website when you include your website’s URL in the content. Make sure you add subtitles to all your video content to ensure accessibility. And don't forget to keep your branding consistent too - including the use of your logo. (If you're just starting out here, try this logo maker tool.)
• Engage with your audience: Actively engage with your social media followers by responding to comments, messages, and mentions. Utilize social media customer support tools like live chat, messaging apps, or a chatbot. By building relationships and providing personalized interactions, you can attract loyal followers who are more likely to visit your website for more information or to make a purchase.
• Run contests and promotions: Organize social media contests, giveaways, or exclusive promotions that require participants to visit your website to enter or claim rewards. This tactic not only drives traffic to your website but also encourages user-generated content and increases brand visibility through social media sharing. You can easily verify this if you measure brand awareness after these campaigns.
• Collaborate with influencers: Partner with influencers or industry experts who have a significant following on social media. Influencers can authentically promote your brand, products, or services, guiding followers to visit your website for more details or exclusive offers. They can also organically boost your event attendance by tapping into their engaged audience. Choose influencers whose audience aligns with your target market for better results. Influencer analysis tools can help you verify audiences and find influencers whose audience aligns with your target market for better results. To maximize the effectiveness of these partnerships, consider using the best software for tracking influencer marketing to monitor engagement metrics and ROI accurately.

• Display UGC through social media wall: Showcase user-generated content related to your brand or campaign on a social media wall. This can be a great way to boost user engagement, build trust, and encourage further content creation. You can curate content from various platforms and display it in a visually appealing way.

By leveraging the power of social media, businesses can increase brand visibility, build customer loyalty, and drive traffic to their website.

Consistent and strategic efforts, combined with valuable content and effective calls-to-action, will lead to more website visitors and potential customers.

4. Ensure website usability

Website usability plays a crucial role in attracting more website visitors for several reasons.

Firstly, a well-designed site helps create a positive customer experience, which encourages visitors to stay longer and explore more of your content.

When visitors can quickly find the information they need and navigate through your website effortlessly, they’re more likely to engage with your content.

Secondly, if your website is confusing, cluttered, or difficult to navigate, visitors are likely to become frustrated and leave your site within seconds.

This high bounce rate can negatively impact your website’s performance and hinder your ability to attract and retain visitors.‍

And finally, website usability is closely linked to search engine optimization.

Search engines like Google consider user experience metrics, such as bounce rate, time on site, and pages per session, when determining search rankings. 

A website that provides a positive experience is more likely to rank higher in search results, making it more visible to potential visitors.

By prioritizing website usability and leveraging UX design services, you’ll create a welcoming and intuitive digital space.

This will encourage site visitors to explore, engage, and convert - thereby driving the growth and success of your business.

Implementing a mobile app heatmap can provide valuable insights into website user behavior, allowing you to optimise the site's mobile experience for better engagement and retention.

Effective domain management also plays a crucial role in website usability, ensuring that your domain remains secure and accessible to your visitors.

5. Create a referral program

Referral programs are effective marketing strategies that can significantly increase website visitors by leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

With the integration of referral software, businesses can easily track referrals, manage rewards, and scale their referral marketing efforts efficiently.

Referral schemes work by giving customers specific perks if they successfully refer your brand to a friend or family member.

This can be done by rewarding customers with loyalty points, discount codes, or a free gift when the referee signs up on your website or makes their first purchase.

By offering rewards or incentives to customers who successfully refer others, you’ll provide a tangible benefit for customers to share and promote your business.

Referral programs also have the potential to expand your customer base by reaching new audiences. When existing customers refer others, they introduce your business to individuals who may not have been aware of it before.

This brings fresh traffic to your website, exposing your brand to a wider audience and increasing the likelihood of acquiring new customers.

6. Leverage email marketing

It may sound dated, but email marketing can be a powerful and cost-effective strategy for drawing customers to your business website.

With an effective email marketing campaign, you can stay connected with both existing online customers and those who have shown interest in your website but haven’t made a purchase yet.

Sometimes, just a single email containing compelling content or an enticing discount can persuade email subscribers to convert into customers. 

In fact, 59% of consumers report that marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions.

The following are some useful pointers to help you devise a successful email marketing campaign:

• Build a quality email list: Focus on building a permission-based email list of engaged subscribers who have willingly opted in to receive communications from you. Offer incentives or valuable content to encourage sign-ups, and regularly clean your list to remove inactive or unsubscribed users.
• Personalize all emails: Use personalization techniques to address subscribers by their name and tailor the content to their interests or previous interactions. Personalized emails create a sense of relevance and increase engagement.
• Craft compelling subject lines: The subject line is the first thing recipients see, so make it attention-grabbing and compelling. Use concise, intriguing language that entices subscribers to open the email. Avoid spammy or clickbait-style subject lines that can damage your reputation.
• Include clear CTAs: Every email should include a clear call-to-action that prompts recipients to visit your website. Make your CTAs prominent, visually appealing, and compelling to encourage click-throughs.
• Ensure mobile optimization: It’s best practice to design emails that are optimized for mobile viewing. Use responsive design, concise text, and mobile-friendly CTAs to provide an optimal experience across devices.
• Test and optimize: Continuously test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, content layout, CTAs, and sending times. A/B testing can help you identify what resonates best with your audience and refine your campaigns for better results.
• Ensure email security: Implement email security measures such as DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks. DMARC policy helps ensure that emails are coming from legitimate sources, enhancing trust and credibility with your recipients.

By leveraging email marketing effectively, you’ll not only attract more visitors to your website - you can also nurture customer relationships and increase online sales.

7. Entice customers with online promotions/discounts

The allure of a good deal is a universal language that resonates with all consumers.

Whether it’s a limited-time discount, a buy-one-get-one-free offer, or a special promotional code, online promotions instantly grab attention and create a sense of urgency.

Customers will be enticed by the opportunity to save money or get more value for their purchase, and this translates into increased website traffic as they eagerly explore your offerings.

What’s more, online promotions and discounts provide businesses with a golden opportunity to connect with their target audience on a deeper level.

By tailoring promotions to specific customer segments, businesses can demonstrate a keen understanding of their customer’s needs and preferences.

You can advertise any online discount/promotional schemes using your social media channels and email marketing software. You could also use an AI brochure maker to create promotional brochures and catalogs.

By leveraging the power of enticing offers and personalized incentives, businesses can stay competitive, capture attention, and ultimately forge long-lasting connections with their target audience.

8. Integrate contact channels into website

One of the most significant barriers to a positive user experience on a website is not being able to access support.

If an online customer encounters any issues or difficulties, and there’s no way to get their questions answered, chances are they’ll get frustrated and leave your site for good.

Digital customer service is the solution to this problem.

By embedding the right communication channels on your website, you’ll be able to take the in-store customer experience online.

The following customer contact channels are crucial for any brand looking to attract and digitally engage more website visitors:

1. Live chat – Live chat is one of the most essential website engagement tools to have at your disposal. It provides maximum convenience by giving customers access to real-time, chat support through your website. Plus, this channel has been proven to drive repeat site visits. In fact, 63% of consumers are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat.
2. Video chat - Sometimes a text-based interaction isn’t quite enough to give customers the humanized support they need. Video chat rectifies this issue by enabling face-to-face interactions in the virtual realm. It’s why video chat customer service is such a powerful medium for converting online customers. In fact, customers who use Talkative’s live video chat are up to 4x more likely to make a purchase.
3. Web callbacks - By offering web callbacks on your site, you'll give your online customers the option to request a callback at their preferred time. This minimizes the effort required to contact your business and helps you to convert wesite traffic into quality inbound leads.
4. Cobrowsing - Cobrowsing can be used alongside live chat or video chat to create a collaborative interaction that takes the digital customer experience to the next level. It allows customers and agents to browse your website or app together, in real time. This creates a shared digital space where customers can be given hands-on guidance.
5. Chatbots - While the above channels are fantastic tools for in-depth customer conversations, they have one drawback – they require human agents to operate. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants, on the other hand, are readily available to provide immediate answers to your customers 24/7. This ensures that your website visitors are never left unaided.

By integrating these engagement channels into your website, you’ll be able to provide online personalization and exceptional customer service that’ll keep your digital customers coming back to your site for more.

The takeaway

In today’s highly competitive digital marketplace, attracting more online customers can be a challenge.

The strategies detailed in this article provide a solid foundation to build upon in your efforts to drive more traffic to your website.

But, if you want to get the most out of these strategies, you also need to invest in the right technology.

After all, it’s not enough to just entice more consumers to your website – you also need to be able to effectively engage and convert them once they get there.

That’s where Talkative comes in.

Our solution was specifically designed to power superior customer service and personalized experiences at every digital touchpoint.

We provide a complete suite of intelligent contact channels that’ll empower you to connect instantly, and effortlessly, with all your website visitors.

As a result, you’ll be fully equipped to attract and retain more online customers than ever before.

Want to learn more? 

Book a demo today and discover how you can supercharge your business website with Talkative.