Copywriting Tip 3. Driving Traffic to Your Online Store

Posted on | December 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

My fellow Ask the Experts panelist, Go Go Mama Go’s Christine Pilkington, has beaten me to the punch with a wrap-up of the “Driving Traffic to Your Online Store” event in downtown Vancouver. Some of the key tips she covered:

* Content is king. Keep your articles and descriptions relevant and interesting. Cool flash graphics and streaming video are no substitute for bad text.

* Be authentic. If you’re going to use social networking platforms to reach a wider audience, you’re going to have to actually be social. Have real conversations.

Panel organizer Liz Gaige of Market Navigators also had some excellent points about ensuring you have clear goals about your marketing campaign. Given the nature of the seminar, it made sense for us to talk about social networking and SEO, though Liz was quite correct to point out that more traditional marketing methods such as print advertising placements, direct mail marketing and other tactics also still have a place in any marketing toolkit.

One topic I also pursued was the ease of syndication of content. I’m a big believer in the ability of social networks to extend the reach of messaging. Blog posts become RSS-fed tweets, which become Facebook fan-page status updates, LinkedIn updates, and more. With a few quick emails or phone-conversations, or just by filling a form, you can make arrangements to get your content streamed to high-profile websites and media sites. Sure, Google will downgrade duplicate content, so you’ll need to tweak your headlines and your lead paragraphs a bit to prevent that from happening.

Finally, I also stressed the importance of building links back to your site and making sure those links go back to the right page. Remember, your social networks are just hooks to bring eyeballs back to your anchor website where you can change minds, evangelize and most likely, try to sell stuff. When you run campaigns, you may want to link back to custom-designed landing pages rather than a home page or other section. This makes it easier to track metrics in Google Analytics (or whatever else you’re using to track hits).

I’m looking forward to presenting alongside these very talented women again sometime. If you were present at the event or have any other questions (or comments) about driving traffic to your online store, go ahead and leave a comment. Cheers.

Category: Networking, Presentations, SEO, Social Media, Speaking Events, Vancouver, business website copywriting, copywriting tip, search engine optimization, website content
Tags: copywriting tips > google search engine optimization > social media marketing > web content > web marketing strategy > writing for business

Comments

3 Responses to “Copywriting Tip 3. Driving Traffic to Your Online Store”

Ruth Seeley
December 3rd, 2009 @ 12:30 am

Good post (and I’m enamoured with the ink blots in the header).

Would love to see you elaborate on the point you make in the third from last paragraph about getting content streamed to high-profile web sites and media sites. Who do you call/email?
Jonathon Narvey
December 3rd, 2009 @ 1:39 am

Hey Ruth! Ask and you shall receive.

I should clarify — streaming was probably a poor choice of word — more accurate could be cross-posting. However, if you are willing (and this is not something you will decide lightly) to give an editor carte blanche to cross-post whatever they like whenever they like from your site, it really can be more like syndication, since it requires no further action from your end. (As I’ve cautioned before, though, you’d better have a clear idea of the benefits of such a relationship before signing off on it. After all, giving stuff away for free is against human nature and may degrade the value of your paid services. Be careful).

Lately, I’ve noticed a far greater number of sites willing to accept cross-posts (Sometimes, though not always subject to the whims of the online editor). The Mark does it. The National Post does it. A whole ton of industry-specific blogs do it. There are definitely opportunities for this in fairly popular publications.

I believe the need for fresher and fresher content for Google, combined with the irresistible prospect of getting something of value for free, has begun to seriously erode editors’ reservations regarding reprinting something (or even about maintaining quality control in some cases).

As with any freelance pitching, a little research is involved. Find the name of the editor of the website, double-check to ensure that you are going to contribute something that is consistent in style and value with stuff that is already resident on it. If it’s not clear who the editor is, just send the pitch off to the general contact info email and you’ll likely reach the right person. Send off a concise yet informative pitch about what you want to contribute. If the editor is really switched on, you should hear something back in a few days.
Ruth Seeley
December 6th, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

Ahhh – makes sense. I was invited to generate content for The Mark a few months ago – since I tend to write long it would have meant generating all new content for them and I ultimately decided I wasn’t going to do it – might change my mind.

I’d just as soon drive more traffic to my own site, but I can see how this would be very useful for clients. Thanks for the explanation!