Branding XL: 65 Strategies That Will 3x Your Traffic

I have to thank Tommy Walker of ConversionXL for this idea.  Once you’ve narrowed it down to, say, 25, create a spreadsheet that tells you the number of members, threads, posts, which you can find at the bottom of most forums, admins & influential members, commonly discussed topics and the most popular topics.

Read through several forum topics, comments, posts, etc and give each each site a score from 1-10 on the member’s knowledge and a score from 1-10 on the amount and quality of the interaction among members – 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest.

After you’ve done that, you can sort the spreadsheet by Knowledge score.  The sites with the highest ranking are where you could go to learn new things and get ideas.  You could then take that knowledge to the groups with knowledge scores of 6 or less and start answering questions and writing comments.

Most times, people who are active on forums with extremely smart members are not going to be active on sites where people don’t seem to know what they’re talking about.

But you can become a sort of guru for them and bring them to your site by linking your screen name, which most sites will let you do when you sign up to post comments.

You might also want to post on sites with slightly higher knowledge scores but low interactivity.

Just be sure to answer the questions thoroughly.  Most of these low knowledge or low interactivity sites have a lot of quick comments that are either wrong or don’t really answer the person’s question well.

So if you have knowledge in some area and you take the time to share it with an in-depth, easy-to-understand answer, the readers, your potential customers, are going to be interested in whom you are and what you do, and they’ll often check out your site to find out.

It will reflect well on your brand.

You can even look around for the most common unanswered questions, write a post or create a how-to video with the answer and then direct people to it.  Creating content, whether it’s a tutorial, online course, video, article, whatever, is easily the most effective way to build an audience.

Two things to keep in mind as you’re creating content, though.  Write for your readers and not for someone who already has knowledge about the topic, meaning avoid industry terms and acronyms that the average person won’t understand.

And avoid leaving tons of links to your site all over forums and other bloggers comment sections without any material behind it.  You’ll get banned for spamming and it’ll hurt your brand value.

Once you’ve built up a little following, start reaching out to these people by e-mail and ask them some questions.  Get to know them and start figuring out what your main demographic has in common.

Where do they live?  How did they become interested in your niche?  How old are they?  What kinds of things about your industry do they wish were explained better?  What type of content or products would they like you to create?

The answers to these questions are going to help you narrow your focus to things that really matter to your customers.  Because maybe you find out that your audience to be rather affluent and maybe price isn’t as much of a factor for them.

Maybe there are more female customers than you thought and you need to change your marketing messages up a bit.

On a side note, while you’re always looking to make noise, you don’t want to overwhelm yourself or your customers with blog posts, contests or e-mails every day.

I’m pretty sure I’ve unsubscribed from every website I’ve ever given my e-mail to that sent me something every day. The e-mails kept adding up and finally I just selected all of them, clicked delete and said, “That feels better.”

Just be visible. The point is to stay in front of your users and not get drowned by other posts but also not to become an annoyance. The moment you’re gone, the chances of other brands taking your spot, increases. And that’s just a waste of all your previous efforts

In these campaigns, be sure to always communicate your message clearly. If people don’t understand what you do, they’re not going to bother trying to figure it out. Your messages should be easy-to-understand and down-to-earth.

Be consistent, too. In two ways. First, by letting your customers know when they should expect something. Maybe you do a webinar every Wednesday or you offer a discount on the first Monday of every month or you put up a blog post every five days.

And second, by never going back on your word. Choose the words in your marketing messages carefully and make sure you can follow through. Consumers can be pretty unforgiving when they have so many other alternatives to fall back on.

The focus of your messages should be on helping your customers. Give them knowledge about the nature of their need and how your product fulfills it. Tell them the science behind it and attach some emotional value to the product or solution.

Avoid going for a sale immediately after building that emotional bond, though. It will make you seem fake and push people away. It can sometimes result in a short term gain but that’s not what you want.

Your message should be easy to share. Have all the available options you can for people to share your content. Download the Flare button for Wordpress. Make your share buttons as large as you can.

When someone shares your content, it automatically becomes more authentic. It’s not advertising in the traditional sense anymore. It’s a friend telling a friend about something they liked.

That’s why having a strong community on social media is extremely important.

It is important to find out which social media platforms your target market uses the most. You might be surprised to find that maybe your niche uses Quora more than Facebook!

Track where your visits are coming from with Google Analytics and then focus on those sites that give you the most traffic. Don’t waste your time on Twitter if only a handful of people are coming from there.

Pay attention also to the times of day when they visit your site and concentrate your time reaching out to them during the hours when your customers seem to be most active.

When you reach out to your customers, always have a strong calls-to-action. You should never end a blog or social media post or an e-mail without a CTA. Put them on your website, on your app, on your facebook page, wherever.

People want to know what to do next. They want to be engaged. Give them a reason to do what you want them to do. Don’t just hope.

Make that CTA obvious and easy to understand. Do you want them to read another post? Make your links stand out within your other posts. Do you want them to buy something? Give them a teaser and leave them with a link to purchase the rest – the good stuff.

Speaking of buying stuff, your prices are important for your brand image. Often those just starting out think they’ll beat the competition with low prices. There will always be other larger businesses that can under-price your stuff and drive you out of business.

Higher prices equals higher perceived value. Price your products higher than average and earn it with outstanding customer service. Click the next video to see how.