Inbound Marketing

This is a two part series. In part 1 we explored why the number of visitors to our website is not as important as who is visiting our website. We learned that having thousands of visitors who come, look around and leave is like having hundreds of people run in and out of your bricks and mortar store. Even with all this traffic, no sales means no business. In part 2 we look at ways to make sure we are getting the right visitors.

Getting the right people to your site:

The first thing you should look at is your keywords. As a most basic description, keywords are the things that tells the search engine if you have what someone is searching for. You can’t just use popular terms (well you can, that’s what gets you those thousands of non-buying visitors) but you should be using keywords that you think someone who is looking for your product or service will use when they do a search. One of the tricks to finding the right keywords is to ask (yep, it really is that simple.) Call up 5 friends and give them a scenario. For example, call your friends and say “Listen, pretend you want to do something else with your life, maybe start a business, if you were going to Google what would you type in to get information.” You can also extend these type of questions to people on Facebook or Twitter to get an even more responses.

The next thing is, find out where people hang out that would be interested in your product or service. Let’s say you are selling an e-book on retirement. You want to be where potential retirees or soon-to-be retirees are. Many senior sites take advertising or you can become a presence on their blog (just remember not to spam them, but join the conversation and offer something of value.)

When a new visitor first arrives:

When someone visits your website you want them to immediately think to themselves “I’ve come to the right place.” You want them to recognize themselves in your content and feel at home. In many ways your website is the first impression you get with a potential customer. Write the content on your website to suit the people you want to engage with. In the olden days the website was all about you and your products. This doesn’t work anymore because frankly, no one really cares about you. Websites must be about your visitor.

Keeping people on your site as long as possible:

The reason you want to keep people on your site for as long as possible is because for every second they are there they are building a relationship with you and your business. People who stick around do so only because you have given them a reason to do so. Have you ever been on a website where you wander around for 30 minutes just reading the articles, watching the videos, reading and commenting on the blogs. If you haven’t, your missing a great experience. For an example of this type of website, try looking at ZenHabits. I can spend hours wandering around finding fascinating and useful information there.

Return visitors:

We all know the statistics. Buyers usually need to hear your name 7 times before they will buy. No one usually buys on the first visit to your website. It is important to give visitors reasons to bookmark and come back to your site. With each visit they will feel more trusting of you. One way to do this is to have a lively blog that they are eager to read. Another is to have constantly changing valuable content like articles and videos. Make a statement how often you expect to update content or blog posts so they know to come back.