When you produce regular content on your blog or website you want to attract as many visitors as possible and you want these visitors to share your content with their friends, followers, and connections. The best way to achieve these goals is to link your site to your social networking sites by simply adding buttons (often referred to as badges) to your blog that direct people to your social media pages when they click on the relevant icon.
The great news is you don’t need to be a computer programmer to add this functionality to your site as each of the main channels has made it really easy for you and this blog post explains how to simply add social media buttons to your blog.
If you have a WordPress site like mine it’s fairly simple as most themes come with social media button functionality built-in, all you have to do is add your social media page URL to the button. You can clearly see these at the top right-hand corner of my site. The downside to these is they are often inflexible e.g. my current design forces me to display all of the icons or nothing and doesn’t have a LinkedIn option.
Thankfully WordPress enables you to also add a bespoke Text widget which enables you to create your own social media badges – look to the right-hand side of my blog and you will see these clearly. All you need to do is name the widget and copy the code that you can create by following each of the links below:
If you are signed in to the channel that you wish to create a button for simply click on the link, follow the instructions such as selecting the type of button you are looking and how you want it to be displayed and copy the code. The code can be pasted into your site in the location you want it and hey presto you have a button that links to your site.
If you look at my site as an example all I did was copy the code generated at the Google, LinkedIn and Twitter links and paste it into one Text widget and added a title “Follow me here”, here is a screenshot showing how simple this is:
Adding the code to generate social media buttons in WordPress
For the Facebook button I chose to use the ready-made Facebook Like Box widget found within Jetpack, all I had to do was add some text for the title and paste in my Facebook page URL.
I hope you found this article useful and please follow my social media channels for future posts
Do you have a plan for building traffic to your site? Do you know where to start? The answers to these questions can often seem daunting but developing a brief action plan against all of the key traffic building areas I list in this post can help and yield results quickly. This output will help you build the framework of a long-term digital marketing plan that will ultimately start to build traffic to your website
So this post is more of a list but a valuable one. Think about what you can do now against each of these points and implement them as soon as possible. Make sure you can track the new visitors you develop from each source in your analytics account so you can quickly measure the results to see what is working then do more of the same.
If you would like me to cover any of the points below in more detail just post the name of the topic you would like me to write about in the comments box below.
Who can you build an online partnership within your market? Who operates in a similar space but is not competing? Who is writing blogs on your market? Who has a similar profile of customers or visitors that could be selling or promoting your product? Types of online partnership:
Affiliate Marketing – think about what deal would entice an affiliate to sign-up and make some approaches. Are there any affiliate networks with a track record in your sector?
Sponsorship
White-labelling
Co-branding
Link building – this can help but make sure the links are natural and would resonate with your own audience, make sure the traffic they are likely to generate is quality traffic, and not just there to boost visitors.
Online advertising
Purchasing advertising space on specific websites – specifically those who attract your target market in large volumes
Ad networks such as Google Ad Exchange or Google Adsense
Sponsorship
Audience targeting
Re-marketing shows advertisements to users who’ve previously visited your website as they browse the web.
Email (Opt-in)
Make sure you always provide the recipient with a method of opting out of your email to make sure you stay within the law. When you write your email content think of a title that will encourage the recipient to open the email and write the content to grab their attention in the first few seconds otherwise they are unlikely to read on. Types of email lists:
In house lists, you’ve already developed
Rented lists
Lists your partners have developed
Advertising in third party e-newsletters
Viral Marketing
Buzz marketing – what shareable content can you create for the distribution of social media channels? What works for your competitors? Video content is particularly shareable.
Generating social media mentions – Buzz marketing will clearly help but so will engage with your followers.
Sharable emails
And lastly don’t forget…
Offline Marketing
Make sure you mention prominently in all of your offline advertising efforts your website and if there is space in your social media channels.
Traditional advertising – paper, magazine, flyers, radio, TV
Sales promotions
Personal selling
PR
Sponsorship
Direct mail
Product packaging
I hope this post gives provides you some inspiration for ideas on how to build traffic to your website.
Social Media has been the talk of the town for quite some time now and if leveraged well, can boost your business to an unexpected level. But this social media success is based on a few factors – MARKETABILITY, CONNECTIVITY, AND ENGAGEMENT.
Marketability is the ability to sell your products or services effectively. In this digital era where else could you find a better platform for marketing your product other than social media? Social media has the highest people engagement in today’s time and leveraging this is very important. However, you must present yourself well while marketing yourself on social media. As it is said, the first impression is the last impression; your profile should be such that it leaves a good impression in the minds of the people. Use this platform well and highlight your expertise and strengths. There should be a call-to-action explaining what value addition you bring to your audience.
Social media is a place where people connect, and here you can connect with your audience too. Here you can stay connected with your existing customers and try connecting with new audiences and future prospects as well. It is believed that the bigger the network the better it is for your business. This can be good to an extent as long as it does not create a negative impression about your product or service. For instance, while connecting to someone on LinkedIn, try sending a note with your invitation mentioning your details rather than sending canned messages.
The other most important point is engagement. You need to learn how to engage your audience on social media as well. It could be anything, maybe some questionnaire or a blog that would engage the audience. The more you engage your customer, the more there will be business opportunities for you.
Digital Marketing refers to marketing and advertising using the internet to drive sales and sales leads, typically via websites and emails. It includes all the activities conducted by a business via the world wide web to attract new business, retain existing business, and develop a brand’s identity.
Digital Marketing is also known asremarketing,internet marketing,search engine marketing,andweb marketing. When properly implemented, the returns from Digital Marketing can far exceed those from traditional marketing strategies—and at very little cost.
According to Google, more than90% of consumers research products online before buying, and three out of five people use search engines as a go-to shopping resource. In such a scenario, being noticed by your prospects and customers is vital to your online success.
Digital Marketing is a high growth industry that will continue to grow faster than traditional advertising in the times to come.
7 Points to Remember
Digital Marketing can make your online business visible to millions of people worldwide who are already online.
Website traffic doesn’t just happen by itself—it requires time and resources to connect with your prospects and customers and bring them to your website.
If your business is not generating more revenues than investment, you’re probably not doing your Digital Marketing right.
Once your Digital Marketing strategy gets going in the right direction, you can increase your investment to acquire more customers and generate more sales.
Getting paid traffic via advertising is an excellent way to kick-start your business in days, not months.
If your marketing collaterals are of high quality, they will get noticed on the internet as well as on social media channels. The payoffs can be very rewarding.
When you provide content that is useful, relevant, and valuable to your prospects and customers, they will seek you out and reward you both in the short and long term.
How Digital Marketing Can Help You
You can use digital marketing to:
Access niche markets via demographics and targeting
Expand your business globally with a smaller budget compared to other channels
Improve your ROI
Compete with bigger businesses more easily
Improve your customer service
Weapons of Digital Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO helps you to get found online by your prospects and customers. You can improve your website’s visibility in search engines by developing an SEO strategy which ensures that when prospects are searching for information online, your company’s name shows up on top of the search results page (SERP).
SEO is vital for the online success of any organization in an increasingly digital-driven economy. An effective SEO strategy covers, among other things, authoritative content with keywords that are relevant to user queries. If your website is well optimized, it will most likely be ranked higher by search engines because it will typically also be fulfilling user expectations better than other websites. And search engines love to reward such websites – because like you, they too want to serve their customers better than their competitors.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about creating and distributing relevant and valuable content for your target audiences—by attracting, informing, and engaging with them meaningfully—while promoting your brand.
Content marketing helps you to reach audiences who may already be searching for the answers your brand delivers, and given the fact that 94% of consumers research online before buying, it’s something you can’t afford to take lightly.
Content is King…andno company is too small to participateis what Bill Gates had said in the 90s, and it remains true today—perhaps even more so. Broadly speaking, content includes the use of blogs, articles, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, webinars, videos,andsocial media and PR—all-powerful growth drivers for your business—in such a way that when buyers search the web for answers to their questions, your brand shows upon top.This helps increase your brand’s top-of-mind recall value, builds trust, and also strengthens relationships with prospects and buyers.
Valuable contentalsoallows you to capture the right metrics—so vital in today’s relationship-based, consumer-driven digital marketplace.
A very useful but ignored aspect of content marketing is the glaring disconnect that so widely prevails between content and its intended audiences. This usually happens when you don’t match your audience personas to their demographics—and end up sharing your content with the wrong people at the wrong time and on the wrong channel.
When done right, content marketing is a very powerful tool to increase visibility, trust, and customer loyalty. And search engines simplyloveto reward good content.
This refers to traffic purchased through online ads. PPC helps ensure marketing success by reaching theright customers at the right timeandat the right placein their decision-making process. The PPC industry is valued at hundreds of billions of dollars via media giants like Facebook, Google,andother companies.
PPC is the most widely-used business model for search engine ads. It allows for maximum exposure while giving you full control over your ad campaign budget. And it also enables you to clearly track the effectiveness of your ad campaign.
Another reason for PPC’s popularity is its cost-effectiveness. i.e., you payonlywhen someone clicks on your ad, and not otherwise.
PPC ads appearprominentlyboth on top of a search engine’s results page (SERP) and along the right-hand side. Their ranking is based on an auction model to determine which ads will display in what positions.
Your PPC marketing strategy should be tailored to support your business model and add value to your website. An efficiently managed PPC campaign will not only bring more traffic to your website but also maximize your conversions and returns on investment (ROI).
Since every business is different, PPC campaigns tend to be unique and are based upon individual goals, business environment, competitive landscape, and so on.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing is a highly potent customer engagement tool and traffic driver. If you are not already interacting with your target audiences through social media, you may be hurting your brand in terms of (i) disappearing from their minds (ii) failing to reach out to new audiences (iii) missing out on important conversations.
A well-designed social media campaign helps to expand your brand’s reach—by turning prospects into customers and customers into repeat customers.
Since every business is unique, social media needs will vary from business to business. One organization may need SMM to generate more sales, while another organization may use it to improve customer service levels or build their following. The type of social media marketing campaign your organization runs will depend largely on your business goals and your target audiences, as well as your Digital Marketing plan.
Getting found on social media networks likeFacebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,andLinkedInis no longer an option but a necessity. A good social media plan can help you to optimize your social media presence by (i) locating the places where your audiences are active online (ii) creating a social media strategy that reaches them at the right place and time by identifying the social media platforms where their participation will produce the greatest dividends.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important part of your Digital Marketing and communications strategy. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing brings in about $40 for every $1 you spend[1]– and I’m sure similar figures will apply in other countries also. That’s one of the highest ROIs you can get for your marketing! But despite this impressive statistic, most email marketing campaigns end up being spammy.
However, if you do email marketing the right way, you can continue to engage your customers for years after the first conversion. Email marketing helps you to build trust, establish a long-term relationship and improve your brand’s top-of-mind recall value—via emails and newsletters that provide valuable information to your target audiences with regard to your product, service, or industry—at a global level.
Another great thing about email marketing is that you can start seeing the resultswithin minutesof sending the email. Unlike print and broadcast campaigns where you typically have to wait for weeks or days, you can pretty much organize a 24-hour flash sale in minutes, and start seeing the results within hours. Good email campaigns also tend to be shared more – not only because they are good but because all it takes is a click to share them.
Since most email marketing software allow you to tracktheir effectiveness, you can quickly and easily knowhow your campaign is performing, thereby allowing you tofine-tuneyour campaign in real-time.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Driving traffic to your website will not earn you any money if your visitors aren’t converting into customers. Industry-wide conversion rates are typically as low as 3%[1]. This means that 97out100 people visiting your websitewillleave without taking any action. And almost 70%[2]of your visitorswillabandon your shopping cart before buying. It is for this reason that conversion rate optimization (CRO) is necessary for your business.
Conversion rate optimization is all about knowing your audiences and studying their browsing habits (by testing andanalyzingthem) so that you can get them to convert by giving them what they need.
CRO is more about whatactuallyworks than what you think should work. It calls for research that typically starts with web analytics to study visitorbehavioron your website—such as who your visitors are, how they reach your website and navigate within it, what action they take, or fail to take; and it also requires competitive research. You can then use this information to your advantage by optimizing your landing pages and creating a sales funnel that is fine-tuned around your target audience’s needs—and eventually lead to more conversions.
In a hypercompetitive digital economy, ignoring CRO can cost you dearly.
Analytics
Website analytics, as defined by the Web Analytics Association, is “the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting,andanalysis of quantitative Digital data to optimize websites and marketing initiatives.”
Analytics help you to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts with the help of useful data with which to fine-tune your website and improve your return on investment (ROI).
A successful Digital Marketing strategy relies heavily on web analytics because it provides valuable information that you can use to (i) reach your audiences and learn who your typical customers are in terms of age, gender and behavior (ii) measure your conversion funnel and learn where you’re losing out (iii) maximize your ROI by evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing methods and how keywords are performing, whether your website is optimized for the right search terms, and how your social media is helping your business, and much more.
A successful Web analytics strategy is not a one-time affair—it is an ongoing program that you simply have to use to gain a competitive edge over your rivals.
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