So you’ve got a new website...
Having a website is often regarded as the be all and end all of lead generation. It’s easy to assume that once you’ve got a website, the hard work is done and the leads will take care of themselves.
Unfortunately the reality is quite different. Websites are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to generating good quality leads. To really get the most from your website, you need to use it as part of an overall marketing strategy: supporting other marketing campaigns and using those campaigns to drive more visitors to your site. Face-to-face, online, print...you need a combination of all of these to reach your target audience.
What’s more, your marketing strategy must keep an eye out for your site content, to help you maintain and improve that ever-important Search Engine Optimisation (what web people call SEO). So you keep generating as many web leads as possible.
With this in mind, we’ve put together the following top tips to kick-start your marketing strategy.
Email campaigns
Email campaigns are a great way to drive traffic to your website and raise brand awareness. They’re also invaluable for connecting with your customers: letting them know that you’re still there and that you’re looking out for them.
Email campaigns can be expensive for prospecting, due to the costs of sourcing appropriate data, so we’d recommend starting with your customers and seeing how you get on. There are plenty of free email campaign providers, like mailchimp, that will walk you through the process and even give you a hand with the design, so you don’t have the unnecessary overheads of a designer.
Don’t go into too much depth in the email itself. Keep it concise and to the point, with links to your website for any articles. Keep all ‘calls to action’ e.g. telephone numbers and email addresses, near the top of your email, so you encourage people to respond before they get distracted by the morning tea run.
Top Tip: don’t just broadcast new offers and products. Give customers something of value, like a whitepaper, rather than just selling to them. Special offers have their place, but always put your customers first and think of their needs, rather than just what you’re trying to sell. If you are pushing a promotion, then accompany it with that little something extra to show your customers that you care.
Networking
Face-to-face networking is still a viable and effective form of marketing your business, even in today’s digitally transformed world.
Putting a face to a business can really help people to remember your offering and take action. Don’t be shy to put yourself forwards. Networking is a form of selling, so you should expect to put in a bit of work. By this we don’t mean a long and boring sales pitch, but think about what you want to say about your business before you attend and take along some materials, like business cards and postcards, so people have something to remember you by.
And of course, always include a link to your lovely new website.
Top Tip: do your follow-up. There’s nothing more important than calling up all your new contacts when you’re back at the office, perhaps for a follow-up chat. Add these contacts to your database and keep them on your mailing list.
Print media
Much as your online presence is key to marketing success, it has to be done in conjunction with other marketing campaigns. Your website is a great reference point for your potential customers, but it isn’t the only way to reach your target audience.
Try to use your website to back up and support your marketing strategy, rather than the other way around.
Printed media like flyers, postcards and business cards are a great way of getting your name out there and at a low cost. Use flyers for door drops or targeted postal advertising, to let people know about your business. Keep them light on content i.e. stick to your key messages and direct people to your website so they can find out more.
Top Tip: Make your print media as interactive as possible. Use things like QR codes that people can scan with their mobiles to take them through to a page on your site. Unlike normal web addresses, QR codes don’t require you to type in a web address, so they give quick and easy access to your website.
And they’re both cutting-edge and fun! So you stand to position your business as a bit more forward thinking than most.
Again, make sure you follow up anything that you send out and be careful to select a good data provider.
Social media
Social media gets quite extreme responses; it’s the veritable marmite of the marketing world. But love it or hate it, it’s where your business needs to be.
Social media can be quite time-consuming, so take some advice from the many social media experts out there, like The Social Media Shop, who give good advice on how to approach social media in the right way for your business.
Top tip: engage; don’t just broadcast. Encourage feedback on your Facebook page and try to enter into a dialogue on Twitter. Simply posting links about your latest offer won’t encourage people to find out more about you. Respond to what others are saying.
If you’re not confident enough to set up your own group on LinkedIn, then join other groups and take part in online discussions. This is a great way to give a voice to your business and show that you know what you’re talking about.
Directory listings
Google doesn’t always recognise online directory listings as back links, so they don’t always boost your natural listings, but they do provide another route to your website. There are many free directories out there, so make use of them.
Online directory listings are typically more effective than print ones, as more and more people search for the services they need from their desk at work, or when they’re out and about via a mobile phone.
If you decide to pay for an enhanced listing, check with the provider first on things like the number of people using the directory for relevant search terms. There may be 100,000 people using a directory, but if they’re not searching for your product or service, then they’re simply no use to you.
Google places is one of the better listings on offer and doesn’t cost a penny. Google places uses your physical location, as well as keywords, to flag up your business in the results. Like anything on the web, it’s not a guarantee, but it’s common sense to increase your chances this way.
Keep working at your content
Even if your site is well ranked for relevant keywords, you need to keep working on your content to continue driving traffic to your website. Remember that your competitors will be working on their SEO too, so you need to keep up.
Try adding new articles/pages at least once a month, to increase the instance of quality keywords. Blogs, whitepapers and press releases, are all an invaluable opportunity for adding content and helping you to keep things fresh. They also show site visitors that you’re a functioning, up-to-date company and not one that’s gone out of business!
The more you can say about yourselves and your industry, the more you can position your business as forward thinking and abreast of your competitors.
Get backlinking
A good way to improve your search engine rankings is via quality backlinks. This is one of the many ways that Google assesses the relevance of your website for certain key words and phrases. Ask business partners in similar industries to link to your website and request that they use a key word or phrase that you want to get ranked for. For example, if you're a builder based in Glasgow, then you might want the key phrase 'Builder Glasgow' as your link text. The link text is the words that appear when you hover over a link.
Get commenting
Get involved in forums, put forward whitepapers and articles to trade media and generally just get your business out there. Further down the line you may need to invoke the services of a specialist PR firm, but for now, do what you can.
Always post your web address in forums and put your web address at the end of any press releases and articles, so that journalists can include it.
Is that it?
Well no, not quite. Marketing is a vast subject matter and whatever you do it has to be right for your business. Not all methods will suit your size and structure, so be sure to select the most appropriate ones. Take the time to plan with others in your business and give yourselves free rein to explore everyone’s ideas. Try to set a budget and use this to plan imaginative but penny-wise activities.
And if you need a hand, just give us a call.
About the author
Rosie Heptonstall is Clever Business Websites’ marketing manager. She loves websites and working with small businesses, and has spent many years learning about what makes small businesses tick. Rosie also believes that a small business is more interesting and more fun to work for than a large corporation. But that’s just her personal opinion...
For more hints and tips on marketing your business, or to find out more about Clever Business Websites and what we do, just give Rosie a call on 01865 989 899 or email Rosie on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.