We often ask our past clients and those that are interested in working with us at Muletown Digital what their biggest struggle is when it comes to their marketing. If you’ve worked with us before, we’ll go ahead and toot our own horn and say your website is pretty awesome 🙂 But…that beautifully designed user-interface-focused website that you’ve got needs traffic to survive, as do all websites. Just like a fire needs wood to burn, your website has to have visitors to provide your business with any sort of leads, sales, brand awareness, etc.
You want more traffic, but how?
Website traffic is one of the hardest things to understand in the entire digital marketing space. Some businesses stumble into getting amazing website traffic, but more and more, that is just not the case. Most businesses (particularly smaller businesses) struggle with lead generation, sales, and new business. That’s usually the result of not having enough new and returning visitors checking them out to make a difference in their business. So what can you do?
There are basically two ways to get traffic to your website. You either have to pay for it or earn it.
Wait, what did I just say? Pay for it, or earn it!
This is where the rubber hits the road in the website world. There are honestly only two methods you can use to get traffic. Each method has different sub-variants that you can use, but you either have to buy or earn each click, but it’s rarely free.
Pay Per Click (PPC, Google Ads, AdWords, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and more).
The fastest way to get traffic to your website is to pay for it. These methods are often called “PPC” which means you pay per click. There are many businesses that use this method very effectively. If you have the funds to make an investment in your business, running a PPC campaign can drive qualified traffic into your website. If your website can funnel them into a sale, booking a meeting, or signing up for your email list, you’ve won.
There are 2 different types of PPC marketing you can do. Google Ads are search-based, and that’s what Muletown Digital specializes in. That means – a user is on the internet looking to solve a problem – we position your brand as the solution by paying for the space on Google Ads – you win a new visitor to your site.
Facebook and Instagram are what we usually call “disruptive Ads”. That means you’re basically disrupting a user from their scrolling (likely through angry political posts haha) and your Ad gets them to click through to some sort of offer, sign up, website, etc. We don’t run those campaigns, but we have trusted partners that do.
Before you think about search based Ads (like Google PPC) you need to know the following:
- What would your target client or customer search to find you?
- How likely are those search terms going to produce a sale?
- How competitive are those search terms?
- Will your website convert those users into either a sale, consult, or can you grab their email for later marketing?
- What’s the offer you’re making? Free trial? 25% off your first purchase? Free consultation?
If you’re thinking about running Facebook or Instagram Ads, you need to be 100% sure that you have a VERY compelling offer. Those Ads are about your ability to disrupt a user into finding their way either into your website or into a chat, etc. Be sure the type of product or service you have will do well in that space.
Earned Traffic. (Organic SEO, Local SEO, Organic Social Media, Email List Campaigns)
When you earn traffic, it means that your website or social media has painted such an amazing picture of your business to both your users and Google that you’re literally earning traffic. Someone goes online and searches for “Dentist Near Me” and because you’ve done the hard work (or had us do it for you) you’re ranking number 1 in Google’s Map Pack.
Or, a user wants to understand how teeth whitening works, and since you’ve got 5 articles on your website about it, clearly you’re the dentist they should see about their yellow teeth.
In any case, you have to earn that traffic. Typically, the way you earn traffic is:
- Have a user-focused website that does a job for your business
- Build your social media presence
- Create a strategy to get website traffic to your website now, and later.
- Produce relevant and powerful content that helps your target audience
- Analyze, adjust, and repeat
- Watch your competition
- Collect emails on your website
- Target users with an email campaign to drive them back to the site
I want to stop on “strategy” here. It’s absolutely key. I’ve seen so many companies where we inherit their SEO projects from another agency, and everything looks good on paper, rankings look good, but then you suddenly realize your business is ranking for keywords that have no search volume, or poor intent. Your business has traffic, but no leads, no conversions, something is way off. This happens when you do not have a strategy and you don’t have goals. It’s VERY important to know what you’re trying to rank for, but more importantly, why you’re going after those terms.
Now, that all seems easy on paper. Trust us, it is far from easy. Google changes the game typically on a daily. Rankings shift, and it’s way too much for a business owner to keep up with. I live in this space and I struggle to keep up with it, which is why we have dedicated, highly skilled teams for our SEO work and it’s literally all that they do every day. It’s highly complex, and it’s something you have to dedicate your life to. Most business owners are better served speaking into what they want and leave it alone. That’s where having a skilled partner will make all the difference for you and your business.
What do we recommend you do to drive traffic to your website?
In our experience, the difference between the businesses that have really enormous success and the ones that don’t is their tolerance for consistency. The SBA would recommend you spend anywhere from 10%-20% of your gross earnings on marketing. Now, for many people, that seems scary. It feels like it’s impossible, but you don’t have to start there.
You don’t need SEO, PPC, FB Ads, Email Automation, 18 blog posts, 40 social media posts, and produce a podcast to have success. If you have $500/mo you can spend, do something consistent with it. Use it to develop a strategy. Use it to build a Local SEO foundation (like our Nashville SEO team do for many Nashville businesses) and get your business found on the map quicker. Invest in social media content strategy or content buckets. Do an SEO audit and see where you’re missing out on rankings, and work to improve that as you can.
Try to think of this as something you’re investing in. Many businesses use the spray and pray method where they try something. It ultimately doesn’t work and they pivot. When you do that, there is NO data to tell you what works and doesn’t work. So you’re constantly going to be shooting in the dark. The businesses we work with that do amazingly well are the ones that set a strategy and stick it out. 3 years ago our website was brand new, we ranked for 0 terms. Here we are now ranking on page 1 in Nashville in a competitive market. Do the work and it’ll pay off for you!
How Can Muletown Digital Help?
Digital Marketing is an area where we can be VERY helpful because every situation is different. We will happily examine your goals, needs, and budget to help you figure out which is the best option for your business. Hint: there’s typically more than one avenue to have effective digital marketing. The key is to BE CONSISTENT with it!
Book a call with our team any time and we can walk through your goals, your needs, your budget, and have an honest conversation about what your business needs. My consistent pledge is that we do not sell things to people. We’re not here to get you into something you don’t need. We’re way too busy to be doing that sort of thing, and if we did, we wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. We’re here to make sure you’re doing the best possible thing for your business. We can arm you with the information you need to make excellent choices, and Muletown Digital can serve you through the learning curve.
Remember, the key to new leads, customers, business, and ultimately your ability to grow, scale or maintain your business, will always boil down to website traffic and conversion. So don’t forget to invest where you’re most likely to see a solid return. And remember again, consistency is king!
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How to get in touch with Us
When you need a group of experts to come in and help you build a digital presence your competition will be seriously concerned about, that’s what we’re here for! Book a call today to see how we can help!
I hope you’ve found this information useful. As always, if you’re not sure what you need, or you know exactly what you need, you can reach out to us online and book a FREE consultation.
Muletown Digital offer Web Design services to businesses throughout Tennessee, including Columbia, Nashville, Spring Hill, Brentwood and Franklin.
