Just because you have a website doesn't mean anyone will visit.
You bit the bullet and now you have a rule-conforming, content-rich website, but that's just the start because the hard work of getting people to visit is only just beginning. That's what inbound is all about!
The Buyers Journey
More than 90% of search queries are initiated by people looking for answers to their questions and not to buy something. Remember, there is no point trying to sell something to someone who isn't ready to buy.
- Stage 1 - Awareness
- Raise awareness with educational material closely related to your value proposition.
- Stage 2 - Consideration
- Deliver landing pages with content specific to your value proposition to those who engaged with your awareness campaign.
- Stage 3 - Decision
- Provide quotes and other decision-related content to your consideration stage engagers.
Delivering the right content to the right person at the right time underlies all world-class email marketing.
Email Marketing
When done properly email is still the marketing channel with the highest return on investment.
- Do not plan to send marketing emails to contacts who are not expecting to hear from you!
- Organize your contacts according to their persona and their responsibilities.
- Start out with your awareness campaign.
- Gradually move into consideration and decision-related content as contacts take actions to let you know what they are interested in.
A structured 12-week awareness campaign lies at the foundation of a successful entry into digital marketing.
Content Assets
Content assets must be organized and mapped to the three stages of the buyer's journey.
- Most businesses focus on distributing decision-stage content.
- They fail to consider where the buyer may be in his or her journey.
- Most over-focus on selling and ignore the reality that not everyone is ready to buy.
- It is futile sending decision-stage content to a contact who is not ready to buy.
Most smaller businesses do not have access to experienced marketers and do not have suitable content assets for effective email marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Building and engaging with an audience on social media can become a significant source of traffic.
- On average people spend over 2 hours every day on social media - like it or not, it's here to stay!
- There are billions of people on social media and everyone is targeting them with their ads.
- To get any value out of social you must develop a relevant audience.
- A relevant audience is more likely to engage with your social posts.
- If you don't have an audience or your audience is not relevant to your value proposition, then social is unlikely to be a significant source of traffic.
If most of your business is in your local market then it makes sense you should focus your efforts to build an audience in that local market.
Online Local Business Directories & Listings
A business directory is an online list of businesses within a particular niche, location, or category.
- There are a hundred or more local listing directories. Google My Business is the most popular with 175 million users per month in the USA alone.
- 56% of local businesses have not claimed their Google My Business listing.
- Most businesses do not manage or maintain their content on local listing sites.
- 46% of Google searches are for local businesses and 80% of local search converts.
- 97% of consumers check a company's online presence before deciding to engage with them.
There are no silver-bullets to solve the web-traffic issue but accurate local listings can become a significant source of relevant traffic.
Your Audience
Your audience is a business asset just like your inventory, property, and accounts receivables.
- How to value your email audience:
- Size, churn, and contact acquisition.
- Email send volume, open, and click-through rates.
- How to value your social audience:
- Size, churn, and development.
- Engagement - likes, shares, link clicks, etc.
- Web traffic - sessions, bounce rates, time-on-site, etc.
- Inbound links from referring sites.
- Devices - internet of things (printers & copiers)
A direct relationship between the size of your audience and sales revenue exists because every member has the potential to be monetized.
Traffic Sources
Generating traffic to your website is hard - most websites have little to no traffic and with 1.5 billion live sites competition is intense.
- Direct traffic - your visitor already knows you and types your company name in the search bar - they know whom they are looking for.
- Organic traffic - a visitor found you in a search and clicks through to your site.
- Email - traffic generated from an email campaign.
- Social traffic - traffic originating from a social platform.
- Referrals - traffic originating from a link on another website.
- Paid - traffic arriving because you paid for it.
While none of the traffic sources should be neglected, expectations must be realistic and owners should be prepared for a long-term initiative.
