You’ve made your first sale, you’ve cut the celebratory cake and posted that Insta pic you wish you could take down now because your relatives and friends keep asking you how it’s going.

But now, your store is running drier than the Thar, doomed to fade into the online abyss.

Right? No.

In fact, congratulations are in due, because you’ve done the hard task of getting from 0 to 1. Do you think Sleepy Owl remained lazy? No, so now let’s show you how you can build from 1 to infinity (or closer).

Thinking long-term means thinking creatively, and contrary to popular belief, that doesn’t always mean ₹₹₹. Most of the times with paid strategies, when you pull your budget, your traffic might crash too.

E-commerce in India is expected to be worth US$ 188 billion by 2025 which means there are tons of people wanting to buy things, you just need to draw them to you.

But when the online space is essentially blazoning like Times Square, or Chandni Chowk, how do you do that?

Let’s get creative:

Step 1: Is your page attractive? Like a Tinder profile, your page is what makes your prospective customers swipe left or right. So, if you want your page to rank, you’ve got to show Google that it’s worthy by improving the “on-page experience”. This includes loading time, layout, interactivity, mobile optimization and user friendliness.

Step 2 : Are you using your voice? Use that voice to call people to action. What tone are you using, what colours? Active voice, placement, font size, humour and even the colour can boost traffic. Revamp your products page and highlight your benefits rather than your features.

Step 3 : Nurture and foster - Okay, you’ve sent that first message, but she’s not texting you back. Now, I’m not here to give you relationship advice, but treat your customers like your significant others. Reward their loyalty, after all, the probability of selling to an existing customer is around 60-70%. Build an email list and offer them promotional codes and discounts, making them feel truly special. Start a referral programme!

Step 4 : Build long-term relationships - The most honest way to boost traffic, is to showcase your commitment to people’s needs. You’re in it with them for the long run, so show them, with blogs and videos. Start with a hook and then ‘reel’ them in with your solution. Do it like The Whole Truth Foods does - its primary aim is to educate its audience about how they can live on good, nutritious food, and then if they’re already looking for that, they have just the thing ;) . Use the 4Ps (the other ones - Picture, Promise, Paint, Push) to draw your readers and future customers in.

With your new marketing toolkit, and a little bit (alot) of patience and hard-work, you can generate more web traffic towards your store. Layer short-term and long-term, paid and organic tactics, and when you’ve mastered these, come back and I’ll tell you how to convert 99% of them.