Inbound marketing is taking the digital world by storm due to it’s natural, non-invasive approach to driving web traffic and leads. For those unfamiliar with the term, “driving traffic” means encouraging web users to visit a specific website. In your case, it means convincing potential leads to visit your small business’s little chunk of the internet. Driving traffic is essential to online success because it serves to increase repeat visitors, lower bounce rates and, in many cases, increase sales. However, you’re not going to gain customers if no one knows your site exists, and this is where inbound marketers come in. We have many tricks up our sleeves, blogging and social media being two of the most influential.
Blogging
Something you’ll hear time and time again from inbound marketers is the importance of blogging. If you want more traffic, creating a company blog and contributing fresh, interesting content to it regularly is one of the best ways to do it. Blogging is a current buzzword in the industry, and 82% of marketers who blog daily have acquired a new customer in 2013.
From a search engine optimization perspective, blogging grows your site’s number of indexable pages, which are ones that can be picked up by search engines. The greater the number of indexable pages, the higher the likelihood that your site will rank. For maximum impact, construct blog posts around related long-tail keywords, which are keyword phrases that, typically between three and five words in length, are used to refine search terms. The formula is simple: do your research, and avoid highly competitive words and phrases. Optimize your posts by including the keyword in the body text (but not too much!), the title of the page, the URL and the heading. The more posts you publish, the more keywords you can optimize for and the more pages of your website get indexed, all of which contributes to more visitors – and this is only the SEO side of it!
Another aspect of blogging that could not be more important is crafting high-quality, useful and interesting content. To speak like a true inbound marketer, genuinely useful content draws readers naturally. Gone are the days when you could choose a suitable long-tail keyword and write a few paragraphs on the topic without giving thought to how readers will take it. Today’s users frequent websites that are informative and engaging – they want blog posts that offer solutions. Optimizing for low-competition, long-tail keywords while simultaneously crafting content that users actually want to read seems like quite the task, but the answer is simple: it’s all connected. Always keep your clients’ needs, wants and problems that need solving in mind.
Social Media
Social media is just as popular as ever, and it is perhaps the most versatile tool out there for driving traffic. However, having a presence on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest is, in and of itself, not enough. Drawing customers to you is the main principle of inbound marketing, and there are many ways to use social media to motivate that.
In a similar fashion to business blogs, posting valuable content on social media networks is key. A great piece of advice I heard recently was that if you want potential clients to be interested in you, you must first be interested in them. Logical, no? More people are likely to make the jump to your website if you listen to, engage and expand your community by sharing helpful stuff. Think interesting articles, infographics and images, as well as self-promotional links to (for example) your company’s service page. Social media is also indispensable when it comes to promoting business blog posts.
There are numerous other ways to use social media to your advantage if you want more traffic to your website. Listen to your audience and, whenever possible, provide helpful links to potential clients who are asking for recommendations or discussing your field, product or company. Set up an RSS feed and encourage readers to subscribe to it, and remain engaged by consistently answering questions. Including social share buttons on website content, and this is where blogging comes in again, makes clients and leads more likely to share your content on their profile, which means a wider audience will see it.
Finally, since inbound marketing is all about what works for the customer, use your preferred software to track which networks are bringing in the most traffic, and which campaigns are most successful. If something you’re trying out on Facebook or Twitter isn’t bringing in the visits you thought it would, change it up and try again. The beauty of the internet, folks.
According to the latest Hubspot Return on Investment Report, more than 92% of companies using inbound marketing increase their traffic, with 40% of those companies seeing a website traffic growth of at least 75%. While blogging and social media are two of the best tools out there for growing web traffic, juggling these small business necessities can be tough. When in doubt, hire a professional. Boutique design agencies have the expertise and experience needed to manage your social media presence and business blog, and increase your overall online visibility.
Image Credit: 911 Small Biz
Inbound marketing is taking the digital world by storm due to it’s natural, non-invasive approach to driving web traffic and leads. For those unfamiliar with the term, “driving traffic” means encouraging web users to visit a specific website. In your case, it means convincing potential leads to visit your small business’s little chunk of the internet. Driving traffic is essential to online success because it serves to increase repeat visitors, lower bounce rates and, in many cases, increase sales. However, you’re not going to gain customers if no one knows your site exists, and this is where inbound marketers come in. We have many tricks up our sleeves, blogging and social media being two of the most influential.
Blogging
Something you’ll hear time and time again from inbound marketers is the importance of blogging. If you want more traffic, creating a company blog and contributing fresh, interesting content to it regularly is one of the best ways to do it. Blogging is a current buzzword in the industry, and 82% of marketers who blog daily have acquired a new customer in 2013.
From a search engine optimization perspective, blogging grows your site’s number of indexable pages, which are ones that can be picked up by search engines. The greater the number of indexable pages, the higher the likelihood that your site will rank. For maximum impact, construct blog posts around related long-tail keywords, which are keyword phrases that, typically between three and five words in length, are used to refine search terms. The formula is simple: do your research, and avoid highly competitive words and phrases. Optimize your posts by including the keyword in the body text (but not too much!), the title of the page, the URL and the heading. The more posts you publish, the more keywords you can optimize for and the more pages of your website get indexed, all of which contributes to more visitors – and this is only the SEO side of it!
Another aspect of blogging that could not be more important is crafting high-quality, useful and interesting content. To speak like a true inbound marketer, genuinely useful content draws readers naturally. Gone are the days when you could choose a suitable long-tail keyword and write a few paragraphs on the topic without giving thought to how readers will take it. Today’s users frequent websites that are informative and engaging – they want blog posts that offer solutions. Optimizing for low-competition, long-tail keywords while simultaneously crafting content that users actually want to read seems like quite the task, but the answer is simple: it’s all connected. Always keep your clients’ needs, wants and problems that need solving in mind.
Social Media
Social media is just as popular as ever, and it is perhaps the most versatile tool out there for driving traffic. However, having a presence on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest is, in and of itself, not enough. Drawing customers to you is the main principle of inbound marketing, and there are many ways to use social media to motivate that.
In a similar fashion to business blogs, posting valuable content on social media networks is key. A great piece of advice I heard recently was that if you want potential clients to be interested in you, you must first be interested in them. Logical, no? More people are likely to make the jump to your website if you listen to, engage and expand your community by sharing helpful stuff. Think interesting articles, infographics and images, as well as self-promotional links to (for example) your company’s service page. Social media is also indispensable when it comes to promoting business blog posts.
There are numerous other ways to use social media to your advantage if you want more traffic to your website. Listen to your audience and, whenever possible, provide helpful links to potential clients who are asking for recommendations or discussing your field, product or company. Set up an RSS feed and encourage readers to subscribe to it, and remain engaged by consistently answering questions. Including social share buttons on website content, and this is where blogging comes in again, makes clients and leads more likely to share your content on their profile, which means a wider audience will see it.
Finally, since inbound marketing is all about what works for the customer, use your preferred software to track which networks are bringing in the most traffic, and which campaigns are most successful. If something you’re trying out on Facebook or Twitter isn’t bringing in the visits you thought it would, change it up and try again. The beauty of the internet, folks.
According to the latest Hubspot Return on Investment Report, more than 92% of companies using inbound marketing increase their traffic, with 40% of those companies seeing a website traffic growth of at least 75%. While blogging and social media are two of the best tools out there for growing web traffic, juggling these small business necessities can be tough. When in doubt, hire a professional. Boutique design agencies have the expertise and experience needed to manage your social media presence and business blog, and increase your overall online visibility.
Image Credit: 911 Small Biz
