A few weeks ago I noticed an intriguing little bar at the top of many of my favorite blogs and websites. Since they all looked alike, I knew that someone was behind it. After a few clicks, I found the source of all of the now famous bar – HelloBar. HelloBar enables you to create a little snippet of code that you can add to your website. After you add the code to your header or footer code, a bar will pop up with a message (of your choosing) and button taking visitors to a link (of your choosing). The result is an interesting and unique way to drive visitors to signup for your email list, download a white paper, or like your Facebook Fan Page.
In April I wrote a post that explains the difference between a website and a CMS. I wrote the post to help people make the right choice. There is a difference and people need to be informed about it before hiring someone to build them a new site to market their business. A standard, static website may work for some, but over the long haul the CMS is much more valuable. In other words, its more bang for your buck. Taking this a bit further, I plugged WordPress, my CMS platform of choice, and explained why I think its awesome.
Anyway, I am telling you all of this to illustrate how blogging can drive traffic to your site. Content marketing works. In the last month that post has driven 16 visitors to my site. The reason? I appear second or third for several permutations of “difference between a cms and a website”. Hopefully my post answers their question and directs them to some helpful resources. The bottom line is that I wrote a post that answers a very specific question someone may have about websites and web marketing. Google has rewarded me for performing such a service.
The question becomes, “Did any of these people do business with you?” Not yet. These people aren’t customers for a lot of reasons, but probably the biggest reason is that I haven’t really tried. The truth is, I’ve got a small web strategy and product development company that thrives on local referrals. For this I am grateful. My services are, for the most part, highly individualized and therefore pretty hard to market on my website. Just check out my web strategy services page…
That said, I’m building my web presence daily. If I continue to write more and more blog posts focused on answering the questions people have about web strategy and online marketing, I will be rewarded with free traffic. When I do begin to focus on really “selling” to site visitors, the people will already be walking by my storefront. For now though, I’m going to continue being helpful and sharing the story about my company. Thanks for reading.
