Denver & Austin, Texas – As a web development company in Denver we understand the importance of quality leads. Want to attract the attention of potential customers and get them to visit your website? Here are ten “best practices” tips to pump up your inbound marketing, and ultimately gain more customers and increase sales and improve conversion rates:
1. Give Them News They Can Use
Know your site visitors and give them information with benefits. Established customers benefit from information about product features, operational tips, and new product roll-outs. First-timers may find more benefit in how-to guides and product applications. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and give them the information you would want to get.
2. Search Engine Optimize
To optimize your website for search engines, use the key terms that people use when searching for your product or service in copy throughout your site. But your copy must be meaningful. If it’s just be a patchwork of key search terms, Google will penalize you and your visitors will leave. To get more out of search terms without getting carried away, try putting them into into your page name, title and header tags, and image alternative text.
3. Spread the Word
Promote your website online. Social media postings, email campaigns, webinars and newsletters are all viable options and paid ads are something you should consider if you have the budget. If you use display or paid search ads, be sure to monitor their performance carefully to maximize your ROI. Remember, it’s not the quantity of hits that’s important; it’s the quality of the leads they generate. Then make it easy for your site visitors to share your site by providing a “Share This” link.
4. Add a Blog to Your Strategy
Blogs not only provide your customers and prospects with valuable information, they also contribute to search engine optimization. To maximize the effectiveness of your blog keep the information you post clear, concise and relevant to customer needs, then refresh the information often. Your blog can be especially useful in keeping your most enthusiastic customers engaged and blowing your horn. To set up a blog of your own, Blogger and WordPress provide free tools to get you going.
5. Create a Following
Inundated with hype and finding scams at every turn, people today tend to place more value on the recommendations of friends when making buying decisions.
750 million people use Facebook, 360 million are on Twitter and 150 million use Linkedin. These and other social media represent a great resource for generating leads, launching promotions and interacting with your customers in ways that propagate your message. Using automation tools, you can prepare postings in advance and schedule their release to coordinate with the rest of your marketing strategy.
6. Communicate with Your Followers
Keep your social media momentum up by using it often. Using social media to ask for customer feedback, answer their questions and address their concerns reinforces customer loyalty and keeps you at top-of-mind. The power of social media to elicit candid customer comments and opinions is unparalleled. Social media is a marketing muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.
7. Post a Video
Posting a video on YouTube or Vimeo is another great way to deliver information and generate leads. Once you set up an account, you can post videos quickly and easily. For video content, customer testimonials are a good choice, along with product demonstrations, applications and operating tips. Video also provides a way for top executives to communicate directly with customers, conveying personal messages and strengthening customer relations.
8. Issue an Invitation
Invite your customers to visit you and enhance your credibility by promoting your location through Google Places, directories like Yelp and iPhone apps like ForeSquare. These tools let potential customers know that you are an established and stable part of the community. They also increase your SEO ranking and traffic to your website.
9. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
Never forget that the purpose of your website is to generate sales. Keep your content oriented toward your customers’ needs and be sure to “ask for the business” by issuing a call-to-action that lets potential customers know what to do to realize the benefits you offer. Give them a “Learn More” option, a download, a link to a free trial or a direct “Buy Now” button. And let your copy be written to move your visitors toward those actions.
10. Monitor Your Progress
The way to find out whether the website, marketing campaigns and social media postings you’ve created are working is to apply website analytics to track your traffic. Website analytics are JavaScripts added to your website pages that monitor traffic, buttons clicked, downloads, time spent and other metrics that help you measure the effectiveness of your website design, your offerings and your initiatives. Tacking gives you the information you need to measure what works and what doesn’t.
If you follow these 10 basic steps for improved online marketing, you will. If you would like more information about online marketing, please contact us today, and we’ll be happy to evaluate your website, and your marketing efforts.