How to GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE By Yusuf Chowdhury 210- 316- 3123 www.OnlineBusinessOwners.Org Table of Contents Introduction 4 ------------- Chapter 1 Building an Effective Website 6 Know Your Target Audience 6 Build Easy Navigation 9 Responsive Web Design 10 Call to Action Button 11 Minimum of 5 Pages 15 Social Media Icons 15 Integrate Email Marketing 16 Capture Leads 17 Implementing On-Site SEO 19 Google Analytics Installation 21 Adding website to Google Master Tool 23 Chapter 2 Invest in Building an Email List Personalize Email 24 Add Signature 25 Giving Something Away 26 Catchy Title 27 Mobile Friendly 28 2 Chapter 3 Generate and Focus on Target Market Start Blogging 30 Write a compelling content 30 Optimize content for SEO 31 Share in social networking sites 31 Make blog available on Kindle 31 Submit your blog posts 32 Guest Blogging 32 Use Link Round Ups 33 Press Releases 34 Local SEO Citations 36 EBook Syndication 40 Podcasting 41 Joining and Engaging in Forums 44 Infographics 45 Content Syndication 46 Outsourcing 47 3 INTRODUCTION Gone are the days of traditional going to stores or when the messages people got about products or services come directly from you and consisted only of what you wanted them to know. This era is full blasted with digital media which is greatly pervasive that customers have access to information anytime and anyplace in the world. That is just how it happens in digital reality. At a time when the speed of digital change is so fast that standing still means falling further behind, it is definitely essential that business owners know what exactly to do in order to succeed in the digital future. Generally, in digital marketing, you can do what you want and deliver the message to consumers that way you want them to receive it. It serves as an ever-growing source of entertainment, news, shopping, and social interactions. Thus, with billions of people subscribing to it every day, your products and services will be happily exposed to the world and is open for anything that media, friends, relatives, and consumer will say about on it. In the long run, they will choose to trust brands that are trustworthy, companies that actually know them, and staff that personally communicate with them, and accommodates their needs and their preferences. Related to the statement above, it is concluded that websites are highly significant for business. However, it will not be that easy. There are lots of problems that would come in your way and one great example is website traffic. Website traffic basically reflects the success of your company. Research says that lack of the latter is the number one challenge new/small business owners face. It is, obviously because no traffic means no sales. Without traffic, it means you are performing less in your marketing strategy and also, you can't test the key components of your sales process. And if you roll out a large traffic campaign before you've tested your site to make sure it converts maximum visitors into 4 buyers, you risk losing sales and looking unprofessional to potential business partners and affiliates. Traffic is the lifeblood of any website or blog and this book will serve as an important starting point for you to understand the basics of driving more traffic to your newly built, success-driven websites. A bit of advice: Don’t just read the book. Act on it every day. Goals will just remain a five- letter word until you work on it with persistence and discipline, until goals become success. 5 CHAPTER 1 BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The digital world has been playing on a great level lately when it comes to the fields of big and small businesses. One of the many obvious reasons for this would be the powerful websites that let business owners efficiently and effectively share information to their targeted customers, future partners and prospects; bring the brand’s name to the world; and in return, let them qualify sales and leads. However, building an effective website is not just about cropping a few images, aesthetically collage it to some platform that would look soothing to your eyes, then sticking it to the internet right away. It is not also about what clients usually request: flashing bright colors to get people’s attention and biggest font sizes/ overdone textures or gradients to convey some message to the world. It doesn’t work that way. Here are the best of the best tips that would help you in creating and designing your website in the most effective way. Know Your Target Audience “One of the biggest mistakes that budding personal branders make is trying to appeal to everyone. Think about the game of darts: You have to aim in order to hit the board. (If you let your darts go without aiming them, you probably won’t be very popular.) If you hit the board, you score. And if your aim is very good and you hit the bull’s eye, even better!” - Susan Chritton, Personal Branding For Dummies Targeting a market or audience usually talks about the special characteristics that your potential customers might have in order to advertise and best serve these people. The 6 characteristics include the criteria of age (categorization of kids, adults, or elders), gender, buying habits, language, culture, the user’s web ability, and a lot more. Thus, the first step: Market Segmentation. Market segmentation involves grouping your various customers into segments that have common needs or will respond similarly to a marketing action. (NSW Small Business, 2014) Some different ways you can segment your market include the following; Demographics: which focuses on the characteristics of the customer. For example age, gender, income bracket, education, job and cultural background. Psychographics: which refers to the customer group's lifestyle. For example, their social class, lifestyle, personality, opinions, and attitudes. Behaviour which is based on customer behaviour. For example, online shoppers, shopping centre customers, brand preference and prior purchases Geographical location such as continent, country, state, province, city or rural that the customer group resides. (NSW Small Business, 2014) The second step to be done would be the actual targeting of your segmented market. Basically, no one can afford to target everyone, especially in the current state of the economy. That's like firing 10 bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead centre of the mark: expensive and dangerous. As a matter of fact, small businesses can compete with the big ones by focusing on a niche market. Targeting your defined/ chosen market means digging more on them. Focused market research will lead you to concentrate on understanding the needs and wants of the particular market intimately. 7 However, this doesn't mean that there will be an exclusion of people that do not fit to the criteria as customers. There are some entrepreneurs that resist defining a target customer base because they think it would limit the business. It has always been a common misconception. Basically, defining a target market is just a wonderful strategy that would help business owners save money, and time in the most effective way possible. Here are some few tips in refining a company’s target audience and making brand implementation more effective, especially in designing an effective website. Tip #1: CREATE A CUSTOMER PROFILE One must search comprehensive descriptions together of their target market. Think about what your customers would think when they consider buying a specific product or availing a service. Create personas or detailed and vivid images of your potential buyers. You can go as far as getting random photos of your target market for you to be able to picture it in the clearest way. Put all the characteristics and their buying decisions. Tip #2: DIG DEEPER Business owners often make mistake when they define their customer base too broadly, making it very difficult to engage in effective marketing efforts. One must go into extreme detail. Talk about the daily tasks the person does at their job. Talk about they do on the weekends with their family and friends. The more details you can include the easier it will be for you to target this person as you implement your personal brand strategy. (Quick Sprout, LLC) 8 Get inside their head and figure out their motivations. This is important because, as we said earlier, when you know what this person’s motivations are, you can help them achieve their goals as a way to achieve your own goals (you get what you give). (Quick Sprout, LLC) Tip #3: CREATE A GAME PLAN FOR YOUR WEBSITE Once your customer’s motivation to buying is figured out, it is now time to formulate a game plan for your website design. You consider all the characteristics that appeal to the defined target market and coordinate it all in a good website design. Incorporate all theories of design yet we do not forget the fact that the website is not solely for your own desire and satisfaction. Many times people get caught up with themselves and what they want to happen to their website designs; however it has nothing to do with what business owners want, and has everything to do with what your defined target audience wants and needs. The ultimate goal in this website design game plan is to get the people to move. Your designs must cater to their desires and satisfaction. Basically, it is about putting yourself in their shoes, even if it is totally unrelated to your products and services. When you have a real understanding of the target market’s psychographics (how they think, feel, etc.), you can get them to do anything.