Marketing + Web

Next Level Marketing: Super-Charge Your Website With These Tried and True Techniques

Today we make our final argument in the case for better websites. Weeks ago we launched a series on Next Level Marketing focusing specifically on the aspects of digital marketing that can boost your website’s effectiveness beyond the “if you build it, they will come” mentality. We’ve made the case for super-charging your website with video, social media, and search engine optimization, and then defended the necessity of brand strategy to underscore each of these elements. To summarize what we’ve learned so far…

It’s not enough to simply “have a website” and have confidence that your online marketing is complete.

To see a significant ROI, every business and organization—big or small—must have an interdisciplinary, multimedia approach to developing and establishing their brand identity online. Here’s a recap of what we have covered in this series:

If You Build It, Will They Come?

You’ve invested a great deal of time, money, and creativity into creating the perfect website for your brand. But is it enough to get the virtual foot traffic to your digital front door?  In today’s marketing landscape, you must provide multiple on-ramps for people to engage with your brand. You have (ideally) created a magnificent website, and you need multiple ways to lead people to your site. Enter into an interdisciplinary digital marketing strategy that takes your value prop to the people you want to reach leveraging videos, social media, and search engine optimization to get more leads into your funnel.  

Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them

Videos bring life and depth to your website in a way that words and pictures can’t do on their own. If having an iron-clad website is step one in how to have success with marketing your business online, adding video to that website is step two. In a world where YouTube is the second largest search engine and video streaming comprises more than half of all internet traffic, you can’t expect to reach people without videos.

Social media has made it easier than ever for even the most elementary consumers to create and share their own videos. If users can generate and be satisfied with their own content, just imagine how much more they expect from brands they trust?

Even within the label “video marketing” you have many choices from which to choose including brand videos, explainer videos, interview/testimony videos, product videos and more. If you’re still feeling unsure, check out this story about a non-profit that doubled in reach using online video.

Social Media Is the Ultimate Website On-Ramp

There is a lot of buzz in the marketing world about “story” and “the hero’s journey” with regard to content marketing—and for good reason.

1. Social media has transformed the way consumers engage with brands, products and services by giving them more than a front row seat to the show.
2. Social media literally gives consumers not just a part in your story but a leading role.
3. Social media has put a microphone into the hands of consumers via smartphones with unprecedented capabilities for *instantly* connecting and communicating with mass audiences.

These realities can’t be ignored and must be harnessed to draw people into your digital sales funnel. If you’re not engaging social media don’t rush in without a social media plan. The stakes are high and back peddling over mistakes can be challenging at best. But don’t delay because a social media strategy can be one of the most cost-effective ways to boost your website traffic.

If Your Want More Web Traffic, Optimize Your Content

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a term that the majority of folks don’t fully understand. And for a busy business owner or nonprofit director, you don’t have time to parse through the specifics of what SEO is and how to be good at it. But we implore you—please don’t ignore it! What you don’t know—or misunderstand—about SEO could be hurting your business.

At its best, SEO delivers qualified leads to your website by using great content, quality code, and by putting the user first. And to be clear, SEO is not the same as PPC (pay-per-click). Furthermore, as voice search increases on devices like Siri and Alexa, the way you write your web content makes a big difference in how you are (or are not) found by artificial intelligence.

Brand Strategy is the Key to Consistency

As we’ve said before, the most important part of digital marketing is arranging brand elements in harmony with an over-arching brand strategy. This ensures consistency and excellence across all communication channels. Failure to develop and implement a compelling brand results in messages that are unreliable and inconsistent—two words you never want to be associated with your business. If you are not sure why you need a brand strategy or if you think you’re good because you have a slick logo and die cut business card, be sure to read this post and this post to learn how bad branding can cause your website to underperform (or even fail!) and practical ways to  integrate your brand and marketing strategies.

If you’ve come to the end of this post feeling a bit overwhelmed, not to worry! We have created several free tools you can use today to take meaningful steps forward in any of these areas. If you remember only one thing from this series, make it this:

Having a website alone is not enough to have a meaningful impact online.

Adding even one of the tools and techniques mentioned in this series will take you further than a website will on its own. If you want coaching or someone to evaluate where you are and help you get where you want to be with your digital marketing strategy, we would love to help. We love helping passionate people make a difference in our world. Reach out and let’s talk through how we can support you and help you achieve your goals.