As a small business leader or an independent entrepreneur, you need all your assets to be working hard for you, and never more so than when it comes to your website. As your shop window to the world, it’s a key device for letting customers, suppliers, and investors know about who you are and what you do. And especially when you are operating on a shoestring budget, it can be your most effective channel for generating sales and producing some quality content marketing. So get started with optimizing your website and you’ll soon notice that a little time investment pays dividends.

Build Your Email Marketing

You can generate a lot of traffic to your site, but most will leave without ever visiting again. So your focus should be on making sure that you capture data, which allows you to personalize offers, build an email marketing strategy and start to form a customer relationship. Start by signing up to an easy to use email marketing system, and installing some form of data capture on your site – sometimes it works well to offer some added value content to drive sign-ups, or you could promise an exclusive discount or a free gift. Once they are on your radar, begin a program of smart follow-ups designed to hook them in and learn more about them.

Improve Your Visibility

Getting seen is the biggest struggle going for most small businesses – when the digital universe is so huge, how do you stand out? Creating quality content can really help to boost your profile and your standing on search engines. Consider an SEO website audit to try and understand what you can do to improve your site and structure it clearly – little things like using heading text and making sure your images have alt tags can really help with this. Working with a professional agency can sometimes help you to see things you may otherwise have missed that can make a crucial difference in how your website ranks.

Grow With Google Analytics

A lot of solo female entrepreneurs trust blind instinct when it comes to making important decisions about where to take their business – but you can get the edge by using data analytics to steer you. Google Analytics is a great tool that helps to pull out trends in who visits your website and why. Used with a plug-in like MonsterInsights in WordPress, you can easily use this information to shape your website and your growth strategy. By responding in an agile way to changing market conditions and customer demands, you can step ahead of your competitors.

Connect With Your Online Communities

Online communities are a fantastic and underrated way of growing your website traffic. Marketing these days is all about making connections, establishing relationships and showing your expertise. And a brilliant way to do that is to join in on current discussions relevant to your sector – be it through social media channels, in forums or in channels such as LinkedIn Groups. The right channel mix depends on audience research and knowing where your customers are. But being a part of the conversation will allow you to reach new people and associate your brand with new topics – boosting high-value traffic to your website in the process.