After taking the leap into the ecommerce world and launching your Shopify store, you’re probably looking for ways to attract new customers. Even with a great design and solid product offering, standing out in a crowded market can be challenging. Fortunately, you can take several practical strategies and actions to promote and drive traffic to your business. Depending on your needs and goals, these can include anything from social media marketing to paid advertising to email marketing campaigns.

Shopify is currently the leading platform for ecommerce brands, and it powers nearly two million businesses’ online stores. It goes without saying, but competition in the ecommerce world is fierce; retailers looking to remain relevant and stand out need to establish a solid marketing strategy that will actually move the mark.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, it’s essential to prioritize marketing and make it a crucial part of your overall ecommerce strategy. Doing so can lead to increased sales, greater brand recognition and the development of a loyal customer base.

Related: 5 Essential Shopify SEO Tips to Get More Organic Traffic

1. Boost your search engine appeal

To draw more traffic and give potential customers the best chance of finding you when they search for similar products, it’s essential to prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This strategy requires patience, time and ongoing effort, but it’s worth the investment.

There are several key steps to optimizing your Shopify store. These include optimizing your store’s architecture, conducting thorough keyword research to identify relevant keywords for your business, refining your on-page optimization over time and implementing an effective link-building strategy.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort. Fortunately, Shopify offers built-in marketing tools, including SEO optimization features, to help you optimize for search engines. Moreover, you can enhance your SEO efforts and maintain a steady traffic flow by using various third-party SEO tools and Shopify apps.

If you prioritize SEO and take the essential measures to optimize your Shopify store for search engines, you can gradually attract a larger audience, increase your sales and expand your business.

2. Amplify your reach with digital ads

Investing in paid ads is a highly effective strategy, particularly if you’re just starting out or facing challenges in gaining visibility through organic search marketing. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, like Google Ads, can be an excellent option for driving more traffic to your site as ads appear at the top of search results. In a PPC campaign, you set a maximum bid and only pay when someone clicks on your link. A well-targeted and well-written PPC campaign can immediately bring traffic to your Shopify store. However, it’s worth noting that your competitors and the ads platform determine the amount you pay per visitor, even though you control your overall spending.

Another option for paid advertising is launching campaigns on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, the most common networks for paid advertising. To determine which platform works best for you, conduct different tests and analyze your ad’s performance.

Having attractive visual content and persuasive copywriting that appeals to potential customers is essential to creating successful ads. Be creative! Successful advertising campaigns need that creative appeal to capture the attention of shoppers.

Before launching your ads, consider the most relevant keywords for your business and target your ads to specific audiences to ensure your campaigns are effective. Paid advertising campaigns can inform potential customers about your Shopify brand and retarget previous site visitors, making it an effective tactic for attracting new customers and guiding shoppers back.

Related: The 9 Best Shopify Apps to Increase Sales Available for Free

3. Utilize influencer marketing

In recent years, influencer marketing has gained immense popularity and has proven to be an effective way to market your Shopify store, especially for brands in the fashion, beauty and CPG industries. In essence, influencer marketing is a partnership between a brand and an influencer, and it is becoming an increasingly popular choice for brands’ marketing budgets. Finding an influencer whose niche audience aligns with your product or brand is crucial to begin with influencer marketing. You must also establish a relationship with the influencer, who will create their own content to help position your brand.

Influencer marketing is highly effective for ecommerce businesses. Seventy-one percent of marketers find that it generates better quality customers and traffic than other sources. Consumers trust influencer recommendations because they create a direct communication channel and leverage the credibility and trust of public figures. In fact, 64% of marketers agree that influencer marketing is an enhanced form of word-of-mouth marketing, which is the most effective form of marketing.

This personalized approach is particularly effective in today’s world, where so many brand choices inundate consumers. Influencer marketing is a highly reliable and direct marketing strategy, as recommendations from real people carry more weight than conventional paid advertisements.

4. Master your customer referral program

Referral programs can be an effective strategy where satisfied customers become brand advocates and receive rewards such as discounts or free products. You can reach a wider audience by incentivizing past customers to recommend your products to their network. This approach is particularly effective because people tend to trust recommendations from friends and family more than advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing is such a powerful tool that it can generate up to five times more sales than traditional paid advertising.

Unlike customer reviews, a referral program involves direct word-of-mouth marketing where people share their positive experiences with your products with those close to them, generating new leads that are highly likely to convert. Several platforms and tools are available to create a customer referral program, such as Talkable, which offers an in-app referral program to help find brand advocates.

To attract new customers to your Shopify store, you can use several strategies to promote your business and drive traffic, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid advertising, influencer marketing and customer referral programs. Implementing these tactics can attract more customers, increase sales and develop a loyal customer base. Remember to be creative and invest time and effort into continuously improving your marketing strategy to stay ahead in the competitive ecommerce industry.

Related: 12 Awesome Tips From Ecommerce Experts