How to Draw Traffic to Your Website

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleAs crucial as it is to have a website in the twenty-first century, there’s little benefit to be reaped from owning a corner of the world wide web if you’re not enjoying any traffic. Whether your website is an online store, a promotional vehicle for your business, or simply a self-styled blog, this article will direct you to new ways in which you can increase traffic to your site. In turn, this traffic will increase your brand’s exposure, your number of sales, and your profits.

Design

One of the crucial elements in any website is the way it looks, the way visitors are able to navigate through the site’s pages, and the way in which you use standard coding features to ensure your website runs efficiently and features high up on Google search results. All this is controlled by the quality of web design you employ. Whether you use an independent freelancer or a web design company, the architecture of your site translates in important ways into both its visibility on the web and its navigability to funnel visitors to the point of sale.

In order to maximize your website’s design capability to attract new custom through additional visitors, you’ll want to hire web designers who’re aware of all the tricks of the trade when it comes to making a website more professional. Not only professional to Google’s complex algorithms, which examine the coding behind websites to decide the ranking of your site in search engine results, but the average web user also. It’s technical for the layman, but if you put the time in with research, you too may be able to make minor adjustments to your website to increase its visibility.

Content

The second tip for drawing traffic to your site (perhaps the most important) is creating content. Content can take the form of the written word, a video, pictures, infographics or any other media you see fit to publish under your site’s URL. Content publication has many benefits for your site, including the simple appearance that your site is active and regularly maintained and updated, which increases user trust and confidence in your brand. It’s also a great way to draw in further Google search results to your specific URL. By publishing different titles and themes and keywords, you can grab the attention of users searching for a wider variety of items related to your brand and product.

An excellent place to start if you’re thinking about upping your content output is to post an FAQ-style list of questions and answers. This way, you’re tapping into the mass of questions asked on Google every day. Readers will be happy you’ve provided relevant answers and may continue to navigate the material on your site searching for your product or service. There’s plenty of other methods, which you’ll be able to run on your own after conducting content marketing research or outsource to professionals in marketing companies to help get your content drawing in a higher hit rate on your site.

Social Media

Aligned with content creation but based elsewhere; on your social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, what you publish on your free social media pages should always link back to your website. With so many people using social media every day, it’s absolutely essential that you utilize this huge opportunity to market your site and your brand, though posts that target your current user base in the hopes that they’ll share your content with their list of friends or followers.

It’s in this way that brands expertly draw in a large following to their social media channels and their websites. There are some wonderfully successful examples of viral advertisement campaigns driven by meme-creation and other content that taps into contemporary trends, gossip, and current affairs in order to achieve the virality that constitutes the most successful kind of social media marketing. You should employ a social media savvy marketer to help you manage your social media platforms, creating innovative posts to gain attention for your brand, all of which will boost your website’s traffic.

Collaboration

In the non-digital world, businesses working together tend to boost one another’s customer base with mutual recommendations and guarantees. In the digital world of websites, social media and multimedia content posting, businesses can do so here too. Establishing partners on the world wide web offers one key benefit: the links between your sites help your website ascend those all-important Google search result rankings, with your company finishing higher up the more trusted and relevant links it possesses on its unique URL.

One of the easiest and most practical ways to partner up is by creating a mixture of posts to offer the websites that you wish to collaborate with you. Writing a guest post takes little time but, with the link to your website at the bottom of your post, it diverts interested readers straight to your site while also establishing a data link between your two sites which is mutually beneficial for your partnership. Research the best ways of achieving healthy and mutually productive partnerships before taking the guest post plunge.

Traditional

There’s nothing like a little bit of traditional advertising to get a little bit more traffic flowing into your site, especially traffic that is perhaps rarely on social media and rarely consuming other content on their smartphones or devices. This demographic is best-accessed through more traditional methods of advertising, such as the business card, the television advert, the newspaper listing or the radio shout-out.

With internet-based marketing becoming the norm, traditional, non-digital marketing techniques are becoming ever-cheaper. It means that your expenditure on this type of marketing may well be minimal when compared with the results it yields. Remember to keep whatever message you’re delivering brief, with your website’s URL displayed as simply as possible so that people can recall your site’s address when they require your product or service.

A barren webpage can feel like a failure to a business looking to establish some sales and interest in the digital world, and so the tips listed above should be of value to those looking to increase web traffic to their website, whether it be a blog or an online store.

8 Reasons Your Business Should Have a Podcast

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticlePodcasts have become incredibly popular in recent years. Consumers can access files they want via the internet, whether downloading them (like downloading videos) or streaming them and listening to the podcasts on their chosen device. Podcasts are not just a way to entertain the public – they are an invaluable tool for small business. Here are eight reasons your business should be considering podcasting as a marketing solution.

It Is the Best Alternative to Video Marketing

Video marketing has a high return on investment because it is so engaging. However, not everyone wants to shoot a video.

They may not have the right equipment. They may think the output won’t meet customer standards. They may not be comfortable in front of a camera, or they know they aren’t experienced dealing with lighting, sound, and backgrounds and know that mistakes here could ruin the shoot. The solution then is to go with a podcast, essentially the audio portion of a presentation.

Podcasts don’t have to be a lot of work. You could work with a company like AudioFile Solutions; they offer transcription services but specialize in podcast production. You could give your narration over the phone or in their studio, and they’ll do all the work from recording to editing, sound effects, and music.

It Gives You the Ability to Reach New Audiences

Podcasts are readily shared among those with similar interests or demographics. If you create an engaging podcast on a topic, it will get shared widely. People who haven’t seen your advertisements may hear your podcast as it plays on someone else’s speakers or see others mentioning it on social media. This can lead to increased traffic to your website.

You Generate Qualified Lead

A podcast is one of the most effective ways to get high-quality and organic leads. Podcasts that demonstrate your professional expertise or knowledge about a given area will generate far more qualified prospects. You’re essentially having a one on one consultation with a thousand potential customers, and a modest share of them could come to you for a paid consultation. The prospects that do arrive need less time to onboard. Those who are already customers remain loyal to you because of the podcast and are less likely to leave, so you don’t have to work to replace them.

It Is Affordable

Starting a podcast doesn’t take a lot of work. You’ll need a good quality microphone, though the one in your phone could be enough if you’re working with a third-party service. Editing software is cheap and generally easy to use, but you can also work with services that will edit, polish and package the final podcast into something you can upload to your website. If you don’t want to host the podcast files on your website, there are plenty of services that will allow you to host your podcast and promote it to your subscribers. And there’s always the possibility of your podcast getting sponsorships, making it not only affordable but turning it into another revenue source for your business as well.

You’re Adding Depth to the Relationship

Listeners often subscribe to a podcast series. They’ll regularly listen to new content, and they may peruse older podcasts. As long as you keep offering good content, your audience will probably keep listening.

Every session builds familiarity with the speaker and the brand. Because they’re listening, they feel like they’re part of the conversation. This helps build trust with your audience and increases the odds they’ll convert to a paying customer. They’re more likely to buy something from a friend, and after listening to your content for hours, they feel like you’re more a friend than a stranger. This explains why nearly two-thirds of respondents on a survey of podcast listeners said they’d bought something the host promoted.

You’ll Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

One of the benefits of doing a podcast is that you’re practicing your public speaking skills. You’ll develop a natural, easy going flow while speaking. You don’t need to be afraid of mistakes since they can be edited out, though you can also re-record the session. This practice will allow you to do much better in public speaking opportunities such as sharing a sales presentation.

No can Go Much more in Depth then Text

The average length for a blog post is around 700 words. That doesn’t seem a lot to go in-depth on any subject, but shorter blogs reflect the short attention span of most people when reading online posts.

On the other hand, the average podcast will have over 4,550 words of content. And if you asked a lot of people, most would probably answer that they would rather listen to a podcast then sift through 4,550 words of text. And that’s one of the reasons podcasts can be so powerful. They allow you to dig a lot deeper and cover every aspect of your topic while delivering it in an easily digestible way. This also allows you to showcase your knowledge better by speaking about various aspects related to the main topic as well.

Awesome Tool for B2B Businesses

According to a recent survey by Bredin, over one-third of small business owners listened to podcasts. And among that percentage, over half said that they listen to at least one podcast per week.
But this isn’t limited to small business owners. As a matter of fact, the percentage was even higher for bigger companies. The study found that over 70% of all business owners with 100 to 500 employees also listened to podcasts.

If you’re in a sector with high consumer value, podcasts are a sure bet. Podcasts seem to be especially effective in the legal, business, and financial field. It can also work in sectors like real estate as well, especially when showcasing a particular area or promoting high-end services, for instance.

Conclusion

Podcasts are an excellent marketing tool accessible to businesses of any size. Anybody can afford to start a podcast, but no one can afford to ignore their potential.

4 Ways to Safeguard a Company from Failure

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWhile the abundance of tools and resources available online mean that this generation is arguably the best time in history to launch a new company, many startups are still sinking within their first few years of operation. Regardless of which industry you operate in, there are going to be expenses and risks that contribute toward the possibility of going under. Some business models carry fewer risks than others, but any time you go into business you’re taking on the fundamental risk that things might not go as planned. With that said, here’s a short but powerful list of four steps every company can take to ensure continuity and avoid closing down prematurely.

1. Study Safety and Redundancy

Occupational safety and operational redundancy are two factors that can cause serious financial, legal, and informational issues in the event of a mishap. Startup founders should immerse themselves in the research process and maybe even attend educational events like SeminarFest before officially launching any kind of business. Doing the research beforehand will ensure that you’re not surprised and overwhelmed by problems during the early stages of company operation. Of course, if your company is already doing business, it’s not too late to go back to the drawing board and make precautionary revisions.

2. Diversify Revenue Sources

Diversification is a classic concept that’s often pushed by successful entrepreneurs, and for good reason – it helps to have your eggs in many different baskets. Even within the confines of a single niche or industry, you can still diversify by obtaining more clients and pursuing more projects. You can also diversify your marketing efforts by targeting additional keywords, intersecting topics, and new demographics. Taking a multi-faceted approach will prevent your company from losing big when one source of revenue starts to dwindle or dry up.

3. Practice Stringent Hiring Techniques

Unless you’re running a one-person show, the success of your company is going to depend entirely on the skills and effort contributed by your employees. Thus, it’s imperative to create a strong foundation in the beginning by building the business around a staff of competent, experienced, credentialed, and collaborative individuals. Take time to screen plenty of candidates and consider offering appealing salaries and incentives to attract premium talent.

4. Use Performance Monitoring and Analytics

It’s possible to hire an all-star staff and still face operational deficiencies and suboptimal results. People don’t always live up to their track record, so it’s important to monitor or review employee performance and correspondence to ensure that everyone is carrying out their job duties in the most effective and efficient manner.

Taking Steps to Reduce the Probability of Failure

Ultimately, all of the tips suggested above should be thought of as core components to a much larger risk mitigation and prevention plan. Start by identifying the biggest risks your company faces, and then implement strategies to proactively address those potential issues. By operating with the “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” mindset, you can create backup plans that account for almost every possible cause of company downfall.

6 Ways to Boost Your Text Message Marketing Results

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleWhile tweets, snaps, and social media sharing remain in the limelight, instant messages remain the most popular form of instant messaging. An estimated 12 text messages are sent for every message sent on the world’s biggest social media site. Other benefits of text messages include the fact they reach people who have cell phones that aren’t smartphones and tend to be opened quickly. Here are six ways to boost your text message marketing results.

Segment Your Audience

You need to tailor your message to each audience segment. One of the great things about SMS marketing is that the results can be easily monitored and analyzed. Try to know as much as you can about your customers by using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. This will allow you to analyze things like location-based demographics and purchase history. You’ll then be able to craft a message relevant to the audience and increase your conversion rates and retention rates as well.

Once you’ve created your personalized messages, send them to each different segment. But remember to consider other factors as well when doing so since different demographics may have different spending habits. Conversely, blasting the same message to your entire database risks alienating customers. Nor will you see the same return on investment as you would if you sent a tailored message to smaller groups. For example, a young adult is rarely going to buy products aimed at retirees and may block you if you continue to prove you don’t understand them.

Write Clear Messages

You don’t have a lot of characters to express yourself, so it’s better to do less with more if you can. Messages must be clear and concise, containing all the relevant information and, ideally, nothing else. To ensure that the message is understood, avoid abbreviations and emoticons.

Quit the Open-Ended Campaigns

Open-ended campaigns are less effective than text message marketing with an expiration date. If they know the sale or coupon expires, they’re actually more likely to act upon it assuming they have all the necessary information. Then there’s the fact that when customers know a deal has an end, they won’t be angry when they try to buy and find out the sale is over.

Send Triggered Message

Triggered message are automatic messages that are sent in the case of an action or inaction. For instance, if someone visited your online shop and abandoned their cart just before completing their transaction, then that would be a good time to send them a triggered text either as a reminder or to encourage them to complete their order. Or you could send triggered texts to clients after they stopped making purchases after a set period of time. You could also add a personalized coupon offer to sweeten the deal.

Get the Timing Right

Timing is critical when it comes to SMS marketing. SMS tends to be most effective in the moment since the average person opens them within three minutes of receiving them. Send the text messages that offer a discount on dinner shortly before they leave for work, not early in the morning. If you’re opening a new store, send the announcement out as your customers start their daily shopping.
Text messages from businesses are considered acceptable between 8 AM and 9 PM. You can use data analysis to narrow down the ideal timing for your messages even further.

Do not Irritate your Clients

Make sure that you follow proper etiquette and follow privacy rules when texting your prospective clients. You have to make sure that you have consent to send them messages and you also have to make sure that your sender information is visible.

Also, if you want to keep unsubscribe rates at a minimum, try to be consistent with your messaging. Don’t leave your clients hanging for months then send them a text out of the blue. You should always try to provide something of value with your text, but you also have to text them often enough so that they can actually remember you.

Use Call-to-Action Buttons

Call to action buttons increase the engagement with text messages. They can also help you share information when you can’t get it all down in as few characters as possible.

For example, a call to action button that says “click here” lets you share a link with a map or your website that has more information. You can use text messages to share coupon codes with the CTA “show this text”. Text to Win is a way to keep customers engaged and verify that they’re still receiving your texts. Text to Vote is a good way to poll your customers on any issue, whether it is prices or product quality. Then there’s the classic “buy now” call to action button; it is an excellent way to get someone who read your promotional text to follow through and buy because you made it easier for them to do so. In every case, make it clear what the call to action does.

Encourage Opt-In Across All Media

One of the best ways to secure phone numbers and permission to send text messages to them is to promote the opt-in for both across all channels. When they sign up with your business, ask for their mobile number and give them an opt-in button to select then and there. Have an SMS opt-in prominently placed on your website? When customers are being checked out by staff, have employees ask if customers want to opt-in to text messages regarding sales and promotions. You can send them text messages to opt-in, as well, though you’ll see a better sign-up rate if there is a clear benefit such as receiving discounts only available to those who receive marketing texts.

Conclusion

Text message marketing is an excellent way to reach any and all of your customers in a timely fashion with a high ROI. Done wrong, and you’ll be blocked as spam by your former customers.

The Benefits Of A Winning Company Culture

/in /by

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures ArticleA company’s culture says a lot about who they are, what they value, and what their beliefs are. For this reason, any business should take the time to really think about what their company culture is and how to ensure it’s pervasive throughout their business operations and employee behavior. You may be thinking about your company’s culture presently or whether it’s worth revisiting as well as improving. The good news is that you may find this article insightful as it’s going to explore the benefits of a winning company culture.

Employee Satisfaction

When thinking about the benefits of a winning company culture, one of them is employee satisfaction. When employees are a part of an admired company that’s sought after, they’re more likely to take pride in this, and it should show through their team spirit and the work they do. Also, when there’s a winning company culture, employees are also more likely to relate as well as connect with it. This means that they’re less likely to want to wake up and decide to quit and are more likely to show loyalty.

Brand Identity

Another benefit of a winning company culture is how it can positively affect your brand. Whether you realize it or not, your employees are brand ambassadors that represent you and emulate your company’s culture everywhere they go. For that reason, when you invest in creating a winning culture, this is beneficial for your business in the long-run. It can help influence the way people see your brand as well as spread your brand message.

Better Performance

Sometimes, the standards that you set in the workplace can be a benchmark for how well your employees choose to perform. In this respect, if excellence is a key characteristic of your company culture, then you’re more likely to see better performance from your employees. Employees will see opportunities to showcase their talent and will, therefore, give their all to every opportunity. By offering incentives and benefits, these talented employees will see a company culture offering opportunity, growth, and awareness of well-being. By offering some of the best employee benefits in the UK, you’re more likely to see a willingness to work hard and grow your company. Most people want to be part of a winning team, so if you make winning part of the culture, you’re more likely to see a positive output.

Increase Loyalty

As briefly mentioned above, when there’s a strong company culture, it can increase the chances of creating loyal employees. This is because they’re less likely to dread waking up to come to work in the morning and are likely to feel motivated that they’re contributing to a mission they believe in. Ultimately, culture has a way of giving employees goals and helping them find purpose in what they do as well as connecting and binding them with a set of shared beliefs.

A winning company culture is key if you want to create a well-branded organization as well as one employees enjoy. There are numerous ways that you can create this winning culture, which includes reinforcing your values, making your expectations clear, continuously sharing your mission statement as well as leading by example. By doing so, you should see immense benefits and exponential growth with time.