How to attract your ideal customers to your website

You've got a business you are proud of. You've polished your brand message. Your branding is top notch. Your website looks great and works fast. You have your social media accounts set up and maybe you've also got a great newsletter off the ground too. Great work! You are ahead of a lot of businesses out there.

Now, it stands to reason that your customers are going to start showing up to check out your website! Right? Well, no. We all know that's not how it works, no matter how amazing your products and services are.

Marketing online is not just getting your website and social media pages up and then putting out content sporadically, when you have time! You need to actively market to your customers regularly and keep your potential customers updated.

But how do you avoid wasting your time and turn those regular updates into actual sales?

Let's dive in and find out!

 

How to increase your website traffic using content marketing

With content marketing, you can build trust with your audience in a way that no ad strategy can replicate. Treating your content like a story, not a barrage of slogans or pushy ads, frees you up to actually build a relationship with your customers. You remove the push and replace it with authenticity. 

Content marketing allows you to:

  • Build your brand
  • Attract prospects and customers actually interested in your business
  • Provide information your potential customers need before committing to purchasing from you 
  • Continue building a relationship with your customers after they have done business with you, encouraging referrals and repeat business
  • Support search optimization

  

How to increase your website traffic 

Generating web traffic and converting sales isn't a complex process. But it does take time and consistent effort. Once you've got your website up and running with your services or products up for sale, it's time to get started on the real work: marketing your business consistently!

Let's break the process down into a three-step game plan:


1. Create Engaging, Relevant Content

You want to map out content that you know your audience wants. If you don't know where to start, start creating blog content today. Why?

Because in order to gain traffic, you absolutely must have something that can act as a point of entry into your website for your customers.

You need fresh content that compels your customers to pay you a visit, that gives them something valuable or more information about your business. And that means blogging or vlogging or podcasting- it doesn't matter what format you choose. What matters is creating quality posts that are relevant and appealing. Remember, you're not creating content for just anyone, but specifically content you've curated for your ideal customer.

You're an expert in your field, and your ideal customer values that expertise- so use it! Your content creation sweet spot lies at the intersection of topics you could talk about all day and topics your customers want to read.

Need some great blogging ideas to get you started?

  • Write about FAQs
  • Highlight a creative use of your product
  • Share a topic your business stands for - or against
  • Profile your customers
  • Try giving your readers some case studies or behind-the-scenes access
  • Create a step-by-step guide
  • Offer a roundup of helpful resources and links

 

2. Publish your content where it can be discovered!


Just as creating a website and hoping it will be discovered isn't a viable strategy, creating content and waiting for it to be discovered in people's Google searches isn't enough either – you've got to reach out across the top networks available to you to get your content in front of people.

That means you need to share links to your blog content through your social media updates. Push your links across Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and include links to your recent content in your newsletter.

For those of you who are wondering...
Why does my content have to be a blog post? Isn't a social media post enough since that's where everyone is spending time?

Posting your photos and business updates on social media can get your message to your audience—but that's not the point of social media networking! The number of likes and followers you're getting on social media isn't actually a useful metric to focus on.


Strategy Tip: The goal of your social media is generating traffic to your website so that you can connect with people who can turn into customers. To do that, you need to get people to your site, not just clicking to like a social media post. If you share social media posts without linking back to your website, you need to remember that you are investing time in an activity that is unlikely to generate revenue for your company. If you're on social media for fun, then great. If you're trying to grow your business, then focus on getting qualified traffic to your site.



Here's how your content marketing traffic funnel works:

This traffic funnel shows just how important blogging is for your web traffic:  it is a crucial point of contact for your prospective customers!


Let's walk through this online traffic funnel step by step: 

  1. Outreach: You share your interesting and relevant blog content across your social media networks, email marketing and direct sharing of links to your network in personalized messages when appropriate

  2. Content: Next, your intrigued audience clicks through to your post. Congratulations! You've successfully attracted a potential customer to your website!

  3. Build your email list: Use a high-value lead magnet aligned with your core offers to attract people to your blog that are also qualified prospects and link to that lead magnet from your blog posts. To find out why an email list is a key asset for your business, find out more here.
     
  4. Now, from that one blog post, your audience is easily able to reach every other section of your website: including your products and services, or contact page. You've successfully funneled customers to your website through your great content and strategic social networking:

 

3. Keep going - and repurpose!

Now you need to continue creating new content regularly and re-purposing previously published content to your networks on a schedule that makes sense for your marketing team. 


Creating good content is hard work and it deserves more than just a single chance to get in front of your readers. Plus, as your networks grow you'll be able to reach people who weren't following you when you first pushed that post out. (Pro tip: Get an editorial blog post calendar set up and stick to it. If this becomes overwhelming, we can help create content for you - and help with repurposing it effectively as well! Just reach out to Nathalie for more information.)

 
This approach to marketing is a long game, not a quick fix. But it works and it is how to nail your sales strategy. I hope this helps you get started bringing customers to your site and boosting your sales! 

Post a comment below and tell me what’s your ultimate goal for content marketing and building relationships with your audience?

 


 

☑ Take Action

  • How to avoid marketing overwhelm: Keep it simple at first, and create a manageable posting schedule. Focus less on perfection and more on consistency. Make sure you have 8-10 foundational blog articles. Then start sending out a helpful weekly email newsletter. Then, create a consistent promotion schedule on the top 1 or 2 social media platforms that make the most sense for your audience.

  • Download the Business Bundle - you get 7 sheets to help you build up your business dashboard and #7 is a Marketing Planner. This marketing campaign planner allows you to set goals, break them down into projects and action items and also track and measure results for your campaigns. 

  • Story Tonic can help you create your content strategy and write your content for you. Find out how we can help you reach your audience and create great content for you so all you don't need to worry about creating great content, just building a great business.

 

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