Before becoming a marketing consultant, I learned the hard way that it takes a lot of time and money to build traffic to a website.
I wanted to open my own ecommerce store selling jewelry and accessories for women. I spent over 4 months between planning, buying inventory, taking pictures, and having the website ready. When my website was finally launched, guess what happened?
Nothing.
No sales for months, no customers, nada. It took several more months just to drive traffic to my site and get engagement in my ads.
Lesson learned: Start promoting your business even before the website is ready.
Time is money, and as an entrepreneur trying to build a new online business, you have no time to waste. A custom website can sometimes take months, and you can take advantage of that time building a good list of potential customers. So when your website launches, you will have sales on day one.
Think of it as an open house or an inauguration. You want to build anticipation from the public, so when your website is ready, your supporters will share the news with their family and friends.
- Build a Fanbase with your Landing Page
The goal of this landing page is to build your potential customer database so you can send them an email invitation to visit your website when it is ready. These early adopters can also help you spread the word by sharing via social media or just word of mouth. By doing this, you will launch a new website with a good number of visitors and potential sales.
Landing pages are cheaper and faster to make than a website. You can have it custom made (preferably), or just get a template solution online. A landing page is like a "mini website" with a single purpose or goal. This is different from a website’s home page where you compile all the information about your business, and there are many links to click.
Instead of having multiple options to choose from, a landing page reduces the options available for the visitor. Thus, the visitor has less chance of getting distracted and this improves conversions. Every piece of content in the landing page should be directed to the same goal. In this case: Capture the visitor’s information or get them to share on social media.
How to capture their information? Provide value to the visitor in exchange for their email address. For example, an e-commerce store can show a sneak peek of future products and offer the visitor a freebie or discount when the website is launched. For apps, promote that they will be the first ones to be notified when the app is launched - like being part of a VIP list.
Tips to keep in mind for your landing page:
- Write it from the customer's perspective - Think of their benefitsfor becoming your customer, not yours.
- Include an incentive for the visitor to take action - Offer a discount on their first purchase, freebies, the latest blogs.
- Make it Dummy Proof - Make it simple and easy to understand. Remember to avoid industry jargon.
2. Track Performance with Google Analytics
As soon as your landing page is completed, you should install website analytics. Google Analytics is a common one, but there are other alternatives such as Clicky, Mint, or others. Among other things, it will allow you to track the amount of traffic you receive on your site, but more importantly the quality of traffic. You want to track the quality and quantity of your traffic to see if your ads or landing page copyright are performing well.
Quality is key! Check how much time your visitors spend on your site and the bounce rate. If they are staying for less than a few seconds, you may want reanalyze your content, because something may not be working right.
3. Ads to Refine Your Target Market
Now that your landing page and Google Analytics are ready, you need traffic. Creating ads on social media or Google will give you the chance to not only drive traffic to your site, but also to test different content and audiences.
The ad’s performance will give you a better idea of how your target market actually looks and behaves. If you have a limited budget, start promoting with ads on social media. The first social media platform you should utilize is Facebook. Facebook ads are generally less expensive than LinkedIn or Twitter, and the targeting options keep getting better.
Tips for your social media ads:
- Have an idea of who your ideal customer is before creating ads. Imagine you’re trying to reach one persona and imagine what interests that persona would have.
- Run A/B Testing for the ads. You can test different images, messaging or even targeting. But stick to only 1 variant. For example, if you change the image and the content on version B, you will not know what is causing the difference in the results.
- Give it time and track the performance of your ad on your website. You do not want to create an ad just for the sake of likes. You want an ad that drives results so measure the quality of the traffic that is coming to your site from the ad. You could see lots of engagement in your post, but still get poor quality traffic to your landing page.
Think about how much time you will save by having orders on day one, rather than waiting months for orders to arrive. You will have a list of people ready to contact when your website is launched.
Hopefully you found these tips useful. If you did, do not forget to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or by email.