Driving Traffic to Your Website

Building a great website is one thing, but driving traffic to your site is another thing entirely. Without a volume of people regularly visiting your website, your site becomes ineffective and you won’t see much of a return on the time and money you have invested into your online presence.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website - search engines, online advertising, print advertising, viral marketing, etc. But there is one often overlooked low-cost method that is especially effective at driving interested individuals to your site on a regular basis: marketing e-mails.

A marketing e-mail is an e-mail mailed out to your e-mail mailing list on a regular basis. Such e-mails contain information that is of value to the people on your list and include content that promotes your brand or your goods and services. It is different from SPAM in that the people on your list have requested to be on your list. They have subscribed to your mailing list because you have something of value to send them. This is called an “opt-in” mailing list, and it is totally acceptable to send regular mailings to such a list.

One example of a marketing e-mail is a “Fact of the Week” e-mail containing some interesting tid-bit related to your industry. This is e-mailed out once a week and includes mention of something you have for sale that ties in to the interesting fact for that week. For example, if you own a jewelry store, you could send out an interesting fact about legends regarding emeralds, and then mention that all your emerald jewelry is on sale that week.

Another example is a weekly e-mail that is sent out with tips on how to use a product or service that your customers have recently purchased from you. For example, your customers that have bought digital cameras from you can receive weekly e-mails explaining various features of digital cameras and how to best make use of these features to improve photography. Such an e-mail can include mention of camera accessories available for purchase that relate to each weekly tip.

If you have a business that sells to other businesses who in turn resell your services to their customers, you can send out regular e-mails containing tips to help them increase their sales. E-mails that offer genuine and easy-to-follow help are much appreciated by the people on your mailing list, and they build loyalty for your company. Additionally, any increase in sales for your agents leads to an increase in sales for your own company, so everybody wins.

In addition to offering your customers something of value, marketing e-mails also drive traffic to your website. Usually only part of an article is used in the e-mail - just enough to get the reader interested. Then the reader is directed to your website to read the rest of the article (which they can access with a quick click on a link in the e-mail). After they are done reading the article on your website, they will hopefully be interested enough to browse around your site and find other things of interest to them. And if your website is designed well, this can lead to increased online sales or more leads generated.

Another benefit of marketing e-mails is that they regularly remind your customers that you are there and that you have goods and/or services that they need and want (see our article about the “Three Times Rule” for more information). Sending out regular mailings can have a significant effect on your income, and e-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods of achieving this. This can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

So if you have a well-designed website that just isn’t producing the results you expected, take a look at how much regular traffic you are getting (contact your Account Manager for a free report of your traffic statistics). If your traffic is not at an adequate volume to produce the results you want, consider starting an e-mail marketing campaign to bolster your website’s effectiveness. Your Account Manager can work with you to create a successful marketing campaign.