If you're running a business, one of your top aims is to increase website traffic. But is it as easy as it sounds? It can be.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing, a business methodology that involves attracting customers by creating content that is specifically tailored to them, is undoubtedly your best bet if you want customers to visit your site in droves. Why? Because a personalised customer experience means a good customer experience - and let’s face it, that’s what we all want.
In this article, we will be looking at how inbound marketing, along with that oft-forgotten internet staple, the blog, can help drive website traffic in your direction…
Blogging
We’ll start with blogging, not just because it’s a mildly-amusing word, but because it’s often an underrated ingredient when it comes to putting together a good website - in fact, you’d be surprised how many websites out there either aren’t bothering with blogs at all, or are just churning out something generic, poorly-written and, quite frankly, boring.
First off, you need to keep your blog up to date. Industries change faster than Superman in a phonebox, so you need to keep your content fresh and relevant if you want it to stand a chance of enticing people in. If you’re an insurance broker, for example, it’s no good leaving your article about how Covid-19 will affect your Income protection or life insurance if the underwriting restrictions have now been lifted, and the blog is now giving your website visitors false information, is there?
‘No’, is the answer.
But relevance is just one part of it. Your blog's content needs to be engaging and of good quality, full of information that makes it clear you are the experts in your field. It needs to be easy to follow, grammatically and factually correct, and interesting and funny (although we agree that making insurance sound interesting and funny might be a bit of a stretch.)
But why is inbound marketing so important?
Well, there are several reasons it’s well worth churning out a good blog regularly. Including:
- It will help you rank higher on the results pages of search engines. In other words, you’ll be further up the list when someone types the product or service you offer into Google. This is important because research proves that people tend to only click on the first few entries that come up and don’t generally bother past page 1.
- If you use your blog to answer some of your most FAQs, your rank on search engines will increase, and you’ll also be helping customers by answering their questions, which is likely to encourage them to click on more of your content.
- Blogs are super-shareable through your social media, as well as through industry news sites. The more it’s out there, the more people will read it, and the more chances you have of people redirecting to your website to read more of your fabulous content.
Let’s take a bit of a deeper look at social media as an inbound marketing technique to increase website traffic…
Social Media
It’s pervasive, addictive, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon - yes, we’re talking about social media. Everyone’s on it, and for businesses, it’s one of the best ways to get more traffic to your website.
Social media platforms post links to your web content and build your brand personality. A marketing strategy across your business social media platforms will engage your target audience, and you can use hashtags (yep, that’s these: # ) to reach as wide an audience as possible. It’s also a good idea to mention other companies and businesses who have contributed to your blog posts - the hope is that they’ll ‘tag’ you back in return in their own social media posts.
But be warned - social media is a commitment when it comes to using it as part of your inbound marketing strategy. Consistency will be key whether you’re posting across one platform or all of them; you can’t post once in a blue moon and then sit back and wonder why the masses aren’t flooding your website.
Choose the ‘tone’ of the voice of your business and stick with it - maybe you’re ‘cheeky/funny/no jargon/the life and soul of the party….or perhaps you want to go for a more serious, professional flavour. Whatever you go for, decide on the number of posts you want to schedule each week and the type of content you want to go for and make it a part of your brand identity.
I’d love to tell you that a huge boost in website traffic is as easy as posting and promoting your content - but we’re not finished yet.
Social media is all about communication - talking to people - so make sure you use your platforms to do just that. Determine the questions that your potential customers want the answers to and offer them solutions and answers. Basically, ensure that your social media presence is helpful, rather than just a collection of pretty pictures, memes, and witty repartee.
Paid Advertising
Another inbound marketing strategy that could prove fruitful when it comes to increasing your internet traffic is paid advertising.
Sponsored advertising across your social media networks is a great way to expose your brand to potential new clients and customers, and they’re great for targeting, meaning that your website traffic will increase - that increased traffic is much more likely to represent your ideal customer.
Another avenue to look at with regards to inbound marketing and generating website traffic is PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising. This type of advertising is popular because instead of having to pay to display your ad, whether it gets any engagement or not, you only pay when someone clicks on it.
If you’ve done your keyword research property (click the link below to find out more about that!), you could have customers lining up to buy your wares within hours. Of course, you’re not guaranteed a sale, and even though an advertising system it’s convenient and reliable, the costs of each click can certainly add up!
Despite social media doing its very best to force email into retirement, it’s still one of the most useful and effective communication and marketing tools you have at your disposal as a business owner.
Done much with your email list recently?
Well, then, you’re really missing a trick.
Start emailing out that blog content! It’s a very simple and effective way of increasing visitors to your website. You could also break your email database down into target groups and personalise the content you send. This method has proved effective time and time again when it comes to building brand loyalty and good client/customer relationships.
Website Optimisation
Ok, so you’ve got a banging website and some great inbound marketing strategies up your sleeve. But is it designed with growth in mind? That is, does your website have what it takes to convert all that juicy new traffic into leads?
Here are our top tips for ensuring that all of the hard work and effort that has gone into your blogs, advertising, and website content doesn’t go to waste…
- We can’t say this loud enough: SEO. Make sure that each web page contains both long-tail and short-tail keywords. The long-tail ones make up the majority of searches on Google, so if you’re not targeting those, you will be missing out.
- Always add links to relevant external pages - this will not only help your website’s SEO, it will also add to the user experience, which is vital.
- Add internal links to some of your coolest blogs and most interesting content to keep visitors engaged for longer and more likely to spend some money!
- Speed is everything! A slow or unresponsive website is the biggest turn-off for customers; they’ll simply head over to your competitor’s website instead.
If you want to know more about how the right software can make your inbound marketing second-to-none, and have people flocking to your website, give the team at Flowbird a call, and let us put the right package together for you.