Do you have a plan for building traffic to your site?  Do you know where to start?  The answers to these questions can often seem daunting but developing a brief action plan against all of the key traffic building areas I list in this post can help and yield results quickly.  This output will help you build the framework of a long-term digital marketing plan that will ultimately start to build traffic to your website

So this post is more of a list but a valuable one.  Think about what you can do now against each of these points and implement them as soon as possible.  Make sure you can track the new visitors you develop from each source in your analytics account so you can quickly measure the results to see what is working then do more of the same.

If you would like me to cover any of the points below in more detail just post the name of the topic you would like me to write about in the comments box below.

Search Marketing

• Search engine optimization – See my blog post How to optimize the design of your website which contains some useful tips.
• Paid search such as pay per click (PPC)

Online Partnerships

Who can you build an online partnership within your market?  Who operates in a similar space but is not competing?  Who is writing blogs on your market?  Who has a similar profile of customers or visitors that could be selling or promoting your product?  Types of online partnership:

• Affiliate Marketing – think about what deal would entice an affiliate to sign-up and make some approaches.  Are there any affiliate networks with a track record in your sector?
• Sponsorship
• White-labelling
• Co-branding
• Link building – this can help but make sure the links are natural and would resonate with your own audience,  make sure the traffic they are likely to generate is quality traffic, and not just there to boost visitors.

Online advertising

• Purchasing advertising space on specific websites – specifically those who attract your target market in large volumes
• Ad networks such as Google Ad Exchange or Google Adsense
• Sponsorship
• Audience targeting
• Re-marketing shows advertisements to users who’ve previously visited your website as they browse the web.

Email (Opt-in)

Make sure you always provide the recipient with a method of opting out of your email to make sure you stay within the law.  When you write your email content think of a title that will encourage the recipient to open the email and write the content to grab their attention in the first few seconds otherwise they are unlikely to read on. Types of email lists:

• In house lists, you’ve already developed
• Rented lists
• Lists your partners have developed
• Advertising in third party e-newsletters

Viral Marketing

• Buzz marketing – what shareable content can you create for the distribution of social media channels?  What works for your competitors? Video content is particularly shareable.
• Generating social media mentions – Buzz marketing will clearly help but so will engage with your followers.
• Sharable emails

And lastly don’t forget…

Offline Marketing

Make sure you mention prominently in all of your offline advertising efforts your website and if there is space in your social media channels.

• Traditional advertising – paper, magazine, flyers, radio, TV
• Sales promotions
• Personal selling
• PR
• Sponsorship
• Direct mail
• Product packaging

I hope this post gives provides you some inspiration for ideas on how to build traffic to your website.