1. Build an Email List

The focus of most Shopify store owners is to get customers in the door and get them buying as quickly as possible. You might use google analytics to figure out just how long customers spend on your site and which links they are clicking, which can help give you an idea of which areas of your website you need to work on to improve conversions.

However, your focus should not be on selling potential customers, but developing a relationship with them and turning them into repeat buyers. The only way to do this is to get their contact information, so that you can send them future messages.

Would you rather sell 1% of the visitors that come to your Shopify store or gather the contact information of 20% of the visitors? Those visitors whose contact information you are able to secure can turn into future sales and evangelists for your business.

By offering a free guide related to your niche, promoting a newsletter with valuable information, or emphasizing a weekly roundup “deals, discounts, and giveaways” email, you can entice potential customers to enter their contact information, which gives you permission to send them future emails.

To get started building your email list, you can export the email addresses of your Facebook friends using this technique. You can then upload the email list to MailChimp, which is free up until 2,000 subscribers, or Aweber, which starts at $1/month up until 500 subscribers.

You can then create an email popup using the Modify Promotional Lightbox shopify plugin or add a newsletter signup form with this guide. 

2. Networking Events and Communities

The best way to get out and develop new connections that could turn into customers or business partnerships is through in-person networking events. Check out this list of places that you can use to find relevant networking events for your niche.

Meetup.com – You can search by interest, location, and activity to find a meetup event that is close to you and relevant to your business. Before attending, be sure to have business cards ready with your store’s link and possibly a promotional offer. Some of these events will be free and others will cost a fee.

Eventbrite.com – Eventbrite is a great website for finding formal and informal events in your area that center around topics like food & drink, arts, business networking, and music. Often times, there is a discount or free option if you sign up early to events.

Linkedin Groups /Facebook Groups/Google+ Communities – By joining the major social media groups in your industry and local area, you find out about events happening in your niche and networking opportunities for the month. Don’t be shy to reach out to people in the groups! They are there to meet people and make business connections.

3. Create a Blog and Start Guest Blogging.

Blogging is a great way to share useful tips that your customers might be interested in and to highlight key news events.

For example, if you are running a Shopify store centered around fashion ecommerce, it’s likely that your customers would be interested in the top fashion tips around the web and from your own experience. In addition, they would probably be flattered if you were to include any of them as a feature story on your blog for their fashion savvy or to share some of their fashion tips for beginners.

As your blog posts are shared on social media by your customers and readers, more and more traffic will come to your blog, which also gives people an opportunity to check out your shopify store. You will also begin to see traffic coming in from search engines over time if your tips and articles are especially helpful to fashion enthusiasts.

This type of marketing is referred to as inbound marketing is the #1 way to begin starting a dialogue with potential customers.

To help spread the reach of your blog posts, you could also guest blog on top industry websites. In exchange for providing stellar content to these top sites, you would have the opportunity to link to one of your previous blog articles, sending traffic to your page, or drive traffic through your author bio to your company’s social media accounts or website.

Going back to tip #1, blogging is also a great way to build up your email list and retain those visitors that you’ve worked hard for.

4. Cross Promote with Other Shopify Sellers

It’s hard going it alone as an entrepreneur, especially when you need to wear so many hats. One way to make it a bit easier on yourself is to partner up with other Shopify sellers who are offering complimentary products or have a similar customer demographic.

By cross promoting you can help customers find more products that they like and also generate more sales. This cross promotion can be as simple as a banner advertisement exchange to mentioning each other on social media, in email newsletters, or on your separate blogs. You could even do a joint giveaway or discount offering together. How can you form a team in your industry that will benefit all of the individuals involved?

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” – Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn, author of The Start-up of You

In addition, getting to know other Shopify sellers will quickly clue you in to what works and what doesn’t in the world of ecommerce. Learning from articles you find on google and reading through books is a great first step to improving your online marketing and sales skills. However, the most valuable knowledge resides in people who are experiencing the same problems and have discovered solutions.

Finally, developing relationships in your industry will also open up a new group of connections that you did not have access to previously, increasing the chances of serendipity or fortunate chance opportunities. You never know who someone else knows or how they may be able to impact your business further down the road.

5. Use Social Media To Attract Attention, Not to Sell.

Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ are great tools to promote your Shopify store, but maybe not in the way that you think.

Some studies show that it takes 7-20 times of viewing your advertisement before a potential customer decides to buy. When competing with so many brands putting out self-promotional messages, it’s easy to become lost in the fray and quickly lose a customer’s attention.

One way to get around this is to use your social media accounts to attract attention, rather than sell. Instead of telling people to check out your Shopify store featuring fashion products, why not share some of your blog articles highlighting fashion tips, or sharing images of seriously cool accessories (not necessarily yours) that users might want to re-share with their friends?

When you begin to use your social media accounts to engage and attract your customer base, rather than selling to them, your content will change from “self-promotion” to “interesting” “helpful” and “cool.”

As more people follow you and like your page, this investment will pay off and every now and again, you can highly a key discount or sale that you are having. Customers will be more likely to tolerate this self-promotion however because of your previous track record of delivering awesome content.

Conclusion

How have you been promoting your Shopify store and what has been effective? We’d love to help out and also check out your store. Be sure to share the link below in the comments section!