You may be unfamiliar with the industry term “inbound marketing,” but essentially that’s what it means to use your marketing content to convert clients.

If you have been scratching your head as to why no real website traffic, lead generation, or opt-in conversions are happening from your marketing efforts, then this blog post is really going to open some new doors to new clients for you.

Today, I wanted to share the top seven marketing channels that are currently showing the best conversion rates, and how you can use them to start optimizing the great content you are creating, to actually get more clients.

 

Social Media

According to Target Marketing’s 2014 Media Usage Survey, social media is the #1 marketing channel that can help you convert clients. But, this is probably a no brainer for most of us who have been using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social networks for a while now.

What you probably didn’t know, is that it can convert even without paid advertisements. You just need to know how to guide your social audience to get them to your website, and to sign up for your opt-in offers. A few commonly overlooked areas to include your information is:

• Create custom Facebook Tabs with your opt-in offer
• Include your website links in all of your About sections
• Use teaser tweets and Pinterest pins to drive website traffic
• Create showcase pages on LinkedIn to highlight each product, and gather interest from specific users
• Share your blog posts with trackable links (like bit.ly) so you can see which headlines get more conversion

You can also get a lot more ideas over at my new blog post, 5 Ways to Collect Leads through Social Media.

 

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a “buzzworthy” term, but it is creating real leads for hundreds of coaches and consultants. Content, in this case, is considered your ebooks, your information products, and your other opt-in offers. These are pieces of content that create leads by requiring them to “opt-in”, or give their email address, to receive them.

Obviously, you can see why this is a great way to convert clients: it makes becoming a client lead mandatory.

These opt-ins are great content to place on your website, especially in key areas like your home page, sidebars, and footers.

If you’re looking for a splashy way to enhance the look of your opt-in forms, I recommend Magic Action Box for any WordPress users.

 

SEO

You can’t convert clients if no one can find your website, or your content. That’s why SEO is so important. If you’re not sure what keywords to target, do a little research using Google Ads keyword search tool, or KeywordSpy. These will give you some ideas for what words to target.

Be sure to think about how your audience talks about your product and services, and just target industry buzzwords.

Then, targeting those words in your actual website is simpler than most people think. Just make sure to use those keywords in the main parts website, like the title of the page or post, the meta description, the body, and in the description and alternate tags of any photos on the page.

If you’re website or blog is on WordPress, definitely check out the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. It almost walks you through the SEO process by giving you a page analysis checklist.

 

Blogs

Blogs play into your authority for SEO these days, but are also great at converting clients themselves, because it shares your voice, your expertise, your story, etc. and connects with your audience on a one-to-one basis. Your audience gets to know the way you work, and they way you talk, to see if you’re the person they want to work with.

A blog is also a great soft content marketing opt-in, where you can just ask them if they want to know when you post new articles, and be sent an email.

Blog subscriptions have become very popular since the rise of RSS readers, but sometimes, you can offer a more personal approach by sending your updates through email, as opposed to them signing up through a third-party RSS reader, like BlogLovin or Feedly.

PS – You can sign up for my blog updates at the end of this article! 🙂

 

Videos

YouTube is considered the second largest search engine, so it’s no wonder that videos are great content to convert marketing into clients.

And, similar to blogs, videos are a great way to warm up potential clients, because they get to know you, hear you, see you, and determine if you’re a good fit for them.

You can also take advantage of the new video features, like adding annotations into the video, that include calls to action and links to your website. Make sure you also encourage your viewers to subscribe to the channel at the end of your video, so they can continue to get to know you.

 

Webinars

Webinars may be a surprising lead generation technique to you, but it’s one of the fastest growing channel to convert clients. It can also fall under your content marketing strategy in some instances, because you’re creating a webinar that people have to opt-in to attend. But, over 51 percent of businesses who used webinars alone last year saw client conversion.

If you’re going to host a webinar, the number one thing your webinar needs to do is genuinely educate or share something amazing with your audience. You really want to give them a sizeable portion of the real knowledge you have on the subject.

Because the potential client had to opt-in, make sure to over-deliver on your webinar by sending helpful information ahead of the webinar (such as handouts or case studies), and also send a follow-up message after the webinar has ended, and send the presentation and slides.

Webinars are also great because, if you record it, it can be a piece of evergreen content for your site, or become a bonus to one of your online courses. It’s always great when you can reuse your content to convert new clients.

 

Mobile Apps

The average person checks their phone every 9 minutes. And, if you have an app on their phone, they are thinking about you and your business every 9 minutes.

According to mobile marketing expert John Busby, of the Marchex Institute, “Mobile is becoming increasingly important for lead generation as consumers turn more and more to their mobile phones to search for services and view a greater share of media.”

Apps are especially great for local businesses, or for including your contact information. In one click, a potential client can call you or email you from your app, and be converted by your expertise they get to experience.

However, remember that mobile apps are definitely an investment to convert clients with, and you should only put the time and effort into making one if it makes sense for your business. Some great ideas are a color picker app for interior designers, or a fitness app for health coaches, or a “wisdom” app for holistic coaches that can deliver daily tips when a user log ins.

If you are interested in making your own app, or at least looking into it, I recommend reading this article first.

 

Leave a Comment: Now that you know where to go to convert clients, which of these channels are you going to start using? Tell me below!