Here at Border7, we often say that you can have the best looking website in the world, but if your audience can't find it, then it's not doing its job.
Marketing is all about starting conversations. The goal is to increase awareness about your business, and educate your target audience on what you do, why they need it, why trust you, and next steps.
There are several ways that you can start conversations. We call these tactics.
Tactics are part of a larger digital strategy that should be personalized to support your specific business' needs and goals.
Let's first start by talking about types of traffic.
Types of Traffic
Organic - Free but takes time to implement
On-site SEO
This involves not only creating quality content that is relevant to your audience, but also making sure that you have title tags that follow a sequential hierarchy, long-tail keywords that you'll have a better chance ranking for, as well as concise meta descriptions.
What is a long-tail keyword?
This is a more specific phrase that someone would use to search for your product or service online.
For example, let's say you have a licensed dog walking business based in Running Springs, CA.
Instead of focusing on just "dog walker," you'd instead focus on "licensed dog walker running springs" would be a long-tail keyword.
If you optimize your site for this phrase, you have a better chance of showing up higher in search results than you would if you just optimized for "dog walker."
Landing Pages
These are pages that include specific offers, a free guide, or next steps for your audience if they're ready to either learn more or work with you. They should be specific and feature targeted messaging that speaks to a set audience.
Off-site SEO
This involves the work you do to tell Google what others think about your website, and to increase your rankings with search engines.
For example, writing a guest post for another blog, or leaving an insightful comment would be off-page site promotion.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is still very much alive and a key way to engage with your audience. Always make sure you're providing useful information and links, so you are educating and providing value.
No one wants to be constantly bombarded with emails, but if you're coming from a place of wanting to provide value to solve a problem, your audience should enjoy receiving your emails.
Social Media Posts
Social media is a great way to promote your content and other important pages of your website. It's also where you can build a long-term relationship with your target audience, and grow your following.
As the expert of your product or service, it's important that you simplify what you do while showing that you're an expert.
Blogging
Nowadays, you've most likely heard about blogging.
But, the importance of having a blog is sometimes missed by business owners. They think, "why does my business need a blog?" Or, "but I don't know what I'd talk about."
And that's okay, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a great way to attract new clients/customers, and helps SEO immensely.
Blogs give search engines a reason to re-crawl your website to index new content. They are also a great way to grow your community, and better position yourself as an expert.
Directory Listings
Get listed on free online directories and review sites. This is important because it increases your backlinks, which means when another website links to your website. The more quality backlinks you have tells Google that your site is trusted and worth showing higher in search results.
Optimize Your Free Google Business Profile
This is something that is free and straight-forward to setup. It allows you to show up for search results that are relevant to your business and location, and it increases visibility in search results.
Paid ads often take up most of the above-the-fold real estate for search results, so by optimizing your Google Business Profile, you are making it easier to find your business.
Keep in mind that you can have a profile if your business doesn't have a physical address as long as you make in-person contact with customers.
If you don't want to display an address in the listing, Google requires a mailing address and that you deliver goods and services to your customers.
Paid Traffic - Paid and requires ads
This is a tactic that we usually recommend clients hold off on starting until they've taken the time to build a strong foundation for their website.
There's no point spending money to drive people to a website that has not been optimized to encourage engagement and conversions, so keep this in mind before jumping into paid ads and spending money without a plan in place.
Google Ads
Google Ads is an online advertising platform offered by Google. It allows advertisers to bid to display their ads, which can include text, video, or images in Google search results.
Even though you're paying for the service, it doesn't guarantee results. You need to choose the right keywords and optimize your ad, so your audience not only sees the ad, but is willing to click it.
Social Media Advertising
Social media ads can help a business get new followers on social media, increase content views, and stand out from the crowd.
Social networks (like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter) utilize user information to decide which ads should be featured.
If you're new to running paid social media campaigns, keep in mind that it takes time and commitment to fine-tune your campaign.
Wrapping It Up
Strategy is the why behind your marketing efforts, tactics are the how, and tools are the what. Our biggest tip to you today is to start with creating a personalized strategy that supports your business.
Try to not get "shiny thing syndrome," and fall into trying every tool or tactic that catches your eye. Take a minute to first revisit your strategy, and consider if the resources needed to execute a tactic, or utilize a tool supports your specific strategy.
We only have so much time, and you don't need to have every type of social media account, or do all of the tactics listed in this article. You need to prioritize and make sure that you get the best possible return on your marketing efforts.
Want a free template to help you brainstorm traffic sources?
Click this link to get access to our free traffic planner guide. Inside you'll learn more about the key web content that you'll want to include, as well as the template to help you brainstorm.
