To increase online store traffic, many e-commerce companies place advertisements on search engines or social media. True enough, advertising can help your online store attract a lot of customers; however, traffic alone is ineffective. In order to achieve sustainable growth, e-commerce businesses must convert online store ad traffic into profit. Because advertising is expensive, you should make use of online store traffic and funds to boost conversion rates.
Some e-commerce companies may have linked the ads to instant messengers like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, directing traffic there. However, many e-commerce companies still direct the links in the advertisements to the online store’s website. For three reasons, directing ad traffic to your online store is a waste of time and money:
[1] Customers are more likely to leave due to a lack of human interaction.
You have no way to connect with customers in face-to-face conversations because your online store lacks sales staff. Furthermore, you are unable to tailor the experience to their specific requirements, making customer retention difficult. The majority of customers are interested in learning more about your product than just how strong and good it is. Consumers prefer to learn about the product’s advantages and disadvantages through human interaction and targeted advertising traffic. Sadly, some online stores fall short of this. Even if advertising is successful in attracting customers to an online store, transactions are found low. This explains why most online stores have an average conversion rate of only 2% to 3%.
Salespeople can create a dialogue with customers, personalize their experience, and retain them if ad traffic is channeled into instant messengers. After a Taiwanese underwear brand used Facebook Messenger for advertisements, customers communicate directly with sales staff and scheduled service appointments. The number of “add to cart” actions grew by 43%, and the advertising return on sales in physical stores grew by 17.7 times.
Steps to Connect Facebook Ads to Instant Messengers
- After linking your WhatsApp mobile number to Facebook, select “Messages”.
- Set keywords for auto-reply messages.
- Access the instant messenger by clicking the link in the lower right corner of the ad.
Further reading: Omnichannel E-commerce: 8 Strategies to Improve Online Shopping Experience
[2] Direct selling without obtaining customer contact information is difficult.
In marketing, customer contact information is extremely valuable. Whether you want to keep in touch with consumers through marketing methods or even develop close relationships with them, the premise is that you should have the customer’s contact information.
A surfer’s average browsing time in an online store is just 54 seconds. In other words, if you direct ad traffic to your online store’s website, most of it will be lost within a minute, let alone collecting a customer’s contact information or performing remarketing.
Ad traffic to instant messengers, on the other hand, can easily leave customer contact information. Even if the customer only inquires and does not purchase right away, you can contact them later for marketing purposes. To increase purchase intentions, promotions can include welcome offers, new arrivals, limited-time offers, holiday promotions, and so on.
Further reading: E-commerce Trends in 2022: 3 Benefits of WhatsApp Business to Boost Your e-commerce Sales
[3] Building a loyal customer base without first focusing on customer service is challenging.
Ad traffic to instant messengers can provide excellent customer service to guests and customers. This makes them feel at ease, increases their brand loyalty, and builds trust, or even an emotional connection with your brand. Moreover, converting guests into brand advocates can boost sales. They are more likely to repurchase and acquire new products as a result of their high brand loyalty. Customers will even promote your brand on social media to their family and friends, which is an excellent marketing tactic. This method is cheaper and more effective in increasing sales than marketing strategies such as advertising and cold calls.
It’s worth noting, however, that even if you have the customer’s contact information, don’t try to annoy them too often. Personal marketing should be done once or twice a week in general. You can also add popular phrases, memes, and other elements to the short message to make it more interesting. This can help to warm up a cold relationship and close the gap between them.
Further reading: Is your online store’s turnover low? Improve the quality of customer service with these 4 Excellent Customer Service Tips.
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