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Posted in: Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Technology, Online Marketing, Prospecting, Reputation Management, SEO, Social Media Marketing

12 Essential LinkedIn Groups for B2B Marketers | KoMarketing …

With so many social media networks to choose from, it can be difficult to determine what’s really valuable to your business. Based on multiple user surveys and research studies, it has been determined that the “big 3” of social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Each platform poses unique opportunities for B2B marketers to create brand awareness, generate leads, interact with clients and perspectives, and gather valuable information about what’s happening in the industry.

In this post, we’ll focus on LinkedIn and identify which professional groups are the most essential for B2B marketers to join via the LinkedIn network. This compilation of 12 LinkedIn groups is based on multiple factors, including number of members, frequency of updates, and validity of content. Take a look at the following groups and determine how your B2B initiatives could benefit from becoming a member:

1. Digital Marketing – 349,268 members

Members of this group engage in daily discussions about relevant digital marketing topics such as content marketing, social media marketing, site traffic, lead generation, email marketing, and more. This is a group in which people can reach out for answers, advice, opinion, and feedback and receive responses from a wide range of professionals. The Digital Marketing group is also a space to share pieces of content (i.e., news, blog posts, research) with other members who may find the information useful.

2. Social Media Marketing – 608,345 members

For B2B marketers looking to expand their expertise in social media, this is an excellent group to help them do so. There is information about every type of social media platform along with the best techniques for fully optimizing yourself or business on a social network. Shared content and interaction within this group ranges from senior level social media professionals to “rookies” seeking guidance.

3. Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals – 92,092 members

B2B marketers can engage in compelling discussions in this group by asking questions about some of the “hot button” issues in inbound marketing and receiving feedback from others. The intent is not to promote yourself or brand through this group, but the occasional “plug” does happen and is accepted if it’s relevant and helpful to the group.

4. eMarketing Association Network – 525,073 members

This group is devoted to everything related to internet marketing. Topics such as social, email, search, and mobile are discussed on a daily basis with regular updates from several internet marketing industry thought leaders. Content updates range from personal blog posts to internationally known sources. According to the group description, the intent is to provide an opportunity for members to network with others in the industry.

5. Media Professionals Worldwide – 315,889 members

For a broader look at the media industry as a whole, this is a useful group for staying up to date on the most recent news and announcements. While this group is not explicitly intended for internet marketers, it offers an opportunity for professionals across the globe to network, share information, discuss business associations, seek career advice, and explore job openings. By joining this group, B2B marketers can keep their eyes and ears open to the happenings in the media industry to be prepared for how it may affect their business.

6. B2B Technology Marketing Community – 48,186 members

This is the only LinkedIn group exclusively devoted to B2B technology marketing and serves as a place for marketing professionals to network, share ideas, promote best practices, and stay updated on current happenings in the industry. Members of this group are highly experienced professionals with expertise in analytics, inbound marketing, social media, SEO, PPC, B2B – all things internet marketing.

7. Online Lead Generation – 54,553 members

Arguably one of the most critical aspects of B2B marketing. In this group members have access to content shared from experts about customer acquisition techniques, strategies, best practices, and recommendations. Updates shared in this group consist of information about lead generation as it pertains to online marketing, CPC, social media, mobile, direct marketing, etc.

8. SEO SEM Social Media (Digital Search & Internet Marketing) – 61,435 members

This group lists 30+ job titles that would benefit from this group, all of which are related to the online and digital realm. For anyone from professional SEO and SEM experts to freelance bloggers there is an abundance of relevant information regarding Google, content development, web design, PPC campaigns, link building, keyword research, social media, and much more. Members of this group post updates daily and are actively involved in discussions with each other.

9. Official Direct Marketing Association – 22,190 members

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is a company that focuses on data-driven marketing strategies and techniques; this group is a LinkedIn extension of the organization’s mission. Members of this group are given access to the insights that DMA has to offer along with content updates shared from fellow members. This group encourages marketers to engage in conversations and discussions with one other that will drive direct marketing efforts.

10. Google Analytics – 21,200 members

In B2B marketing, analytics data is a critical element in how campaigns are developed, executed, and monitored. For new analytics users or experienced veterans, this group is a space to share Google Analytics knowledge, advice, questions, insight, feedback, and more. Members of this group have access to the latest updates regarding Google Analytics that can come from a wide range of sources; it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who has Google Analytic Individual Qualification.

11. B2B Lead Roundtable – 14,216 members

This LinkedIn group focuses on B2B lead generation and demand generation programs. The purpose of this group is to share ideas, best-practices, and information about lead nurturing, lead management, teleprospecting and more. Members of this group have the opportunity to ask questions related to B2B lead generation and engage in discussion with other members.

12. Marketing Automation Association – 2,716 members

Created by the Marketing Automation Association (MAA), this group aims to better connect marketing organizations with clients and prospects. Within the group forum, marketers can engage with MAA representatives and other members to discuss, enquire, and share knowledge about web analytics, lead management, social media, lead nurturing, SEO/SEM, campaign management and more.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; we are confident that there are dozens of groups that would positively impact B2B marketers. However, we’ve found the LinkedIn groups outlined above to be the most valuable in terms of engaging with experts in the industry and attaining credible information. If you have had a valuable experience with other LinkedIn groups for B2B marketers, we would love to hear your recommendations.

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Saturday, June 15th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

Green Seo Blogger Template | Blogtipz.Net

Monday, June 10th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

Three Important Steps for the Most Efficient SEO Practices | Blogtipz …

Some important points to be considered to make the SEO techniques viable for your blog or website promotion are given here:

Consider Deeply Before Investing to Hire SEO Services

Ponder over the fact deeply if the investment made on hiring the services of an SEO company are justifiable for the end results you are getting out of it. See how significant is the increase in your visitors and how many people are interested in the products and services you are promoting.

Does the overall cost justify the SEO services you are getting in return of your payments? Are you really paying for what you wish to obtain in return? We had had a lot of experience in seeing many of our friends and acquaintances that they pay a lot for what they either don’t actually want or what they actually don’t require. They are in fact incapable of identifying what kind of SEO they really need for their business promotion.

Now what to do under these circumstances?

1. Calculating the Cost and Sales

First step in this regard is to obtain two or three quotes from the SEO firms and then calculate the number of sales that would be required or that you could possibly make each month to cover the overall amount. So, bank on this marketing strategy for prolific results.

2. Competition in the Industry

The second important consideration is that if the niche of your blog or website belongs to an exceedingly competitive industry, you might discover that a huge investment is required to get the desired results. Again you have to calculate the cost-benefit relationship for productive out comes.

3. Increase the Absorbing Capacity of Your Blog or Website

The third important consideration is that before making any investment in the SEO marketing of your blog or website you have to mull over the absorbing capacity of your blog or website. It means how powerful your site is to retain the visitors for long term.

This is vital because existing visitors are a great source of promotion of products and services offered by you. They play their part in driving potential as well as organic visitors to your blog or site.

For the said purpose your site must be attractive and well presented. The content on the site must be useful, related to your industry and providing constructive information to the readers. The appealing and excellent quality content is much likely to retain the visitors for long time and they are expected visit several pages which increases the chances of more clicks on Ads.

If the layout of the site or blog is dull and deprived and is the visitors aren’t able to find quickly and easily what they are searching for it is certainly difficult to convert the visitors in to desired customers. Choose a professional firm which makes your website more absorbing and engrossing through effective SEO and placing high quality related content on it.

Conclusive Thought

Monday, June 10th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

Three Things Every Marketer Should Know About SEO Traffic

Search engine optimization has been around for a while now. But there are still some marketers who don’t fully understand it or how to use it. They think it’s all about getting to the top of the Google search results and driving traffic to their site.

Okay, I’ll buy that…to an extent. I’d take a top position with Google over a position on page one. But have you noticed that the sites which were once ranking at the top of the search results for the term “SEO Services” have changed dramatically over the past few years?

Even some of the SEO firms haven’t figured out how to keep up with the changes in the Google algorithms. SEO is still a mystery, and an expensive one if you don’t get it solved quickly.

Having seen dozens of our customer’s sites rise to page one, I’d like to shed some light on how to get better rankings and traffic AND make sure your traffic converts. But I’d also like to show you how to create the financial stability necessary for growing a great company…

Tip #1: SEO is Primarily a Lead Generation Strategy

SEO is a great strategy for generating leads, but not so great for getting direct sales. For converting SEO traffic, you need an email marketing campaign. According to an article on MarketingSherpa.com, 43% of marketers say that SEO is their primary source of traffic.

However, less than 30% of those 42% claimed that SEO brought them their highest conversions. They claimed that most of their conversions had come on the email follow up.

This is a perfect example of how the internet has changed people’s buying behaviors and how SEO traffic comes from people who are in the earlier stages of the buying cycle. Some marketers seem to think that consumers wake up in the morning with a sudden thought like this:

“Hey, I think I’d like to buy ___ today.”

If they do wake up thinking this, it’s only because they’ve been thinking about it for a while. If they’ve been thinking about it, you can bet they’ve researched it. And if they’ve researched it, they’ve probably found a few websites which gave them valuable information on their search. Some of those sites might have even collected the customer’s email and will be following up.

Who do you think that customer is likely to choose when it comes time for them to buy the product or the service?

Right, they’ll go to the company who has established trust by sending the customer useful information. Meanwhile, the websites that went for a sale right away will be a distant memory, at best. So even if you get to the top of the search engines by building a cutthroat “one call close” website, most of your visitors won’t hang around.

They’ll go where they can get the information they want. This is why so many “sniper sites” and direct sales sites got knocked down in the search results during the last few Google updates. As Google has given more attention to bounce rates, time on site and user engagement signals, sites which provide users with good content have devoured the top search positions.

So remember that your SEO traffic is primarily interested in good information. You need to give them what they want, gather leads and work on earning the sale on the follow up. If you do this, you’ll get high rankings and plenty of follow up conversions. If you don’t, you probably won’t get much of either.

What if My Business is Different?

I hear this ^ all the time.

Some marketers assume that email follow up and content marketing doesn’t make sense for them because their visitors “either buy right away or don’t come back.” That’s simply not true. The reason customers are either “buying right away or leaving,” is because you haven’t created a follow up process using email and content marketing.

If you keep trying to get your visitors to buy right away, while they’re still in search mode, you’ll only convert a few. Most of them, you’ll never see again. But those visitors who “don’t come back,” would still be reachable if you had a way to reach them.

That’s why you need to collect emails and follow up with your visitors using an automated email marketing campaign. If possible, you need to use phone follow up too. And in case you think your business doesn’t lend itself to content marketing and email marketing, check out Miller Welds (www.millerwelds.com).

They have a powerful, personality-driven content marketing strategy that you’d never expect from a welding company. According to “Get Content, Get Customers,” a book by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett, Miller Welds drove double digit revenue growth using this content marketing strategy.

So no matter what business you’re in, you now have no excuse. Customers are buying from companies who position themselves as a trusted source of information instead of just a provider of products and services. That’s how you build a great business in the information age.

A good follow up strategy can also work wonders for your social media traffic…

Tip #2: The “Dark Matter” of SEO & Social Media Traffic

Social Media traffic is definitely impacting SEO. But here’s something that will bend your inner thinking all out of whack…

Most of the social media traffic online isn’t coming from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or LinkedIn. It comes from what Mike Montano calls “digital word of mouth marketing.” For example, did you know that up to 70% of the social media traffic is coming from what The Atlantic calls “dark social” links?

The social networks you know and love (Facebook, Twitter and Reddit) only account for 30% of the traffic being delivered to the average website. The other 70% is coming from links shared via email or instant messaging. Those visits get lumped into the “direct” traffic category in analytics programs BTW, which is why most of us don’t pay attention to them.

But according to Studies by Earnest Agency, a mind-boggling 80% of B2B buyers are more likely to share content via email and instant messaging than via social media sites. Only 53% of B2B buyers prefer LinkedIn, 39% Twitter and 18% Facebook. That’s right, email is number one for B2B.

All those direct hits you see to your website, those are either coming from people typing in your URL or clicking on a link which was sent to them via email or instant message. This is why you need an “email this” button at the bottom of your blogs, not just a tweet button, a like button and a Facebook share button. You also need content that’s worthy of being shared….do you have that?

If not, it’s time to get busy because the future is barreling towards us quickly…and it’s all about word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing has always been the most powerful, trusted kind of marketing. But the internet has made it even more powerful and more trustworthy. In the years to come, word of mouth marketing will take over the world of SEO and social media.

After all, most people go to the internet to do two things:

Search for valuable information
Connect with people

Considering this, can you see why digital word of mouth marketing is so important? Repeat visits have a dramatic impact on your search results. They show the search engines that your website is a trusted source of information. The more you encourage your readers to share your content via email or instant message, the more repeat visits you’ll get and the more trustworthy you’ll appear.

So don’t invest everything into Facebook and Twitter. Email and instant message sharing and “word of mouse”, can be much more important, especially if you’re in the B2B niche.

What About Building a Reputation on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn?

The statistics do show that building a strong presence on a social media site like Facebook is still a good SEO strategy. According to MarketingProfs, companies which have over 1,000 likes on Facebook will get 185% more traffic than those who only have a handful of likes. Businesses which have 51 to 100 Twitter followers are also shown to attract 106% more traffic than those who have only 25 followers or less.

So build your social media reputation using the big name sites, but never forget that the internet marketplace is socially driven. Remember also that you need content that’s worthy of being shared; content that positions you as a trusted source of information and a thought leader.

Here’s a good way to approach your online marketing…

Imagine what would come of your company if EVERY search engine disappeared tomorrow and the online marketplace became driven strictly by word of mouth marketing. Even if this never happens, approaching your online marketing with this mindset will get you thinking less about rankings and traffic and thinking more about building a reputation…

…a reputation that attract a steady stream of traffic through word of mouth marketing, regardless of where you are in the search results. If you build this kind of reputation, the repeat visits and traffic from “dark social links” will help you create something that can absolutely explode your business…social equity….

Tip #3: Stop Worrying About SEO Traffic & Start Building Equity

If you want to build a financial stable business, and if you hope to grow it someday, you need to treat SEO is a strategy for building equity, not just getting traffic and making sales. If you’ve been in business more than a year, you already know that search engine traffic can dry up in a flash.

Many marketers learned this the hard way during the Google updates of 2011 and 2012. Their sites were dumped them to the bottom of the search results, their traffic slowed down to a trickle and their sales evaporated almost overnight.

Scary thought, but that’s why smart marketers focus not just on traffic and sales, they focus on creating equity. I know, equity sounds like a nerd term only your accountant knows anything about. What does it have to do with driving traffic and marking sales today?

Nothing really, but that’s assuming you’re thinking short term. If you start building equity today, you’ll eventually be rewarded with traffic which don’t dry up and with higher conversion rates. Just picture where your business right now, then multiply your traffic and sales by two…that’s where you’d be right now if you’d started building equity last year.

How is this possible?

How Social Equity Drives Higher Profits & Growth

Imagine this…

Your company website becomes a source of trusted information for your customers. You build up a solid base of verifiable customer reviews, a buzzing social community (such as a forum) or a blog or newsletter that’s jam packed with useful information which people read on a consistent basis. You might even build a few web-based applications which your visitors use on a consistent basis.

All these are examples of using the internet to build equity because ALL of these things can be leveraged to earn future leads and business without relying on SEO traffic. Think of it like buying a brick and mortar business, let’s say, a lawn care business. You pay $30k dollars and all you get is a business name and a truck full of used tools….but is that really all you get?

No. Not if the business already has a loyal base of customers. If they do, you’re also buying the trust which that company has established with that base of customers. Trust is a form of “social equity,” which has real economic power. It’s the same thing on the internet.

If people trust your website as a source of valuable information, a social hub or a place where they can use practical web-based applications, you’ve got more than just a stream of traffic.

You’ve got social equity.

Social equity is more resilient than search engine rankings. Your rankings can drop literally overnight. But it takes longer to lose the social equity which has been earned through a great reputation. Equity is a powerful principle for creating the financial stability your business needs. It’s the foundation upon which you can realistically start growing your company and the repeat visits will help your search engine rankings.

The question is…are you willing to stop thinking only about today and start planning for the future by building social equity? If you are, I’ll guarantee that you’ll have a more financial stable business by this time next year…and imagine where you’ll be in 5 years…or 10.

But if you sacrifice that long term success and focus only on what’s urgent, you’ll probably kick yourself this time next year when you’re stuck in the same place you are now…or worse.

Are you starting to see how building a reputation is the secret master to key to creating long term financial stability and growth? If so, call MSI right now at the number on this site. We won’t promise instant results because you and I both know that’s not how things work in the modern marketplace.

But if you want a company that’s built to thrive in any economy, and in spite of what Google does with their updates or in spite of whether Facebook is taken over by the next big thing in social media, we need to talk.

Remember, if you start building equity right now, you’ll thank yourself by this time next year. Or, you can stay stuck trying to scratch a living off of the traffic that you’re getting today. Which do you think will help you build the kind of business you set out to build in the first place?

Call MSI now, and let’s talk change the future of your business.

Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

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Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

Amid Social Buzz, SEO Techniques Remain Highly Related to Firm …

Whereas average growth companies claimed company newsletter e-mail marketing most effective, high growth companies rated SEO, blogging Web analytics most effective. … Blogging: The Never-ending Traffic Generator …

Friday, May 31st, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

5 Proven List Building Tactics, Even For Low Traffic Websites…

Building an email list is always important for any online business. You need to capture your audience and keep them at the palm of your hand in order to convert them into customers. The conversion procedure isn’t an overnight process; you have to feed them with all the reasons to jump from being mere subscribers into actual paying clients.

Email listings usually decrease by 33% each year, and this means you are losing a big chunk of your potential clients. Thus it is important that you are able to replenish your email lists and add new figures on them from time to time.

But how exactly can you an email list? Here are top ways to do so, even if you have a low traffic website:

Social media

Social media sign ups are among the best ways in which you can increase your email listings. This is because most of your audience is on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn.

It is actually easy to accumulate sign ups on social media, mainly because you are catering to an audience that has already expressed interest in your brand and business. On Facebook, you can just install an app that serves as a sign-up form for your audience to fill up. From there you can use this database to blast emails to your leads to update them about your current offers, new upgrades and as well as their subscription information.

Social media is actually the easiest way to build an email list, and it serves well for small and medium enterprises. If you still have a low traffic website and would want to boost incoming organic traffic, then this is the way to go.

Pop over email sign-up

Pop-over email sign-up forms are popular among ecommerce sites, such as online retailers. If you are running an online store and would want to increase your customer base, then you can place a pop-over email form for them to fill up.

Pop-over email forms have been proven effective as the visitors of such sites are interested potential customers. It’s more like giving them an instant free subscription about your goods and services once they fill up the form, which they actually appreciate.

Pop over email sign-ups are not only for email blasts per se, but also for providing catalogues and brochures your recipients may want to look at in case they are looking for products and services in the niche you’re in.

Implicit opt-ins

Another very powerful email list generator is that of implicit opt-ins. Many B2C companies are now applying implicit opt-ins as an approach to increasing their email leads, because of its direct effectiveness and protection assurance.

Implicit opt-ins are often found in ecommerce sites as well. In this approach, you are able to see how consumer information is used, and how interested the customer is in continuing to subscribe to your site. This is an effective measure in terms of keeping current customers intact by making sure that their account details are given better protection.

In store discounts

Meanwhile, if you are trying to generate an email list offline, then you should offer something your audience will not be able to refuse, such as free stuff or discounts.

For example, if you are running a store, you may want to have a sign-up sheet available for your customers and visitors to fill out. Here they can write down their name, phone number and email address, which you can use later on in blasting out emails. To make them more motivated, you may place a sign saying that those who sign up are qualified for freebies or discounts upon their next visit.

This approach is actually very effective especially for businesses who are trying to get hold of a local audience. This is because by blasting emails about your latest offers (and as well as giving exclusive discounts and freebies to those who have given their email addresses), you are able to establish name recall to your audience. They not only see your store or establishment on social media or in the streets, but as well have your presence found on their inbox too.

In store sign ups are also effective because they establish exclusivity. Those who have signed for email subscriptions would feel that they belong to a special group, as they are the only ones eligible for the freebies you have in store.

Online freebies

Giving away freebies in exchange of email sign ups is not limited to in house stores; you can also do this online. If you are looking forward to generate an email listing of interested users, then you can do so using a mix of article marketing and freebie downloads. Yes, this combo works.

What you can do is post a highly valuable article on your blog or website, particularly a how-to or list type of article, consisting of ideas and methods which your audience will find very useful. However, do not give the whole list-just take out a portion and have the rest available upon sign-up.

This kind of email listing accumulation is easy to execute and at the same time capable of reaping benefits especially to those who have low traffic websites. This is because you are adding value to your posts for your audience to use without going for the hardcore selling technique.

In this procedure you can give away an e-book, a full access to site features and other tools your audience will find handy. And once you get their emails, you can then blast your sales pitches for them to purchase.

One thing you need to realize about generating email lists is that you have to give your target audience the value for their sign-ups. By being able to showcase this at the first encounter, your audience will be more than happy to give their emails to you and even engage to your email marketing spiels because they have found these to be helpful to their own endeavors.

Once you have that established, you not only have a continuously increasing email base, but more importantly, repeat customers and avid subscribers.

Brock Hamilton is an author and owner of the Simple Website Tutorials website which is dedicated to teaching people how to start a website through free online tutorials and training. Follow him on Google+, Facebook and YouTube.

Friday, May 31st, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

5 Content Lessons & SEO Opportunities From Bloomingdale's …

Bloomingdale’s is a leader in fashion in the brick and mortar world. But how does a store with history back to the 1800s adapt to the new online world? Let’s look at a few tactics Bloomingdale’s uses in content marketing to find a few SEO opportunities.

Content Marketing Lessons

1. Solve a Problem To Make a Sale

bloomingdales-denim-seeker

Finding the right jeans, for many women, is like finding a diamond in the rough. Bloomingdale’s understands its customers and made that search easy with an interactive Denim Seeker feature.

Not only does it describe why each jean was selected, but it uses real women, showing a keen understanding of its customers and the larger discussion of body image in fashion and pop culture.

2. Stay Fresh, Stay Relevant To Customers and Search Engines

bloomingdales-fashion-packed

Bloomingdale’s Guide To a Fashion-Packed Life, with interactive features and fun, flirty copy is updated monthly to adjust with the season.

This helpful guide for the fashionista is also fresh content for the search engines. The “What to Wear Where” section shows how product descriptions should be: engaging, personalized, and ending with clear calls to action.

SEO Opportunities

3. Finish What You Start

Bloomingdales put together a long list of fabulous designers. It’s the first item in their navigation bar. However, clicking on a designer name leads to a plain results page without any context.

Bloomingdale’s SEO opportunity is to include descriptive content about the designer to add interest and weight. Pages like this, if not handled with best SEO practices, could fall under Panda.

4. Look But Don’t Touch?

Visuals are amazing tools to pique interest and sell clothes. As Pinterest’s traffic generating reports prove, images are powerful.

However, usability is important too. If a product is featured in a lookbook or other image on a retail site, adding a link back to that specific item can increase conversions. Here, the retailer hasn’t linked images to the items below.

bloomingdales-lookbook

Don’t make your customers search harder than they have to for the product you’re showcasing. Missing links may be the difference between a sale and wasted traffic.

5. Image Is Not Everything

Images are important, but an image alone doesn’t always provide the visitor enough information to seal the deal.

The Denim Seeker highlights why each jean is right for every body. That type of thinking should go into all product descriptions, whether a leather handbag or a Persian rug:

What problem does this product solve?
How should a visitor picture themselves with this product?

Bloomingdale’s falls victim to its large product palette. It doesn’t add custom product descriptions to its fast-changing item pages, giving customers an excuse to look elsewhere. Bloomingdale’s also misses the boat on video content, which Macy’s has already incorporated into their item pages.

Major retailers have the resources to create stunning graphics and beautiful sites, but that doesn’t mean they can skip the detail work. Smaller retailers should follow the example of consultative, problem-solving features like the Denim Seeker.

Even without the interactive graphics, the real-world approach can give incremental gains to the site. Because smaller retailers can often move faster or are working with a more focused product palette, they can quickly capitalize on any flaws or opportunities the big brands have left open.

Bottom line: There’s always room for improvement, even for a big brand.

Know your Ambiguous Customer: Effective Multi-Channel Tracking

Wednesday, June 5 at 1pm ET – Learn why a move from the “batch and blast” email approach enables better conversations with your customers.
Register today – don’t miss this free webinar!

Sunday, May 26th, 2013 Uncategorized No Comments

The Difference Between Incidental and Intentional Website Traffic

There are a lot of tips and tricks out there for bloggers and website creators to garner or and capture traffic. This is mostly done through SEO tactics, social media and other methods you can use to just put a link in front of people.

But what if all that is misplaced effort? Certainly it’s not all a waste of time, as technical mediums are perfectly acceptable ways of getting the word out.

Yet we’re focusing so much on these mediums to generate traffic that a lot of the organic website marketing methods are lost on us. We don’t really know anymore why a user actually visits a website, while at the same time we know that it takes more than just a link being thrown in front of them.

This isn’t even an issue of content, since Google has made it quite clear in recent years that if you want to rank, you’ve got to have something substantial to say; otherwise, you’re wasting your own time and the time of anyone who happens upon your site.

So let’s just assume that your site does have great content. We’ll also assume that it’s young and that you’re trying to figure out how to “encourage” some traffic in your direction.

You’ll probably read a lot about SEO and social media (you might even pay someone for help in this area) and your results will be marginal at best. Why? Because those aren’t the true reasons that a website gets traffic.

Two Different Kinds of Traffic

Different Kinds of Traffic

To be sure, you’ll get some form of traffic to your page with increased regularity, and when you do, it’s a good idea to try and break that traffic up into two different categories:

1. Incidental
2. Intentional

When you employ a lot of bizarre SEO tactics and submit all kinds of stuff to your Twitter feed and StumbleUpon, you’ll end up with a lot of incidental traffic, or basically, people who just happen to come across your site. Most of the time this kind of traffic would have to be considered low quality.

The reason being is that these people might have at best, a passing curiosity about your subject matter. Most of the time, they’ve gotten to your website by accident, while looking for something else.

Now in Google analytics that still shows up as a page view and a unique visitor; yet it might as well not even be counted, because these people had no real interest in your site and no real intention of sticking around to see what you’re all about.

Now intentional traffic on the other hand refers to people who are looking intently for what your site has to offer and they seek your site out based on those merits.

They might do so accidentally, but this most often occurs when people know what your site offers ahead of time. You might say, “But isn’t the only way for them to know about it by way of social media and SEO?” Well, it’s one way, but it’s definitely not the only way.

We want to get intentional traffic because those users will stick around, engage with our content and establish a familiarity and relationship with our site.

How do we get that kind of traffic? To figure that out, we need to look at what motivates an intentional visitor.

Motivation Factors of an Intentional Website Visitor

So we’re trying to attract people who are intentionally looking for either our site, or the type of information that our site offers. Why might this type of person visit our site?

Here are a few of the primary reasons and they have nothing to do with our social media strategy.

1. They’re looking for something genuine

People can smell garbage a mile away online and it’s no secret that the internet is filled with content that has been quickly put together and is worth little or nothing to the reader.

Internet users want something different than that and they want it in the form of someone who is genuinely being themselves and producing something worthwhile.

If you can be that person, you’ve got the most powerful traffic-driving tool that there is.

2. They’ve heard about the credibility of a site via word of mouth

Word of mouth is still the best marketing tool out there. For years before the internet ever existed, people and organizations gained popularity by word of mouth, simply because of their notoriety.

If your product or content is good and genuine, you won’t need to do a lot of marketing to get the ball rolling. Just a nudge is going to be enough.

Once you’ve given that nudge, let other people do the work for you, because nothing gets someone to your site like a recommendation from a friend in the form of, “Hey, you should really check this website out. It’s great!”

3. They perceive that a website is offering better information or information with greater depth and reliability

We all know that there is a lot of material online, but a lot of it doesn’t meet a high standard of quality. For some reason, the internet seems to be a place that invites cutting corners and half-hearted contribution.

When people see that a website is offering something better and more in-depth than that, they’ll jump at the chance to engage with that website and to tell their friends about it.

It’s the only real reason anybody goes to any website; because they need something. Whether it is information, entertainment or help of some sorts, people will gravitate to a site that delivers those things in a more full and complete way, especially since there are so many websites that don’t.

How do we get this kind of traffic?

How-To The more of this kind of traffic you get, the less you need to worry about traffic generating tactics. But how do we get there?

It should be noted up front, that even with great content, this process does take time; a lot of time. While there’s nothing wrong with using social media and SEO to push things in the right direction, you still need to have a tremendous amount of patience before you see a lot of real and intentional traffic to your website.

For that to happen, your reputation needs to proceed you, and while you’re being patient and putting in the time, here are a few things you can do to make sure that time will work in your favor.

1. Create and present a collection of valuable information

Envisioning this as a blogger is easier than if you run a different type of website, but it should still be your goal no matter what kind of website you run. The more information you can collect into one place and make easily accessible, the more your website will be trusted to deliver answers on a given topic.

2. Gain credibility with those in your niche

The more you’re able to cultivate relationships and build alliances with others in your niche, the better off you’ll be in terms of notoriety and credibility. When your material starts to gain notice, you’ll want people who will be willing to vouch for you and your hard work. Make sure that the people in your same field of expertise are willing to do so.

3. Talk to people about the goals of your website and why you’re excited about it

The more you talk up your own site, the more those around you will be willing to spread the word and refer other people to it. You don’t want to be annoying, but when you do talk about it, be confident and excited about what you’re doing. Most good friends and family will take interest in it from the outset, and if your content delivers, news will definitely spread on its own.

The Reward of Real Traffic

This kind of traffic is far more valuable than what you’ll get from spamming your Twitter account with links or hoping that someone will click on your link from some other social media site. Real traffic will find its way through these mediums on its own and will be far more valuable than trying to get things to happen the other way around.

Make sure you’re doing everything you can to generate intentional traffic first. If you can do that, everything else will fall into place in due time.

About author: Jason Bayless is a professional blogger that gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice. He writes for BestSEOCompanies.com, a nationally recognized comparison website of the best SEO companies in the United States.