Is Attracting Website Visitors Your Biggest Inbound Marketing Problem?

Even if you have the best looking website in the world, it's useless without website traffic. While many new clients that we work with can definitely use a face-lift and strategy for their website, their biggest issue is often that they have no real traffic. If the top of the Inbound Marketing funnel is empty, the middle and bottom of the funnel are sure to follow suit. That's obviously a problem and all too often the case when we meet with a new client. Your biggest Inbound Marketing downfall may just be attracting website visitors.

Start By Answering Some Questions

Before starting your efforts to fill the top of your funnel, you need to be clear on some things...

Who are your buyers? Define your buyer personas.

Don't shortcut this process. Your buyer personas need to be the source of all of your marketing. These are your ideal buyers we're talking about. You need to know more about them than their job title at a company that could buy your stuff.

What is your current volume of traffic and where is it coming from?

It is completely shocking to me the number of new clients that we meet with that have no tracking on their website at all. They have no idea how many visitors they are getting. They have no idea where the visitors are coming from. Overall, they are completely in the dark about how effective or ineffective their website is, aside from knowing that their contact form isn't getting filled out and their phone isn't ringing.

This, to me, is inexcusable. Both for them and their previous web developer. Google Analytics is free. It will tell you everything you need to know. It won't tell you how to adjust your strategy to improve the data, but you will have actionable data. You can't improve if you don't have a base line to improve upon.

What social channels show potential for community building?

Unfortunately, many of you reading this will probably say, "Wait, what social channels?". You are behind... It's really important to evaluate which social media sites are worth developing. Not everyone should be on Facebook. Not everyone should be on Twitter. Some people should be on all the sites. The fact of the matter is, you need to be able to identify the channels that are going to be fruitful for you and pay more attention to it. The ones that seem slow or dead, it may be worth walking away from. A word of caution though. Don't abandon channels just to reduce your work load. Make sure you've given them their due attention first. If they don't evolve into active, producing platforms for your business, put them in the backseat.

What Are 3-5 Phrases That Describe Your Offering?

How well do you rank in Google for those 3-5 phrases? What if you add some local limiters like your state name or city? Still no search results with your name on them? Bummer! It's either time to get serious about an SEO strategy or time to hunker down and be patient while your current strategy runs it's course.

You Have To ATTRACT Visitors

You want new visitors to your website, right? What's there that will actually attract them? Your history page probably won't cut it. You need a good amount of high quality content. Not the same crap your competitors have on their website. You need original content. Sure the underlying message may be similar to your competitors, but your content can and should be so much better.

The top of the inbound marketing funnel needs to be filled by SEO, PPC, Blogging, Social Media and Content Marketing. Those tactics will all succeed if you answer the questions above in an honest and thorough effort.