Web Marketing Power Tool: Create a Resource
We know the Internet offers even the smallest organization the ability to (potentially) reach millions of people. But just putting up a website is not enough. Because with all this opportunity to reach people comes just as much competition for their attention.
So to attract more customers using the wonderful Web, you need to give people a reason to visit your website. Here’s a way to get more visitors that will keep on working year after year, if you do it well.
Create and offer a free resource your visitors find useful.
Done right, a free resource showcases your company’s skills and gives potential customers a good reason to learn more about you. By giving the something of value, with no strings attached, you create goodwill and give them something to tell others about.
A resource can be many things. Here are some examples I have seen that have gotten good result in search engines.
White Paper or Case Study
A few years ago Jim Logan, the brains behind SalesKick.me, put pen to paper and described a highly successful project he did for a client. In it he gave details of what he did and an analysis of why it worked. The result was a 57 page document that has generated thousands of new visitors to his website and many new clients.
You can see the white paper and learn more about it at SalesKick.me.
Reference Guide
A very successful training company used this idea to get page one results and a lot of backlinks for their customer service training courses. They created a page on their website that listed several dozen customer service quotes.
I know. This seems too simple. But it worked very well. And it keeps working because, even after 5 years, they still have page one rank for the term “customer service quotes”.
Go to BusinessTrainingWorks to learn more about their inventive resource.
Online Tool
If you build an online tool that provides useful information or services for people, you can get them coming back again and again.
The bright people at Whitespark have done this well. They have used their web design and local SEO skills to to create a useful tool called the Local Citation Finder. It saves people time by automating some of the back end work of local search engine optimization.
Study or Research Report
Several years ago, my company used this tactic to generate publicity, leads and valuable inbound links. Since my business was customer service training, I created a survey for people to share their thoughts about the state of customer service. Then I put this on our website and told others in the industry about it.
The result was a 25 page report detailing what people thought about customer service, plus recommendations for what companies could do about it.
There are many other ways to create useful resources for your website visitors. You might host a forum or a Q&A site so people could ask questions and get answers. You could publish a series of articles that focus on a specific topic of concern to your customers. Or you might create an audio or video clip that has helpful information. You can do this easily by interviewing experts in your field.
How to get the best ROI from your free resource
To get the most from this technique, here are some guidelines.
1. Make it relevant
Creating a free weather application for your website might be neat. But if your company sells industrial cleaning equipment, it won't help you attract more customers.
You know your customers. More importantly, you know what questions they ask and what problems they are trying to solve, in the context of your business. Think about the many ways you help your customers.
Use these situations to form the basis of your resource. They will tell you how to make your free resource relevant.
2. Offer Value
Put enough substance in your resource to make it useful. The temptation might be to hold back so people will “have” to do business with you. Don’t.
Create your resource so it offers value all by itself.
Of course you don’t want your free resource to take business from you. Look at the examples above and see how they were created to be useful without cutting in to the core services offered by their firms.
3. Make it free and easy to use
Another temptation is to try to get something in exchange for your free resource. But remember, “free” does not just refer to money. It also refers to time and convenience. If you make it hard for people to use your resource (by asking them for a lot of personal information or requiring they schedule an appointment) they will not consider your resource to be free.
Anything you do that keeps people from easily and quickly using your resource creates friction. And friction will result in fewer people using it. If fewer people use it, then you’ll have fewer leads, fewer new customers and a lot less buzz about it.
4. Make it easy to share
Create and publish your resource in a way that is easy to tell others about. Make it easy to point them to it using a simple URL or a button on your website. And give it a name that makes sense and is easy to remember.
5. Don’t make it a marketing piece
The real marketing value in your free resource comes from the next step. You want them to either inquire about your business and services or products. And you want them to tell others about it.
6. Tell people about it
If you have built a useful and relevant tool that offers real value, then you need to tell the world. It’s okay to toot your own horn.
Some examples:
So to attract more customers using the wonderful Web, you need to give people a reason to visit your website. Here’s a way to get more visitors that will keep on working year after year, if you do it well.
Create and offer a free resource your visitors find useful.
Done right, a free resource showcases your company’s skills and gives potential customers a good reason to learn more about you. By giving the something of value, with no strings attached, you create goodwill and give them something to tell others about.
A resource can be many things. Here are some examples I have seen that have gotten good result in search engines.
White Paper or Case Study
A few years ago Jim Logan, the brains behind SalesKick.me, put pen to paper and described a highly successful project he did for a client. In it he gave details of what he did and an analysis of why it worked. The result was a 57 page document that has generated thousands of new visitors to his website and many new clients.
You can see the white paper and learn more about it at SalesKick.me.
Reference Guide
A very successful training company used this idea to get page one results and a lot of backlinks for their customer service training courses. They created a page on their website that listed several dozen customer service quotes.
I know. This seems too simple. But it worked very well. And it keeps working because, even after 5 years, they still have page one rank for the term “customer service quotes”.
Go to BusinessTrainingWorks to learn more about their inventive resource.
Online Tool
If you build an online tool that provides useful information or services for people, you can get them coming back again and again.
The bright people at Whitespark have done this well. They have used their web design and local SEO skills to to create a useful tool called the Local Citation Finder. It saves people time by automating some of the back end work of local search engine optimization.
Study or Research Report
Several years ago, my company used this tactic to generate publicity, leads and valuable inbound links. Since my business was customer service training, I created a survey for people to share their thoughts about the state of customer service. Then I put this on our website and told others in the industry about it.
The result was a 25 page report detailing what people thought about customer service, plus recommendations for what companies could do about it.
There are many other ways to create useful resources for your website visitors. You might host a forum or a Q&A site so people could ask questions and get answers. You could publish a series of articles that focus on a specific topic of concern to your customers. Or you might create an audio or video clip that has helpful information. You can do this easily by interviewing experts in your field.
How to get the best ROI from your free resource
To get the most from this technique, here are some guidelines.
1. Make it relevant
Creating a free weather application for your website might be neat. But if your company sells industrial cleaning equipment, it won't help you attract more customers.
You know your customers. More importantly, you know what questions they ask and what problems they are trying to solve, in the context of your business. Think about the many ways you help your customers.
Use these situations to form the basis of your resource. They will tell you how to make your free resource relevant.
2. Offer Value
Put enough substance in your resource to make it useful. The temptation might be to hold back so people will “have” to do business with you. Don’t.
Create your resource so it offers value all by itself.
Of course you don’t want your free resource to take business from you. Look at the examples above and see how they were created to be useful without cutting in to the core services offered by their firms.
3. Make it free and easy to use
Another temptation is to try to get something in exchange for your free resource. But remember, “free” does not just refer to money. It also refers to time and convenience. If you make it hard for people to use your resource (by asking them for a lot of personal information or requiring they schedule an appointment) they will not consider your resource to be free.
Anything you do that keeps people from easily and quickly using your resource creates friction. And friction will result in fewer people using it. If fewer people use it, then you’ll have fewer leads, fewer new customers and a lot less buzz about it.
4. Make it easy to share
Create and publish your resource in a way that is easy to tell others about. Make it easy to point them to it using a simple URL or a button on your website. And give it a name that makes sense and is easy to remember.
5. Don’t make it a marketing piece
The real marketing value in your free resource comes from the next step. You want them to either inquire about your business and services or products. And you want them to tell others about it.
6. Tell people about it
If you have built a useful and relevant tool that offers real value, then you need to tell the world. It’s okay to toot your own horn.
Some examples:
- Email your customers and leads
- Put it on your website (home page and use a graphic to get attention)
- Put a link in your email signature
- Post about it in your blog
- Post it to Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and other social media sites
- Bookmark it to Digg, Delicious and others.
- Let bloggers in your industry or niche know about it.
- Online and local/industry press releases
