Content marketing should first start on your own website, but once you start publishing blog posts on a regular basis, the next step is to start driving traffic to your site. My favorite method for driving traffic to the content on my blog is through social media. There are many other channels with existing traffic and the key is to create content that will drive that traffic to your site. Let’s take a look at some of these channels.
Traffic Channel #1: Amazon and Kindle
Most marketers and small business owners are familiar with the concept of giving away an e-book in order to generate leads. We see this all the time. Website owners create an opt-in form and in exchange for an email address, you can get a free e-book. This is fine as long as you have traffic on your site. But if you need to or just want to leverage the traffic powerhouse of Amazon, then consider giving away free e-books on the Kindle platform. When you upload a book to Kindle, you have the option to sell it or give it away. By giving your book away you have the ability to get your message out to more people, but you do need to be creative about how to capture the leads.
Once someone downloads your e-book, unless you have an incentive for them to visit your website, you have lost them as a customer. Many traditional book publishers have known this for years. Historically in the back of books, there have always been order forms to be able to contact the publisher to order other books or other books in a series. You need to look at this the same way. Put together a bonus material such as a webinar, video, or other supplemental material and place strategic call to actions throughout the book to get the reader to go to your landing page to get the offer.
Traffic Channel #2: Youtube
Videos are the best way to allow your customer to connect with you before deciding to make a purchase. Think of unique ways to use videos. Maybe on your “About Us” page you can put a video with your story. Create a testimonials page and put up videos of customer testimonials. If you sell a product that requires technical expertise to use, create how-to videos.
Your youtube channel should represent the culture of your company, but also drive leads. In everything you do, always be sensitive to think up ways to drive traffic back to your main hub: your blog. Even though the video may be embedded on your blog, consider that the primary posting will be on Youtube. On Youtube, people spend hours surfing and watching funny and entertaining videos. If your company culture allows, try to break down that corporate wall and just share YOU with your tribe. Learn more about Marketing on YouTube.
Traffic Channel #3: Slideshare
If you are selling business to business, check out slideshare.net. You can put up videos, ebooks, powerpoints, pdfs, and more. Strategically you should use this as a sales mechanism. Don’t just be giving away content to give away content. Create shortened versions of live presentations and create call to actions. You can always offer the full version of your presentation on your site behind an opt-in form.
Traffic Channel #4: Outbrain
You have most likely seen Outbrain without even realizing it. Outbrain offers paid placement of headlines on major websites such as CNN.com. You see it in the area of “From around the web” on the bottom right nav of their website and many others. Even though you can’t technically publish your content on Outbrain, you can drive traffic to your blog using this paid service. You can set it up so that the headlines of your blog posts show up so the key here is to create great headlines! The cost per click is as low as .10-15 cents and with a minimum spend of only $10 per day, it is a very economical solution to drive traffic. The key in content channels is to get your content placed where traffic already exists.
Traffic Channel #5: iTunes (Podcasts)
The last channel I want to cover today is iTunes. Videos are great but not everyone wants to sit in front of a computer to watch them. The more you can connect with your target market, the better! You need to create 10 episodes to go live on iTunes so the first step is to start creating some episodes! Once you have your first 10, you can create an account and go live. Podcasts are just like webinars or videos… but without the visual aids so you will need to learn to speak more visually. Learn to describe what you are thinking and trying to share in a way that your audience can connect with you. Think of this as your own personal radio show that people can take with them and listen to at any time. Again, be sure to have a call to action in every show and give people a reason to come back to your site to get more information or free product or service or maybe even a simple link out to a resource.
RELATED CLASS: How to Leverage Blogging for More Traffic, Leads, and Sales.
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