HOW DO YOU DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE WHEN YOU ARE NEW ON THE MARKET?
It’s a recurrent question we get at IMS, whether a client is new on the market or new to the digital world – what is the best strategy to drive traffic to my newly created website?
It is similar to asking yourself ‘how I am going to drive foot traffic to my new store?’. As you have likely guessed already, there is no basic answer to such a question.
How do you get people to notice you in a sea of competitors and plethora of digital content? The truth is, it is becoming increasingly difficult to drive traffic to a website because of the sheer number of sites out there. A successful strategy requires more and more technique.
The key to rising above the noise is to apply the basic principles methodically and consistently while keeping an eye on the evolution of trends.
BUT, WHAT ARE THE BASIC PRINCIPLES?
The very first step is understanding your customers: who they are, what their habits are, what their needs are, where they like to shop. You should know everything about them, by heart.
The second step is mastering the different sources of website traffic.
- Ads: Pay-per-click campaigns through Google or any other PPC provider – depending on your consumers’ habits. For example, to reach Hong Kong consumers we would recommend using Google, whereas for mainland China we would recommend both Baidu and Google (more and more Chinese internet users are using VPN to access Google).
- Blogging: Embedding a blog on your site is one of the best ways to regularly add fresh content to your website. It helps drive organic content when people are looking for information on search engines. We help our clients understand which keywords are driving traffic, leads and clients to their website and we help them create keyword strategies, so they develop a truly informative content strategy. The key today is to frequently publish added-value content that will organically interest your target audience.
- Social Media: When it comes to social media, consistency is key. You have to push informative, fun, diverting, emotional content and much more. Using relevant and credible KOLs in your industry is also a highly effective technique. Here too your approach should be adapted to your target market. If your customers are located in mainland China, you should already be posting on WeChat; if you want to target Western 15 – 30-year-old females you should be mastering Instagram. Our approach to an effective social media strategy is to build a dynamic content calendar that efficiently balances organic and paid posts and automates the process thanks to Social Studio (Salesforce).
- SEO: Search Engine Optimisation is fundamental to driving traffic to your website. Search engines are looking for good content, performing websites, authority (search engines recognize which websites refer to yours, and whether your website refers to good content) and user experience. Contrary to what people think, SEO is a combination of these 4 stated elements and isn’t only about content stricto sensu.
- Video services: Video is definitely the future of content marketing, and if you are yet to command a game-changing video marketing strategy you can read our guide here. Of course, YouTube is popular all over the Western and Asian market but if you are looking to reach mainland Chinese consumers you should be publishing on Youku, Iqiyi or QQ. We also use video hosting services that offer additional tracking services and allows us to make use of advanced analytics.
- Email Marketing: Email marketing today is all about sending curated emails and informative content that people genuinely want. What works best for our clients is highly personalized emails and meaningful journeys that guide recipients through a tailored consumer experience.
- Referral: Referrals guarantee authority and credibility when they emanate from quality and well-known websites in your industry. At first you will have to create paid partnerships, but as your brand expands word of mouth should start doing most of the legwork for you.
