In this digital age, everyone is accessible via the internet. If your business doesn’t have a strong online presence, you’re limiting your reach to just a few people.
Have an e-commerce store? Want to sell your own products online? Having your own website is crucial to having a strong online presence. Even if you’re only planning on having a blog, having a standalone site is better than nothing.
1. Create a Buzz Feed-esque feed
Have you ever heard of Buzzfeed? If you haven’t, it’s time to become more familiar. Buzzfeed is one of the biggest platforms for sharing bite size bits of news and information. The best thing about their content is that it’s easy to share and engaging enough to keep anyone interested.
The best part? They’ve created a formula that works like a charm. Have a look at their blog posts and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
They create compelling headlines that draw you in. Then, they layer on interesting tidbits of information that make what you’re reading more engaging. Finally, they sprinkle in a few jokes or quirky stories to keep things interesting.
2. Personalize the content
Think about all the emails and text messages you receive from brands and companies. Chances are, you receive a lot of them. And chances are, those messages aren’t interesting or compelling enough to keep your attention. For that matter, the content on the webpage probably isn’t engaging enough, either.
To keep your attention and interest, you need to find a way to personalize the content. Maybe the company you’re working with has a newsletter they send out once a month that you can sign up for. Or maybe they’ll send you an email once the new season of your favorite show airs. Or maybe they’ll text you when you reach a certain tier in the app you’re using.
Not only does this add a human element to the content designed to draw you in, but it also allows you to connect with the brand on a more personal level. For that matter, it allows you to establish a more authentic connection with the brand. And when brands feel like they can connect with you on a personal level, they’ll feel like they can engage with you on a deeper level as well.
3. Use compelling language
Let’s say your product is a cookbook. If I asked you what the most compelling argument for purchasing your cookbook is, what would you say?
Are you writing instructions on how to make food items in the book? Does the book come with beautiful pictures of the food you’re talking about making? If so, these are all great reasons to purchase the book. But if I asked you about the most compelling argument for purchasing the book, what would you say?
What if I told you the most compelling argument for purchasing the book is that it helps others become better cooks like you?
How would you respond to that statement? Suddenly, the language you’re using becomes less important than the action you’re taking. In this case, the language you’re using (i.e. “compelling” and “better”) doesn’t even apply. But that’s not necessarily the case. You can use any words you want to make your case as long as you back it up with action.
4. Build trust
Whether you’re sending out marketing emails, text messages, or both, you need to build trust with your audience. And to do that, you need to create content that is both accurate and reliable. Which brings us to our next point.
5. Vet your sources
To verify the information you find online, you can either contact the website directly or look for references. However, sometimes the information is so new that you can’t find any sources who’ve verified it. In that case, you’ll have to make a judgement call as to whether or not to trust the information.
For example, if I wanted to purchase an electric guitar, I might start My Guitar Store. However, if I wanted to purchase a vintage guitar, I’d have to do some research into the value of these types of guitars before making a purchase. If it’s too good to be true, it usually is.
6. Measure the success of your efforts
Once you start building your email list and sending out marketing messages, it’s time to measure the results. To do that, you’ll need to set up automated email campaigns to track the success of your efforts. Have a look at our blog’s email signup forms and you’ll see exactly what I mean. We set up automated campaigns so that whenever someone fills out the form, they’re automatically sent an email asking them to confirm their email address. This way, we can keep track of our subscribers and see exactly how many are opening our emails and whether or not they’re actually engaging with our content. So, if you have a look at your email marketing software, you’ll probably see a lot of unopened emails from two months ago. That’s because a lot of our subscribers have opted out of receiving emails from our blog. Fortunately, the number of people who’ve opened our emails and engaged with our content is steadily increasing.
7. Optimize for mobile
These days, mobile usage is at an all-time high. According to Google, about 66% of searches are done on mobile phones. And that number is only increasing. If you want your content to reach your audience, you have to make sure that it’s mobile-friendly.
There are a couple of ways to do that. First, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. If you’re reading this on a mobile phone, you’ve probably accessed it through a mobile-friendly web browser already. If you’re not sure, check out these tips on how to make your website mobile-friendly. Once you make your website mobile-friendly, take a few minutes to test it on different devices to see if it looks the same. If it doesn’t, it’s time to make some updates. An easy way to do that is to use a tool such as Canva’s Web Editor (free trial available). With Canva’s Web Editor, all you need to do is paste in your website’s HTML and you’ll see the changes you made instantly. Plus, you can track the results of your efforts in real time. So if you have a look at your website’s Analytics, you’ll see a clear correlation between mobile traffic and increased sales. It’s never been easier to test out different website designs on mobile phones. With the help of tools like Google’s responsive web design tool, it’s never been easier to create a mobile-friendly website.
8. Measure the performance of your website
Once you have a mobile-friendly website, it’s time to start measuring the results. When it comes to running a blog, one of the most essential metrics to track is the performance of your website. And you can do that via a tool such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Have a look at your website’s PageSpeed Insights and you’ll see a detailed analysis of the performance of your website. This analysis provides you with everything you need to know about the load time of your site and the performance of different parts of it. So if you’re looking for fast mobile pages, you can use this tool to determine which parts of your website need the most work.
Keep in mind, though, that Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a free tool, it only provides you with basic metrics such as the performance of your website and its loading speed. If you want to fully measure the performance of your website, you’ll need to look into paid tools such as YSlow or GTMetrix.
9. Improve the UX and UI of your site
The user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) of your site are just as important as the performance. And to create a good UX and UI for your site, you need to start with the information you already have. That means you need to get to work on making your site more user-friendly.
When a user lands on your site, it’s not always clear what they should do. If you want people to engage with your content, you’ll need to invest in making simple, direct calls to action (CTAs). For example, if I wanted to purchase an electric guitar, the best place to start would be My Guitar Store’s homepage. On this page, I see a clear and concise CTA in the form of a button that reads “Buy an Electric Guitar.” As you may guessed, this is a Call To Action. When a user clicks on this button, they’re taken to a new page where they can make a purchase. So in this case, the CTA is pretty self-explanatory.