Summary: You've built a shiny new website for your business. Congratulations! Now what? "If you build it, they will come".....uh,no. Sorry, this isn't The Field of Dreams, building website is only the first step, now you have to learn how to send traffic to your website. Building a new website is like building out a storefront, once it's open for business you need to learn how to send traffic to your site. From paid advertising to social media to search engine optimization, we'll discuss some of the ways you can build traffic to your website. Some methods are fast, while others (like search engine optimization) take time before you can reap the benefits of your labor. In this episode of The Small Biz Express podcast we discuss: Learn how to build traffic by earning it, borrowing it or buying it Which methods of traffic generation are fast and which one's take time An overview of Pay Per Click marketing (PPC) and you can use it to kickstart your website marketing efforts How to waste your money on Pay Per Click advertising if your website can't do this one thing. (hint=conversion) How to geo-target your marketing efforts for your trade area How to use the piggy back method of accessing another business's customer base Connecting with bloggers and key influencers Why Mike loathes the phrase, "Like Us On Facebook" Action Steps from this episode: Know who you're targeting. The first step in reaching your ideal customer is knowing who they are in the first place. Spend the time (a lot of it) figuring out who your ideal customer is and knowing what messages they want to hear. This is done with proper market research and lots of testing and question asking. This is the most important step because if you get this wrong, steps 2 and 3 won't really matter. Know where they hang out. Once you know who your customer is, you now need to figure out where they hang out online. Are there specific websites where they tend to frequent? Do certain blogs have the exact audience you're trying to reach? Maybe there are industry forums where they like to gather, or all of the above. Don't worry about how you will reach them, you just need to create a list of places where you can find them. It's like searching for the perfect fishing spot, get your fishing pole ready! Deliver the message.Once you know where your customers hang out, now you can go to work creating the ideal message/offer for them. If you've spent enough time getting to know your ideal customer, you should have an idea of what they are looking for and how to attract them. Once you have your message in place, you can now go out and start reaching your ideal customer through different formats. From joint ventures with other businesses, to pay per click advertising, to blogging both on your site and on other sites, you can start reaching your ideal customer through several different methods. Links and Resources Discussed in this Episode PPC Hero Blog. Great resource for bother beginners and advanced Pay Per Click marketing. This guide is a great place to start learning about PPC advertising and creating your first campaign. (http://www.ppchero.com/the-beginners-guide-to-setting-up-an-adwords-account/) Certified Knowledge. Brad Geddes, the founder of Certified Knowledge is one of the top PPC guys in the industry. Lots of great information in their blog, may be a little advanced if you're just starting out but still great information. (http://certifiedknowledge.org/blog/) Google Keyword Planner. The original Google Keyword Tool that marketers and business owners loved has been retired, replaced with the Keyword Planner inside Adwords. It's free to use but requires a free Adwords account. Note: You do not need to spend a penny on advertising in order to use the tool, just need a Google Adwords account which is free (https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home) Facebook advertising. (https://www.facebook.com/advertising)
