Your best marketing tool, by far, is your website.
It should be visited and adored by your audience! To reach this celebrity status, it needs to be the central focus of all of your marketing efforts.
You want to be where prospects come to learn about you, to decide if they can trust you and to ultimately become invested in your brand.
Once your site is built, it’s time to make your online address known to the world and drive traffic to it! Unfortunately, it’s not like the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”
This Quick Tip Business Edge Show is about optimizing your site and nurturing it so that you can attract fans and drive leads and sales.
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Here are 9 ways to drive traffic to your website:
1. Ensure it’s SEO optimized for organic traffic.
That doesn’t mean stuffing your copy with keywords or writing for the search engines.
It means creating keyword-rich copy for humans that includes short- and long-tail keywords to drive traffic to your website. And don’t neglect the title and description tags.
2. Create a solid content marketing strategy.
If you’re not consistently blogging and updating key pages on your site, it will soon become stale.
In addition to submitting your content to social media, article repositories and sites like Medium, seeking out guest bloggers can be a valuable tactic. Some bloggers will do it for exposure and traffic, while others will expect payment.
3. If you’re on social media, point people in the right direction.
First off, you should be on social media! Make the most of your efforts to drive traffic to your website with:
- Your URL posted on all of your channels
- Promotions and contests
- Lead generations and landing page giveaways
4. Be listed in search engines, especially if you’re a local business.
From Google My Business and Yahoo to Bing Places, make sure you submit your info to local search engines and keep all your company information up to date.
It’s also a good idea to check local search engines and review sites regularly for customer feedback so you can respond in a timely manner.
5. Always direct eNewsletter readers back to your site.
If eNewsletters are part of your content marketing strategy, make sure you’re linking back to your web address in the CTA (call to action).
This ensures that people who are interacting with your eNewsletter are guided towards your product or service.
Also link to your URL in the eSignature of your outgoing emails to drive traffic to your website.
6. Run ad campaigns to test.
Whether it’s Google or social media, try out what works and what doesn’t.
For example, Google AdWords lets you run multiple ads for the same campaign, so you can use A/B testing to find the perfect headline, offer and CTA. (A/B testing is also a great way to optimize your site pages.)
7. Launch re-marketing campaigns to bring customers back.
A customer that leaves your site doesn’t have to be the one that got away.
According to online advertiser WordStream, retargeting ads are 76% more likely to be clicked on than a regular display ad.
A good example of re-targeting is when a visitor lands on an online page without converting. You add a cookie to their browser, and then follow them around as they travel around the web.
The idea is that by serving them a targeted ad (for example, showing them the item they abandoned in their shopping cart with a catchy headline), they’ll hopefully come back to your URL and convert.
8. Don’t forget direct mail.
In this digital age marketers often skip sending a good old-fashioned brochure, letter or paper offer through the mail.
But direct mail still works, so get creative and send your prospects a special deal, swag item or well-designed piece of marketing collateral with your URL prominently displayed to drive traffic to your website.
9. Utilize affiliate marketing.
This is your very own sales force and traffic driver! By putting relevant affiliate ads/offers on your site and creating high-quality copy as part of your content marketing strategy, you can attract visitors who are looking for that product or service.
If people trust you, they will listen to your product recommendations. When they click on the affiliate link and purchase whatever it is you’re offering, you get a portion of the sale.
There you have it! These 9 ways to optimize your site and make it the centre of attention can have a big impact on your sales and leads. Show it some love, and it will return the favour!
While it takes some effort to continuously get results, it’s worth it. Or, you could always hire a professional marketing company to take care of it for you.
To your business success,
Susan Friesen
P.S. If you liked what you read (and heard) here, you will want to sign up for our newsletter where you’ll get notified every Thursday of that day’s blog post. Click here to also receive our free website guide: www.UltimateWebsiteGuide.ca
About the Author, Susan Friesen
Located in the lower mainland of B.C., Susan Friesen is a visionary brand strategist, entrepreneur, and founder of British Columbia’s premiere boutique web development and digital marketing agency, eVision Media.
With over 20 years of experience in the industry, she is an expert in helping businesses establish their online presence and create a strong brand identity.
Her passion for empowering entrepreneurs and small business owners to succeed in the digital world has earned her a reputation as a leading authority in the branding and marketing industry.
Visit www.BrandIdentitySteps.com and download your FREE guide: "Unlocking Customer Trust and Business Growth: Your 7-Step Guide to Defining a Compelling Brand Identity that Appeals to Your Perfect Clients".
