After spending hours carefully crafting the content, it’s time to start promoting it. It’s not enough to just post your site and hope people interact with it. All sites need to constantly adapt, keep updated, and adjust to the changing needs of users. The main goal of these marketing strategies is to attract visitors and get them to keep coming back. 80% of marketers are already promoting their content on social media. There are a number of tools available, from social media to more traditional techniques, to ensure that the traffic to your site stays consistent.
Princess Polly – Email Campaigns / Incentives
A tried and true marketing tool is an email campaign. An email campaign is one way to go directly to your users/customers and maintain regular contact with them. This form of advertising can feature useful information and promotions, like sales or events.
For example, Princess Polly is a trendy fashion site I usually see advertised on Instagram. A couple months ago I purchased a pair of shoes using a student discount and an additional 10% off for providing my email. Now, I receive emails from the site at least twice a month. Their products are usually a little pricier than I would buy but updating me when there are sales encourages me to visit the site again. The graphics the company uses in these emails are visually pleasing and engaging, and I often find myself clicking on them just to check out what has changed on the site based on the season.
Empress Gin – Paid Social Media Ads / Engaging Visuals
A major part of advertising on social media is knowing what audience you’re trying to reach on different platforms. Twitter is a text heavy, interactive platform. Facebook responds well to videos and posts that mimic an online article format. Pinterest and Instagram are visual-driven platforms.
I use both Instagram and Pinterest to find recipe ideas and cooking tips. I don’t even like gin, but looking at the visuals for Empress Gin I was tempted to buy a bottle. The company understands that a large part of their key demographic is people looking for social media-worthy recipes and they utilize paid advertisements to draw these users in. By posting striking visuals on Instagram and engaging, short recipes on Pinterest, they effectively drive traffic to a site that many of these users wouldn’t even be aware of.
Fly by Jing – Influencer Marketing
88% of people trust online reviews. People trust famous people. There’s something about people who have a high profile and good camera presence that makes others want to trust them. It’s even better if that person happens to be an expert in their field.
Fly by Jing is an independent sauce and dumpling company created by international chef and entrepreneur Jing Gao. Gao wanted to introduce different parts of the world to Sichuan cooking while exploring her own familial roots. It made sense that the company partnered with restaurateur, chef, and TV personality Dave Chang to promote their new Sichuan chili crisp. Chang has a series on Netflix called Ugly Delicious where he uses food as a vehicle to break down cultural barriers and tackle misconceptions. Fans of the show are most likely a demographic that are looking to try new food and already know Chang’s credentials.
Actor, writer, self-proclaimed foodie, and friend of Chang, Eric Warheim also had good things to say about the brand in his own post. I follow both of these people and ended up ordering a jar of chili crisp after I saw their glowing reviews. Warheim may not be an expert, but he is someone with access to some of the best food the current culinary world has to offer, so I feel like I can trust his judgement.
Pat McGrath Labs – Print Advertising
Even with most things being available online now, traditional print media can still drive traffic to a website.
Pat McGrath is a legendary runway makeup artist that has created iconic looks for Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Anna Sui, and countless others. In 2015, she launched her own line of beauty products called ‘Pat McGrath Labs’. The first time I ever interacted with this brand was seeing it featured in Vogue magazine. The advertisement fit well with the layout of the magazine and offered the ability to buy products that were used on these runways.
The website reflects these editorial ads by having figures like the legendary Naomi Campbell model the products. Modeling the site after the magazines the products are advertised in creates a unified brand and appeals to a demographic that can create cult-like followings.
Byrdie – Social Media Engagement / Communities
When executing a social media strategy, it’s not enough to just post content. Social engagement is about encouraging conversations with the right people, responding thoughtfully, and driving excitement and enthusiasm.
Beauty and style publication Byrdie makes good use of their Twitter account by responding to readers and following the audience back. The publication says their mission is to celebrate individuality and empower their readers to find confidence, community, and joy through beauty and style. Creating thoughtful dialogue with their readers, following them back, and listening to what they have to say fosters a sense of community and trust that brings readers back to the site.
To continue to drive traffic to your website, you must consistently update and adapt to users’ changing needs. By using an array of new and traditional marketing strategies you can keep your users happy and coming back.
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