Website traffic is like the wind that governs the sails of a ship in the vast open sea. Without it, you’d be stranded in the middle of the ocean out of everyone’s reach. Likewise, a constant ‘breeze’ of visitors is vital to the success of your website and the enterprise behind it. Yet, how do you achieve this goal when the competition for the two billion active monthly users on Facebook is so fierce? Simple, just follow these four steps down below and you’ll power those sails in no time.
Work smarter not harder
The key to optimizing your website content is using only the most proven methods for generating traffic. Use tools such as Google Analytics to find out what these are for you and keep an eye on important metrics like new and returning visitors, page views, the average time spent on your website, bounce rate, and so on. That way, you won’t be shooting in the dark with your marketing strategies as you’ll be able to tell exactly which of them are worth doubling down and which aren’t really worth the effort. Next, you need to master the art of writing compelling headlines. The aim of the game here is to spark the readers’ curiosity by offering a solution to one of their problems. The most eye-catching templates include: ‘How to X’, ‘X Ways to X’, ‘How X is impacting X’, and so on. Also, don’t forget to optimize your headlines for both search engines and social media with the help of Google Keyword Planner to get the best results.
Conquer social media
If you don’t offer quality content to match, people will simply lose interest and move on. Now, considering that the average attention span of a human being is around eight seconds, you have a very limited time-frame to work with. This is why you need to work fast to ‘hook’ your readers at the very beginning with an engaging story. Namely, storytelling has been the dominant mode for sharing knowledge and beliefs since the dawn of man, and our brains have been programmed, so to speak, to this particular type of content. However, this does not mean your posts should be purely walls of text. For example, on Facebook, you should almost always accompany your texts with an eye-catching photo to spark interest. As for other platforms, convert your blog post to the appropriate medium: infographics for Pinterest, slide presentations for Slideshare, podcasts for Soundcloud, videos for YouTube, and so on.
Run contests and offer neat giveaways
Contests are an excellent way of appealing to a whole variety of people. There are always those who are eager to share their skills and talents with others, those who like a good challenge, and of course those who are in it for the prize. As a result, they’ll bring in a healthy dose of viewers during the whole length of the competition, peaking with the announcement stage at the contest’s end. Moreover, it doesn’t have to be anything in particular, it could be as simple as a photo sharing contest; other ideas include skill-based competitions, random giveaways, like or tag a friend contests, and so on. As for the prize, it can be anything ranging from a neat Mastercard gift card to a funny T-shirt or an interesting looking coffee mug. Additionally, holidays, anniversaries, and company milestones are all excellent occasions for you to run your friendly competition as people are always looking for a cause for celebration.
Work towards building your email list
Having a buzzing email list for your website is nothing to sneeze at. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average has an ROI of $44 for every $1 spent, which, if you think about it, is an increase of 4400{ba0a9a3e15355dd97c9749cb9a24ec6f5ef05feff25622efecfa17819de82733}. According to another study, email marketing ranked higher than display advertising, radio advertising, and event marketing combined. Hence, integrating email marketing into your overall marketing campaign is a no-brainer. Also, the best way to encourage people to join your email list is by providing them with incentives. For example, offer them a chance to win a random giveaway if they subscribe, provide a content upgrade in the form of a spreadsheet that comes with the article if they give you their email, and so on. Continue growing your list and keep re-targeting your subscribers with limited-time discounts and newsletters to keep the traffic flowing.
So, what are you standing around here for? Go implement these tactics into your online marketing strategy and see an increase in your website traffic starting from today. Have a pleasant journey.
Great article. Thanks