3 Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Website
Wouldn’t it be great if you get customers to flock to your website like this? While there’s no magic formula, there are specific steps that you as a small business owner can take to boost your website traffic. Here are my top 3 tips for improving your site’s search engine position, visibility and traffic. If you need help implementing any of them, contact me at Seven Oaks Consulting for a consultation.
Tip #1: Update your website frequently with juicy, interesting content and share-able graphics.
Search engines love fresh website content, and the more frequently a site is updated, the better. That’s one of the many reasons why website owners love Wordpress-hosted sites; the built-in blogging capacity offers easy site updates.
It’s not enough to simply swap out a picture or change a headline and call it a day. What are you saying on your website, both through your text and images? Are you using information to enhance your expertise, your brand position, your approachability?
Content offers entry points for visitors into your website. If you don’t have a content marketing plan, create one or talk to us about creating one for you. Content continues to be an integral part of online marketing and a great way to attract new site visitors once it is shared.
Tip #2: Share Content on Social Media
Share appropriate, brand-supporting links; build networks by commenting and interacting with your followers. Make sure you have social media icons prominently displayed on your website so that site visitors can find you and follow you on their choice of media platforms. Building a robust social media presence helps you generate links into your site when you share those links widely across social media.
Tip #3: Interact Beyond Your Usual Online Platforms
Broaden your outreach efforts. Consciously make an effort to visit new blogs. Bloglovin’ is a great place to find blogs of interest. You can type in the name of a blog you like, and the site helps you find similar ones. I also find fascinating new blogs through Pinterest. Many pinners share images from their blogs, and the link appears below the image when you click through to the original pin. It’s worth trying, especially if your business website is one that lends itself to images or blogger outreach.
Building website traffic takes time and effort. If your traffic is stagnant, it’s time to look beyond your current internet marketing efforts. [pullquote align="left|center|right" textalign="left|center|right" width="30%"]Getting customers to flock to your site is a combination of creating a great website with frequently updated content, sharing that content, and introducing yourself to a wider circle of acquaintances.[/pullquote] Try these three tips today and spend time this summer boosting your visibility online.
Three Ways to Generate Content When You're Stuck
Everyone gets stuck on occasion. I'm not talking stuck, like Winnie the Pooh in his tree or like a kid getting his head stuck in a stair banister. I'm talking creatively stuck, as in, "Oh no...I've got write four blog posts this month and I don't know what the heck to write about..."
Feeling stuck like that is no fun, especially when you're a business person with a pile of tasks waiting for you. It's easy to push aside content marketing and get back to things you feel like you can actually do right now, like pay the bills and check your Facebook account for the 100th time today (guilty as charged).
But if you keep avoiding the blank page, or in this case the blank screen, you'll be left without content and without the opportunity to share your expertise with the world. And what fun is that? None in my book!
I've pulled together three of my top tips for generating content when you feel absolutely stuck, like you're staring at a blank wall or that the creative well has completely dried up. Feel free to grab any of these tips and try them today if you're facing that situation.
- Compile your own "top 10", "top 5" or whatever list. Go back and look over what you've already created. Chances are good you've got several posts you can group together into a 'best of' sequence of posts. Write a one paragraph summary and introduction (surely you can do THAT), and then use bullet points to link to the original posts you wrote. Voila. Instant blog post!
- Create a meme, quotable quote, or Pinterest-worthy share. Use only your own original photos to ensure you're in the copyright clear. Find a quotable quote. Use a free service like Pixlr.com or PicMonkey.com, add the quote, and share. Instant content!
- Review a product, service or website in your industry or niche. I like this one because you can talk about something or someone else without feeling pressured to sell, sell, sell. Plus, you're sharing the love, by helping someone else sell without any pay off on your own. It's a feel-good way to get yourself writing again. I'd stick with only positive reviews, but that's just me. Negative may get you more press, but positive gets you more karma points.
The next time you're feeling stuck, think of this:
So take action!
Written by Jeanne Grunert, Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is an award-winning writer, blogger and marketing consultant helping companies acquire, retain and create loyal customers. She is available for freelance work.
How to Determine the ROI on Your Social Media Accounts
When I'm wearing my marketing consultant's hat, I'm focused on the return on investment (ROI) for my clients. After all, most are small to mid-sized business owners, entrepreneurs and artists - folks who absolutely need to understand how, when and where their marketing investment is paying off.
Social media often seems like the big question mark in the marketing mix, but it doesn't have to be. You can track your company's return on investment in social media marketing just as you would any other digital campaign. The trick is to have the data available from your website, as well as from the social networking website you're using, and to put into place some smart best practices to help you move ahead.
I've written a new article for the website, Routing, detailing just how to do that. I've included three simple steps you can take to enact social media ROI tracking and analysis, but of course there are other ways. I'll share more in the future on this blog and other article.
Read: Three Simple Steps to Measure Social Media ROI
Content Marketing for Small Businesses
If your business doesn't have a robust content marketing strategy in place, you might be losing out on the biggest innovation to hit marketing since the internet. I read a statistic this morning that made me really sit up and take notice. According to the article on Inbound Writer, 78% of chief marketing officers think custom content (articles, white papers, blogs, etc.) is the future of marketing.
Content Marketing Defined
What is content marketing? According to the Content Marketing Institute,
"Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."
Why Content Marketing Matters
Traditional advertising's effectiveness is fading. The more people are bombarded with ads, the less effective the ads become. Consumers have grown wise to the tricks of the advertising trade, and eschew ads for information. And that's where content marketing comes in.
Content Marketing In Action: An Example
Most custom content produced as part of a content marketing strategy seeks to inform consumers, providing them with facts to help them make a purchasing decision. The other day, I was searching for background information to write a client's blog post, and found a treasure trove of woodworking project how-to sheets online. The major retailer producing this excellent content had uploaded a complete project library that anyone could access and download without having to jump through hoops. Each sheet had a simple format and clear drawings that showed the novice how to complete everything from a deck to a new pantry shelf system, with a shopping list of hardware, lumber, paint and supplies needed to complete the project. The idea, of course, was that once you found the project sheet, you'd download it and take it into the store as your shopping list.
Think about this content for a moment. Not only can it be printed and handed out in-store, but it acted as a search engine marketing tool, appearing on the first page of the search engine results when I typed in my search term. It was a potent marketing tool helping the company's website attract new site visitors, and by using clear, simple instructions, perhaps transforming the casual visitor into a buyer in the store.
Starting Your Content Marketing Strategy: The First Question to Ask
Any size business, from a sole proprietorship to a major corporation, can use content marketing to build their brand and acquire, retain and create loyal customers. The first step is to identify your content marketing strategy.
Why do you want to enact a content marketing strategy? Is it to boost your visibility on the search engines and attract website traffic? Is it to build your brand? Is it to increase sales for a specific product category or engage better with a specific group of customers?
Any and all of these are great reasons to begin your content marketing program. A good content marketing strategy begins by knowing the answers to these questions in detail. Take your time to develop your responses. Knowing WHY you want to begin a content marketing strategy is even more important than understanding the HOW of carrying it off.
If you'd like to begin work on your company's content marketing strategy, I'd be delighted to help you. I've created great content strategies for many industries and products, and for companies ranging from small start ups to major established firms. Contact me through Seven Oaks Consulting, and let's talk about how we can harness the power of content marketing to boost your website visibility and sales.
About the Author
By Jeanne Grunert, President and Founder of Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is an award-winning writer, blogger and marketing manager with over 20 years of experience. She personally works with every client at Seven Oaks Consulting and creates expert content marketing strategies and written materials to build brands, attract site traffic, and acquire new customers. Contact Jeanne.
The Secret Reasons Why People Buy Your Services
MarketingProfs ran a story this week about the reasons why customers purchase B2B (business-to-business services). The reasons ranged from "collaborated with me" to "offered solutions". You can read the original article on MarketingProfs, but I wanted to offer my own take on the topic based on my years of sales and marketing experience.
People Are Illogical During the Sales Process
People purchase products and services based on a complicated stew of emotions, logic, and feeling. They may buy from one salesman because he reminds them of their favorite actor, while another person may buy from a different salesman because he looks like a favorite teacher. While most people apply logic to their choices, underlying the logic is their past history, their feelings and other factors outside of your control.
Your Task: LISTEN
Your first task when selling goods or services is to LISTEN. What is the person really telling you?
Number four on the Marketing Profs list was "Listened to me" but I believe that listening comes first on the list. If you don't listen to what the customer is really telling you, then you can't offer solutions.
Listening involves all your senses. It's not just what the person is saying, but what they're not saying. If they're coming to you seeking a solution, listen to the problem. Sometimes the problem is what they say it is, but often there's a "problem behind the problem" that needs to be explored.
The Reasons Behind the Reason
For example, a company called me to ask if I would conduct a teleseminar for their marketing staff on the topic of SEO. I gladly said yes, since it's one of my favorite topics to teach. However, they didn't need information on SEO - they could get that from books, online articles, and myriad other sources.
What was the real reason they wanted me to present on this topic? I had extensive industry experience that related directly to the audience's job functions. Because the industry is so specific and so insular, they needed someone who had actually worked "in the trenches" so to speak and who could teach from a place of knowledge, experience and education. Just hiring any old consultant wouldn't do. They wanted someone who their team members could trust, because she'd walked the path before them.
That was the 'reason behind the reason' for the assignment. My job wasn't just to impart the basics of SEO to the group, it was to reassure them that good search engine optimization is useful for all industries, and that it was possible to implement good SEO in their industry.
Why Do People Buy from You?
Let's look more closely at the Marketing Profs list of reasons why customers choose a particular vendor for B2B services. The reasons include:
- Educated me with new solutions.
- Collaboration (partnership)
- Showed me it would achieve results.
- Listened to me.
- ....more
Among the topics on this list, do you see a trend? Education, collaboration, results.
Do you educate prospects on the possible solutions available? Do they feel like they have a true partner with you, someone they can trust to deliver the results? Lastly, do they see a clear pattern of results in your previous work - results you can demonstrate to them?
Clearly Convey a Reason to Buy
Remember that if you sell online, your words must convey the reason to buy. That goes for people who use the written word, as I do here in this blog post, audio or video clips.
- Are you clearly articulating the "why" behind the "buy?"
- Do you show the results people can achieve with your services?
- Do you offer new solutions or educate them on ideas they didn't know before? (That's content marketing, much of the word I do here at Seven Oaks Consulting).
- If you have conveyed the "why" before the "buy," is it prominent on your website? Do you repeat it often enough? Saying it once isn't enough - people may need to read it multiple times to truly 'get' what you're saying.
In order to sell more of your goods or services, or acquire new customers, you've got to know, understand and apply tactics to address the secret reasons why people buy your services. Listen, learn, educate, respond and collaborate. It's the best way to acquire, retain and create loyal customers!
Jeanne Grunert is the president of Seven Oaks Consulting. She's an award-winning writer and marketing expert who works with clients in diverse industries to help them acquire, retain and create loyal customers through powerful direct marketing and content marketing strategies, great writing, and expert online promotion. Visit Seven Oaks Consulting to learn more.
Quick Ways to Build Your Email List Now
Don't you just hate websites that make you sign up first and give away your email address just to peek at their stuff? I know I do. I thought I was alone. A friend shared a photo of colorful Converse sneakers today on Facebook. I wanted to see how much they cost because you know, you can't have too many pairs of purple shoes. So I clicked on the link. What popped up? Not the sales page for the sneakers, but the home page of the site with a mandatory pop up box that demanded I reveal all my contact information and opt in for their emails. No, thank you. I left without even looking at the sneakers. I'm sure I'll find them elsewhere, and more easily find the price.
So I left without shopping or sharing, and guess what? Looking at the comments on Facebook, a lot of other people were equally displeased.
Engaging readers using Pinterest, Facebook and myriad other social media tools is only part of the equation. Once you've engaged your audience, you must welcome them once they get to your website. By not welcoming new customers and in fact putting up a hurdle to jump before you could even see their wares, this website lost business.
Why do companies put up those annoying pop up boxes that demand email sign ups, anyway? Because somewhere along the line they've either discovered or were told that such boxes can help them boost their email list. Many of these companies are using email marketing very heavily to promote their products, and clothing companies love email marketing. Hey, I love their email marketing, too; this morning, I clicked on two emails in the 40+ in my person in box just to see the sales.
But that's really the point, isn't it? There were 40+ emails from my "favorite" clothing companies, and I had time to click on just two of them. I didn't sit down and read every single one. So I may be on their email lists, but I'm not particularly engaged with their brand.
Build up an email list takes time and hard work. Forcing customers to join your email list just to look at your products is a no-no in today's world of internet marketing. It's off putting and will do more to hurt your social media and digital marketing efforts than many other mistakes.
The Do's and Don't of Email List Building
DO....
- Offer customers an incentive to join your email list, like a free book, coupon or something else great.
- Send only emails out on the promised schedule; don't bombard customers with emails.
- Publish a privacy policy and terms, and follow them carefully.
DON'T....
- Make people disclose an email address just to look at your site. Most people won't bother.
- Share your list with other vendors UNLESS you have revealed you may do so in your terms when customers sign up.
- Send emails too frequently. How frequently is too frequently? Check your list stats. Declining open rates and high opt out rates may indicate list fatigue, a term which means you are sending too many emails out.
Improve Your Business Blog for More Sales
One of the hallmarks of my unique "strong sales through gentle marketing" program is the use of writing, especially blogging, to help businesses promote their products and services. Does blogging work? Yes, it can -- but like any marketing activity, you must be prepared to invest time and effort into your blog. If you don't want to (or cannot) invest time and effort, then be prepared to invest money in someone who CAN invest time and effort for you. It's a trade-off. If you can write, and you can devote a half hour to an hour per day to content marketing, then blogging may make sense for you.
Blogging is more than just spewing out your ideas and information online. A good blog engages readers and retains their loyalty in the future. A good blog is search engine optimized; it attracts the popular search engines, who like the original posts they find on the blog, archive and index them, and provide them to online searchers. A good blog has personality and style. It is original. It speaks from the heart, person to person, and shares information not easily obtained elsewhere.
Sounds like a tall order, doesn't it? Fortunately, there are alternatives to creating a blog entirely from scratch.
- Hire a freelancer: You can hire a freelance writer to create you blog posts for you. Be prepared to search for a good writer and pay him or her a fair rate. Rates for good bloggers start at $25 and go up from there per blog posts. Where can you find bloggers? Craigslist, Guru.com, Elance.com are three places that immediately come to mind. Be sure to include the topic of your blog and your expectations in your advertisement. The topic is important. You want a writer who has experience in your area, and who is eager to contribute. A fashion blogger may e ill at ease writing financial advisement tips, and a legal blogger unsuited for home and garden topics. Ask for their resume, three writing samples, and see if you like any writer who applies.
- Work with a third party site: Post your request to a corporate site such as Writer Access: Writer Access allows companies to post writing work for hire on their site. Writers apply with their ideas and you hire, through the Writer Access site ,the best writer for the job. The catch? They take a cut out of the fee, so you have to pay a little bit more in order to attract a good writer. But it may save you time and effort screening applications and some good writers can be found there.
- Buy rights: You can purchase already written content through Constant-Content.com. Writers (including myself) write and post articles with a price tag. When you buy the article, you purchase certain rights, depending on the level you buy. Read the contract carefully. You can also find writers for hire through their site.
- Work with a company: Marketing agencies provide writers who can craft excellent blog copy. They also have on staff researchers, SEO experts and others who can help you get your content out there. They are probably the most expensive option among these four, but if you are working with an agency you like, why not ask about blogging services?
Some pundits claim that blogging is dead, but I don't believe that for an instant. A good blog, one that engages, entertains and informs, offers readers another venue to obtain useful information. If blogging is part of your marketing plan this year, try boosting your blog's quality through one of these resources.
What Is Quality Content?
What is quality content, and why is it important for your digital marketing efforts? Quality content is the key to attracting positive attention from search engines, and, more importantly, for attracting PEOPLE to your website. The people coming to your website are actual flesh and blood customers, people with a distinct set of wants, needs and desires. By producing quality content that speaks to the heart of their problems, and offers real, compelling solutions, you'll build attention, trust, and engagement with your audience.
But the first step is to bring them to your virtual doorstep, and that's where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.
Google's Hummingbird Update and the Search for Quality Content
Google is the mighty king when it comes to search engine marketing. I think the last statistic I read on the topic indicated that Google maintains something like 80% of the search market, with Bing and Yahoo! coming up a distant second and third, and a handful of other search engines behind them. As Google goes, so goes the other search engines, so when I write or speak about search engine optimization, know that I am basing much of what I'm sharing on Google's trends.
Google's search engine algorithm was updated last year to focus more on "quality" content. What is quality? Quality means:
- Original content, not regurgitated or reproduced text from another source
- An original expression, idea or twist on a topic
- Content written by an expert
- Content shared on an authoritative platform
Search engines reward quality content by placing the URLs of these pages higher in the search engine results pages. We know that people tend to click on links higher in the results, and especially near the top of the first page. That's why companies strive for those coveted positions in the search engine results. The higher your page appears, the more potential site visitors you can attract, and the more people you attract, the more money you can make.
That's why people focus on SEO. Get it?
Originality or an Original Spin on a Topic?
I don't know if there really is anything original online anymore. I suppose there are pockets of information out there that still need to be shared, but if you want to know how to change the battery on a 2001 Buick LeSabre, knit Dr. Who's trademark scarf or clean the windows in your house with an organic cleanser, there's a blog, website, video or picture to show you how to do it.
Originality, then, must be something more. The search engine companies certainly know that there's a ton of content out there on the same or similar topics! I read somewhere that 2 million blog posts are published every 24-hours on the internet. Out of those 2 million posts, how many do you think are about Google's Hummingbird update and quality content? How many are about making the perfect chocolate cake, or planting snapdragon seeds, or any of the other myriad topics that have already been covered to death? Plenty. So then what is originality?
It is being yourself online. It is having a unique voice, style and method of presentation. No two people are alike, and no two expressions of the same thought are alike.
Authority and Credibility
Are you an authority on your topic?
Are you a credible voice on it?
I am authority on marketing. I have an advanced Masters degree, various certifications, and 20+ years of experience in the trenches, on both the agency and client side of the marketing desk. My writing tends to be credible on the subject because I write what I know.
I would be neither an authority nor a credible voice when writing about, say, astronomy. It's not that I don't like astronomy; I do. Every night when I walk my dog, I look up at the velvety night sky and try to identify constellations. I know Orion and Taurus, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper and the Dragon, and that's about it.
If I tried to write about astronomy, it would quickly become evident that I do not know a lot about it. I could write credibly as a seeker of knowledge, as someone trying to learn astronomy. But I probably couldn't pull off ghost blogging for Carl Sagan or the Hayden Planetarium.
Niches Can Build Credibility
Content produced consistently about a particular niche area tends to build credibility. Why? Because it proves that you are serious about the topic. Finding and sticking to a niche can help you build credibility in a particular content area.
Are you locked into a niche once you build it? No, you can branch out, but be careful how you branch out. Branching out from a central niche must make sense to your readers. If it's too far out, you'll lose credibility.
Exploring the World of Quality Content
Quality continues to become more and more important to all who produce online content, whether that content is written, audio or video. To learn more about producing quality content, see:
- Blog Talk Radio - Podcast on Quality Content by Seven Oaks Consulting
- Google-Friendly Sites, Webmaster Tools
- Hubspot: Quality Content
Five Simple Business Networking Tips
Did you catch my interview with Cathy Jennings of No Pressure Networking? Cathy shared some wonderful tips to help you network in person and online. I always feel self-conscious when I go to networking events, but I hope to use Cathy's tips for my next foray into the world of in-person networking. In the meantime, I've committed to more online networking, setting aside a few minutes daily to connect and reconnect with former colleagues. I hope you found Cathy as inspiring as I did.
If you missed the show, you can listen to the recording online on Blog Talk Radio (it's free.)
How to Network: 5 Business Networking Tips
Business networking doesn't have to feel like a foreign language. Based on my conversation with Cathy, here are my favorite five tips that emerged from the show.
- Adding people to your email list, without their permission, after you've met them at a networking event is a big no-no. I was shocked when Cathy said that folks do this. It's smarmy and not good marketing, folks. Instead, reach out personally to each contact you've made. You can call, drop them a quick email, or send an old-fashioned card. Always ask for permission before adding anyone to your email list and include a prominent "opt out" message so people can leave your list at any time.
- Ask people what they do when they're not working. It's a great ice breaker. Everyone has a hobby, an interest, a sports team they're passionate about. Ask! It's a good conversation starter.
- Networking isn't only about business. Yes, you go to networking events to connect with people who may be a valuable business connection. But you have to be a friend, a person first...people do business with other people. Don't jump into your sales pitch the second you meet someone.
- Speaking of sales pitches, have a creative way to state what you do and how you help people. Don't rely on canned elevator speeches, and don't answer people with one word answers when they ask you what you do. "I'm a lawyer." "I'm a writer." Boring! Instead, how about, "I'm a writer for magazines, publishers and marketing agencies." Something interesting, at least.
- Bring your business cards with you. I was almost rendered speechless (okay, almost - it's impossible to render me entirely speechless unless you gag me first) by Cathy's statement that many professionals don't bring business cards to networking events. My goodness, people, then what in the world are you there for? The free watered down Chardonnay? Honestly, bring and share those cards. And they don't have to be traditional business cards. I'm thinking about having bookmarks printed up with my contact information on them. For a writer, that makes sense. How about you? What would you bring? Bring something that has your contact information on it. How can people find you after the meeting?
Cathy offered more great tips. I hope you'll take a moment to visit No Pressure Networking and listen to the half hour recorded show on Blog Talk Radio.
An Easy Way to Find New Information
A friend asked a question via Facebook. "I want to improve my punctuation. Can you recommend a book to help me?" As a writer and former writing teacher, I'm often asked this question, and my answer surprises many people.
Buy a children's book.
Not just any children's book. Go to your local bookstore or go to Amazon and find a children, teen, or young adult study guide to grammar. My favorite is the A+ Guide to Grammar published by Scholastic. It's out of print, but used copies are available on Amazon and from other sources.
Why a children or teen guide to grammar? It's written simply, with clear, logical organization. That's important. Most people don't sit down to read a grammar book cover to cover. They pick up such a book when they need to look something up quickly and find an answer fast. "Can I use a semi colon here, or should I break it into two sentences?" "Do I use a comma after the word 'and' in this sentence or not?" Such questions are easier to answer in a young adult guide to grammar because the author has arranged the pages with the most frequently asked questions in mind.
Another reason I like guides written for young people is that they are written in an engaging, conversational style. Grammar and punctuation is boring enough without feeling like the book you're reading is an old school marm complete with pince-nez and her hair in a bun shaking the scolding finger at you. That's probably the reason you need to brush up your grammar anyway; somewhere, somehow, you were bored or shamed to death around your writing and so you gave up. Most people have an inner school marm tucked away in their minds, and the last thing you need when you're trying to improve your writing skills as an adult is to trot her out for another scolding. Hide her back in the closet and find some fun, interesting way to improve.
Of course, the best way to improve your writing is to write, and to receive feedback from a kind friend you trust. If you don't know such a person, consider visiting your local high school's adult education program or community college for a writing class. It can't hurt, and it will help you "strong sales through gentle marketing" efforts as you take your first steps into writing your website content, articles, blog posts and social media updates.