You have made your site and it is ready to be seen by the world. The thing is, you are far from the only site people can go to – now you have got to be proactive in guiding your target audience to your site and keeping them coming back.

To see what kinds of tactics are effective we will take a look at a few websites and how they are keeping their users engaged and loyal. Many of these sites are ones that have actually kept me engaged and buying even when I would consider myself to be a tough customer.

Social Media Engagement – JetPens

JetPens has an amazing online store with many features – videos accompanying products, in-depth descriptions, great images, blog posts and tutorials – the list goes on. One of the reasons many customers (including myself) return to the store is JetPen’s social media engagement, primarily on Instagram.

Every few days they will make a post that spotlights new or topical products. On their page’s bio they have a link to the store page that has every post and links directly to each product that was shown.

By posting the products on their page they remind the 193,000 people who follow them that they are a quality service – and their service is only a few clicks away if you see something you like.

They also periodically host giveaways on their Instagram which encourages followers to share the page with their friends. This makes it possible to not only engage with their current followers, but to potentially make new customers.

Influencer Marketing – G-Fuel

Influencers are a somewhat new phenomenon but are quickly becoming one of the most effective ways to get more traffic to your site or product. One example of this is G-Fuel, an energy drink company. They partner with popular professional gamers to advertise for their company. The reason I chose G-Fuel in particular is because they currently have 18 flavors that are “inspired by” these partners.

While this tactic is not cheap, it definitely works. Since their first sponsorship in October of 2019 they have more than doubled their traffic.

A common concern with influencer marketing is that people know that they are being sold to, but in many cases fans of influencers are happy to support them by buying their advertised products. In the case of PewDiePie, his fans have made memes of the sponsorship by buying exorbitant amounts of the product – only giving it more positive publicity.

Advertising – SkillShare

SkillShare is a unique platform that offers premium tutorials for a subscription fee. One of the primary ways they drive traffic to their site is by sponsoring videos on YouTube – mostly tutorials or how-to’s that are introductions to what can be explored in-depth on their site.

The way I found out about SkillShare was by hearing about it in an ad at the end of a video by Matt D’Avella. The majority of his videos are about self-improvement and learning, something that is a perfect fit for SkillShare’s brand.

This type of advertising is extremely effective as it is not a shot in the dark or even an estimate as to whether or not the viewer would be interested in becoming a consumer – the viewer is already consuming content similar to what SkillShare offers and with a 2 Month Free trial it is hard to deny.

Email – James Clear

James Clear is a speaker and author of the book Atomic Habits. His website includes articles about habit formation and supplementary material to his book. Where he is most active and what keeps most of his audience engaged, however, are his weekly emails.

I recently signed up for his email list since they offer tidbits that can brighten your day and inspire you to stick to your habits. Over 850,000 people receive this weekly email along with occasional promotions for his books and classes. One of those promotions actually worked on me when I decided to buy a physical copy of the book when it went on sale:

This is an effective way of reaching to an audience because they have already expressed interest in what there is to offer – as long as you consistently deliver content that they deem worth the read, they will continue to follow you and your brand.

Sign Up Bonuses – MANY Online Retail Stores

Similar to how James Clear’s email list is a foot-in-the door to potential sales, there are many online stores that want your information so they can give you information on deals and promotions. What most of the online retailers do to get that information is offer a sign-on bonus – give them your email for a 20% off coupon on an item on your cart. (See a list of online stores that offer promotions like that here.)

Even though the one-time coupon is nice, this is probably to most intrusive (and therefore, ineffective) tactic of driving in traffic that there is. If you have to bribe a person to sign up to a newsletter then it is unlikely that they want to read them in the first place and their inbox will just end up looking like this:

There is a chance that the customer will use the deals offered to them through the email, but the most effective way to drive them back to you is to offer quality, not quantity.

The bottom line is that you have to figure out what method works best for you and your brand. See what others similar to you are doing and see if you can do it better – there are many options out there, so don’t give up if you goal isn’t met on your first try!

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