You’ve put in the time and money, tweaked and re-tweaked and tweaked the website again… and your new business website is finally up and ready for customers. But how do you get those customers to your website? There’s no “Grand Opening” sign you can put out on the awning, no costumed sign-spinning individual you can have on the street directing people to the store.
Just because you’ve created a fantastic website doesn’t mean people will actually visit it. With that in mind, we wanted to provide a few tips that can help drive traffic to your new business website.
What You Don’t Want To Hear
We know that as a business owner you are already bogged down with a virtual ton of duties and with your website finally “complete,” the last thing you want to hear is that it needs some work. But that’s what we’re going to suggest. Don’t worry though, we don’t mean a complete redesign, you simply need to ensure that the site functionality is optimized – AKA user experience or “UX,” and that the site has SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Essentially every potential customer is going to perform an online search for information about products or services before contacting a business. If your website is not SEO, well designed and engaging, those potential customers won’t even make it to your “About Us” page before they discard your site and go to a competitor for their purchase.
Strongly consider utilizing available SEO optimization software and let it help you in this critical area. Once you have completed that, take a final look at your site. Is it somewhere that you would shop at? Is the layout modern and inviting along with being easy to navigate and find your products? The free online site builder WordPress makes tweaking your site a snap and if you aren’t already using it, we highly recommend you look more into it.
Utilize Social Media
Marketing via social media allows you to reach thousands of potential customers without spending a single dollar! Utilizing platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter is a fantastic opportunity to build awareness of your brand and drive traffic to your website.
LinkedIn – For business-to-business marketing, LinkedIn is the most effective. Utilize your company page as a funnel for LinkedIn leads to your business website. Design your LinkedIn page with a visually attractive header, have an attention-grabbing missions statement, slogan, or pitch in the Company
Description, and make your “Recent Updates” section both clickable and conversion-focused. Finally, be active on LinkedIn and post updates at least once per week. You don’t want to overdo it and spam your LinkedIn connections, but regular relevant postings will keep you fresh and boost your industry leadership credentials.
Facebook – The main thing to remember for this platform is that users want to be entertained, not constantly advertised or sold to. So it can take a little finesse to utilize Facebook to its fullest potential. Try starting with building your followers by mixing fun things like area attractions, news, industry-related events, and even contests from other organizations, along with your sales announcements, company info and news, product information and whatever else you wish to use the platform for. The more you entertain them, the more they are going to Share your posts or Tag their friends, exposing you to more potential customers.
Twitter – This platform can be a fantastic tool if utilized correctly. Don’t fall into the rut of simply recycling your recent posts on other platforms, utilizing Twitter to gain followers and retweets can be an invaluable asset. Monitor specific hashtags and trends, retweet stories and posts that are relevant to your industry or customer base. Again, you don’t want to spam your followers but give them enough entertainment mixed in with those company announcements, and Twitter may become your new best friend.
Get Your Business on ‘Google My Business’
Your company needs to show up whenever someone searches for businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps. With Google My Business you can post updates to showcase what’s new with your company and website, respond to reviews, add photos and more. And the best part is – it’s FREE!
Once you have completed your listing, start promoting the fact that customers can review you on Google and that you’d appreciate any feedback. You can even include the link on business cards and on your social media posts.
Become a Blogger
Adding a Blog to your website works in your favor on several levels. It helps with the search engines, especially when your articles are relevant and utilize your industry-related keywords, and can help drive even more traffic to your website. Whether you write the articles yourself or have someone else complete them, regular Blog articles can once again raise your standing as an industry professional and expert, as well as increase your overall exposure to potential new customers.
Support is Just a Phone Call Away
When you become a hosted client with BionicWP, you can have access to expert support when you need it. Our professional WordPress hosting and support comes with complete data backup, automatic updates, virus and malware protection, and daily scans, real-time uptime monitoring, and much more.
We know that you’ve worked hard on both your business and your website and we understand just how important its success means to you. Visit our website for more information and call us today for affordable WordPress hosting that you can depend on all the time, every time.