I recently came across an article on Entrepreneur.com listing five ways to attract visitors to your website. As I was reading each item on the list I kept thinking that I had read these ideas before. Well, it turns out that I had. Previous ThirdSide blog posts have touched on each of the concepts presented in the list; they just haven’t been discussed together before. So… I thought I would take us on a trip down memory lane and revisit them in light of this list.
Before we get to the actual list, however, I would like to point out the sentence just below the article’s title:
If you can demonstrate your brand’s mission throughout your site, people will be flocking to it in no time.
That statement alone is probably much more important than the entire list of items in the article. In fact, it is somewhat of a mantra here at ThirdSide. Our Creative Director, Jason, even wrote a blog post about it a year and a half ago. Your website should adequately and effectively represent your brand.
Now, on to the list… The first item suggests that you add a blog section to your page. As our Lead Developer, Lisa, wrote in her post on the topic a few months ago, a blog can help generate interest in your website, help you establish yourself as an expert in your field, and increase your SEO ranking.
The second item on the list challenges you to position yourself as a thought leader in your field. Our days are filled with the regular tasks of running or contributing to the operation of a business. However, a thought leader goes beyond the normal, daily tasks and seeks out ways to expand his knowledge and share it with others. Our Lead Designer, Pat, wrote an interesting critique of Instagram’s overhaul of their logo last year and a fun piece about rock ‘n roll t-shirts just a few weeks ago, each of which offered us a glimpse into his design expertise. Jason keeps our readers informed of changes in the industry that can affect their presence on the web, such as this post about Facebook’s changes to their small business page layout. And Lisa spent an afternoon watching a simulcast of Facebook’s F8 Developers Conference in April of this year and shared a few of her takeaways with our readers.
Entrepreneur.com’s third suggestion is to change your email strategy. Including your website address in your email signature will certainly let your contacts know that you have a website, but most of us have already done that by now. These days efforts are focused on getting site visitors to return to your site or on using your website to drive customers to your physical place of business. Targeted email marketing is the current strategy of choice for doing both of those things. Lisa posted this piece a few months ago about the importance of creating and maintaining an email list.
The fourth suggestion on the list is to create business partnerships. Here at ThirdSide we consider all of our Clients to be our partners. Since our focus tends to be on local small- to medium-sized businesses we make an effort to promote them in our social media posts and to include them in our Spotlight blog posts when we have designed a logo or built a website for them. And many of them have returned the favor by mentioning us on their social media posts. (Thank you!)
And the final suggestion from Entrepreneur.com is to become more familiar with and use social media to complement your website. Lisa gave us this great piece four years ago when the social media craze was just taking off, and many of the points she made in the post still hold true today.
Are you using social media effectively?
Are you actively cultivating your business partnerships?
Are you using a targeted email marketing strategy?
Are you working to position yourself as a thought leader?
Are you posting to your blog on a regular basis?
And most importantly, does your website adequately represent your brand, and your mission?
