1. Start with Great Content – I would be remiss if I failed to mention the importance of writing good content for your target audience. You need to attract the right audience to your website. You can write it yourself or have someone on your team write something for you. Create content to address your audience’s problems. Try Tips & Tricks, Top 10 lists, and best practices for your industry. Add a visual element to your text.
2. Create Videos – Video is great for drawing the attention of users and retaining it. Video content can show how your product works or can educate your visitors. Give it a try yourself or hire a film student from the local college. If creating a video is too much for you, try creating a slide deck instead.
3. Be a Smart Social Networker – Start business accounts and dive into the most popular social media sites for your audience – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest. You can also get involved in Instagram if your business is image-oriented. Integrate your created content into these social media sites.
4. Online Contests – You will need to spend some money on a prize, but the new leads you get will be worth the price. Really low on money? You don’t really need a sensational prize to get participants. Even a $50 gift card might be enough of a draw for some users. Vote contest, Photo Contest, Photo Caption Contest, Sweepstakes, Essay Contest or Video Contest are great ways to increase engagement, reach, followers and leads. You can run your contests thru many of your social media platforms.
5. Establish a Customer Referral Program – Offer current customers a free product, month of service, or some other incentive for introducing new customers. Recognize that word-of-mouth is incredibly inexpensive and very valuable. Make sure your customers know about your Referral Program. Keep your program visible and frequently remind your customers to improve participation.
6. Industry Partnerships – Connect with another local business related to your commercial enterprise for a cooperative strategy (not with a competitor). This can be done offline through an exclusive event or seminar, or online with a promtoional giveaway or educational webinar.
7. Email Marketing – Email marketing is a great way to get new visitors engaged with your business, as well as maintain relationships with your existing customers. Today, more than half of emails are opened on a mobile device but less than half of marketers are designing with mobile in mind. Your readers are likely to delete a message if it isn’t mobile friendly.
Get new website visitors to sign up for your newsletter by offering a small gift for subscribing (free gift coupon, entry into a sweepstakes or an eBook). Gradually nurture your subscribers via email until they become paying customers. Use our Integrated Lead Management & Tracking System within your professional website to start your email campaigns and help your business grow.
8. Business Card Drawing – Put a fishbowl at the checkout counter of your business with a note asking customers to leave their business cards for a chance to win something from your business. Choose something just valuable enough to motivate your customers to enter but not to “stuff” your fishbowl.
At the end of the month, draw a winner and give away your prize. Use the email addresses provided to let users know that while they haven’t won this time, they are more than welcome to join your mailing list, which will notify them of future giveaways and special offers. You will also get a picture of where your customers live and work for future marketing purposes.
9. Give New Life to Old Data – You might not be able to afford content writers if your budget is tight. Breathe new life into something that already exists on the web. Put your voice and opinion into something already existing. There are so many stats and studies available on the web that go unnoticed, that just need a new voice or new images to update content for your particular audience. Polish up a study that pertains to your business. Add some charts, images and your thoughts and opinions to the data.
10. Recycle Your Content – Just as you can update existing stats and data studies, you can rework your aged content into newer creations. Take your blog posts and create an eBook. Update your old content with new data,images or video. Take your old webinars and create video tutorials. Updating your content can help boost your site’s ranking in search engines which can help you find new customers. Chances are a large part of your audience hasn’t seen the older content.