How to Promote a New Website Using Only Inbound Marketing Tactics

I have good news: it's entirely possible to promote a new website successfully using only inbound marketing tactics.

Case in point: We helped Atlantech.net increase their monthly organic traffic by more than 1000%, and their monthly lead generation by 366%, in just 12 months with inbound marketing.

The best part?

We spent zero dollars on advertisements.

Now, paid traffic isn’t a bad thing. In fact, used right, it’s a powerful way to build business through your website. But it’s not the only way, nor is it the most cost-effective way.

Before we get started, a quick word of caution: Organic traffic is not free traffic.

Creating content people actually want to consume requires either spending significant time researching and creating content yourself, or spending to have someone else do it for you.

If you’re going to promote your website with inbound marketing, you will be spending something.

With that said, inbound efforts snowball over time, which gets really exciting as you consistently invest in it over the long-term.

Here's what that looked like for Atlantech:

• 7 months: 5,000 visitors/mo
• 10 months: 10,000 visitors/mo
• 12 months: 15,000 visitors/mo

As you can see, once you reach a certain tipping point with inbound, you will consistently experience increasing results without scaling your investment or spend.

How to Promote a New Website Using Only Inbound Marketing Tactics

1. Blogging (The Big 5)

Remember how we said inbound marketing isn't a quick fix? Well, that's true.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't see any gains within your first couple months of effort. Companies who don't see any results early-on are typically blogging about the wrong topics. Not only should you be centering your content around the topics your prospects are most curious about (via good ole' keyword research), you should also be addressing "The Big 5."

Marcus Sheridan, of The Sales Lion, has uncovered five key blogging categories that lead to dependable traffic generation and conversions:

1. Cost/Price

In this article, you answer the question that is most frequently on a prospect's mind head-on: How much is this going to cost me?

While many businesses intentionally avoid discussing this, out of fear they will scare the prospect off, they are actually doing themselves a disservice. Wasting time on prospects who aren't willing and able to buy is dumb. As for your competitors? Don't kid yourself--they already know how much you charge.

2. Problems

Few products or services are truly perfect; savvy customers understand this and actively look for the holes within sales pitches. Actively address who your product can't help, what it can't do and offer alternative solutions when possible. It's just good business.

3. Comparisons

Think back to the last time you bought something expensive? You probably compared it against other major brands, right? Do the heavy-lifting for your prospect by openly comparing your product or service against your competitors. Try to be as objective as possible, while discussing the features/benefits for each option on your list.

4. Reviews

Choose a product or service that is somehow related to your business and provide a well-researched review of its features and benefits. A well-written review could save someone significant time during the decision-making process and prime them to buy your complimentary product or service.

5. Best of Articles

Best of articles come in many variations (Best, Fastest, Cheapest, Easiest, etc.), and are extremely popular with search engines. Not only do people have fun reading these, but they also provide the benefit of demonstrating your expertise on a particular topic.

Not so mysterious, right?

While "thought-leadership content" sounds great, it's actually a waste of time if you don't actually have anything original to say. Conversely, building your SEO footprint by consistently providing the information prospects are searching for is within reach for most businesses.

If you only master one inbound marketing tactic on this list, make it this one!

2. Post Videos on YouTube

Did you know YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world?

Owned by Google, the video platform draws in an impressive 3 billion search queries, on average, per month. Since people are increasingly turning to video, posting videos blogs on YouTube boosts your inbound marketing efforts in two ways:

1. It points a new traffic stream toward your website (people searching within YouTube).
2. It enhances your Google page rankings.

The benefits provided by the first point are kind of obvious: Tapping into a new audience via a search engine besides Google. Here's a post we wrote on 5 Easy Ways to Optimize Videos for YouTube.

The benefit provided by the second point deserves further explanation: Since Google knows people overwhelmingly prefer video, it has steadily increased the medium's importance when determining search rankings. Businesses who post keyword-optimized videos on YouTube now have an opportunity to be featured as a "snippet" at the top of Page One.

3. Post Infographics on Social

Despite their recent overuse as click-bait, a targeted infographic can still drive traffic. One study actually found that high-quality infographics are liked and shared three times more than any other type of content. This is probably because bloggers are always looking for useful content to share with their readers and will jump at the chance to share something that makes them look good.

There are a variety of methods for generating compelling infographic content, including capitalizing on timely industry trends, repurposing old content and distilling the high-points of relevant studies.

Types of Infographics:

• Timeline: Good for illustrating technologies, philosophies, and biographies.
• Instructional: Used for breaking down complex steps into bite-sized bits.
• Comparison: Ideal for explaining the differences between related concepts.
• Statistical: Perfect for extracting important figures from cumbersome reports.

Check out sites like Nerdgraph and Visual.ly for examples of each type, and watch the video below to learn how to go about creating them:

4. Add Slide Decks to SlideShare

Dubbed “The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing,” by KissMetrics, SlideShare allows users to upload SlideShare presentations and share them with a highly targeted audience.

The site gets 60 million visitors per month, yet is still in its infancy in terms of marketing usage.

The trick to driving site traffic via SlideShare is to:

• Make the kind of presentation your target audience can't help but watch. That means spending extra time on a beautiful design (most people don't do this), tackling an especially compelling subject matter and presenting your slides in a digestible manner.
• Include your URL within the final slide of your presentation.
• Title your presentations with relevant long-tail keywords.

Since SlideShare boasts higher domain authority than your own website, you'll have a much easier time ranking for those keywords on the SERP. Check out this webinar replay to learn how Eugene Chang got more than 2 million views a month using the platform:

5. Share Content In Social Groups

You may not have a huge social media following, but that doesn't mean you can't still use social to drive traffic. Both Facebook and LinkedIn boast a variety of groups where your ideal customers are probably hanging out. Unfortunately, many business owners join groups with good intentions, only to receive little to no traffic from their participation.

Assuming they chose the right group, there are usually one of two things going on in such instances:

1. They were blatantly promoting and spamming the community newsfeed or

2. They failed to interact with other members in a meaningful way.

Don’t be that person who plugs an article and jets. And don't be the person who offers generic platitudes, like, “Great article!” Instead, ask thought-provoking questions, share the content you find of interest and add as much value as possible.

If you need some ideas on which groups to join, here’s a list of over 60 niche communities.

6. Answer Questions on Quora + Reddit

As getting noticed on Facebook becomes increasingly more difficult, savvy marketers are turning to social sites like Quora and Reddit for free exposure. While both platforms are centered around discussing specific topics of interests, each has a unique purpose and set of rules.

Quora is a place to share your authority on any given topic. Any member of the community can pose a question, and any member can answer a question. Search for questions related to your niche and provide thoughtful answers when you can.

Reddit is an entertainment-based community where members discuss everything from weird things they thought about in the shower to the best way to flip a house. Interestingly, Reddit is one of the few social platforms where you can't "fake it." Redditors can smell a finely veiled promo from a mile away and they will brutally bash you for it.

The site requires no more than 10% of what you post be self-promotional. So, join subreddits you're personally interested in, contribute to the discussion and when it feels natural, casually mention your business.

7. Monitor HARO for PR Opportunities

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a free newsletter service that connects journalists with potential sources for the stories they are working on. Once you sign-up, you will receive three emails a day listing all of the available opportunities for expert contributors. From there, it's up to you to pitch the journalist.

Considering most news outlets have high domain authority, getting a backlink from one of them is pretty darn valuable in the eyes of search engines. Not only will the mention make Google look more favorably upon your own content, but you will also receive a nice temporary boost in traffic from individuals reading the news article.

Success with HARO rests on four factors:

• Qualifying the request
• Being fast
• Being unique
• Keeping it short

Check out this awesome article for a thorough breakdown of how to master HARO.

Inbound Marketing Tactics Work

Promoting your new website doesn't have to be exceedingly complicated, nor does it have to be a crapshoot. By consistently implementing one, several or all of these techniques, you can steadily drive qualified traffic to your site.

With that said, you must be consistent in your efforts over the long-term.

Want to learn more about how to quadruple your organic search traffic in plain English? Download this guide to building organic traffic to your website.