Social Media Gold Mine

Companies are investing thousands of dollars each month on paid advertising like Google Ads in the hopes of building website traffic and ultimately increasing sales.  While this approach does offer some significant success, there are less expensive alternatives that yield higher return on investments that we recommend at Bowman Digital Media to our clients to explore first.  Simply put, it is best to pick the low hanging fruit before chasing the competitive fruit to be earned in the paid advertising space.

Business runs on a Budget!

There is an appropriate time and place for advertising dollars.  When building your website traffic, the best place to start looking for eyes, is in the free aisles of social media, utilizing email campaigns by your staff, working natural referrals from friends, family and clients, taking advantage of traditional print media campaigns with banners, vehicle graphics, fence signs and more.  Why?  ROI! Return on investment from social media and effective traditional print campaigns can be accomplished much easier because of the lower overall investment and more importantly the type of engagement you get with the end users than that of paid ad buys.

It All Comes Down To Trust!

Trust is the number one reason why social media activities are a better way to build your web traffic.  When people visit you after you’ve built trust with them on social media, they already know you and like you.  When they visit from an ad on Google or something similar, they have likely never heard of you or your business.  You might have to touch a person with comments and posts several times over a few months but the long game approach produces 3-4 times more sales on the first website visit according to the marketing data I reviewed.

Where Does Website Traffic Come From

Website traffic comes from a variety of places, including: Paid advertising, social media, emails, organic search, referrals, listings on other websites called backlinks, return traffic and more.  Every websites traffic blend will vary depending on what type of things they offer, the type of business they are in, their geographic location, the established brand, their advertising efforts, how well they utilize social media and more.  Not all website traffic is holds the same value for the website.  Why?  Because websites typically are not compensated for visitors alone, they are instead compensated when the visitors do something, such as make a purchase, click on an affiliate link, sign up for a consultation, watch a presentation, read a blog and the like.

Social Media Gold Mine

Social media is a gold mine to be worked for all businesses and should be continuously mined for new prospects and leads.  There is nothing like it to generate attention, create rapport, ask for referrals, and show off capabilities.  When new visitors come to your website from a social media channel, they are far more likely to stay longer and make a purchase.  I advise my clients to get everyone in their company on the social media train.  I want you to get them to create profiles on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and more and share posts periodically.  Tell them to use social media at least 15 minutes per day and to always be nice.  Why?  The more you help others and people like you, the more likely they will want to help send business your way.  80% of your posts and even a higher percentage of your comments can be nonwork related too.  In fact, you don’t want to just talk about work on social media.  You want to talk about all kinds of things, like casting a wide net.  The more diverse you are, the more diverse the audience is you will meet.  Even if most of them will never become clients, they can still help you as future bird dogs, sending prospects your way and giving your business a referral.

You can even benefit from paid social media managers, like the services we offer at Bowman Digital Media to help supplement your activities and allow to you to focus still primarily on running your business.

The bottom line is you can generate website traffic in a variety of ways, but none are as effective and inexpensive as those that come from social media activities.  If you are struggling to gain website traffic and you don’t have a strong social media game plan in place, that is where I would recommend you start focusing your attention.