THE WEBSITE PROMOTER
Sharing important and significant information to help you run your business, make money and keep you safe, informed and vigilant online.
For this issue, I am reprinting a shortened version of a couple articles I read recently that I feel offers ideas that you might be interested in for increasing traffic to your website.
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Increasing Website Traffic by 3000%
- What You Can Learn From Infomercials
- Books and eBooks To Help Your Marketing Efforts
Increasing Website Traffic by 3000%
By Brandon Eley, SitePoint.Com Tribune
Last week I was cleaning out my home office and came across a lot of marketing books of which I either had duplicates, or had already read and didn't need to keep anymore. I thought I'd see what would happen if I had some fun with them and gave them away on one of my blogs. The experiment turned out to be quite surprising.
The first two books I decided to give away together were ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett and Blog Blazers by Stephane Grenier, since they were both on the topic of blogging. I wrote a quick blog post about the contest, and all visitors had to do to register was leave a comment and subscribe to the blog's feed.
On a blog with virtually no traffic and no promotion, this simple contest increased the average daily visits by 3000%! It was so successful that I'm planning to make it a biweekly or monthly contest. Even after I run out of books in my office, I'll buy new books (which I'd do anyway) or find other valuable giveaways -- maybe even some worth much more
Give Away Something of Value
You have to give away something of value for a giveaway to work. It doesn't have to be monetary value, though; I gave away two books that had been sitting on my shelf collecting dust. The total retail value of the books was under $50. The key is to give something away that your audience finds value in.
Promote Someone Else
By giving away books, I gave myself partners in advertising. By tagging the authors in my blog posts and tweets about the giveaway, I created a compelling reason for them to promote my post in return.
Don't Ask Too Much
It's imperative that you don't ask too much from your visitors. Only ask for an email address, or for someone to subscribe to an RSS feed, or to leave a comment, and no more. The goal here is to build a larger network of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say (or sell).
Set a Deadline
Depending on the contest, and the value of what you are giving away, your deadline may be a day or week from the start of the contest. Make sure the deadline is appropriate for what you are asking of your visitors, who may live in completely different time zones.
Consider the Side Benefits
One side benefit for running a contest on a frequent basis is that you gain a chance to interact with one of your readers on a one-on-one basis. It gives one fortunate person a reason to be excited about you, your website, or your company. It's reasonably likely that several winners will blog or tweet about winning, which grants you even more exposure.
What You Can Learn From Infomercials
By Brandon Eley, SitePoint.Com Tribune
Late-night infomercials, with their loud, obnoxious spokespeople and in-your-face graphics, might not be the place you look to for inspiration in your marketing campaigns. Nevertheless, there is a lot we can learn from infomercials.
Tell Them What They're Getting, Then Tell Them Again
Infomercials repeat the same information over and over again -- for a reason. They're setting expectations. When it comes to your own marketing, explain in detail what you provide, and all the benefits that go along with it.
Customer Testimonials are Gold
Don't tell your customers how great your product or service is. Let your customers do that for you. It's far more effective to build trust with third-party endorsers of you or your company.
Show How You Solve a Problem
If there's one feature all infomercials have in common, it's that they all solve a problem. They fill a need. Be sure to show how your product or service fills a need.
But Wait, There's More!
Show the value you provide, then give prospects even more. It could be a discount off the "retail price," or extras such as ebooks, coaching, consultation, or reports. Set the tone of what you're worth, then over-deliver.
Act NOW
Always give an incentive for prospects to act right away. It could be a timed discount, limited inventory or availability, or a combination of the two.
Books and eBooks to Help Your Marketing Efforts
From the author of Duct Tape Marketing , The Referral Engine is an excellent book about creating a system for generating customer referrals. It's smart, practical advice for building your word-of-mouth business.
One of my favorite quotes by Scott Stratten is "Why market to people the way we hate being marketed to?" Marketing is changing... cold calling, direct mail and unsolicited email don't work like they used to. Scott talks about marketing by building relationships.
With such a confident title, you'd think that Attention! better have some good marketing advice! Happily, it's got a lot more than "some" -- with dozens of real case studies and stories about innovative ways to attract attention, this book is a fun read and really has a ton of great ideas.
Not just for blog posts, this ebook could apply equally well to landing pages, email campaigns, and other types of marketing copy. It's an excellent guide to writing great content, and shows both what to do and what not to do.
Is there a topic you would like me cover in a future issue? Let me know!
Best regards,
C.M. Rivera
PGR Creations
www.pgrcreations.com
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