How’s business? Are you making your weekly, monthly, and yearly sales goals? Your website has the capability to either rocket the achievement of revenue goals — or make them flame out, leaving a sooty pile of broken promises. If your business is going to truly thrive, you need a comprehensive, targeted strategy to keep a vigorous pipeline of viewers (and hopefully buyers!) to your website.
With strategic action plans, your reach across the vast areas of the world wide web will grow, increasing your visibility and propelling your business to new heights. And perhaps, even out of this world.
Ready to boost those views and increase sales? Let’s get started.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Harness the Power of Social Media
You can increase your organic traffic exponentially by harnessing the power of social media. With the increasing amount of time people all over the world are spending on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms, there are a number of techniques you can utilize (outside of producing excellent content, of course) to drive traffic to your website.
Use “Click to Tweet” Links
Twitter’s power on the world stage continues to grow with politicians, entertainers, and businesses reaching audiences far and wide. First, find some really “tweetable” content on your page from special offers to exciting new products. Then, go to the website clicktotweet and write a dynamic tweet with appropriate keywords. The tool will create a link for you that you can embed within your content. This prefab tweet makes it easy to share on Twitter with just a click!
Capitalize on the Growth of LinkedIn with Video Sharing
Across industries, people are flocking to LinkedIn. Professionals are networking like fiends and creating and consuming content every day. LinkedIn lets you share videos on your feed, which can be a valuable selling tool and traffic driver. It doesn’t have to be long, just engaging. And if you or your company doesn’t have a LinkedIn presence yet, it’s time to get on board.
Increase Blog Post Views with Facebook Ads
Advertising can be expensive. But you can decrease your costs and increase your traffic with the right strategy. Review your analytics and pick a recent blog post that is performing well. After that, target visitors to your site from the last month or two. When setting up your ad on Facebook, create a backlink that retargets that audience and then run the ad. Your Cost per Result (CPC) is typically much lower when doing it this way compared to other types of advertising such as Google Adwords.
Yoo-hoo! Do You Have an ACTIVE YouTube Account?
YouTube is now the number two website on the planet just behind Google. Are you utilizing the platform to help promote your business? If not, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity. And what’s great is that you don’t have to have feature film quality to do well. Certainly, if you have the budget to make a Black Panther-Esque dynamism, go for it. But the most important thing is presence. An active YouTube account can be an excellent driver of traffic to your website.
Run Interactive Contests on Your Social Media
You don’t have to give away the big bucks here. Social contests are all about engagement and making your audience feel like part of an exclusive community. Start a photo contest on Instagram. Challenge your Twitter followers with fun hashtags. Take note of seasonal opportunities and current cultural conversations (but try not to get too political if it is not integral to your brand) to jumpstart interactions.
Bring Content to Center Stage
The number of options you have for utilizing content to drive traffic to your website is pretty incredible. When was the last time you performed a thorough review of your website? Is the information on it current, engaging, and quick to upload? Are you consistently creating new content to reach your audience and increase your rankings on Google? These are the types of questions you should be asking yourself when it comes to content on your website. Let’s explore some effective strategies for making your content boost your rankings, generate more views, and convert those views into sales.
Enhance Your SEO or Suffer the Consequences
It’s well-proven that targeted SEO is one of the primary drivers of traffic to your website. From your product pages to your blogs, as well as the posts you share on social media, SEO should be a significant factor when composing your content. Continue to stretch and enhance those keywords (including long-tail) to have the maximum impact. As Google’s algorithms have changed, it is critical to get into the mind of your potential customer(s).
Know the topics related to the keywords and the places and platforms where your audience exists. For example, if you’re trying to sell a sports jersey and want to talk about it on social media, scatter the additional words into your post like “Atlanta Falcons athletic wear on Facebook ” or “Atlanta Falcons football jerseys on Facebook” Then, Google knows what you are trying to sell and where.
Make What is Old New Again
They say if you wait long enough, it will become popular again. Think high-waisted jeans or 80’s music beats. Revisit your previously well-performing blogs, revise as needed for a contemporary upgrade, and put them back out in the world. Improve your header image if needed, make sure your SEO is maximized, correct any/all links that are broken, and insert new ones into more current blogs. After this overhaul is complete, share widely across your social media platforms.
Facilitate Shares From Top Influencers through Targeted Content
Do you know what the influencers in your industry care about the most? Are you keeping an eye on what they are sharing, writing, and posting videos about? Use that to your advantage. Create posts about subjects that may catch their eye. If it’s fantastic content — it could even go viral. It may not only apply to industry influencers, but to your brand influencers as well. Do your research and keep up with your company’s most avid fans on social media. Engage with them, like and retweet their posts, and make sure they know you are paying attention. This type of loyalty (along with your effort) can make a huge impact on your reach.
Don’t Be Afraid of Long-Form Content
Even in this increasingly short-attention-span world, people are still reading. They’re reading a lot — and sharing a lot of long-form content too. As long as you format it with enough white space and include at least a few images, infographics, videos, etc. to “give the eyes a break” long-form content can be a very valuable resource to your readers and potential customers. You also have the room to intersperse important keywords throughout the piece. Doing so can get you a lot of points on the “customer dartboard.” Just make sure not to get too over-eager and flood the piece with SEO. Be smart, engaging, and relevant, and watch the shares take off.
Everybody Loves Lists
Are you creating enough list posts? This type of content has traditionally performed very well across pretty much every subject and continues to do so with vigor. In fact, list posts rank as some of the highest-shared content ever. Now that’s a super way to drive traffic. From the “Top 10 Cutest Dogs Ever” to “The 5 Most Popular Movies of 2018 So Far,” this content always gets clicks. Think about the different subjects you can tackle that your audience cares about. It doesn’t have to be directly related to a specific product but should still be in alignment with your brand and your overall mission statement. Share list pieces related to your products and/or services too, but don’t run over your viewers every week with it. It’s about added value, strategic branding, and primo quality.
Going the Extra Mile (Bonus Tips!)
After you have your social media game escalated and are doing your best to improve the quality, reach, and impact of your content, what else is there to help drive traffic to your site? Plenty. To truly take advantage of the ultimate power of your website to achieve (and exceed!) your business goals, you need to go the extra mile to promote your company and its products and services. Here are some bonus tips!
✓ Create Strategic (and Authentic) Relationships with Popular Bloggers
Go above and beyond. Similar to connecting with your influencers as mentioned above, go to the next step and communicate with them via email (if they publish it), and give back and share their posts too. If you noticed they tweeted you before or shared something similar, reach out to them before you post a new piece and let them know when it’s going live. But don’t be too pushy. You shouldn’t ask them directly to share. If they like it, they’ll share it. You don’t want to come across as a jerk. That can create real, negative consequences.
✓ Market Yourself (and Your Business) on Podcasts
Podcasts are hot. They are everywhere and cover just about everything you can think of. If you don’t feel comfortable going on a podcast, consider an enthusiastic employee or brand representative and go for it! Do your research and connect with a good podcaster that would be a right fit for your brand messaging. It is a truly dynamic way to connect with your audience and drive them to your site.
✓ Take Advantage of Guest Post Opportunities
Incorporating guest posts into your inbound marketing efforts can be an excellent way to drive organic traffic. Certainly, your website and social media are your first priority. But reaching out and offering content to sites/bloggers that have a similar audience can go a long way to increase your industry reputation and expand your reach. Give, and often — you shall receive.
✓ Timing is Everything
This statement is correct in many areas of life, isn’t it? It is also a banner way to reach a new audience and take advantage of your existing customers’ habits too. Have you intricately explored your data? Do you understand when your viewers are the most active? These are general best practices when it comes to sharing content on social media in particular. But timing is also about taking advantage of the “here and now” in regional, national, and even international conversations. Watch trending hashtags, filter keywords on YouTube’s advanced search, go to Google’s news tab and see what is happening in the world of your audience’s pain points right now.
Take care not to “jump on the bandwagon” inappropriately. Nothing is worse than seeing someone trying to profit on Twitter during the aftermath of a tragedy or a contentious social/political conversation. Do what makes sense for your brand and react appropriately. Capitalizing on current trends has the potential to grab a brand new pipeline of potential customers, but be thoughtful and strategic as this is what garners loyalty and converts leads.
Roaring Ahead to Greater Success
With concerted effort, targeted strategies, and some real creativity, you have a tremendous amount of power to drive traffic to your website. From quality content at the right time to diverse social media strategies, you can increase your audience and ramp up activity on your site to generate sales.
Are you ready to blast that traffic to your website? The countdown clock to greater success has begun. 10.9.8…
