If you attended QuickBooks Connect in November 2017, you might remember that the winner of the Firm of the Future contest announced that his bookkeeping firm generated 85 percent of their new clients directly from digital channels. If you’re looking for online leads, it’s entirely possible to achieve this percentage, but it does take some work.
Your website is your digital hub and where you want your traffic to flow to online. Here are some of the most popular ways to increase traffic to your site in the hopes of converting some of them to clients.
- Social media
Having a presence on social media will get your brand known by more people. The more friends, followers, and connections you have, the more people will see your posts. If you post something that is important, engaging or interesting, then it is more likely to be shared by people who see it, which will again increase the number of people who will have an idea of what you do.
You can also pay to rank higher in newsfeeds by purchasing ads on social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others.
- Search results
When people enter a keyword or phrase into a search box that matches what you offer, your site may appear in search results. There are three primary ways to influence your search rankings:
- Paid ads: Buying Google AdWords is one way to rank in search. We hosted a course on this recently: https://ne220.infusionsoft.app/app/storeFront/showProductDetail?productId=580
- On-page organic search: Optimizing the code and content on your website is one method to rank in search without paying for ads. If you are a monthly client at the Pro or Platinum level, we do this automatically for you.
- Off-page organic search: Adding your site to directories, getting articles posted that link back to you, and getting mentioned in articles are a few of the ways you can influence your search rankings without making direct modifications to your site.
Remember, Google is the biggest game in town but not the only one. You may also be able to rank well in Bing and other search engines.
- Offline marketing
Adding your site URL to your business card and handing it to someone is one of the many things you can do in offline marketing to influence people to visit you online. A few others:
- Include your site URL in your email signature.
- Mention your site URL in conversations.
- Include your URL in any direct mail you do.
- Add your URL to class materials if you hold a class or other printed materials that you distribute.
- Digital referrals
Digital referrals are different from offline referrals in that web pages refer you rather than people. If your site URL is listed on a web page that is not yours and someone clicks on it to visit your site, that’s a digital referral.
Usually these digital referrals happen naturally just like offline referrals do. But you can try to encourage them by letting people you know you are open to it. Don’t let just any old site link to you though, because Google cares about the quality of the site that is linking to you.
While sending an email to people who subscribed for your newsletter won’t get you new visitors, they will remind prospects to visit your site again. This may lead to business or at least more engagement with the prospect. And, your subscriber might even forward your email to new people that will then visit your site. We’ll be having a course on email marketing in August 2018.
https://accountantsaccelerator.com/email-marketing-deep-dive/
- Display ads
Display ads are another way to generate high volumes of traffic. We’ll be presenting a course on display ads in June 2018.
- Push notifications
Adding push notifications, like email, won’t get you new traffic, but it will allow you to gently remind previous visitors to return. The sign-up rate is higher and less intrusive than opting in to a newsletter list. If you are on the monthly Platinum package, this comes with your subscription. And if you have access to our community, we did an Accounting Biz Talk webinar on push in 2017.
- Engagement
Showing up online is a great way to get noticed. It can also be the most time-intensive method of the ones listed because it requires you to interact with other people online. You can do this easily in social media by adding comments to articles you read online and by interacting in online communities and forums.
- Content
While posting great content online is not a direct traffic source, it is the glue that engages visitors once they’ve visited your site. Content helps visitors get to know you, demonstrates your expertise, gives people something to share, educates people on what you do, and shows people how to connect with you for those who want to know more about your services.
If you need more traffic, your answer is somewhere in this list. Do what you have time for and that’s free first. If you still need more traffic, reach out to us and we can help you explore your options.