If you have a few social media accounts already associated with your business, then you’ll understand the importance of keeping them updated. Google ranks websites and pages that have new and fresh content on a regular basis, and the same applies to social media. If you continually post to your Facebook and Twitter profiles you will more likely rank higher when searched for on Google compared to an account that hasn’t been active in years.
But what if you are posting to your social media and not experiencing the conversion rate you wanted? There are a few things that you can do to make sure that your visitors click on your links.
Targeted Traffic
If your users aren’t clicking on your links, then you need to make sure that you are posting to the right audience. For example, if you are in the business of real estate, you could target homeowners, property managers, investors and numerous other target audiences. These people are more likely to be middle aged than teenagers, with a steady income.
If your Twitter or Facebook feed is full of fan pages, teenagers and users from other countries, then you won’t be reaching out to these people at all. The same concept applies to people who are in your target audience, but in other countries. If you advertise a service that is specific to your area, then that is your target audience.
Many companies don’t live by this concept because they feel as though having millions of followers is better than having 100 engaged followers. Engaged followers are the gemstone of success on social media, and they are incredibly valuable in terms of social media marketing. If you want to experience more engaged followers on your newsfeed, then you need to make sure that you target people who have an interest in your niche, as well as being in your local area if you operate a local service.
Do Your Research
You should also make sure that you do your research when it comes to your links. Users hate overly promotional content. They want informative, solid and well researched content that benefits them as a person. For this reason, it is important to find the right balance between promotional and user-beneficial. As a rule of thumb your content should be no more than 10% promotional.
Take the real estate example; you could be advertising a new property that has just come on the market, with a description of how they should choose you as their real estate provider. This isn’t beneficial to the user, as it is purely self promotional. You could however change the base concept to make it useful to the user as well. For example, advertise a new property, but tell the user the benefits. Does it have a few bedrooms? Has it been recently renovated? Is it close to local amenities? This extra information will entice your users, especially if they already have an interest in purchasing a property.
The bottom line to this concept is just because your target audience has an interest in your industry, doesn’t mean they have an interest in your company, so it is important to offer valuable information that sparks interest, as this is the first step to turning those visitors into customers for your website.
Your Call to Action
Once you have visitors consuming your content you need them to take the logical next step. Never assume they know intuitively what it is you want them to do next. If you are attempting to get subscribers to your blog you might end your article with a call to action. It may be something like “If you enjoyed this article click here to get my weekly updates delivered directly to your in box FREE”
A guaranteed way to sky rocket your opt in’s is to also offer a free gift to reward your new subscribers. If you can develop a free ebook or white paper your ideal clients would get great value from, include this in your call to action.
“If you enjoyed this article click here to get my weekly updates delivered directly to your in box FREE. As a valued subscriber I will include my latest ebook The 10 Step Guide to Adding $20,000 to Your Investment Properties Valuation in 30 Days”
The simple “Call to Action” is often the most overlooked addition to your content. Provided the content is relevant to your visitors and is FREE, gently guiding your new leads into your sales funnel and the next step to becoming a client should be your aim.
It doesn’t matter what type of website you have, it is always important to make sure that you apply yourself correctly in terms of your target audience, as well as making sure that you post quality updates that will keep them coming back for more.
Testimonials
Another often forgotten addition to most content is third party endorsement! Testimonials from current clients or subscribers is social proof to your new ones that you can be trusted with their contact details. They are not always easy to get but if you have them, video testimonials are by far the most trusted. If you cannot get video testimonials at the very least include (with permission of course) a head shot from the person supplying the written version.
You can never have too many testimonials, however you can include too many in your articles. The best option is to include 2 in the article and then have a link to your website that has a page with all of your testimonials. Don’t forget your “Call to Action” here too. Just because you include a link don’t expect it to be used, you should politely suggest your visitors to click on the link. Include a short sentence like:
“Like to see more testimonials from my current clients? Click this link to view them all”
The final tip, ensure all of your links open in a new browser. Most platforms give you this option in the link settings. Follow these simple steps and your hard work turning visitors into customers, will reap great results.
Images: ”Targeted Marketing to find and choose the best customer in a group of people/ Shutterstock.com“
__________________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Tweak Your Biz:
Connect with Tweak Your Biz: 
Would you like to write for Tweak Your Biz?
Tweak Your Biz is a thought leader global publication and online business community. Today, it is part of the Small Biz Trends stable of websites and receives over 300,000 unique views per month [See our review of 2014 for more detailed information].
An outstanding title can increase tweets, Facebook Likes, and visitor traffic by 50% or more. Generate great titles for your articles and blog posts with the Tweak Your Biz Title Generator.
