An online presence is essential for any business today. Even if it’s just a profile on Facebook, every business should have something. Businesses interested in growth should leverage their online presence to draw in potential customers, eventually converting them. If you don’t have a good way to generate traffic, though, you can’t draw anyone in.
1. Maintain a social media presence
Social media is free to use, and being on-platform makes sharing much easier. Even more so in the digital age, word-of-mouth advertising is the best way to convert potential customers. People still trust their friends and family much more than an advertisement. Social networks are designed to connect these people, and using it for your business is the perfect way to tap into the word-of-mouth growth engine.
Simply posting videos and pictures of your product helps. We live in an audio-visual world, and using video to demonstrate your product on social media lets people instantly share a clear, real-life demonstration with their closest and most trusted connections. If you’re selling ideas (i.e., your website is about ideas, not products), connection networks might spread even faster as people share links with friends.
2. Employ social media influencers
So if your social media profile is inconsequential and you don’t seem to be generating much traffic, consider social media influencers. These are YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platform personalities that have significant followings. Standalone bloggers with substantial followings are also influencers. Sending these people free samples and asking them to demonstrate the product or review it can increase traffic to your site – of course, that’s assuming you get a good review. So pay attention to whom you contract. If you’re selling sugar-packed candy, a health and fitness influencer is probably not the best use of your marketing dollars.
If the website is your product, social media influencers can stream themselves accessing it, pointing out unique features, and giving their opinion on its ease-of-use and comparisons to competitors.
3. Develop a mobile version of the site
Desktop sites are great for data- and processor-intensive features. They’re also great for packing a lot of information onto a 15.6-inch laptop screen or a 32-inch monitor. Mobile devices are fundamentally different, because their small screen sizes and natural downward scrolling require a different layout. Nothing drives customers away like only hosting a desktop site for mobile users. And mobile use is skyrocketing, with 77% of Americans owning smartphones. Not only are these devices used at home, but remote employment is on the rise, especially among millennials. If your website allows a seamless transition from work to play to work again, you’ll likely get more visitors.
4. SEO. Engage in it.
Whether you have the perfect website or not, SEO is imperative to your incoming traffic. People search for things online, and if your website isn’t one of the hits, it will be hard to find new, unique visitors. However, you need to come early in the rankings, too. Most search terms on Google will return far too many hits for a customer to look through, and convenience is key in the online world. Intelligently leveraging SEO will quickly lead to higher rankings and more traffic.
5. Be exciting. Engage your audience.
Your website needs to draw people in. Use your site as a way to not only draw them in, but keep them and make them want to share it with others. Even if you have a boring staple product, you can increase customer engagement by using novelty techniques. Add a cryptocurrency payment system; even if it only generates $25 in monthly revenue, it’s really easy to set up and people will talk about it. Or have a contest for past customers, encouraging them to spread the word. Or set up a guerrilla marketing campaign and head to the streets to surprise and engage people.
