One of the amazing features of the internet is the fact that you have the opportunity to compete for business in the same space as much larger companies. If you can learn how to generate regular online traffic to your website successfully it could help your small business to punch above its weight. Here we will explore some of the best traffic generation strategies.
To achieve this aim, you will have to employ some savvy and smart strategies so that every bit of your marketing budget is spent wisely and efficiently.
Here are some pointers on how to make digital marketing work for your business, from learning how to make social media relevant, to getting the lowdown on how to create a blog so that you can build an audience.
Go local with social media advertising
An issue that often frustrates local business owners is how difficult it can be to generate local followers on social media, which is particularly important if you have a bricks-and-mortar store that you want people to visit.
Having followers who live in another country is not really much good for you, but there is something you can do about it.
You need to take advantage of geotargeting, which is readily available across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Linkedin.
This facility allows you to restrict your ads to a clearly-defined local area, allowing you to achieve far greater relevance as a result.
Generate interest via Instagram Stories
The power of Instagram as one of the traffic generation strategies is not to be underestimated and you can get a slice of the action with a bit of savvy marketing.
The trick is to run a special offer that is totally exclusive to Instagram users, giving a discount, for example, if they share your story in order to generate a code that gives them money off their next purchase.
Running exclusive promotions on sites like Instagram allows you a bit more control over your advertising reach.
Related: How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 19 Tips to Grow Your Real Audience
Use a Twitter feature to build brand awareness
There is a feature on Twitter that you should definitely take a look at if you are a local small business owner.
When you Advanced Search on Twitter, it provides you with valuable insight into what is being tweeted in your immediate vicinity, and because the information is being provided in real-time it presents you with a great opportunity to use specific keywords that are highly relevant at that point in time.
Tweeting in this way and joining in a local conversation is an excellent and efficient way to build brand awareness and it could also be used as a traffic generation strategy for your store.
Great content is a proven traffic generation strategy
Quality content on your website is a real winner and one of the most effective ways of building up a decent amount of traffic to your site is to start a blog.
The blog has to be worth reading and a business blog can be a great way to engage with your local area by sharing stories about local issues and how your business is committed to the community.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how many of your customers won’t mind being featured on your blog and that is a rich mine of interesting stories that people will want to read about.
Talking about local people and local issues is a proven way to build a blog following and is one way of making it work so that you manage to generate a growing volume of traffic to your website.
A good tip to maintain relevancy would be to use your geographic location as part of your blog title and URL. Also, do not forget to be heavily proactive in promoting your blog in order to ensure that you generate plenty of inbound links.
Make sure your conversion strategy is fit for purpose
It is all well and good generating traffic to your site as a result of your SEO strategies but it could all be in vain if you don’t manage to convert that traffic into viable leads and actual customers.
A visitor landing on your site means you are halfway to conversion and you need to be mindful that your primary objective is to keep them there and devise a strategy that keeps them there and provides motivation to take further action.
It can be anything useful and relevant that you offer them, from a free product guide to some handy hints that readers might find useful.
Place this content on specific landing pages where you will then have the opportunity to collect their contact information in return for the valuable content you are offering them.
It is fair to say that not every visitor is ready or willing to converse with you straight away, so think about less intrusive options to convert as well.
Keep your website design up to date
When you think back to some of the older websites that we used to try and navigate around it is clear that technology has evolved dramatically, and it continues to do so.
As a result, visitors to your website will expect a good user experience where the pages load quickly and it is easy to navigate around the site in a matter of seconds. If you don’t meet these exacting standards, you will quickly discover that visitors are very fickle and will quickly click away if your website is not responsive enough.
As the saying goes, first impressions count, and you only get a small window of opportunity to impress visitors and reassure them that you are a business that really cares about the customer experience.
Many people now use their smartphones to access websites and if your website isn’t responsive and doesn’t load properly it will be harmful to your conversion prospects.
Investing in the latest web design technology and staying up to date with the latest improvements can be a smart move and will complement your SEO initiatives.
These key ingredients for your SEO strategy should ensure you have the recipe for marketing success, allowing your small business to grow via online traffic.
