Coming up with an idea for a creative website is not a piece of cake nowadays. It was fairly easy fifteen or twenty years ago, when websites were not that popular, when getting any domain was extremely easy and when any ideas seemed to be innovative. Today, it is not that easy. A lot of domains are taken (without any hope of being free again) and websites look the same or are built and customized by experienced software development teams or webmasters. Does it make any sense to create a website now? Yes, of course, it can be really rewarded, but it has to be accordingly promoted so the world knows your name! Keep reading our blog post to find out what some creative website marketing ideas are.
Why should you have a website?
- websites can be amazing sources of monetization, no matter if you put there some sponsored posts, Google ads or your own merchandising (slowly turning it into e-commerce). Every blog is basically a website, so if you are running a blog and think that it is not a website at all, then you are nothing but wrong.
- websites allow you to build your expert position and therefore reach advertisers or partners for potential collaboration
- websites are good friends of search engines so it can be positioned quickly if full of valuable content
How to promote your website?
Social media
Social media can be an awesome connector between your website and your potential visitors, making them find out about your website and digging into it. You can use a lot of ways on social media to actually reach your audience. First of all, you can take advantage of paid campaigns and sponsored posts. Some people think that you have to spend a significant amount of money, but it is not entirely true. Sometimes even a few dollars can bring you some first results. Remember to always choose “traffic” as the goal of your website, if you actually want people to get redirected to your brilliant website. Choosing any other goal can result in a greater number of likes, comments or even shares (and you have to appreciate shares nowadays, they mean more than ever before!), but it does not have to necessarily lead people to your website. After all, it is great as well for your brand’s recognition but not as great for statistics and conversion.
You can also count on organic reach and just publish some posts redirecting to your website, but if you don’t have an engaged audience yet, your efforts can be in vain as posts won’t be visible to anyone.
There are also more methods of how you can make the most of social media:
- comment as a Page on related pages, but remember to be really patient and not spammy. Do it when you see the right context and content, not below every post you see on your NewsFeed.
- join some relevant groups from your private account and try to share there your content. If it addresses some real needs or problems of the group you have just joined, it, first of all, will be approved by moderation, and secondly, it will be appreciated by the audience, which can result in new visitors on your website.
- also events can be really helpful – not many bands and individuals make the most of it, but you can try!
While some people think that it is enough to use Facebook, we would like to debunk this myth. LinkedIn, Twitter and Quora can also be great sources of getting inspiration for your activities, but first of all, to deliver you some extra traffic and promote your website in niches you may not find on Facebook. Remember that going omnichannel is not the easiest and will take a lot of time and effort, but it is the only way to test out what platforms work for you and which ones you should skip in further communication. If you want everyone to know your website, you should be prepared on hard work.
Creating great content
As obvious as it seems, it does not have to be that easy. You should definitely create great content if you want to attract a great audience. Remember that your content has to be SEO-friendly (so use particular tools to check how the SEO behaves and what you can do to improve it) and spot on, but also attractive, informative and valuable. The better it is, the higher chance it will attract those you want to get as your visitors.
If you are a real newbie as for SEO, you may want to start with less advanced tools like Google Alerts or AnswerThePublic to find out what your audience needs, looks for and faces as the challenge. It can deliver you great insights and ideas for your blog posts, and therefore you can create more amazing articles in less time and with better effects.
Other websites and blogs
You can comment below other posts and try to promote your website this way, but it does not have to be as effective as you think it is going to be. It is better and in good taste to first – ask the owner of the website or the blog for some permission for this kind of activities – and second, to actually start collaborating with them and maybe offer some possibilities for cross-promotion. How is it more beneficial for both sides? Well, you can promote your site naturally and support the promotion of another website, and the second party will do exactly the same thing. This way, the reach can be increased and you can get even more reach, visits, and traffic with very little effort.
Examples? Guest blogging. By exchanging posts you can as well exchange some information about blogs and even put a backlink in copy or in the bio. You enhance not only your expert position but SEO positioning as well. It may be hard to get your very first guest blog post, but then it can be only easier. You can show your post as an example of a guest post so next potential partners for collaboration can be persuaded quicker and exchange valuable links with you.
Content aggregators
Another thing to try? Definitely content aggregators. You can add there your website and wait for some visits, or you can work on your website, offer or even pricing if you have its monetization in mind, and put the whole set of information on various content sites. One of them is Whitepress.net where actually you can find your dream advertiser or just play the role of a quiet publisher who researches possibilities and options. It can drive you some traffic as well, so you shouldn’t ignore this point and you may want to start researching it right here and right now.
Google Ads
Some reps of some industries may say that this method does not work, but actually it works wonders in many industries. The common mistake is to configure campaigns in the wrong way or choosing the wrong creative/target group. Google Ads, like Facebook Ads, do not have to cost loads to actually deliver, so you may want to give them a go with just a few dollars – cause why not?
Make the most of e-mail marketing
Do you have any available email database you can use for marketing purposes? Maybe you built one for some of your previous websites? Well, use it now to inform people about your new initiative and analyze the statistics such as the open rate or bounce rate. Why? For two reasons: first, you can see what is the quality of your database, and second – to see how your audience reacted to your message. What else can you do with a valuable database? Export e-mail list to CSV and upload it to Facebook to create a custom audience you can target directly on social media. This feature is very useful especially if your database is active and huge, but you can give it a try anyway!
It is not that easy to promote any website nowadays – as basically everyone has a website or a blog they would like to push. That’s why it is so important to think out of the box and test out some new channels to reach as many people as possible. Even if one channel works wonders, it does not mean it will work like this forever. It can be even turned off one day or have a massive downtime for weeks. Do you know how you would promote your website in such a case? If not, it is always better to have a plan B. Create a small strategy on how you are going to promote your website and content – and just do it. Good luck!
