So you have finally established your dropshipping store. Congratulations!
What's next?
Now you need traffic on your site that you can convert into leads and paying customers. There are two ways you can drive traffic for your dropshipping business.
First, you can implement various paid marketing tactics to drive traffic to your dropshipping store (which isn't possible if your budget is tight).
Second, you can look for some amazing free traffic driving techniques to increase your sales and conversions.
While the first strategy looks more promising, the second one can save you lots of money (which is crucial, especially if you're a startup).
We have created this comprehensive dropshipping store checklist to help you know some of the proven dropshipping tips 2023 to drive free traffic.
Before we dive into our dropshipping store checklist for driving free traffic, first let's review the key differences between free traffic and paid traffic.
Paid VS Free (Organic) Traffic
The number of visitors you get through search engines and other free sources is called organic traffic. Site owners don't have to pay a dime to search engines or these sources to drive organic traffic to their sites.
SEO is, however, the biggest source of driving organic traffic to date.
Now you must be wondering how you can drive organic traffic using search engines. The answer is pretty simple - through SEO.
Yes, you read that right. If you want to make your brand shine in search results, you have to optimize your website for SEO.
Since Google takes into account more than 200 ranking factors to analyze your website, it's not easy for dropshipping store owners to single out options that matter the most.
Here are a few things you can do to optimize your site for organic traffic. Businesses that do not follow these steps face difficulty in driving free traffic to their websites.
Make your website easy to crawl and rank
Implement the best keyword strategy
Create quality content
Build links from credible websites
Free Traffic - Benefits
According to research, more than 87% of customers start product research online. In fact, a lot of people using search engines for informational purposes can easily be converted into leads and customers with the right approach.
Another benefit of driving organic traffic to your site is that it is a low-cost traffic generation channel. Also, you don't have to think about your site's ranking once it is positioned correctly on Google. Google does not rank websites instantly, but when it does, it generally keeps it for a while.
Paid traffic, as its name suggests, represents visitors you can acquire by leveraging paid marketing efforts. People see your ad and click on it if they want to visit your site to explore more.
Almost all prominent social media channels offer businesses to promote their products and services using paid advertising. Also, Google encourages advertisers to bid for specific keywords relevant to their target audience.
Paid Traffic - Benefits
The biggest advantage of using paid marketing for your business is that it enables you to drive traffic without even getting your website ranked.
Also, it's a targeted form of marketing, meaning you'll receive genuine visitors on your site who are interested in your offers even before visiting your website.
Paid marketing is effective, but it costs money. Only businesses with solid financial backup and a foolproof marketing strategy can use paid ads to drive traffic.
Also, online users are not big fans of such types of marketing tactics. According to research, more than 80% of Google users avoid paid ads.
So which one is better? Honestly, despite its similarities and differences, both paid and free traffic perfectly complements each other.
But the question is, which traffic converts better?
Let's explain this in the light of some reliable data. More than 70% of marketers consider SEO as the best way to drive traffic than PPC.
Dropshipping store owners are no more required to stick to old-fashioned SEO strategies to drive free traffic. There are many ways to drive organic traffic to your dropshipping store.
The following section highlights some proven dropshipping tips 2021 any ecommerce store owner or marketer can implement right away to witness a noticeable rise in their store conversions.
Seven Amazing Ways To Get Free Traffic To Your Dropshipping Store In 2021
1. Using Top Social Media Channels To Drive Free Traffic
Social media has gained massive popularity in recent years. Today, social media channels are not limited to maintaining social affiliations and relationships only. Businesses use these platforms to connect with their customers and drive free traffic to their websites.
With more than 2.7-billion monthly active users, Facebook is still the leading social media network.
Unlike other social media channels, Facebook seamlessly blends with all types of content. Also, the platform is so versatile that any business, whether big or small, can use it to promote its products and services.
Here are a few ways you can use Facebook to your advantage:
Create A Facebook Business Page
Having a professional Facebook page is the first step toward creating a strong social media presence. Your Facebook business page acts as the center of all your marketing efforts.
It provides you a perfect spot to reflect on who you're as a brand and what issues you'll solve for your target audience.
Create Your Own Facebook Group Or Join Other Groups
Another successful tip for using Facebook for organic traffic is to create your own Facebook group. This will help you build an online community of like-minded people who not only will contribute actively to your page but also visit your website.
If you don't want to create a page from scratch, you can join other Facebook groups in your niche. Actively participate in those groups, share opinions, answer questions and provide value to showcase your expertise.
Twitter is a powerful social media platform that allows users to share trends and post updates about what they like or dislike. Twitter provides an ideal opportunity for businesses to maintain a meaningful conversation with their customers and engage with them.
The very essence of Twitter marketing revolves around how well you can maintain engagement with your prospects. That's why only posting on Twitter isn't enough. You have to engage with your customers to drive free traffic from this fast-growing platform.
Here are a few ways you can use Twitter to improve organic traffic for your dropshipping store:
Follow Trends
Tweet trending topics to get more engagement on your posts. You can also include your website link in your post to gain free traffic to your website.
Leverage Relevant Hashtags
Use relevant hashtags to get your posts discovered around any specific subject.
Engage In Relevant Chats
Actively participate in ongoing live chat sessions to improve your follower count, increase engagement, and drive free traffic to your product pages.
Pinterest is our favorite social media channel. The platform currently has 459 monthly active users and is considered the best option for dropshipping businesses as people visit this site to discover trending products.
Here's what you need to do to drive free traffic using Pinterest:
Create A Business Account
Instead of using an individual account, create a dedicated business account on Pinterest to drive traffic. With a business account, you get a chance to utilize analytics and other premium features to get more organic traffic to your website.
Use Premium Images
Since Pinterest is a visual platform, any compromise on image quality can ruin your business reputation. Use reliable resources to create attractive and high-quality images to get more traffic on your website without investing an extra penny.
Use Pinterest Search Suggestions To Optimize Your Pins
Pinterest comes with a robust search engine that can be used to discover different product ideas. That's why dropshipping businesses must optimize their pins for relevant keywords.
While traffic on LinkedIn is quite different from other platforms, it's specifically useful for businesses dealing with SaaS or B2B products. There are many tools available on LinkedIn you can use to drive organic traffic to your website.
For instance, you can use the LinkedIn video option to generate lots of quality traffic to your website. The publishing platform enables you to share relevant content and build your brand. Last but not least, you can use LinkedIn groups to build relationships with your prospects.
2. Using YouTube To Gain Organic Traffic
If you're looking to build your dropshipping brand from scratch, there is no option as effective as YouTube.
YouTube is used by millions of dropshippers worldwide to create brand awareness and also to generate organic traffic.
Let's do a quick experiment. Type anything you want in Google's search box and hit search. The results you got on the top are mostly YouTube videos. Why? Because search engines give a lot of attention to visual content.
Another reason why you should use YouTube to drive free traffic is it is used by millions of users worldwide to find informational, educational, or entertainment content.
First things first, you have to create your YouTube channel. The next step is to create relevant and valuable content for your audience.
Dropshipping stores can use YouTube to display testimonials and customer reviews showcasing what other people have purchased from your store in the past.
Another way you can use this channel to promote your products or drive free traffic is to create educational videos that help viewers know the true benefits of your products.
Share valuable tips, demonstrate tutorials, and share the best use cases to give your viewers a reason to visit your store and contribute to the traffic generation process.
3. Using SEO To Drive Organic Traffic
SEO has always been considered the best source of organic traffic. A million-dollar dropshipping tip 2023 is to leverage SEO to drive free traffic to your dropshipping website.
Here are a few things you can do to drive organic traffic to your website using the best SEO practices.
Start A Blog
Having a blog on your dropshipping store is a great way to drive free traffic to your website. Blogs also validate that you're an expert in your niche and have enough knowledge to help other people out.
Optimize Your Product And Category Pages
Besides starting a blog, you must also optimize every page on your site to drive free traffic. Optimize content on your site (including descriptions, About Us, and all). Also, optimize images and videos on your product and optimize category pages so that Google will rank them better.
Don't forget to create optimized meta titles and meta descriptions so that your website ranks better on SERPs.
4. Answering Questions On Quora And Reddit
Another proven dropshipping tip 2023 to drive free traffic is to start answering questions on popular question-and-answer websites like Quora or Reddit.
These websites not only provide dropshipping businesses an opportunity to build relationships, but you can also include your website link in your answer to drive organic traffic.
5. Commenting On Other Websites
You can also comment on other people's websites to share your industry knowledge and prove your expertise.
Here, the key is to share valuable insights and information that other commentators and users will find beneficial. Try not to spam posts, as doing so will cause more harm than good for your brand.
6. Start An Affiliate Program
Another dropshipping tip 2023 on our dropshipping store checklist is to start an affiliate program to drive free traffic.
Affiliate programs revolve around finding the most reliable affiliates for your brand who promote your products and services in exchange for a commission.
While this strategy isn't 100% free, you only have to pay your affiliates when you get sales. So, it's a win-win.
7. Write Guest Posts Or An E-Book
Creating an e-book is another tip that helps you drive tons of organic traffic to your dropshipping store. Choose a topic inside your niche and create a detailed e-book to educate your audience.
You could either offer your ebook for free or sell it for a reasonable amount.
