w~ qu,cintu,t kb ook s ® How to grow your web traffic and get noticed on a noisy web. By Jeff Bullas PART 2 OF 3 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 6 Chapter 1 It’s a noisy world 7 Chapter 2 How to earn and drive traffic for free • Organic Social Media • Email Marketing • Search Engine Optimisation • Collaboration 14 Chapter 3 How to accelerate your traffic growth and online attention by paying for it • Google AdWords and Remarketing • Facebook Sponsored Posts • Influencer Marketing 17 Bonus Section How to measure the success of your efforts 18 Conclusion 2 G1) cfuickbooks. Introduction To help you navigate the social web, Intuit and global For small businesses owners like you, digital thought leader Jeff digital channels are one of the most Bullas have teamed up to effective and affordable ways to grow your business in today’s digital world. show you three simple steps to your online success. As a global leader in cloud accounting, Intuit is aware of this power of online solutions to drive In a series of three e-books, we will your prosperity, and is committed show you how to attract business and to supporting your growth. Yet, grow sales with digital tactics, tools from regular conversations with its and technology that can provide consumers, Intuit knows many small a predictable stream of business businesses struggle with utilising prospects, converting to sales online channels. It might be a challenge for you to find the time to market yourself to In our first webinar we prospective consumers or how to covered: adapt and grow your business in the often confusing social web. Attracting 1. Why digital content boosts more leads and sales. Keeping the sales - How to create sales funnel full. As an entrepreneur this can all be overwhelming. engaging content that builds trust and credibility Why? In the next two, we will cover As small business owners you are the following: often working in your business and not on your business. You may also 2. How to grow your web have not kept up with the latest traffic and get noticed on a digital marketing strategies. noisy web The reality? 3. How to convert web traffic into leads, sales and loyalty The entrepreneur is living on hope marketing. Hoping that a new for your business consumer will ring or email tomorrow. 3 . ~ qtickbooks The author He realised that now we all had a global voice. No longer did you Jeff is an entrepreneur, blogger, need permission to publish or pay author, marketer and keynote for attention. speaker who works with businesses to optimise their digital brand with In response to this, in March 2009 emerging technologies, content, Jeff started a passion project social media and digital marketing. with a $10 investment. He started creating content, a community and conversations about social media - its growth, impact and inner secrets. A year later the creation escaped the lab, and Jeff started travelling the world speaking about how to use social networks to grow a business and change one’s life. His website jeffbullas.com now His journey in this space started in has millions of visitors a year and a 2008 when he was between jobs… tribe of over ----600,000 social media that’s code for “unemployed”. followers… the persistent process of creating, publishing and sharing He made an observation about produced a profound effect. people’s obsessive behaviour on The world showed up. Facebook. When signing up to Twitter a few months later the same activity was noticed. At the time, there were only 70 million people on Facebook His mission is to and a mere five million on Twitter. “Inspire and educate But he was curious. Why was this happening and what did it mean? people to win at business and life in What became apparent was that the rise of social networks was a digital world” a game changer. The power of these platforms was promising to democratise publishing, marketing and business. 4 & rnturt . w qu,ckbooks About Intuit Australia To support the success of accountants and bookkeepers Intuit is committed to supporting the in today’s digital world, Intuit is 2.1 million Aussie small businesses committed to providing the necessary that are the backbone of the tools and digital expertise to grow Australian economy. As people their practices and evolve their embrace the benefits of mobile role as trusted advisor by helping and the power of the cloud, Intuit their clients navigate the digital helps small businesses build a solid transformation of their business. foundation for financial success. By providing the world’s leading financial management software, QuickBooks, and a supporting By providing an easy-to-use, ecosystem of innovative online/cloud best practice guide, Intuit aims to products and services, Intuit makes it easy for Aussie small businesses to power small get paid faster, save time and gain deep business insights in real time. business Accountants and bookkeepers play prosperity an important role in the success in Australia of small businesses, by providing valuable financial management services, support and insights. With technology driving rapid change in their own and their clients’ industries, accountants and bookkeepers need to evolve to become a Firm of the Future by integrating three key trends into their practices: move to the cloud, embrace mobile and adopt social and digital. 5 Chapter 1 It’s a noisy world In the old days of the Internet, build the highest return on investment it and they will come was perhaps (ROI), and which ones are just a the most effective digital marketing waste of time. strategy. It was a different, simpler time when just a handful of websites The purpose of this e-book is to were fighting for attention. The guide you through this journey. You simple act of creating content and will learn the four key tactics – organic publishing it was enough to reach social media, email marketing, your target audience. search engine optimisation (SEO), and collaboration – that can help you How things have changed. drive organic traffic to your website for free. We’ll also look at some of In today’s overcrowded digital the most effective paid options, such space, where over one billion as Google AdWords, social media websites are trying desperately to advertising, and influencer marketing get their audience’s---- attention, simply to jumpstart your efforts and give publishing-- content won’t help you your web traffic a boost. stand out. More and more business owners are exploring the role content plays in their marketing efforts, experimenting with different tactics and perfecting their strategies Just remember, internet users suffer from as they go. Of course, there are also the so-called professionals who promote silly gimmicks and try to content overload convince you that digital marketing is easy. Well, it’s not. So, the question that begs an answer is: what can you do to stand out in this noisy world and drive traffic to They are bombarded by an your website? immeasurable amount of information every day, and they’re starting to get It’s not an easy journey – let me tell tired of it. If you want to be heard in you this from personal experience. It this overcrowded market, you don’t will require a lot of trial and error until need to scream the loudest; you you figure out what works for your just need to work smarter than your audience, which tactics bring competitors. 6 Chapter 2 How to earn and drive traffic for free Organically growing your website’s The content you create today can traffic is probably one of the drive traffic tomorrow, next month, hardest things you will do for your and even next year. business. It requires constant focus, commitment, and the tenacity to Don’t get the wrong idea: we’re work for months without seeing any not advocating against paid tactics. impressive results. However, making When it comes to growing your organic traffic the centre of your website and putting it in front of the strategy will prove to be the greatest right audience, both options have investment in the long run. their ups and downs. However, a lot of small business owners are “Organic” methods for attracting ignoring the benefits of organic traffic to your website simply refer traffic for the instant gratification to the ones that don’t require a paid advertising brings. direct financial investment. Instead of paying for attention with money, you are exchanging your time Organic Social Media and effort in the form of content Let’s begin by addressing the creation, distribution, and social elephant in the room. The average media community building, for the organic reach for businesses is attention of a core audience. declining at a fast pace. According to one research study, Facebook Think about it this way: online Pages with less than 500,000 likes advertising, such as Google have an organic reach of only 2%, AdWords and sponsored posts on and the number is expected to get Facebook will get you a boost in even lower in the following years. traffic. But, the moment you stop pouring money into the marketing So, understandably, a lot of people machine, your results will stop. are beginning to doubt the benefits that organic social media can bring to their business. Organic traffic, on the other hand, is like a gift that keeps on giving 7 ® cfuickbooks. But, consider this: if you don’t have Below is one example from Travel an organic social media strategy Insurance Direct where they have to partner your paid efforts, you taken the use of emojis to the next may be losing potential visitors level by incorporating a smiley face in the long run.