Landing page – What is it? What does it do? Why does it matter?

Lead generation is the blood flow of any business. It doesn’t matter if you own a traditional brick and mortar business or if you own a network marketing business. If you have a lack of new blood coming into your pipeline, business will suffer. Period. A lack of leads is normally described as lead poverty. Poverty in any form is not good!

If you’re new to the internet, you may not even fully understand what a landing page is. For you veterans, this is some brush-up stuff. Either way, if you’re not getting the leads you expect from your blog or website, you need to pay attention!

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form.

Here is a Geico landing page for example. You have to enter your ZIP code to get to the next step.

 

Now, you will see other terms used – lead capture page, squeeze page – All of these are forms of landing pages.

 

For your landing page to be effective, it should target a specific audience. If you offer various products, you need a landing page for each product. We do not live in a one-size-fits all society. Your landing page should entice the traffic you generate from a specific source – such as an ebook offer or a Pay-Per-Click Campaign.

 

You can create landing pages that allow visitors to download offers (ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, etc.), or sign up for offers like free trials or demos of your product.

 

Why is a landing page important?

 

Having a landing page allows you a better opportunity of converting a more of your site visitors into leads. A landing page makes it easier for your visitors to receive your offer, since they don’t have to search for it on your site. Directing your traffic to your landing page eliminates the confusion of what your visitor must do to get your offer. They are more likely to return to your site, because you’ve made it easy for them. Your visitor will find you more valuable, because they didn’t have to deal with any frustrations about getting what you offered.

 

Make sense?

 

So…

Direct your visitors to the EXACT landing page with the offer and form they have to complete to get it.

 

They are more likely to complete the form and convert into leads.

There are some basic components to an effective landing page:

 

• Clear title and description of your offer with a strong incentive for your visitor to sign up.

• Remove all distractions – to include any links – from the landing page. A pop-up is annoying, but it works.This keeps your visitor focused on signing up for your offer.

• Add social links that encourage sharing.

• Make sure your form is designed to capture the information needed to follow up and qualify the lead.

• Make sure the form is not too long

• Use an autoresponder to send an immediate thank-you, and follow up emails. Keep the user engaged by sharing the next steps they can take.

• TRACK TRACK TRACK… your converstion rates to see if your landing page is really working the way you want.

Here is an example of an EFFECTIVE landing page:

 

You can design a landing page yourself or you can have it done for you. Click here to find out how you can have a landing page set up for you, complete with a highly converting sales funnel. Yeah, you’ll get to a landing page.

 

Read the original work here.

I added this content about a landing page, because so many of my clients are complaining about not generating enough leads. Well, as I started to peruse those sites, there is no clear and visible way to capture the visitor’s information. If you don’t make that crystal clear on your website, you can have thousands of visitors coming to your site and not capture a single one!

Contact me for a website review.

Keep marching forward,

PS. Have you heard about the $1k per day challenge? Get more info here! Join the party here!

I found this article, and thought it was great to share.

We talk a lot about your self-hosted website as a cornerstone business asset. You own it, you control it, and over time, if you take care of it, it becomes more and more valuable.

Your permission-based email list is an asset as well. You don’t control it to quite the same degree as your website, but it’s still something you build over time that keeps getting more and more valuable.

But there’s something more important than your site or your list. In fact, it’s what gives them value. It’s the reason you’re in business in the first place.

It isn’t your great content. (That’s the path, not the destination). It isn’t your wonderful product or your valuable service.

Read more of this article here.

 

Keep Marching Forward,

LuSundra

 

PS. Want to learn how to make money with the internet? I’m opening my 90-Day Internet Assault Course! Book an appointment with me to get more information.

Wanna just join? Click here!

 

 

I’m currently reading ‘Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World’. This is a great read for someone who has no idea where to start when it comes to tackling the social media world.

Engagement marketing is not a new form of marketing at all. It has a new name, but the concept is that of the ‘old’ word of mouth. With the internet, however, word can spread around the globe. That’s why it’s important to understand this concept as it relates to your business. Whether traditional business owner or network marketer, understanding this concept will help you generate more leads for your business through the internet, which will ultimately lead to generating more revenue.

There are three steps to the Engagement Marketing Cycle – Experience, Entice, and Engage. I’ll share more in just a bit. The foundational piece to begin this cycle is getting people in the door to begin with in order to get the cycle started. This article is more of what to do once they get in the door.

• Provide an UNFORGETTABLE experience

The overall experience a customer has is the beginning of the engagement marketing cycle. The benefit of being an entrepreneur is that you can create a more personalized experience for your customers that large chains can’t compete with. You can create the type of intimate connections that larger companies can’t. When was the last time you went to a large chain, and someone said, “Hi (your name)! Where are (insert children’s names)?”

Creating that unparalleled experience from the time the customer walks in your door is a critical element to your engagement marketing cycle.

 

• Entice People to Stay In Touch (Listbuilding)

 

To keep your engagement marketing cycle going, you need to stay in your customers’ thoughts. There are several ways to stay in touch these days – social networks, email, and text messages to name a few. For this part, you’ve really got to step up your game and give your customer a reason to WANT to stay in touch with you. Email marketing and social media centered on your business are the two most popular ways to keep in touch nowadays.

 

The key to this is to not wait. You need to decide how you want to connect with people, and then entice them to connect with you DURING the business transaction or immediately after. Mind you, these are people who have already bought from you. These people are the ones who will most likely buy from you again – PROVIDED – they’ve had the unforgettable experience.

 

• Engage people (Keeping in touch)

 

Of the three steps, I think the engagement part is where most people have trouble. Some don’t want to seem too pushy; others are just flat out intrusive. Regardless, the one key factor in engagement is consistency.  Determine how often you want to engage your client base, and do it consistently!

How do you engage your audience? You can share content that is educational or inspirational. Make it easy for your client base to leave a comment or share with their friends. Ask questions and ask for opinions.

This is a two way street though. When your customers take the few seconds out of their lives to ‘like’ or share a post, or leave a comment – RESPOND!

Remember – you are creating an environment the ‘big boys’ cannot. A major chain is not going to respond to Susie who had an issue with a return, but you will.

 

Knowing the three parts to the Engagement Marketing Cycle and understanding how to master each one will only boost your internet marketing efforts. Not only that, the internet side of your marketing will enhance your other marketing efforts as well. Being socially visible on the internet will help you provide ‘social proof’ – which helps people get to know, like, and trust you – and ultimately, do more business with you.

Keep Marching Forward,

LuSundra Everett

PS. Are you in on the $1k challenge?? Learn more about it here!   Get in on it here!

Success stories are a great way to sell your services, without really selling. This is actually the second part to a post I wrote previously. Your success stories, no matter how small are a selling tool. If nobody ever hears about your success stories, did they really happen? Sure, you know you achieved success with a client, but you aren’t trying to sell you. The happy client knows your success story with them, but do they know others? Your client can only share your success stories with ‘so many’ people.

I got a lot of great feedback on the previous post sharing how to write your success stories.

When I was doing some research though, it seems 1. People don’t know how to write success stories, and 2. They don’t know what to do with them! Being able to craft your success stories in a manner that sells is an awesome skill to have. When you’re sharing your success stories, we are really looking for referrals. I didn’t really state this in the previous post, but your attitude is key in all this.

Here’s a quick recap of the previous post, which covered how to write a success story. These key elements are courtesy of Michael J. Maher, author of 7L: The Seven Levels Of Communication.

1. Name the client and their situation.

2. State the worst-case scenario that could have happened.

3. How did you help solve the problem? [The focus is on the client, not you]

4. What was the result? Be Specific

5. What did the client say or do to let you know you did well?

6. Ask for specific and relevant referrals.

7. Call to Action

CAUTION: If you have not read my post on writing writing success stories, please do. It adds a little depth to just listing the steps.

Now that we’ve gotten our great story, what do we do with it? We send it out!

Share your success stories to your client list

If you’ve built an email list of clients, send it to them! [If you haven’t built an email list of your client base, you need to start.]

First of all, everybody likes a feel-good story. There is so much clutter in the news and in daily life that people crave something good to happen! Your client’s success story might be the best thing! Share about how a client’s makeover helped her find her husband. Talk about how you helped a first-time home-buyer get in a great home. These stories ignite that ‘mushy’ feeling inside, and make other want to help someone experience the same thing.

Secondly, you need to let your client base know that you want their referrals. You can’t just assume they know. Truth be told, they really aren’t thinking about you. Your job is to stay connected enough so that when someone mentions a need for the service you offer, your name is the first they think of. Sharing your success stories in your newsletter or email helps you maintain a piece of mental real estate. You are reminding your clients that you want their referrals without ‘hassling’ them. Your success stories are more of ‘gentle’ sales than the pushy ‘buy now’ sales.

Send your Success stories to your business Associates

What? If you’re thinking your business associates know your business well enough to refer you, think again. Unless you’ve built a rock solid relationship with them, they wouldn’t know your business if you bopped them in the head with it.

Sure, they know you run ‘Joe’s Business Solutions’, but so what? Your success stories help better explain to your business associates what you do.

Your business associates have a client base. What better place to get referrals than from your other business associates? Wouldn’t it be nice for them to refer their clients to you? You can build referral partners using your success stories as a foundation.

 

Send to your success stories to your family

These are the people that didn’t believe in you anyway. Let’s be frank. These are the people that really KNOW you. They know your flaws. They remember the kid who ditched school and put a cherry bomb in the neighbor’s trashcan. Family is sometimes THE hardest to convince that you are a sound professional in your field, until you share your success stories.

Jesus didn’t have any credibility in his hometown, so what makes you so special?

When you start creating success stories elsewhere, your family can become a source of great referrals. They have to know that you know what you’re doing so you don’t embarrass them!

The first and most crucial step is crafting your success stories to generate referrals. After that, start getting your success stories out to your community. Sharing one success story per month should be often enough. Get your success stories going today!

Keep Marching Forward,

LuSundra

PS. Have you heard about the $1k Challenge coming up? Get in here so you can your own success story!

Knowing how to write a success story is a skill EVERY business owner needs to have. An effective success story is a great way to generate referrals for your business. If you have a success story, and nobody ever knows about it; is it still a success story? OK… I know it’s a play off of ‘if a tree falls in the woods…’, but hear me out. Business owners like you experience successes every day with their clients, but are not leveraging that success, because they don’t know how to write a success story!

In this post and the next, I will share:

 

1. How to write a success story

2. What to do with a success story once you write it.

3. The power in sharing a success story.

With that out of the way, you’re on your way to learning how to write a success story in 7 steps!

Step 1 – State the problem

Share the situation that the client/customer was facing. Stating the problem provides the ‘rest of the story’. Here’s an example:

John was overweight and under-exercised. He had back problems, and had gone through 5 different doctors. He was taking expensive pain meds that he could no longer afford, and was spending way too much of his life in doctors’ offices.

Step 2 – What is the worst thing that could have happened

Feed the need for drama by sharing the worst case scenario for the customer. Example continued:

 

John could have accepted his current lifestyle as his fate. He would have to continue to sacrifice his lifestyle to take pain medications just to get through his day. He would have had to visit his doctor every 6 months for follow-up evaluations that weren’t changing.

Step 3 – WHAT YOU DID

Further engage your reader by showing how you swooped in and  ‘saved the day’ without talking about you at all! Check this out:

We met at John’s kitchen table. John explained that he worked 75 hours per week, and he admitted that he doesn’t like vegetables very much. John’s wife said his favorite meal was fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and homemade rolls.

We were able to:

Develop a non-gym exercise plan that John could implement immediately.

Create a meal plan for John to follow.

Set a realistic weight loss goal

 

Are you seeing how to write a success story that tells what you did without putting the focus on you at all? This story is all about John!

Step 4 – The Result

Tell what happened! Self-explanatory.

After implementing the plan, John lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks! His back problems were going away, and he was able to cut his medication dose in half!

Step 5 – What did the customer say or do to let you know you had done well

You’ve heard that testimonials are powerful. If you know how to write a success story, it is 10 times more powerful than a testimony. Customers who are EXTREMELY pleased with the service they received will tell everybody they know.  Include the client testimonial in your success story, as it drives the point home.   Also share if the client referred someone else to you. That’s power on steroids!

John mailed a picture of him and his wife on the beach. He wrote on the back, ‘thanks for giving me my life back.’ John has since referred his brother and a friend to me, both who were having the same kind of problem he was.

Step 6 – Ask for a specific and relevant referral

Don’t write a success story, and then ruin it by saying, ‘Send me a referral’. Simply asking some questions will start the wheels turning in your readers’ brain. Always ask open-ended questions. Ask ‘who do you know’, not ‘do you know’ .

Who do you know that is struggling with back pain? Who do you know that wants to lose weight, but needs direction? –Could be a neighbor, or coworker, or perhaps a relative.

Step 7 – Call To Action

I really believe that if you mess up everything else, and get this part right, you’re better off than having a great letter and no call to action. Tell your readers what you want them to do. Does it guarantee they’ll do it? No. BUT, there is no doubt for the reader that you want them to do something.

Reply to this email with their name and situation. I promise they will get the service they deserve.

I learned how to write a success story by reading 7L: The Seven Levels Of Communication by Michael J. Maher.

Leave a comment if you think knowing how to write a success story is valuable! I highly encourage you to read the book!

Social media productivity continues to be a challenge for business owners. They struggle with social media, because it can consume an insane amount of time. Most business owners AVOID social media, because they don’t want to ‘lose half a day’ at the computer. They struggle with needing to be present on social media and the lack of time in their schedule to do it. If they had they budget, they would much rather pay someone. Business owners that have a marketing budget normally do. If you have not yet grown the budget to outsource your social media management, here are some tips to increase your own social media productivity.

Plan your content

Creating a plan will enhance your social media productivity 10-fold! Get a 12 month calendar that lists EVERY holiday known to man. Plan at least 30 days ahead. Plan content for every day – articles, videos, photos – and it doesn’t have to be something you created. It can be an article you found on the internet. Just make sure the content is relevant to your audience. Planning may seem like a painful experience at first, but it will get easier! Just remember that your goal is to boost your social media productivity as much as possible!

 

• Book your social media appointment with yourself

Increase your social media productivity by scheduling an appointment with yourself! Adding your social media in your calendar will help you manage your time. We schedule our customers and clients into our time, so why not social media? Set an appointment – no matter how long – 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever, and STICK TO IT! Discipline will also be key here. Don’t worry if you don’t always get it right. It will come. I do this for a living, and I don’t always get it right! Blocking your time increases your social media productivity, because it allows you the freedom to focus on social media without thinking about other clients, or other tasks to be done. Social media will be a designated task and not just an afterthought.

 

• Be consistent

What’s the point in working on social media productivity if you’re not going to be consistent? Being active only on the weekends is not consistent, and it certainly does nothing for your social media productivity. It is better to spend 15 minutes every day on social media, than an hour every other day. This also helps your reach – which is a measure of your influence or effectiveness. The more you post on a daily basis, the more people you will reach. As stated earlier, set an appointment with yourself and stick to it. Do it EVERY day. Do it NOW!

 

• Use a Timer

Timers aren’t just for kids! They work for adults too! If you really want to see an increase in your social media productivity, set a timer for the time you have allotted in your schedule. If you’ve scheduled 30 minutes, set the timer and STICK TO IT!! You can use this for your social media play time too!

When you use a timer, you are programming yourself to focus so you have high impact focused time. When that timer dings, complete your task and then shut it down. You don’t have to get a loud ringy dingy thing either. You can set an online timer. A word of caution: Be sure to check the volume on your computer, so the chime doesn’t scare you into a heart attack!

 

• Use a social media management tool

Social Media Management tools are lifesavers when it comes to social media productivity! There are oodles of social media management platforms – Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Sprout Social – are examples. These tools provide dashboards that allow you to manage multiple accounts in one place. You can review your activity, respond to people, add content, and schedule your updates to occur when you aren’t physically sitting there!  Invest in these platforms to increase your social media productivity.

 

Social media productivity is a real thing.  You can have it, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.  With some planning and discipline you can boost your social media productivity to manage social media in a few minutes per day. Get through the pain of the planning process, it will make your life easier! Get a calendar and start planning!

What are some things you do to help you increase your social media productivity? Leave a comment and share if you want more content like this.

 

Keep marching forward,

LuSundra

Email Marketing is one of the best ways to build and maintain customer relationships, yet it is highly misused. I’m not one for long intros, so let’s get started.

First what is Email Marketing?

Email Marketing is permission-based marketing where an individual GIVES YOU PERMISSION to send them emails. They usually give permission by signing up on a website, entering a drawing or even verbally when checking out at their favorite store. There is usually an exchange for an email address – a free report, a video series, or a promise to receive specials and coupons for use with a future purchase.

Email marketing is the back end of list building. Once you’ve enticed someone to give you an email address, they become a part of your email list. You use email marketing to build your relationship. Because the individual has given you permission, your email is NOT considered spam.

Here are 5 Reasons Your Email Marketing Sucks

• You don’t have a plan.

Yes, you need to plan your email marketing. Just for the record, this was just ONE of my issues. When I started marketing, I was just told to email my list every day. Even still, I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know what the email was supposed to do, what I should say, or how often I should REALLY email. So, first, let’s make the plan.

Plan your schedule – email daily, weekly, or even monthly. What will you email your list about?

 

• Your copy stinks!

You need to have great copy that is effective in email marketing. Please note:  This is something I struggled with in the beginning. Why? Again, because I was unsure about the plan, I DEFINITELY didn’t know what to write! Writing good copy is crucial to relating to your audience, as well as triggering them to take an action – whether it’s to buy a product or share your content. When you know your plan, you can plan your copy.

 

• You don’t have a goal!

The goal of email marketing is to educate, engage, and empower your audience. You educate them on your product. You engage them through email and social media. Then, you ultimately empower them to make an intelligent buying decision! SHUT UP!!  In your email marketing, each email you send must have one of those goals: educate, engage, and empower.

 

Let me explain further.

 

Example: Selling widgets

 

Your GOAL: to sell a widget.

 

You need to PLAN your marketing to educate your audience about the widget, and its benefits. You might plan a series of emails that talks about various aspects of the widgets – this helps in the ‘engagement’ part of the equation. Don’t overlook Social Media – high level engagement.

 

 

Your COPY needs to relate to your audience. You need to write as if you were writing to your best friend, and use language that meets the need of your audience.

 

It’s your copy that will empower your audience to make a buying decision!

 

• You’re not consistent with your email marketing!

Guilty as charged! Your audience needs to be able to set a clock or calendar by you. If you promise to mail them something weekly, then do it on the same day every week. Your audience should know it’s Wednesday, for example, just because they received an email from you. One of the MAIN reasons for failure is lack of consistency.

 

• You’re not using an email marketing service effectively!

Email marketing services provide so much value it’s unreal. With email marketing, you need to be able to target your audience. Reports from your email marketing service can tell you how many people opened your email, which opened your email, and better yet, what link they clicked on! You can use this information to further target people in your marketing.

 

Using the above widget example, let’s say you sent your email out to 1000 people. According to your email marketing service, 200 people opened it. Well, you would want to focus on those 200 people. Out of the 200 people that opened the email, 113 clicked on a link. You would further focus your marketing on those 113. Using this method, you can concentrate your marketing efforts on those who are more likely to buy – the 113 that clicked on a link.

If you are not currently using an email marketing service, you are leaving money on the table. Try email marketing free for 60 days. Use the support and coaching that is available to make you successful!  Start building relationships with those customers and turn them into buyers!

Keep marching forward,

LuSundra

 

PS. Have you voted for MilSpouse Marketing in the Social Madness Competition (Small Biz Category)? Click here to do it NOW! Voting ends June 18^th.

PPS: Follow us on Facebook, Link with us on LinkedIn, Tweet with us on Twitter!

American City Business Journals, the parent company of the St. Louis Business Journal kicks off Social Madness presented by Capital One Spark Business starting June 1, 2012. It’s a national competition that measures the growth of a company’s social media presence. Companies will compete in 43 U.S. cities, with local winners squaring off in a national challenge. GFI Digital Inc. is sponsoring Social Madness in the St. Louis region.

Three national champions will earn the right to designate a $7,500 donation to the charity of their choice. You can read more about the competition here.

MilSpouse Marketing, LLC has been accepted as a participant in the competition against 45 small businesses in the area!

The competition is designed to measure a company’s effectiveness in social media. We’ll be scored using a formula that includes votes, as well as their new LinkedIn page connections, Facebook page “likes” and Twitter followers.

June 1st the Competition Begins!

On June 19, the top eight will be matched against each other in a bracket-style competition. On July 17, winners will be chosen in each size category; they will go on to compete against winners in 42 other markets served by the Business Journal’s corporate parent, American City Business Journals. More than 4,000 companies have entered.

A final national round will begin July 24 with 64 top companies in a bracket challenge. National winners will be announced Sept. 11.

For more information, go to The Business Journal’s website at www.bizjournals.com/stlouis and follow this special Social Madness blog.

Here’s How You Can Participate!

1. Go the Social Madness Website

2. Vote

3. Follow me on the social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter – Get your Internet Marketing Questions ANSWERED!

4. Share this with your friends!

This is so exciting! MilSpouse Marketing is honored to be a part of this competition!

Keep marching forward!

LuSundra Everett

Your MilSpouse Marketer

One of the popular measurements for a website is your Alexa Rank. Alexa is a great tool that tells you about your website’s popularity compared to similar sites. Your Alexa rank gives you a few metrics by which to measure your website – age group most interested in your site, in which countries you’re most popular, etc. There are some bloggers or website owners that brag about their Alexa Rank, and wear it as a badge of honor. BUT… What does your Alexa rank really tell you?

 

What is Alexa?

You can find your Alexa rank at www.alexa.com. You can even see how your site compares to others like you. Nice… great way to spy on the competition. HA!

In a nutshell, the lower your Alexa rank, the more traffic your website receives.

Google, for instance, has an Alexa rank of 1. Good luck if you EVER try to out-traffic Google! You can read more about Alexa here.  The post that is linked there also describes my journey to a great Alexa rank in 90 days. As a matter of fact, I’m about to embark on another Alexa journey with this site. Anyway, I want you have a clear understanding of Alexa, and what it means for your site. The short version: Alexa tells you how much traffic you are generating to your site.

Your Alexa rank is just the beginning…

New website owners really need to look at your Alexa rank as the measurement tool it is. It measures your traffic. The more traffic you receive, the higher your site will appear in the search engines. Make sense?

Alexa is great, BUT it can be manipulated…

OK… We know that your Alexa rank measures how much traffic is getting to your site, but you can manipulate that. An example of one of the ways to do it is to join syndication tribes. As a member of a syndication tribe, you agree to comment on other members’  blogs and they comment on yours. You share their content and they share yours. So essentially, you’re getting your friends to help you lower your Alexa rank in order to help you rank higher in the search engines… which will help you get more organic traffic later on.

Beyond your Alexa rank….

Admittedly, I was one who bragged about my Alexa rank. I worked my tush off to get my Alexa rank low! I was proud of my 90 day achievement. BUT… a low Alexa rank doesn’t tell you the whole story. You might have a low Alexa rank, which shows you’re generating lots of traffic.

 

People naturally ASSUME that if you have a low Alexa rank that you’re making a lot of money. In the eyes of the masses, more traffic = more money. This is true, UNLESS YOU’VE MANIPULATED THE SYSTEM!

Manipulating the system to get a low Alexa rank will help you reach the first page of the search engines, which will help you get more organic traffic in the future. Not saying manipulating the system is bad, just saying don’t go getting all excited because your Alexa rank is low…. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s a vanity statistic.

Your Alexa rank can be 100,000 and you’re broke while someone else has an Alexa rank of 3 million and makes thousands of dollars per month.

OK great Ms. MilSpouse Marketer what are you really saying?

In a nutshell, a low Alexa rank really means nothing in relation to the amount of income a business is generating. Should you work to get a low Alexa rank? Yes, BUT do so with purpose – such as getting on the first page of the search engines for targeted keywords. That strategy will help you gain traffic later on – which will produce leads and ultimately income.

Don’t compare your Alexa rank to someone else’s. It really doesn’t mean anything.

Stop assuming that just because someone has a lower Alexa rank than you that they are making more money than you. Odds are that they’re probably not.

Click here if you want a great formula for reducing your Alexa rank. Otherwise…

Keep Marching Forward,

LuSundra

 

PS. Do you have a blueprint to help you conquer the internet to keep YOU marching forward?

Get People To Your Website – A neverending conundrum….

Whenever I ask small business owners if they have an online presence, I often get the response ‘I’ve got a website!’ I usually follow that answer by asking ‘How is it working for you?’ Then I get a very bewildered look. I further ask, ‘how do you get people to your website?’

hmmmmm…

 

Consider this: When you’re walking in a mall, there are hundreds of stores. What makes you go to that new store in the mall? Better yet, what makes it stand out to draw you in?

 

More often than not, when you go shopping, your intent is to go to a store you KNOW exists. When you get there, however, you might run across a store that you ‘just happened to find’.

 

The internet is your global mall. The people that KNOW your website exists will come to it, but how will people – who do NOT know you exist – find you? What will make you stand out to draw them in? How do you get people to your website?

3 Tips To Get People To Your  Website

Get People To Your Website With Blogging

• The main differences between a blog and a website are that
  • A blog is updated more frequently than a website, and
  •  A blog is social and encourages interaction. A website is static – the information doesn’t change much, if at all.
• You can have a blog on your website. The constant updating brings search engine bots to your site to continually index your pages (more on this in Search Engine Marketing below).
• Blogging allows you to share valuable information with your visitors. It doesn’t matter your niche. Your goal is to share content that YOUR market would find valuable.

 

Example: If you own a flower shop, you might blog about how to make fresh cut flowers last longer.

Producing great content on a regular basis will help get people to your website!

 

Use Social Media and Social Bookmarking To Get People To Your Website

What’s the best way to get someone to your store? Drive them yourself! By using social media platforms, you can locate where your target market is currently getting their information and connect with them on their turf.

Example: If you’re a real estate investor, your target market might be following Donald Trump on Twitter.

Donald Trump is not going to be focused on individuals. He’s just going to have somebody producing content. You will respond to people, and offer them help. You can share a link to get people to your website… Niiiiice!

By doing that, you will have virtually gone to their house, picked them up, and drove them to your store. Make sense?

 

Let The Search Engines Help Get People To Your Website

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

OK… so you’ve got your store (website) in the mall (on the internet), what will make you stand out? How do you get people to your website that don’t even know you’re there!

 

When people use search engines, they aren’t looking for YOUR website. They are looking for answers. When was the last time you searched for website that you didn’t know was there?

 

To get people to your website, you need to know the questions your target market is asking, and produce content that answers those questions.

 

Example: You might search for ‘how to save on energy’.

 

The search engine will give you a list of relevant results of websites that answer your question.

 

You can pay for advertising on search engines to make your website show up at the top of the page to get people to your website. You can also use Search Engine Optimization.

 

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is part of Search Engine Marketing. With SEO, you can tailor your content to rank higher in search engines to get organic (free) traffic. Once you’ve created great content, you need to make it easy for search engines to register it in their results.

 

The thing to remember is that search engines rank pages, not websites. By continually adding content (which we mentioned in blogging), and tailoring that content to be easily indexed in the search engines (SEO), you make it easy for people – who ordinarily would not know you exist – to find you. – SHUT UP!!

 

To answer the question, having a website is not enough. You’ve got to get creative and get people to your website. Using the tips above will help you do that! Once you get people to your website, you MUST have great content! How disappointed are you when you walk into what was supposed to be a FABULOUS store, and there’s NOTHING for you?!  Odds are you NEVER go there again!

How is your website working for you? How do you get people to your website?

Keep marching forward,

LuSundra

 

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