Getting your first visitors to your site is a real rush, but it can also be tricky. You want to get as many visitors as possible, but you’re trying to keep costs down.
After you have your website set up, explained what your product does, have the shopping cart functioning properly, and are ready for visitors, it’s time to decide how to bring them to your site. Here we’ll show four different ways to get your first visitors, without paying a lot.
Facebook Ads
You can still get quality visitors from Facebook ads, with a level of customization that’s hard to find on other platforms. Facebook allows you to drill down to your target user based on where they live, their relationship status, what they are interested in, their gender, age, and more.
You can get creative with the process and fine tune it to your specific product. It could be as easy as finding people who have expressed an interest in what you produce, or you may have to get clever and get into the mind of someone in your target audience to figure out what sort of similar interests they might have.
You can set a daily budget, so you’re in total control of how much you spend.
Google AdWords
With Google Adwords you can be one of the results that show up when people search on Google. You are also able to advertise your product on Google shopping so that it will show up in shopping results. This is a great way to find people that aren’t just searching, but are ready to buy.
One great feature of Google AdWords is that it is pretty easy to split test your efforts and see what’s working best. Change your wording and see how it makes a difference based on the number of people that click through to your site. You’ll be surprised how even just a few words can make a noticeable difference in the statistics.
You can set a max cost per click, giving you pretty good control over how much each visitor will cost you.
Instagram Shoutouts
One advertising method that is hot right now is Instagram shoutouts. The process involves finding an Instagram page that has a big following and is in line with your product. You then contact the owner of the Instagram account and ask if they will do a shoutout for you.
Once you agree on a price, you provide them with the image that will be used for the shoutout, as well as the description and any hashtags you want to include. They will post your picture and text on the account just as if it were one of their own posts. This gives you access to a large Instagram following without having an Instagram account yourself.
Guerilla Marketing
If you are on a shoestring budget you can roll up your sleeves and bring in visitors through hard work. Commenting on blog posts related to your product is a good way to get your name out there. You’ll want to make sure that you leave a relevant comment that sparks a conversation rather than something that looks like spam.
The more interesting your comment, the more likely it is to get voted up towards the top where more people will see it and potentially click on your link. It takes more time than the paid traffic options above, but it can pay dividends in the long run.
With the methods above you’ll be well on your way to seeing your first visitors. Good luck!