The title of this post may have attracted your attention due to the fact you want more traffic and getting more traffic means more leads and sales. Right?
It is true we want to attract more traffic but it must be the right kind of traffic. You want traffic that is likely to convert and not just leave. If you’re a business owner you will find this post helpful to not only come up with ideas of how to attract the right people, but what to do with the visitors once they arrive. Did you know that on average traffic from an organic search have a 14% close rate?
What is your close rate?
1. It all starts with you
This is not really a strategy for attracting website visitors so I am kind of cheating a little. What I mean by ‘it all starts with you’ is that your website needs to be primed to handle the traffic it receives. There would be no point in me offering you 15 strategies for attracting more website visitors if your website couldn’t convert them.
So the very first thing you must do is optimise your website so it can convert the traffic it receives. You do this by basically mirroring your sales process on your website by:
- Including calls to actions to tell your customers what to do next
- Creating landing pages to help convert visitors into leads
- Creating expert offers in exchange for their email address
- Creating lead nurturing campaigns to turn leads into sales leads
- Answering the most common sales questions
- Addressing push backs – reasons why people say no
If you do all of this then the traffic you are currently receiving will convert higher and so will any future traffic you generate from inbound marketing.
2. Answer customer questions
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know I talk a lot about answering customer questions to generate leads. By doing this you will attract the right kind of people to your website via search and social. If you write a blog post that addresses a sales question you are pretty sure of the reason why they visited your website.
These people are the ones most likely to convert.
3. Become a business focused on creating content
The businesses that have the most success with inbound marketing are the ones that embrace it the most. If everyone in your company was creating content on a regular basis you would see some magical results.
Imagine if you had 500 employees all contributing to your blog every month by answering the most common questions your customers have.
I know this may sound like an impossible task but a good way to demonstrate the power of this is to first do inbound on a smaller scale for 12 months, say 2 blog posts a week.
By doing this you can demonstrate to the whole company that this will bring in far more sales ready leads than tired old traditional marketing.
4. Inbound marketing software
Inbound marketing software is a must if you want to get serious about your marketing. This will allow you to have a closed loop marketing system so you can tell what is working and what needs improving from one central place. It will handle your blogging, social media and email marketing all in one platform.
This will save you or your agency a ton of time and will allow you to demonstrate real ROI.
5. Create Buyer personas
Before you create any content you first need to understand who you are creating it for. You would not write an email then decide who to send it to.
A buyer persona is a semi fictional representation of your idea customer. By understanding what they are looking for, what their day looks like and what websites they visit you will get a better understanding on how to write your content.
If you don’t first identify who these people are before you write your content then all you will do is end up speaking to no one.
6. Talk to your prospects
When you get a lead you will open a dialogue and reach out to them so why not do it with your prospects too. A great way to do this is to engage them on social, talk to them and answer their questions. When someone comments on your blog answer them and instigate a conversation.
Don’t go into sales mode just have a conversation with them about their wants and their needs and see how you can be helpful.
7. Build a business blog
When it comes to creating all this informational and helpful content, you need somewhere to put it all and there is no better place to do that than on your blog. 61% of consumers look to articles and blogs for information when making a buying decision and over time your blog will become your biggest marketing assets.
8. Onsite SEO
If Google can’t find and understand your content you will never show up in a search result and therefore your prospects won’t find your helpful content when they search for it.
You need to make sure your pages follow the best onsite SEO practices, which is a lot easier than you think. If you have an older website there may be more work to do here. However if you have a new site then there may not be too much to do.
9. Topic focused content
We talked about buyer personas earlier but your content also needs to be focused on one particular topic. Too many people worry about using the correct keywords in their content when what they should be doing is creating content around topics that are important to your prospects.
Do this and you will attract more relevant people to your website. Don’t get me wrong you should still add the right kind of keywords in your copy but just don’t obsess over it.
10. Video content to share on YouTube
Sometimes the best way to communicate is video. If you are showing a ‘how to’ or a demonstration then video will be the best way to get that content out there.
Many businesses are put off by this as it sounds expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Using an iPhone you can get some really good quality video these days. Make sure you add this content to your website. Try using services like Wisita to easily do this.
You may also want to create a YouTube channel to attract further traffic.
11. Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the most powerful channels you have. It does take time and effort to build up your email list but boy is it worth it. You can send your prospects helpful emails that help them make their purchase decisions.
Email marketing is especially effective as people won’t visit your website every day so send emails that are helpful and this will encourage people to return to your website.
Don’t think you can buy an email list and spam 1 million people with your marketing message, this is a big no no and will result in you just pissing people off.
That’s not what you want for the first time someone comes in contact with your brand, is it?
12. Lead Nurturing
Every lead is not made equal and not every lead is ready to buy. They need to be given help to move through your funnel. You need to create lead nurturing programmes that send timely emails to your prospects to be helpful and to move them through your funnel.
Of course you still need to pick up the phone and speak to people. Do not rely on automation to solve your marketing challenges, they will help but ultimately you need to communicate with people.
13. Syndication
Syndication is when you offer your content to be placed on other websites that are relevant to your buyer personas. By syndicating your content you can open it up to new audiences that will find your content helpful.
If you have created your buyer personas correctly you should have a good idea of what these sites are.
14. Google local
With the rise of Google+ local you really should have a Google+ local listing as this can really help you get some visibility in Google for geographical related searches.
This can send you good quality traffic.
15. Paid search advertising
There is no doubt that there is no quicker way to generate traffic than PPC or search advertising. However, if you have not followed point one then this traffic will be very expensive and won’t convert all that well.
Before you think of PPC make sure you have ticked off all the points in this list.
Conculsion
I know this all sounds like a lot of work and I guess you will be wondering where to start. It does seem a big task to create content that answers customers’ questions and create lead nurturing programmes to turn leads into sales.
Not to mention creating a blog and writing emails for your email marketing. I know how you feel and my advice would be not to take all of this on yourself. The intentions of this post was really to educate you in what you need to be thinking of. You now need to either speak to your marketing team or an inbound marketing agency to see how they can help.
Now it’s your turn
What part does your website play in the revenue you generate? Let us know in the comments.