Lead generation is immensely important in ecommerce – just as it is in all areas of retail. A ‘lead’ is a potential purchaser; in order to generate leads in an incredibly competitive online shopping market, ecommerce business owners need to be technology savvy and willing to spend time researching their market. Here are some ways in which ecommerce businesses have driven lead generation in recent years.
Optimize SEO
Hiring a third party lead generation SEO agency is a good use of company money. Search Engine Optimization is a broad field dedicated to improving the performance of a website in search engine rankings. Professional SEO agents author content, research keywords, edit metadata and create a trail of backlinks so that a website will perform well on sites like Google. Search Engine Optimization is always evolving in parallel with the shifting nature of Google’s search algorithm. Make sure to hire an agency that keeps up with the game and is willing to work with multiple platforms.
Use Search Ads
Search ads are Pay Per Click advertisements that appear above search results when a person enters keywords into a search engine. They are extremely efficient ways in which a company can drive traffic towards the lead generation areas of a website. Good keyword research is essential before taking out any search ads.
Provide Useful Content
People don’t just visit ecommerce sites in order to make purchases. More and more ecommerce business leaders are learning about the importance of offering genuinely informative or entertaining content in order to introduce consumers to their brands and get them surfing their online spaces. Use your expertise in the field you sell in to offer consumers something worth reading, watching or listening to. An increase in leads is likely to follow as consumers are tempted to linger and learn. Useful content also improves the search engine performance of your ecommerce website.
Offer Deals
Offering deals can help to engage site visitors with products and encourage purchases. This is not exactly a secret: merchants have been offering deals in order to generate leads for over 100 years. The Coca Cola company was one of the first businesses to formalize deal offers in 1888, when they printed coupons for free glasses of their brown soft drink. The coupon helped drive brand loyalty, and ultimately led to more vendors purchasing consignments of the drink.
Simplify Purchase Processes
In order to turn website visitors into leads, it is important to make the process of moving towards a purchase extremely simple. Streamlined purchasing processes reduce the amount of effort a potential customer needs to make. The more steps they have to make, the more likely they are to think twice about their purchase. Simplification is one of the most essential aspects of User Experience development in retail. A good reason to start selling using a preexisting platform like eBay or Amazon is that they offer ‘direct to checkout’ options for customers. If you are designing your own site, make sure to include this function.
