Stack your great ideas for best results
Hello, my name is Lucas - I'm a digital marketing strategist, and I specialize in helping companies identify inbound marketing opportunities for growing, and then assembling a strategy that they can deploy on their own or that I can hand off to my team of talented marketers to deploy for them.
I get a lot of requests from people to help them identify ways that they can increase traffic to their website. Above all other questions, actually... Traffic is obviously an important part of the digital marketing equation, and an area we spend a lot of time working on.
However, it's not the only thing you should be concerned with, and actually, it isn't always the immediate problem, but it's important nonetheless. No traffic means no customers coming to you on their own.
Here are 4 ways you can control your own destiny, and drive more traffic to your website (and leverage into leads and customers):
1. On-Page SEO
This is very likely something you already know and think about. However, there are a lot of different schools of thought when it comes to SEO, and with the inbound methodology, we focus on both the technical and creative aspects of it, really marrying the science with the artistry.
I recommend using a professional SEO services provider for this, because even though Google continues moving toward a ranking system that analyzes and rates the experiences your visitors have as a basis for your positioning in the query results, there are still many technical components you'll want a pro handling for you. (Need help? Contact Orange Pegs Media to learn more)
Some important things to consider for your SEO strategy:
In regards to keywords (your SEO strategy's foundation), there are short-tail and long-tail. The difference, of course, being that long-tail means there are more words... they're more specific, which means we're more in tune with what our potential buyers are looking for. This is where putting yourself in the shoes of your customers is really important. What, exactly, are they typing into Google to find answers to the problems you solve? Why?
TIP: Get a software program or two to help you with both sides of this. We use Hubspot, MOZ, and Google Analytics & Webmaster tools to make sure we're going after good keywords, using them effectively, and creating a positive experience that moves our visitors through the buyer's journey the moment they arrive.
2. Blogging
Blogging is another bridge between the science and the artistry that inbound is so famous for converging. We use keywords as topic-drivers, and story-telling to make our articles compelling.
Again, traffic is important, but we also can't forget about the experience people have once somebody arrives for the sake of the search engines and for the sake of doing more deals - and we certainly don't want to miss out on any conversion opportunities. (get the SEO playbook by Orange Pegs Media)
The Basic Science:
- Your blog is based on a keyword.
- The keyword or variant of it finds its way into the meta-description and URL
- It also shows up at least once in the body, preferably near the top of the article and other related keywords.
- You need at least one link to point toward your website (make that traffic go deeper), and a relevant CTA wouldn't hurt either
The Artistry Gist:
- The title is interesting, and compels readers to want to see the rest
- The body is compelling as well, and helps people see that you understand the pain they are experiencing.
- You talk about the keyword and make it easy for readers to relate to. Maybe use a story or two.
- The link you point inward and your CTA are related to another piece of content or step in the buyer's journey. For example, in this article, I'll have a CTA at the bottom that will take you to strategy-related collateral. After all, this is an article about marketing strategy.
Blogging also has its own SEO value, because each post is an individual page with its own URL and everything. It shows Google that you are growing and educating, things they find favorable. It also helps you generate actual inbound leads if you put a mechanism in place to capture them.
MORE LIKE THIS: How to Generate Less Website Traffic and Get More Clients
3. Social Media
SEO and building a library of blog posts takes time. So does building a social audience, but this is an area that you can muscle your way through if you have the resources to handle it.
Get on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ for the slower-growing audiences, and use Twitter to follow-back your way into a decent base.
The Basic Science:
- Each platform is different and requires different handling
- Rule of 10/4/1 - For every 15 posts in social media it's 10 from 3rd parties, 4 educational posts from your business (blogs, content downloads, etc), and 1 advertisement.
- The 80/20 rule - 80% educational, 20% sales-focused
- LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Facebook at minimum, Quora and others will work as well.
- Follow-back on Twitter and seek out others to follow, so they'll follow you back.
- SEO comes into play here as well, so your copy should support your keyword strategy
The Artistry Gist:
- Coming up with good copy that gets people to click.
- Distributing posts at optimal times of the day/week/month.
- Creating a bigger-picture message that ties with your mission, vision and values as a company.
- Getting involved in public conversations.
- Finding questions on forums like Quora that you can provide helpful answers to, wherein you leverage your marketing collateral, like downloads or blog posts.
4. Link Building
Google wants to see that other websites with good reputations support your cause, so putting time and effort into building backlinks will go a long way - as long as you follow Google's book of quality control.
This means you should stay away from the tempting, yet dangerous, black-hat SEO schemes that involve link farms and other smoke and mirrors tricks.
Link building means finding people who share your vision, and are interested in supporting your business by posting a link to your website. Maybe you're referenced in a blog of theirs... That's one way to leverage collateral you already have, and the results are absolutely marvelous.
CONCLUSION:
The big thing that I hope you take away from all of this is to understand how important all of those other pieces are in helping you reach your ultimate sales & marketing objectives of increasing your bottom line.
Yes, traffic is great - and we can't maximize the value of our websites without it. However, it might behoove you to go a couple of steps further by implementing conversion mechanisms (more HERE), and stocking the fire with blogging and social media. Not only will you get more traffic, but they'll also be more interested in what you have to say.
Want to assess your inbound marketing opportunities with a digital marketing strategist? Schedule an appointment with Orange Pegs Media today!
And get your digital marketing strategy organized with this free marketing planner:
