Attracting customers to your online store is one of the most important skills you can learn as an entrepreneur.
Marketing your products effectively isn’t easy: You’ll need to acquire new customers and keep loyal customers coming back—all while balancing time, budget, and resources.
That’s where a clear strategy makes all the difference. In this guide, you’ll learn 19 proven tactics to attract customers to your online store, how to use AI to make each one more effective, plus cost and time estimates for each.
Table of contents
19 ways to attract customers to your online store
- Optimize your social media bios
- Partner with creators and influencers
- Run flash sales and promotions
- Write optimized blog content
- Optimize your product descriptions
- Start a free quiz
- Create YouTube videos around trending topics
- Land press coverage
- Build an email newsletter
- Use SMS campaigns
- List your store on free advertising sites
- Expand to online marketplaces
- Run Google Ads campaigns
- Host a referral marketing program
- List your business on review aggregator sites
- Go local
- Host a giveaway
- Run retargeting campaigns
- Build and nurture online communities
1. Optimize your social media bios
Social media marketing is a powerful tool to drive traffic to your online store. The only problem? Most social media platforms don’t like when brands divert people off the platform.
Instagram, for example, allows only one link in your profile bio. There’s no way to send people to a specific page on your ecommerce website, making it difficult to execute organic social campaigns that increase web traffic.
Work around this issue using a link-in-bio tool to create a landing page encouraging customers to view your most-viewed pages, such as:
- Product pages of bestselling items
- Popular item category pages
- Your brand story
- High-converting landing pages
- Other social media profiles
Use AI writing tools to draft or polish profile bios that match your brand voice. For example, Use ChatGPT to suggest a profile bio that is on-brand and clearly explains what your product does and who it serves.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Free, the cost of a link-in-bio tool.
Time: One to three hours to optimize your social media bios.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Bios can be vague, cluttered with hashtags, or lack a clear call-to-action.
- Troubleshooting tips: Clearly describe what you sell, limit hashtags to a few, and add direct CTAs like “Shop now.”
2. Partner with creators and influencers
Run an influencer marketing campaign that taps into a creator’s existing audience to drive website traffic to your store. Creators and influencers can create powerful social proof for your brand. In fact, research shows that 69% of consumers trust influencer recommendations.
The key is to find creators and influencers whose target audience overlaps your own. Find them on the TikTok Creator Marketplace or Instagram search. Vet creators with AI-driven tools that flag fake followers and suspicious engagement before you sign. Tools like HypeAuditor and CreatorIQ use machine-learning to assess audience authenticity and fit.
Collaborate with them through:
- Sending free products
- Collaborating on paid sponsored content
- Inviting them to be an affiliate
- Social media takeovers of your brand’s profile
Richard Clews, founder of Pants & Socks, is one small-business owner using this approach to increase brand awareness. He’s partnered with several famous athletes, including Jason Roy, the England and Sussex cricketer, and world-class boxer Nick Campbell.
“This is a great way for us to increase our reach, because although we are a specialized niche, our target audience is quite large—men 18+,” Richard says. “Sports has been a perfect way for us to reach different age groups in our target audience.
“With some of our partnered athletes, we have run a really cool campaign where we change the location of our logo on their gear or uniform, announce it on social media, and offer a 15% to 20% discount code to anyone who can identify the location in whatever game, match, or tournament they may be participating in.”
These influencer marketing campaigns generally net a conversion rate between 2.4% and 3.2%—much better than the 1.4% an average ecommerce store sees. But, Richard adds, “The couple of times we have tried this campaign, we have seen week-long increases as high as 7% to 8% conversion rate.”
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Nano influencers cost ~$10 to $100 per post and micro-influencers cost ~$50 to $500 per post, with rates going up from there.
Time: Two to 10 hours per partnership.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Finding the right partner, avoiding fake followers and engagement, measuring return on investment (ROI), and getting replies to outreach.
- Troubleshooting tips: Use engagement filters to choose influencers, run fraud checks, set up tracking links, and prioritize email or LinkedIn over DMs.
3. Run flash sales and promotions
Shoppers often look for coupons before making a purchase online. Offering discounts can help you stand out from social media noise and give people an incentive to visit your online store.
That could be:
- Percentage discounts
- Limited-time flash sales, such as “30% off for the next 24 hours”
- Free shipping thresholds, such as “Spend $50 for free next-day shipping”
- Product bundles, which combine two or more products at a lower price than buying each one individually
- Coupons given out at your retail shop that can be used only online
Stephen Light, co-owner and CEO of mattress company Nolah, advises to promote discounts in Facebook Groups: “Facebook is the home to thousands of private communities, each with niched members. It would be strategic to join a few of these groups dedicated to ecommerce customers in search of deals.
“You can super-charge your website traffic and sales by announcing your promotions within these communities. Since most of the members are actively seeking discounts on items, this technique is guaranteed to invite conversion-ready leads to your online store.”
Let AI speed up promo creative and test discount/price sensitivity. For example, Shopify Magic can auto-generate subject lines for promotion emails and help you edit body copy.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Shopify Magic is free with all Shopify stores; Shopify Email includes 10,000 free emails per month, then $1 per 1,000, up to 300,000, with the price decreasing from there.
Time: Two to six hours.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Overusing discounts and tiring your audience with too many promos.
- Troubleshooting tips: Keep flash sales special to protect margins and balance them with content that entertains or educates.
4. Write optimized blog content
Did you know that shoppers also start their journey on search engines like Google? Search engine optimization (SEO) is a content marketing strategy that helps your ecommerce store appear higher in search results.
Stand out from other businesses by writing engaging content that targets keywords your target audience is searching for. If you’re selling Apple Watch straps through your online store, for example, that could be “Best Apple Watch straps for men” or “Are Apple Watches waterproof?”
Follow SEO best practices to get your blog content to rank in search engines. That includes:
- Embedding the keyword in meta tags, alt text, and headings
- Building internal links that direct visitors to similar pages on your own website
- Using a short, clear, easy-to-read URL structure
- Actively distributing the blog post on social media channels
- Build backlinks to your website from external websites
SEO assistants can help analyze top-ranking pages and suggest keywords, headings, and readability fixes as you write, cutting research time. Leverage tools like Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant and Clearscope’s AI-powered content analysis.
Learn more: 15 Data-Driven Content Marketing Tips
Illuminate Labs, for example, publishes health-related blog posts on its website. President Calloway Cook says, “In July of 2021, we started content marketing as the core strategy to drive traffic to our Shopify store. We began to publish several well-researched articles per week to our company blog, Illuminate Health.
“That month, our site achieved 6,300 organic page views. One year later, in July of 2022, our site achieved 162,000 organic page views.”
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Semrush starts at $139.95 per month and Clearscope starts at $189 per month. Other SEO tools will vary in cost.
Time: Four to 10 hours per post.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Posts that lack a clear keyword strategy often fail to rank.
- Troubleshooting tips: Use tools to research search intent first and create in-depth content with examples and FAQs.
5. Optimize your product descriptions
Your product pages are some of the most valuable content on your site, and you can optimize them to get even more traffic and increase sales.
Take it from Kath Vaughn, owner of Milk Tooth, who says, “Organic search traffic is my number-one generator of sales. My website ranks against other toy stores selling the same products as Milk Tooth, because I don’t just copy the stock standard product descriptions that everyone else does.
“I take the time—and it does take time, don’t get me wrong—to write my own and, as a mother myself, try to provide information about the toy that would be helpful and appealing to a parent. I also try to upload unique product photos to sit alongside stock photos, although this is even more time consuming.”
Kath adds, “For the 12 months to August 20, 2022, organic Google traffic brought in just over 45% of total orders for Milk Tooth. I didn’t run a single Google ad during this period of time.”
Write the product description with your target customer in mind, using the exact language they use, touching on pain points they struggle with, and referencing keywords they’re searching for. Shopify Magic can draft product descriptions in your brand voice and tone, ready for quick editing and publishing.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Free with Shopify Magic.
Time: 10 to 30 minutes per product.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips:
- Potential challenges: AI-written copy could sound generic.
- Troubleshooting tips: Edit for brand voice, maintain a style guide for consistency, and use top tools like Shopify Magic to ensure relevance.
6. Start a free quiz
People like learning about themselves. Free quizzes tap into people’s curiosity and give them a reason to visit your online store. They also capture a customer’s email address for future retargeting, turning first-time visitors into paying customers. AI-assisted product-finder quizzes can ask better questions and return smarter, more personalized recommendations.
Take Wicked Edge, for example. The knife-sharpening brand uses Octane AI to quiz people on which product they need. People are asked to select why they’re sharpening their knives and knife thickness. They’re prompted to enter their email address in exchange for their quiz results.
Quiz takers see a list of personalized product recommendations after the final step, with a handy Add to Cart button that instantly populates their online shopping cart with the recommended products.
Wicked Edge’s quiz does a great job of attracting customers to its online store—and most importantly, converting them. This simple widget boasts a 3.6% conversion rate (compared to the site-wide average of 1.5%). It also has a 67% higher average order value than visitors viewing standard website content.
But remember: While not all quiz takers will convert, you’ve already collected data to personalize future communication. The more specific you are with your quiz, the greater your chances at producing marketing campaigns that drive them back to your online store.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Octane AI starts at $50 per month and Typeform starts at $29 per month.
Time: Four to 12 hours.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
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Potential challenges: Quizzes may have low completion rates or weak lead capture.
Troubleshooting tips: Keep quizzes short and engaging, and offer incentives like discounts or personalized results.
7. Create YouTube videos around trending topics
Take advantage of YouTube’s incredible potential by creating videos around trending topics. Do market research and uncover the topics your audience is interested in. Choose an engaging format to present your content—such as a “how to” guide or video tutorial—and upload it to your business’s YouTube channel.
Use YouTube’s Trends page to surface what your audience is searching for, and lean on AI features like auto captions and auto chapters to improve accessibility and navigation. Make sure you always review these for accuracy.
YouTube is a search engine and social media hybrid. Increase the odds of your target market finding your videos by implementing the following YouTube SEO best practices:
- Upload a custom thumbnail that encourages users to click your video
- Add video tags to show YouTube which terms are relevant to your content
- Use callout boxes, playlists, and end screens to increase video watch time
- Write video descriptions that include keywords someone interested in your video would search
- Enable the Shopify integration to divert viewers to products on your online store
Best Price Nutrition is one online store using this strategy to attract customers. Ecommerce manager John Frigo says, “We’re a vitamin and sports supplement store, so we often make videos announcing new brands, new products coming out, new flavors of existing products, as well as doing reviews of products.
“These videos tend to rank high in Google quickly. Everyone who lands on these videos is typically a very targeted customer.”
John adds that the bran’s video marketing strategy drives results for the business: “We typically make at least two to three videos per week. Sometimes we do videos daily, and typically it drives $200 to $500 in sales per day.”
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Free, unless you choose to pay for video editing tools like DaVinci Resolve (free version or Studio version is $295).
Time: Four to 20 hours per video.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Videos may get low visibility and not necessarily lead to sales; posting consistently can be difficult.
- Troubleshooting tips: Optimize metadata, hook viewers in the first 10 seconds, and batch content for regular uploads.
8. Land press coverage
One way to get free online advertising is by landing press coverage on industry news sites or gear roundup sites, like Uncrate.
Journalists are always looking for experts to contribute to their own content. Find requests from journalists looking for sources through a platform like Help a Reporter Out, Help a B2B Writer, or Terkel. Respond to requests with relevant stories featuring your brand.
Alternatively, get free publicity by pitching journalists directly. Shortlist the publications your target market reads, and find journalists writing for the website. Email the journalist for a potential feature.
If you’ve got something interesting to say, such as a new product line or influencer collaboration, and the topic matches the site you’re writing for, there’s a good chance a journalist will cover it.
PR platforms now bundle generative AI to draft press releases or pitches and recommend journalists to contact. For example, Muck Rack’s PressPal AI tool can help you find journalists to reach out to.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Landing press coverage is free if you tackle it on your own. Muck Rack provides pricing upon request; PRWeb (for publishing press releases) starts at $110 per month.
Time: Five to 15 hours per month.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Pitches can be ignored or fail to generate traction.
- Troubleshooting tips: Personalize outreach, research journalists’ beats, and follow up politely with newsworthy angles.
9. Build an email newsletter
One of the most low-cost but highly effective marketing strategies is to build an email newsletter.
The inbox is a direct line to your customers. Unlike social media channels, which have the power to tank organic reach instantly, email marketing guarantees a way to contact your potential customers.
But to email prospective customers, you first need them to opt into your mailing list. Do this by giving something away for free, also known as lead magnets. You can do this by placing the following pieces of content behind an email opt-in form to grow your subscriber base:
- A free quiz
- A coupon code
- A checklist or downloadable PDF
Pearly Drinks combines this traffic-building technique with content marketing. The brand’s strategy is to create high-quality blog posts on the site, convert those visitors into blog readers, then convert them into customers.
Founder Filip Pejic is testing a handful of different pop-up boxes to maximize conversion rates—this one currently stands at 2%. But once a subscriber is on the list, Filip says, “We have a three-step email flow telling them about the contest, our brand, and our products with the goal of conversion.
“So far we are seeing very strong opt-in results for the pop-up on traffic that we normally get nothing out of. With our large network of articles, we’re able to get hundreds of sign-ups every day, which we’ll turn into customers over time as we send them more educational content.”
As you get started with email marketing, AI can propose subject lines, body copy, and even send-time optimized emails if you use a tool like Mailchimp’s Send Time Optimization.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Shopify Email includes 10,000 free emails per month, then $1 per 1,000, up to 300,000, with the price decreasing from there.
Time: Two to eight hours per month.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Low engagement rates and difficulty sending compelling emails that customers want to open.
- Troubleshooting tips: Segment audiences, use responsive templates, and test out lead magnets.
10. Use SMS campaigns
Since most people always have their smartphones with them, SMS marketing is a powerful tool for reaching customers, but only if you have their explicit permission.
Start collecting mobile phone numbers through touchpoints you already have with consumers. Add a phone number option to checkout forms, add a phone number field to email pop-up boxes on popular pages of your online business, and ask existing email subscribers to opt into SMS marketing too.
Run SMS marketing campaigns that send subscribers back to your own website. That could be:
- Flash sales and promotions
- Subscriber-exclusive offers
- Text-to-win competitions
- New product or restock alerts
- Loyalty program invites
- Offers specific to mobile commerce
Not only is SMS a great way to drive website traffic, but it can provide excellent customer service to online shoppers still on the fence. Use AI tools to initiate quick text conversations that ask subscribers to share their biggest sales objection. Once engaged, have your customer support team ease their pre-purchase anxiety to improve your website conversion rate.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: SMS tool Twilio offers pricing that starts at 0.83¢ per inbound or outbound message.
Time: One to three hours of setup time, then about one to three hours per month.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: High unsubscribe rates and low click through rate.
- Troubleshooting tips: Always secure opt-in, space out sends, and personalize messages.
11. List your store on free advertising sites
Advertising increases the odds of reaching your target customer. But you don’t need to invest cash into advertising to get started. Attract your target market by listing your online store on free advertising sites like:
Invest some time into creating a profile, uploading your product listings, and writing a description that encourages customers to buy through your online website (instead of the free advertising site). You’ll reach the millions of people who search online marketplaces to discover new products.
Google Merchant Center can show your products for free across Google. Use an AI tool like Shopify Magic to generate compelling and relevant AI product descriptions.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Free.
Time: One to six hours.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Listings may get disapproved or fail to appear prominently.
- Troubleshooting tips: Ensure feeds meet product data policies, contain all necessary information, include strong images, and have helpful product descriptions.
12. Expand to online marketplaces
Marketplace integration with sites like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay can open your brand to millions of shoppers who are already primed to buy. These platforms deliver built-in traffic and trust, but also add new costs and competition with other ecommerce brands.
Thankfully, marketplaces are adding AI tools to make selling easier. For example, eBay now generates listings from uploaded photos, while Etsy has begun testing AI to suggest improved titles and tags.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Amazon typically takes 8% to 15% as a referral fee, with higher fees for specific categories like Amazon device accessories. Etsy charges 20¢ per listing plus a 6.5% transaction fee; eBay’s final value fee ranges from 2.5% to 15.3%.
Time: Expect four to 20 hours to set up initial listings and sync inventory.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Marketplace sellers often run into heavy price competition, strict account rules, and fulfillment complexity.
- Troubleshooting tips: Differentiate by offering bundles or exclusives, follow compliance rules closely to avoid suspensions, and lean on FBA or third-party logistics to simplify operations. Use your marketing plan to cover how you’ll sell on online marketplaces versus from your owned online store.
13. Run Google Ads campaigns
Google Ads are a type of search engine marketing (SEM). Run Google Ads to reach shoppers starting their journey on Google. They’re people already looking for products you sell, making Google Ads campaigns a fantastic way to bring in potential customers.
Experiment with different types of Google Ads, including:
- Search ads, which appear in Google search results either as text-based or Shopping ads
- Display ads, which appear on sites in the Google Display Network
- Video ads, which appear on the Google-owned YouTube platform
Google’s AI-driven Performance Max and Smart Bidding optimize creative, audiences, and bids toward your goals across channels with minimal manual setup.
Catherine Wilson, owner of Essential Derma, says, “Once you become a genuine brand in your space, a Google Ads paid brand search campaign will bring spectacular results and help Google’s machine-learning algorithm find more customers similar to your converted customers. We average a 78¢ cost per conversion and a 31% conversion rate with our brand search campaigns.”
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Wordstream estimates paid advertising costs on Google Ads average a CPC (cost per click) of $1.16.
Time: Three to 10 hours per month.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Wasted ad spend, low engagement.
- Troubleshooting tips: Add negative keywords, align ad copy with landing pages, and set up GA4 conversion tracking.
14. Host a referral marketing program
It’s getting more expensive to acquire new customers. Let your happy customers do your marketing for you. They understand your products, your ideal buyers, and what someone needs to hear before they purchase, making them your most effective (and affordable) salespeople.
Build a referral marketing program using apps like Referral Candy or Yotpo. Reward your customer base with gift cards, store credit, or commission in exchange for every new customer they refer.
The best part about this marketing strategy is that you pay only for results. Instead of risking $1,000 in a new, unproven influencer program, you pay only for rewards once a new customer purchases.
Plus, AI allows referral platforms to automatically flag suspicious referrals and coupon abuse so your budget goes to real customers.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: ReferralCandy pricing starts at $29 per month plus a 10.5% success fee.
Time: Two to six hours of setup.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Programs can underperform due to weak incentives or clunky sharing.
- Troubleshooting tips: Offer appealing rewards like store credit and make referral links easy to share.
15. List your business on review aggregator sites
Some 93% of consumers actively look for reviews before trusting a new business with its credit card information. Join businesses listed on review sites to reach customers actively looking for products you offer.
Platforms like Google Business, Trustpilot, and Yelp exist to round up the best businesses for a specific industry. If your online store sells home furniture, for example, collecting customer reviews would influence your position on Trustpilot’s roundup of home furniture brands.
New Era Factory Outlet has a brick-and-mortar store that runs parallel to its online store. Flynn Zaiger, its marketing manager, says, “We make sure to ask for reviews on local review sites, like Yelp.
“This might sound counter-intuitive: Why would local review sites for walk-in business increase Shopify website traffic? We’ve found that people looking for stores near them are interested in buying online, saving themselves a trip to the store once they’ve found that you have a Shopify store that makes things easy.”
Flynn adds, “Referral traffic from local sites like Yelp are often some of our best-engaged traffic on the internet. It typically outperforms organic search, and other sources of traffic that’s more traditionally thought of as high-engagement. According to our analytics, the average site duration and pages per session are higher for Google than they are for organic search (Google, Bing, and Yahoo).”
Review suites now include AI that drafts on-brand responses and summarizes review themes so you can reply faster and showcase social proof. For example, Yotpo offers an AI-powered review response generator.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: It’s free to create a Google Business Profile. You can post your business on Trustpilot and Yelp for free using each site’s free plan.
Time: One to three hours.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Few reviews or unmanaged negative feedback.
- Troubleshooting tips: Proactively request reviews and respond to criticism and positive feedback professionally.
16. Go local
Experiential retail is a way to provide experiences to shoppers in person. Almost a third of customers said they’re likely to engage with branded experiences, hence why 40% of brands plan to make it a top priority this year.
You don’t need a permanent retail store to take advantage of brick-and-mortar, though. Drive in-person shoppers to your website by attending local marketing events such as:
- Craft fairs
- Trade shows
- Markets
- Pop-up shops
- Chamber of commerce events
- Events put on by other local businesses
When you make retail sales at each event, make sure you hand out your business cards that direct satisfied customers to your online store.
Or, have people scan a QR code from your signage—ideally stamped with an incentive, such as “Get 10% off with this card at yourwebsite.com.”
PRO TIP: Shopify has free tools to help your business succeed. Check out our free business card maker and QR code generator.
You can use physical retail as a way to get people into the top of your marketing funnel, and process all sales through your online store. If you’re driving nearby traffic, Google’s Performance Max for store goals uses AI to optimize across search, Maps, and YouTube for in-store visits and local inventory visibility.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Hundreds to several thousands, depending on the types of local events you choose.
Time: Time commitment will depend on how regularly you participate in local events or sell at a local retail store.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Events may have low turnout or cause logistical headaches.
- Troubleshooting tips: Choose venues your audience attends and simplify operations with mobile POS and booth kits.
17. Host a giveaway
Organic social media can sometimes feel like shouting into a void. The secret to attracting attention is to share something people want to engage with.
Competitions are a prime example. Bundle your bestselling products and give them away to one lucky winner. To enter, have them do some form of marketing for your brand. That might be:
- Liking the post
- Following your business’s social media account
- Sharing the post to their own Stories
- Tagging a friend in the comments
- Subscribing to your email or SMS list
It might sound counterintuitive since people enter the giveaway to win something for free, but requiring an email subscription to enter ensures you collect potential customers’ details for future retargeting once the competition ends. Use AI tools to filter out any fraudulent entries.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Based on the cost of the items you choose to give away, and any giveaway tools you use.
Time: Three to eight hours to create, advertise, answer questions, and choose a winner.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Giveaways can flop if rules are unclear or prizes aren’t appealing.
- Troubleshooting tips: Write clear eligibility terms and pick desirable, on-brand prizes, and make sure you follow legal requirements for giveaways in your area.
18. Run retargeting campaigns
After you use these tactics to attract customers to your online store, don’t stop short. Use retargeting campaigns to bring past visitors back and turn them into buyers.
Retarget website visitors who have:
- Viewed product pages
- Liked your Facebook page
- Viewed a specific collection
- Watched a social media video
- Added items to their online cart but not purchased
Let’s put that in practice and say you’ve had 200 website visitors in the past 14 days, but only 20 have made a purchase. Upload your customer list to Facebook and create a custom audience to retarget them through the platform. Use the dynamic ads feature to promote the item they previously viewed on your online store.
Meta’s Advantage+ and Google’s automated bidding use AI to find high-propensity shoppers (including past site visitors), expand to look-alikes, and dynamically personalize ads.
“I focused on making creative ads and hired a creative to help me come up with different angles for my marketing such as featuring my customer’s product reviews,” says Susanna Anderson, owner and CEO of A Perfect Shirt.
“Data to support the fact that it works: My Facebook ads have an average conversion rate of 5.4%, and I was able to earn 15% better traffic on my Shopify store, with 18,682 site visits.”
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Varies based on platform, budget, and audience.
Time: Three to eight hours per month.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Audiences burn out from ad fatigue, narrow targeting, or high frequency.
- Troubleshooting tips: Rotate creative, expand retargeting windows, and cap impressions.
Recover abandoned carts
The average global shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%, as of August 2025. A focused recovery play can add quick revenue without new traffic.
Here are a couple of ways to tackle it:
- Set up an automated email or SMS flow that reminds shoppers what they left behind, with a direct “resume checkout” link and dynamic product details.
- Use paid retargeting ads.
- Monitor recovery status within Shopify.
19. Build and nurture online communities
An online community gives customers a place to connect with your brand beyond purchases. Whether on a free Facebook Group, Discord server, or a paid platform, communities are a powerful internet marketing tool that helps brands engage customers, build loyalty, and spark word-of-mouth growth. Offer customers special discounts and other perks for being community members.
AI can help streamline community management. For example, Discord’s AutoMod AI and conversation summaries help spot harmful content, keep spaces welcoming, and recap discussions, freeing up more time for you to focus on engaging with customers and deepening relationships.
Estimated costs, time required, and troubleshooting tips
Cost: Free on Facebook and Discord.
Time: Budget five to 20 hours per month to post, moderate, and encourage participation.
Challenges and troubleshooting tips
- Potential challenges: Communities can struggle with low engagement, toxic interactions, or time-intensive moderation.
- Troubleshooting tips: Kickstart conversations with prompts and exclusive content, set clear rules to maintain a positive environment, and appoint moderators or use automation to lighten the load.
How to measure your customer acquisition success
Tracking performance is just as important as launching campaigns because it shows where customers move through your sales funnel and where they drop off. Building this feedback loop into your digital marketing strategy ensures you can continuously optimize, refine tactics, and maximize growth.
Key metrics to track
- Traffic volume (visitors & sessions): This shows how many people visit your store and how often. Looking at unique visitors alongside sessions helps you understand overall reach versus how engaged people are.
- Conversion rate: The percentage of visits (or ad clicks) that lead to a desired action—most often a purchase. It’s calculated as conversions (purchases) divided by total visits, giving you a clear read on how well you’re turning browsers into buyers.
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Average order value (AOV): The average amount customers spend each time they place an order. Calculated as total revenue divided by number of orders, AOV is useful for gauging the impact of merchandising, bundles, and upsells.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The total cost of marketing and sales to win one new customer. CAC is total acquisition spend divided by new customers, and it’s your benchmark for how “expensive” growth is. - Return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost per action/acquisition (CPA): ROAS measures the revenue earned from ads compared to what you spent, while CPA looks at how much it costs to drive a single tracked action like a purchase or signup. Together, they show how efficient your ad dollars are.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV): The total net value a customer is expected to bring to your business over time. Comparing CLV to CAC tells you how much you can afford to invest in acquiring and retaining customers.
- New versus returning customers/repeat purchase rate: Tracking the mix of first-time buyers and repeat customers shows whether your acquisition efforts are translating into long-term loyalty.
- Attribution mix: How credit for conversions is shared across different channels and touchpoints. This helps you see which marketing efforts assist or close sales, so you can invest wisely.
TIP: Pair rate-based metrics (like conversion rate and engagement rate) with counts (new users, sessions, new customers) and financial metrics (CAC, LTV, ROAS) for a complete picture. Comparing results week-over-week or month-over-month makes it easier to spot trends and act on them.
Tools for traffic analysis
Recommend web analytics tools include:
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 isa core tool for customer acquisition, engagement, and conversion analysis.
- Google Search Console. Essential for organic search, Google Search Console (GSC) tracks queries, clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position in search.
- Shopify Analytics (for Shopify stores). Built-in dashboards and reports tie traffic to sales, orders, and online store conversion.
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Attract customers to your online store FAQ
How do I attract customers to my online business?
- Run influencer marketing campaigns.
- Write blog content that appears in a target customer’s search results.
- Host a giveaway on social media.
- Get free publicity by responding to journalist requests.
- Create a referral marketing program.
- Run ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube.
How can I promote my business on social media?
- Optimize your link in bio.
- Partner with creators and influencers.
- Produce videos around trending topics.
- Share flash sales and promotions.
- Enable Pinterest rich pins.
How can I promote my ecommerce website for free?
- Host a social media giveaway.
- Have customers recommend products in exchange for commission.
- Land free press coverage.
- List on free advertising sites like Craigslist.
- Attend networking events in your local area.
What’s the best marketing strategy?
The best marketing strategy is one that focuses on your target market. Build your buyer persona—including their demographic, interests, and pain points—and craft a marketing strategy that reaches them through the channels they’re already using.
How do you get people to buy from your online store?
You can encourage people to buy from your online store by combining visibility with trust. Start by attracting traffic through tactics like social media marketing, SEO-optimized content, and marketplace listings. Then, convert visitors with clear product descriptions, reviews, and seamless checkout. Offering incentives such as discounts, free shipping, or referral rewards can help nudge hesitant shoppers. Building an email or SMS list ensures you can retarget and nurture customers until they’re ready to purchase, and encourage repeat business when it’s time.
