Do you want to get more visitors to your website?  It’s a big world out there.  People are buying what you sell, somewhere in the world, and in your city as well, probably every day.  How do you get them to your website?  A “DISCOVERY” focused marketing strategy is crucial.

There are a few basic ways for your site to be “DISCOVERED”.

• Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) organizes the words and content of your site as well as the <meta> tags to inform search engines what your site is about. Keyword selection is crucial to this process.  Implementing the keywords correctly will make sure that your site has a chance to get on the first page of search engine results in response to searches by appropriate audiences.  You can control the words that appear on the search results page to provide a compelling invitation to click-through to your site from the search engine.  Costs can run from $100 to $1000 or more for a one-time analysis and implementation.  Results can be seen as quickly as one week and can last a long time, such as a year or more.

• Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising allows you to force your website to the first page of search results for selected keywords.  Google’s AdWords program provides access to an astounding 70% of potential visitors to your website.  Costs are generally budgeted monthly. Effective campaigns can be started for as little as $25 to $100 a month depending on your industry.  The value of a visitor to your site is higher if you sell high ticket items.  Google doesn’t particularly set rates, but competition does.  If the value of a sale or the lifetime value of a customer is high, in your line of work, then others are likely to be interested as well, so bids are higher and this pushes up costs for ads in these categories.  Google uses a “Quality Score” metric to determine how relevant your page is to the words in the ad, and the keywords selected.  You can rank higher on the paid placement section of the search engine results page than a competitor paying more than you are paying if your Quality Score is high.  The most expensive placement is to rank at the top of the page.  The #1 rank ad can earn a click from as many as 70% of searchers.  Ranking in the top three for instance, or somewhere on page one costs less but will have a lower click-through rate.

• Off Page Promotion includes posting content and an invitation with a link to your website on other relevant websites including social media sites.  This is sometimes called backlink promotion because you post content elsewhere and link back to your site.  It is also called inbound marketing because you reaching outside of your own web space to pull potential customers in.  A good inbound marketing strategy means getting links to your site from highly relevant sites having content about your market niche.  For example, if you are selling cars, then a post on a site related to automotive buying can provide a high click-through rate.  A car repair tips site might also be good since a potential buyer could be tired of putting money into their old car.  Posting on a real estate site might reach people with changing needs, and money to spend, but click-through rates will be low because your content is not necessarily of interest to the reader who is using the real estate site.  The more traffic and search rank the third-party site has, and the more relevant the third-party site is to your line of business, the more powerful the effect will be on your own search rank.  This is because Google believes that if important and widely used websites link to your site, then your site must also be important and useful.

• Traditional print and other advertising means what it says.  Having your website address featured prominently on your business card is just one example.  Of course, the business cards don’t do you much good sitting in your card case, so you must spread them around.  Good networkers provide 3 or 4 cards to every person they meet and ask them to share the cards with others who might be interested.  Television, Radio, Postcards, Direct Mail, and Billboards are other examples of off page promotion.

Thinking outside the box in creative ways can produce interesting results using a Discovery Based Marketing Strategy.  

Revisiting the use of a simple business card provides an example of creative off page discovery promotion.  Instead of handing out a traditional business card, you might consider printing cards for a specific promotion or event or particular product, featuring an enticing background image, a tagline or promise, preferably using of only three to five words, and your web address.  Tell the person you give the cards to that if they write their name on the back of the card, and somebody mentions their name, they will get credit for a referral and you will do something nice for them.  Such a card is not about you or your business.  It’s not about branding or positioning.  It is about getting a prospect’s attention by appealing to their current mindset using images and words that focus on a particular need and interest at a particular stage of the buy cycle.  Again, this is only one example.

If you have a question about these or any marketing topics, including how to get more visitors to your website, or how to get the most out of your PPC campaign, please comment below or use our contact page.

BIGMARK Digital provides marketing consultation, website design, SEO and PPC services by the Toledo SEO Wizard.  Ask about special HALF PRICE OFFER for new clients on first project.