lead generation

Audience Quality v. Site Traffic Numbers: Which Matters More?

by SEO Savvy September 4th, 2014

As you may know all too well, not all website traffic is created equal. For example, if your site featured the latest meme front and center on your business’s home page, it might generate quite a bit of traffic. But unless your business model is based specifically around Internet memes, generating a bunch of meme-related traffic is pretty much useless for your bottom line. Balancing site traffic quantity with quality is not easy. Here’s how your business can get started on improving site traffic quality and quantity:

Quality matters

Are you attracting qualified leads or meaningless chatter? “Thousands of leads that generate little to no revenue are not the same as 100 leads that are worth $1 million each,” writes Doug Miller in an AdAge article about using smart key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate lead quality. And while KPIs like the number of unique visitors do matter, Miller reminds us that obsessing over these numbers to the exclusion of all else can be short sighted.

Increasing Targeted Traffic

Increasing web traffic is not the same as increasing qualified marketing leads. Let’s say your business sells hiking boots and you run a major PPC campaign for several weeks advertising a “shoe sale”. Your PPC ads may be very successful in driving traffic to your website, but a lot of these visitors could actually be searching for summer sandals, winter dress boots, children’s shoes – none of which they will find on your site. In this case, it’s important to not be led astray by simply increasing traffic. You would be better off running a PPC campaign with specific keyword phrases like “men’s hiking boot sale”. You may have less site traffic, but your conversion rates are likely to be higher.

Connecting with your target audience is the root of increasing target traffic and qualified prospects. Focusing on the quality of the content and messaging, whether is it is ad copy, blog posts or social media updates, is important if your customers are going to engage with your brand.

Starting small is part of the process. A brand frightened over a lack of traffic may scramble to appeal to the masses, but by casting too large of a net, may lose their ROI. Instead, in order to connect with qualified prospects, your website needs to deliver quality content and targeted messaging to a targeted audience. This starts with identifying channels for engaging your targets and focusing your efforts on those channels.

For example, if you know that your target customer prefers to read blog posts about industry news rather than long, descriptive whitepapers, publish one or two blog posts each week and keep the content easy-to-read by using bullet points and subheads. Or, if your target customer spends a lot of time checking social media, focus your energy on campaigns that involve engaging tweets and Facebook posts that prompts the reader to share your posts with others via email and social media.

The Importance of Blogging: 5 Reasons You Should Have a Business Blog

by Rebecca Bleznak July 10th, 2014

You’ve likely heard it shouted across the web that “content is king,” and that blogging for your business is a must. But what does that mean, exactly? And what makes it so important?

Content is King

It can’t really be overstated; content really is that important. This isn’t just timely content that is quick to produce and shares easily, but quality content that supplies a real value to the customer.

For example: Let’s say you sell pools, and your potential customers visit your website to try and find out how much they should expect to spend on an inground pool. Of course, the exact price is going to depend various factors, such as how level their backyard is, what size of pool they want, and so on.

There is no easy way to answer the question in a single page detailing every element of the cost, but what if you published a series of blog posts explaining the cost and determining factors they should be considering? Now, you have given the customer exactly what they were looking for, sidestepped a wide-ranging question without ignoring it, and placed yourself right into the prime spotlight for interested customers. It is highly likely that the visitor will be back when they are ready to do business, and you’ve amassed a collection of quality information that is likely to lead many more potential customers to your site.

Exponential Increase in Leads

But, don’t take our word for it. HubSpot recently worked with over 7,000 businesses in their Marketing Benchmarks report to find:

• B2B and B2C companies alike benefit from blogging, generating an average of 2.5x more leads for 101-200 published pages than companies with 50 or fewer website pages.
• Say you blogged 3-4 times a week: companies found they had 5x more traffic just by blogging 15 times or more per month.
• Even if you increased your mere 3-5 blog posts a month to 6-8 posts a month, you could expect your leads to nearly double.
• And, if you really just need to focus on starting a blog for your business in the first place: companies that blog just 1-2x per month will generate 70% more leads than those that aren’t blogging at all.

5 Reasons You Should Start Your Business Blog Today

1. Increased Traffic:  The SEO of it all is fairly simple: There’s no question that more indexed pages, more keywords and more questions answered will lead your website to more exposure. You can do this in a variety of ways, including answering common questions like in the pool business example. The more you put out there that addresses your customers need for information, the more you’re likely to get back from them.

2. Leads: Planning out topics and writing blog posts might sound like time-consuming work, but the lead generation and ROI is unbeatable. Get to know more about your industry, and look for where there is a lack of information. Write posts that are unique and useful, and you’ll have content that others are eager to link out to.

3. Public Awareness: How do potential customers even know you exist if you aren’t easy to find when they are searching for your product, services or related topics? Again, it’s all about getting your name out there. Social media is a great place to share your content, targeting your customers via chats under a specific hashtag, or by answering questions on a competitor’s site. Having quality blog content shows that you’re a legitimate business with real knowledge in your industry.

4. Long-Term Results: One static blog post could generate hundreds (or thousands) of views over a period of months or years. This is often referred to as “evergreen” content, and if done correctly, it will bring in customers searching for your services. Because it doesn’t “go stale” like more timely posts, you can promote this content over and over again on your social media sites. And customers who see that you are consistently posting worthwhile information will continue to come back to your site.

5. Proving you are the Industry Authority: Proving your business to be an authority in your industry takes time, but if you follow the basic guidelines, it isn’t an impossible task. Blog posts provide clarity, answer questions and offer inspiration. Being an engaging member of the community, and showing that you’re listening to your customers by writing the content that they want to read may lead you to a coveted spot as a known and respected member of your industry.

Producing quality blog posts on a regular basis for your business will lead to a long-term content marketing strategy that incrementally adds value with each blog post that you produce.