Are you ready to put that beautiful website to work for your business? Contrary to popular opinion, your website shouldn’t be an expense on your balance sheet. It’s an asset that should be adding value to your bottom line.

The key to a successful website is to make it a destination place that offers so much value people come back to it over-and-over again.

Now, value is relative to your business. How you offer value is going to differ for every business. Some may focus on writing, others audio, and still yet others may want a video to do the heavy lifting. There are unlimited ways to deliver value.

However, value is simply defined as either solving a problem, meeting a need, or fulfilling a desire for one person.

Here is the rub, no matter how much value you offer no one is going to reap the benefits of your work if they don’t know you exist.

I’m going to share 3 ways to promote your website and gain traffic so that it becomes a resource for your business and your prospects.

#1 – Make Your Website a Regular Destination Place

Years ago, I lived in a community whereby the city council consistently talked about making the city a “destination place” to those who lived within a 25 miles radius. They attracted developers to create a unique shopping and dining experiences, and even a minor baseball team.

You have to do the same thing for your website.

The economy of a destination website is value, value, value.

The question is, how?

Let me offer a few suggestions.

Blog Articles

I know, everyone says you need to blog. That’s not true. There are millions of blog articles a day being created on the web. If you don’t have enough time to create high-quality articles, writing isn’t your strength, or you don’t feel you have anything contribute… don’t create a blog.

However, if you enjoy writing, have something meaningful to say or share within your business context, and have a passion to help someone solve a problem, meet a need, or fulfill a desire then blogging may be your ticket.

As I shared in previous articles, blogging is also a great way to network and connect with other influential bloggers who can help propel your marketing into the next level of success.

Trainings

If you have a business that can offer ideas, tips, strategies, or technical guidance then being a training resource can be HUGE!

I’ve seen “how to” training guides available via downloadable PDF’s, membership websites whereby people pay a small fee to access (or not depending on the business model), free forum websites for a niche, and much, much more.

Training resources can be created in virtually any industry or business model. The more creative you are the more likely the benefits will be to both your customers and business.

eBooks (no matter your business)

This never grows old, especially if you have a niche or are b2b. Again, if you enjoy writing and have something valuable to say, it can be a huge opportunity. I created two books in 2015 and 2016 that have over 5,000 downloads combined across different spectrums.

The key on your website is to consider whether your eBook should be free or if there should be a cost. In the beginning, I recommend giving it away and build up your email list. As you write more and earn a loyal audience, you can transition to a paid model (while your freebies are still adding new subscribers to your email to sell your newer work).

However, beware… if you write in an industry (like mine), your eBook can become outdated quickly. That’s both good and bad.

Good in that you can revise it and sell more.

Bad in that you have to revise it often.

Video Library

Do you feel comfortable on camera? Or, do you like to showcase your products, services, and customers? If so, creating a video library can be a big boom for your website.

Video is now consumed more than any other form of media. It allows you to capture ideas, concepts, “how to” ideas, and much more.

Don’t let this one go… you should be creating more videos. I’ll have ideas to share with you in a future series.

Picture galleries

Finally, depending on your business model, you should be using a picture gallery to drive traffic to your website

To start, put some pictures on Pinterest, Facebook, and other social sites, combined with email to drive traffic to the picture gallery on your website.

The opportunities here are endless to make your website a destination place online!

#2 – Find Out Who Serves the Same Audience as You and Partner Up with Them for Promotion

Now that you’ve made your website a destination place, it’s time to up your game. Before you do, realize the reality of the game you are playing.

To create a loyal following takes work. You cannot just create content and then your field of dreams experience happens.

You’re not Kevin Costner and they won’t just come.

You have to establish yourself and unless you have someone who is extremely influential and reputable saying it on your behalf, you will either struggle or it will take a decade to make your website a destination place.

Who has time for that?

For too long most people have tried to wait out Google and hope they will start sending traffic to your website. They may do all the technical things, but something is still missing.

As I explained in a previous article, it takes some training to understand how to create the right content for both Google and your audience and how to build your search engine traffic to your website.

When that doesn’t work the way it was hoped over the course of a few weeks (hopefully not a year), many try to push their content too hard on social media. While you will get some links, you don’t yet have a strong enough reputation to garner much interest.

That’s why in my webinar titled “How to Double Online Traffic in 90 Days and Increase Conversions” (Be on the lookout for the next webinar) I spend time offering tips, ideas, and strategies on how to reach influencers.

An influencer is a person who serves the same audience you do but in a different way. These folks don’t have to have thousands or tens of thousands of followers.

What they do have is when the recommend someone and ask their followers to act… the followers do as they suggest.

You should have a strategy and set of tactics to reach out to them, develop a relationship, and give them a reason to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

If you earn the relationship, this strategy is highly rewarding and gratifying, and the results for your efforts will not compete with Google or Facebook.

#3 – Don’t Use Social Media Like Everyone Else

Finally, don’t use social media like everyone else and fall into the trap. Yes, we all fall into the traps from time to time and we need to be shaken.

What is the trap?

The post and run trap.

Remember, social media is about two things:

1. How are you unique, relevant, and compelling?
2. Being social

The first deals with your message.

The second deals with your engagement.

Again, it does take some work but the rewards are immense. Quite frankly, a good social media strategy should always employ an influencer tactic.

Pulling it Together

I’m going to offer a quick example. Last week, I created a Facebook post that is called a roundup.

I included some influencer friends I’ve known for nearly five years.

Be sure to check them out:

Donna Merrill

Ryan Biddulph

Lisa Sicard

The goal is to provide value to others over self.

Notice, I tagged them individually on both Facebook and LinkedIn and they responded in kind. They reciprocated.

We don’t have a comments section on our blog, but if you visit their blog (via the links above) you will see that in some cases they get tens or hundreds of comments.

They are an example of how to identify an influencer.

They have done it successfully over time and you can see the results in their engagement on both their social media pages and in the comments and shares on their blog.

If you do these three things well, you will be promoting your website and see a profound impact on your website’s performance as an asset instead of a liability:

1. Make Your Website a Regular Destination Place
2. Find Out Who Serves the Same Audience as You and Partner Up with Them for Promotion
3. Don’t Use Social Media Like Everyone Else

Here is the reality, the concepts are simple. I can guide anyone through how to do this. However, it takes work.

However, long-term these ideas will become less and less work over time as you build your reputation through engagement.

These strategies work better than virtually anything else you will ever do!

There is one added benefit… your Google results will dramatically improve quicker and your social media will become more engaging as well.

I have had many tell me over the years they don’t have the time to do this, it’s simply too much.

Guess where these businesses are today?

Yep, the overwhelming majority are gone.

Your NUMBER 1 job is to market your business and create sales.

Nothing else in your business will matter if you don’t.

If a business doesn’t have a powerful website working for it, many will spin the wheels and struggle.

Don’t be that business that continually works harder, not smarter.

Creating great content and promoting well is the key to success.