Having a website isn’t enough. Slapping a website together and offering a few paid products or services doesn’t ensure that you’ll make money. Even if your offering is superb, there is still no guarantee that you’ll generate any income.
Given the vast number of sites on the web, you will most certainly have competitors. You need to separate yourself from the crowd to woo your visitors and win them over.
Here are 27 marketing tips that’ll allow you to do just that:
How to woo your visitors with a blog
You know content marketing works. If you don’t believe me, just look at Quick Sprout. It reaches well over 500,000 visitors a month due to content marketing. But adding a blog to your business isn’t enough. If you don’t do it for the right reasons, it won’t help you win your visitors over.
- Blog to help, not to sell – most people blog to gain visitors and to convert them into customers. People are smart, and they’ll see right through that. Blog to help educate your visitors. Eventually, they’ll want to give you money without you even asking for it. Just look at what someone emailed me today: “This is Alice, founder of [WEBSITE], an art and culture blog that is now at 4 million uniques/month. You helped us tremendously in the beginning, and I can’t thank you enough for your valuable advice. I’d like to see if you could help us get to the next level. Would love to work with you if you’re available.”
- Give away guides – one of the most powerful forms of marketing I’ve ever created is free guides. They are 30,000 to 40,000 words long, and they look beautiful. These guides are this popularbecause they contain everything I know, and you can have it for free.
- Care about your readers – have you noticed that I respond to every comment? It’s because I care about you. I really do…When I first started blogging, I didn’t realize the benefit of responding to every comment. Now, I know that it helps me build a powerful connection with my readers, who become loyal visitors and even customers.
- Know your audience – the big mistake I see most bloggers make is that they don’t truly know their audiences. For example, most of the readers of Quick Sprout are those starting their entrepreneurial careers. They are trying to build their traffic and revenue. For that reason, I focus most of my blog posts on articles that will benefit them versus big companies like Apple or Microsoft. A simple way to get to know your audience is to survey it through Qualaroo.
- Be passionate about blogging – if you don’t love what you write about, your readers will be able to tell. Your content won’t be great, and very few people will want to read it. Find your passion before you start blogging.
- Focus on headlines – no matter how good or bad your blog posts are, no one will read them if your headlines suck. Focus on creating magnetic headlines.
- Opinions should be backed by stats – people want to hear what you think, which is why they are reading your blog. Having stats to back up your opinions is a great way to generate more traffic. Every time I write a post with stats, it generates at least 20% more comments than a post without any stats.
- Be consistent – John Chow, who makes over $40,000 a month from his blog, stated that the most important element of blogging is consistency. He’s right! The moment you drop the ball is the moment your traffic will dip.
- Don’t try to sound smart – using technical jargon may sound cool, but it will make it difficult for most people to understand your message. And if they don’t understand you, they’ll stop reading.
- Be yourself – the cool part about blogging is that your personality can shine through the posts. Be yourself, and be congruent with who you are. For example, when I write controversial posts, you don’t like it. Why? Because it isn’t me. I am known for being the nice guy who enjoys helping people out.
How to woo your visitors through social media
Whether you love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. Some of the most popular sites on the web are social sites, so learn how to use them like a rock star. Here are some ways to woo your visitors through social media:
- Don’t be a bot – the biggest mistake I see people make on their social profiles is that they act like bots. They never respond to messages or comments. To get the most out of your social profiles, engage with your followers and fans.
- Show your personal side – people want to get to know you. Even if you have a company, they want to know more about the people behind the company. Sharing personal images or status updates is a great way to build a relationship with your followers.
- Timing is everything – the best time to tweet is typically at noon and 6 p.m. The best time to share an update on Facebook is usually on Saturdays at noon. Follow this infographic to get the most engagement.
- Focus your efforts – it’s impossible for you to be on every social site. Pick the ones that matter to you and your visitors the most, and focus your energy on them.
- Fight fire with kindness – eventually, someone will get angry at you or your company on the social web. Instead of fighting fire with fire, fight it with kindness. Never be rude or disrespectful.
- Connect with your readers – if you have a blog, use it to build your social profiles and to stay connected with your readers. Ask your blog readers to connect with you on the social web. It’s as simple as having buttons in your sidebar, linking to your social profiles.
- Focus on quality, not quantity – don’t let your ego get in the way. It’s not about how many followers or friends you have. It’s about how many engaged followers and friends you have. Focus on building a relevant audience as this will drive you more traffic.
- Commit to a publishing schedule – just as with writing on your blog, you want to be consistent with your activities on the social web. If you want to engage daily, then great – stick with that schedule. If you only have time to post once a week, that’s all right too – then stick with once a week. Just make sure your status updates are interesting, and you are consistent.
- Define your purpose – through your bio or your About section on your social profiles, you can talk about your social goals. Let people know in what way you are going to help them.
How to win your visitors through conversion optimization
Now that you know how to woo your visitors, it’s time to win them over. One of the best ways of doing this is through conversion optimization. Having an engaged audience is the first step, which we covered above. The second step is optimizing for conversions.
- Create personalized messages – by using free tools likeHellobar, you can create messages custom-tailored to each of your visitors, based on how many times that person has visited your site or where he or she came from. Personalization is a simple way to boost conversions.
- Target your visitors – mobile phone marketing works very well because of the GPS feature within each phone. Companies use their knowledge of your geographical location to show you products and services that are relevant to you. Did you know you can do this on your website too? I do this on NeilPatel.com by displaying the name of the city from which you connect to my site. This geo-feature boosted conversions by 28%.
- Leverage 3rd party authentication – don’t make your visitors enter their email addresses and create passwords to sign up for your service. Through Facebook, Twitter or Google authentication, people can sign up for your service with a click of a button. This helped us increase our conversion rate by 59.4%.
- Don’t be afraid to down-sell – no matter how good of a product or service you have, it’s impossible to sell to every visitor. Some people simply won’t be able to afford what you are offering. Consider creating down-sells like GoDaddy is doing. This approach helped the company generate over a billion dollars in yearly revenue.
- Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – don’t get overly complex with your messaging and designs. By getting to the point quickly, you’ll typically increase your conversion rate. For example, the Quick Sprout homepage converts at 31%…because it is simple.
- Ask questions – the simplest way to figure out why your visitors are not converting into customers is to ask them. ThroughQualaroo, you can ask your visitors what’s preventing them from signing up for your service or from buying your product. Once you have your answers, use the data to adjust your messaging to win your visitors over.
- Be genuine – one of the best ways to win over your visitors is to be genuine. A lot of people get carried away with conversion optimization. They make false promises and use dubious things like fake testimonials. Although this will make you more money in the short run, in the long run, you’ll burn your brand and lose money.
- Use contrasting colors – when it comes to calls to action, having them blend in with your design is a no-no. Having contrasting colors will typically boost your conversion rate by at least 10%. Test blue, green, red, orange and yellow colors for your calls to action.
Source: 27 Marketing Tips That’ll Woo Your Visitors and Win Them Over BLOG
Author: NEIL PATEL
Referenced site: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/07/02/27-marketing-tips-thatll-woo-your-visitors-and-win-them-over/