Have you just launched your brand new website? Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?
The satisfaction felt after months of planning and execution, along with relief that it’s finally done, puts a smile on the face of any business owner whose website has just gone live. However, just because you’ve now got an amazing website for your business doesn’t mean you’re going to be flooded with enquiries. You need a solid digital marketing plan in place.
Having a brand new website but not promoting it effectively is like having a brand new lamborghini but leaving it parked in the garage.
Here are some of the most important strategies you should be considering now that your website is up and running. With these, you will generate leads and build your customer base. Without them, your website will slowly gather digital dust.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Every business owner who is serious about success should be investing in Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO as it’s known for short. SEO helps websites appear prominently in the search results – and there are 2 reasons why this is important.
It builds credibility – If someone Google’s your business and your website doesn’t show up, they will likely question the legitimacy of your brand. If a company doesn’t appear on Google for their own name, what else is wrong with them? Furthermore, if your site doesn’t show up when someone searches for it, they may look elsewhere, meaning you are losing potential customers who actually already know about your brand! That can be an awful scenario and one that can be avoided by engaging an SEO agency.
It puts your brand in front of suitable customers – SEO allows you to optimise your website for the exact products and services you offer, and the exact locations you offer them in. Meaning the people finding you are EXACTLY who you want finding you. Whereas print advertising casts a wide net to draw in a few potentially interested people, SEO drives highly targeted traffic to your website. This results in very high customer conversions.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Much like SEO, SEM helps you appear in the search results on Google and other search engines. The only difference is your listing appears in the “paid” or “sponsored” section of the results. With Google Ads and similar SEM strategies, you pay for each click you receive. So when a user clicks on your paid listing, it costs you a certain price which you pay to Google. This could be anywhere from 50c to $50 per click, depending on the competition of the keyword you’re appearing for.
Niches with the highest cost per click (CPC) keywords
This can obviously add up pretty quickly, especially if you’re niche is a highly competitive one. So, it’s crucial that you have carefully planned and designed landing pages to send people to when they click your ad. If you’re investing good money, it needs to convert into leads. We can assist with Conversion Rate Optimisation and perform A/B testing with multiple versions of a landing page, to ensure you’re not simply flushing dollars down the toilet.
Likewise, if your Google Ads campaign itself is not optimal, you can waste money very easily. Targeting the right keywords (and blocking bad ones), using captivating copy that resonates with users, and sending them to suitable landing pages are all elements that require expertise. Investing in Google Ads Management is therefore highly recommended, as your campaign will be setup and maintained to ensure the best bang for your buck.
A managed campaign also includes the setup of “Goals” which measure when someone takes action on your website. Regular reporting showing key data including total clicks, spend, cost per click, conversion rate and cost per conversion (broken down across campaigns) lets you see which are performing best, and funnel your click spend into where it will get the most traction.
Social Media Management
Most businesses are well aware of the reach social media marketing can have – we are exposed to the other end of it every day as a potential customer. Unfortunately, few businesses promote themselves well on social media and some even actually do an injustice to their brand.
Social Media is a lot less targeted than SEO or SEM, so it’s imperative that your posts resonate with prospective customers. To help with this, we have put together a number of do’s and don’ts when posting on your business social media platforms.
DO:
Plan before you post. Many businesses start posting on Facebook and other social channels without a plan. As a result, their posts often don’t address the needs of their audience. Consider creating a road map for your posts covering various topics. After you choose the topics you’ll cover, create a calendar. A content calendar maps out what to post each day (or week). Having a schedule also helps you build in enough time to create your social media images.
Vary the types of posts. Don’t simply post photos, or slogans, or facts or promotions all the time. Mix it up. There are a number of content strategies to utilise on your social pages.
Choose an engaging cover photo – it really adds to your page
Post regularly. If you’re only posting once or twice a month, you’re not going to gain much traction. Facebook and other social platforms have advanced algorithms that display posts which they think people want to see. If you’re not posting often (and thus getting regular engagement), the occasional posts you DO make will likely get less eyeballs than a skeleton.
Keep posts short and sweet – people have short attention spans!
Interact with your audience. As above, getting people to engage on your channels will help you get more visibility. Create posts that ask questions and allow people to interact. And when you get comments, reply to them.
Monitor the competition – you might find ideas which you can replicate
DON’T:
Be salesy. People go on social media to escape and don’t want to feel like they are being sold to. By all means market yourself, but do it in a way that is helpful, funny or interesting. Or even better, a combination of all 3!
Do the exact post across all channels. People digest content different on different social channels. Twitter is text based, Instagram focuses on images and doesn’t allow links in the posts. Facebook is become more visual-based but text can still go a long way. Posting the same thing on multiple channels is fine, but make sure it is customised for the specific platform. Facebook has a tool that lets you customise the post and how it will appear on Instagram (provided both accounts are linked). Other paid social media management tools allow you to do similar things.
Forget to proofread. Seeing a business make grammar or spelling mistakes reflects badly on the brand and will make people less likely to do business with you. Where seerius!
Share the same message over and over. While repetition is important to help your message sink in, too much and it will turn your audience right off. Be mindful of the amount of times you share the same message and look at ways you can “repackage” it to appear different but the same.
Our team can help you come up with a Strategic Road Map, including brainstorming sessions to come up with the types of posts that are suitable for your business, along with actual post ideas to build on. This will give you a 3 month calendar where all your topics and ideas are planned out. We can even assist with creating the spiels and sourcing images for you, so you have even less to worry about!
The Strategic Road Map can be used ongoing, creating 3 months of ideas in advance and repurposing content where suitable too.
Social Media Marketing
Posting on social media only reaches your existing followers – and sometimes the friends of people who engage with your posts. So unless you already have 10,000 followers on your page, it’s important to promote your posts so they reach more people.
When boosting posts or running ads on social media, setting up suitable filters will help your ads reach a more targeted audience (as opposed to blasting your brand out to anyone in cyberspace!). If your target audience is older women, choosing a filter that includes women over 50 (for example) means the extra views you’re paying for will be much more likely to resonate with those viewing the posts. You can filter by certain interests, hobbies, locations and other parameters to create your ideal target market.
There are also a range of different post goals to help increase engagement. Getting people to vote, react, share or tag someone is a clever way to encourage more activity, and increase your organic reach on the platform.
But at the end of the day, the most factor is the posts themselves. If they resonate with your audience, you’ve won half the battle.
These are some of the most useful strategies to help drive traffic to your website and generate leads for your business. To find out more about how we can help you achieve digital success, contact us today.