One of the most common mistakes we see a lot of businesses make is to confuse high volumes of traffic with a high quality of traffic. These same businesses are often convinced that digital “isn’t working for them” and that their customers are not online.
This is clearly misguided. In 2018, EVERYBODY is online. You just have to realize that the internet is a big place and it is hard to get noticed out there (or in there?).
To be successful with digital marketing means, first and foremost, understanding the digital world. By following the inbound methodology and establishing a strong online presence, it is possible to increase the quality of your website traffic and convert more leads. Here’s how:
This is probably the most important step in any successful marketing campaign. If you don’t understand the people who are using your product or service, you don’t understand your own business – simply put.
Take the time to do proper research into who your customers are and answer the following questions:
Without this information, your marketing has no foundation and you are basically shooting blind. But this is just a starting point. You can always get more granular and refine your buyer personas later on as you gather more information.
People search on the internet. That’s just what they do. Therefore, it stands to reason that if you have what people are searching for, and you have an SEO strategist ensuring Google Best Practices are in place, they will find your website and your brand.
Putting out high-quality content on a consistent basis is going to be a key part of your inbound marketing. You should be blogging at least once a day, but more is usually better.
Don’t just pump out any old blog post, though. You have to really understand what your ideal customers are looking for and be able to give it to them. You also need to use SEO techniques alongside an inbound strategy to ensure the content is found. Otherwise the quality of your website traffic will suffer.
Remember this mantra: If you have what they want, they will find it. If you don’t have what they want, they will find it somewhere else.
What I mean is that you need to be creating unique, valuable content that is expertly written and doesn’t exist anywhere else on the internet. If you don’t have this, and if zero SEO considerations are made, your website will not attract high-quality visitors.
If you haven’t noticed already, knowing your customers and creating tons of content for them is an essential part of inbound marketing. You can take that another step further by understanding the buying process and creating unique content that speaks to each of your buyer personas at the different buying stages.
The buyer’s journey typically consists of these three stages:
Again, it all comes down to knowing what your ideal customers are searching for and giving it to them. Until you master this aspect of marketing, the quality of your site traffic will suffer.
Of course, creating content isn’t enough in and of itself. You have to make it easy to find.
Find out where your customers are online and set up shop. For example, if you are B2B, LinkedIn (and possibly Twitter) will probably be a primary channel for you, so make sure you are distributing content through that platform. If you are a consumer brand, you might have better luck on Facebook or Pinterest.
You also want to consider SEO. Do a thorough keyword analysis and understand which search terms are bringing quality traffic and which ones aren’t. Once you have this information, optimize your content for the appropriate search terms so that your audience has a better chance at finding you.
You really have to understand who your ideal customers are – not who you want them to be – in order to attract quality web traffic. By following the steps outlined above you should see a noticeable increase in traffic quality within 3 – 6 months.
If this sounds like a lot of work to you, you aren’t wrong. There are plenty of inbound marketing agencies who are available to help with whatever you need, so don’t hesitate to invest in some outside help if needed.
