A consistent inflow of website visitors is one of the main goals of every marketer. Website traffic keeps the top of the funnel filled with prospects and leads who could convert into customers.
The average time people from 16 to 34 years old spend online is seven hours daily, according to Statista.
The key to unlocking a larger share of this traffic pie lies in diversified strategies and unique angles for attracting online users’ attention.
In this post, we look at:
- Why it is important to have a traffic generation strategy
- 7 Traffic generation strategies with real-world examples
- How you can leverage gamification to drive website traffic
- Gamification best practices
- Your next steps
Understanding Website Traffic Generation And Its Importance
A robust online presence hinges not just on the number of visitors but on the quality of those visitors. Superior traffic quality, characterized by longer engagement and higher conversion rates, effectively augments brand visibility.
A regular influx of first-time visitors and returning users translates to higher sales potential. This creates a sustainable environment for your online business’ growth. Generating traffic isn’t merely about visibility but meaningful engagement and revenue.
As you attract more visitors to your site, you also learn more about your audience and their needs and behaviors. This knowledge, in turn, enables you to adapt your overall marketing strategy.
7 Diverse Strategies To Generate Traffic
A multifaceted approach to traffic generation is the best way to expand your reach. Each market niche has a different target audience with particular needs and behaviors.
These audiences display unique customer journeys, including the various channels and platforms they use to find and interact with your brand.
Let us explore seven scenarios where companies have successfully implemented traffic generation strategies.
- Content Marketing: HubSpot
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Airbnb
- Email Marketing: BuzzFeed
- Social Media Marketing: GoPro
- PPC: Monday.com
- Gamification Marketing: Visana
- Influencer Collaborations: SEAT
1. Content Marketing: How HubSpot Became The Go-To Resource For Inbound Marketing
HubSpot’s success story best illustrates the transformative power of content marketing. In 2005, HubSpot’s co-founder and CEO Brian Halligan coined the phrase ‘inbound marketing.’
With inbound marketing, HubSpot rallied for an approach that shifted away from traditional, intrusive marketing tactics in favor of more organic, customer-centric business growth. This strategy perfectly complements the tools and workflows offered on their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform.
To promote this concept, HubSpot relied heavily on content marketing and created engaging, informative articles on all things inbound sales and marketing. This set the company up as a thought leader in the marketing and CRM space.
HubSpot’s Content Marketing Approach:
- Understanding Their Audience: HubSpot initiated its content marketing journey by understanding its target audience’s primary needs and pain points. By segmenting their audience based on buyer personas, they tailored their blog content to address specific challenges faced by marketers and sales professionals.
- High-Quality, Comprehensive Content: Instead of focusing solely on its products, HubSpot produced a library of educational content. From how-to articles, research reports, and webinars to free tools like website graders, the company provides immense value to its audience without immediate expectation of a return.
- Consistency Is Key: One of the hallmarks of HubSpot’s content strategy was consistency. With a commitment to regular blog updates, they ensured a steady stream of new and relevant content, positioning themselves as a reliable and up-to-date source of industry knowledge.
- Interactive And Engaging Formats: Recognizing that different users prefer different types of content, HubSpot diversified its content formats. Infographics, podcasts, videos, and interactive quizzes augment their written content, catering to varied audience preferences.
- Educational Over Promotional: Arguably, one of their most impactful strategies was the creation of the HubSpot Academy. Offering free courses, certifications, and training, they emphasize education over direct promotion, fostering trust and credibility in the industry.
- Results: HubSpot’s dedication to content marketing transformed the company from a sales software to a marketing industry thought leader. Their blog, which started as a modest platform, now garners millions of monthly views. More importantly, it has played a pivotal role in establishing inbound marketing as a recognized and effective strategy, with HubSpot at its epicenter.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): How Airbnb Mastered Local Listings To Dominate Organic Search
From humble beginnings to its meteoric rise in the hospitality sector, Airbnb’s success can be attributed to its unique business model and its deft use of SEO.
The company strategically tapped into the potential of local SEO to ensure that listings on its platform appeared at the top of search results across the globe.
Airbnb’s SEO Marketing Approach:
- Localized Content: Airbnb understood the value of creating local content for its vast global audience. Each city or destination on its platform has its own unique guidebook detailing local attractions, eateries, and experiences. This local expertise is a valuable resource for travelers and ensures Airbnb pages rank well for local search queries.
- Optimized Listings: Airbnb hosts are prompted to provide detailed descriptions, which are then subtly guided to be SEO-friendly. From highlighting the proximity of listings to popular local landmarks to integrating high-quality images and reviews, each listing is optimized to gain organic traffic.
- Mobile Optimization: With the rise in mobile searches, Airbnb ensured its platform was 100% mobile-responsive. The seamless mobile experience and its mobile app ensured high mobile search visibility.
- User-Generated Content (UGC): Reviews and testimonials play a significant role in SEO, especially for a travel and hospitality app. Airbnb’s platform thrives on UGC, with hosts and travelers continually updating the site with fresh and relevant reviews, photos, and feedback. UGC also usually ranks well on Google Search for long-tail keywords that potential customers will likely research.
- Inbound Links: Airbnb frequently collaborates with travel bloggers, influencers, and news outlets. These collaborations often result in high-quality inbound links, bolstering the platform’s domain authority.
- Technical SEO: The backbone of Airbnb’s SEO strategy is its emphasis on technical SEO. With fast page load times, clean URLs, and structured data, Airbnb ensures search engines can easily crawl and index its vast array of pages.
- Results: Airbnb’s meticulous SEO strategy ensures that when users search for accommodation in nearly any city around the world, Airbnb listings appear prominently. Organic search traffic skyrocketed, and Airbnb became synonymous with unique travel experiences. Their mastery of local SEO cemented their status as a platform for booking accommodation and a comprehensive travel resource.
3. Email Marketing: How BuzzFeed Boosted Engagement And Drove Traffic Through Tailored Newsletters
BuzzFeed, renowned for its engaging content across various genres, effectively utilized email marketing to cater to the diverse interests of its vast readership.
Their tailored newsletters utilize attention-grabbing subject lines and preheader texts to engage their target audience. BuzzFeed’s email marketing strategy is a testament to the platform’s commitment to user-centric content delivery.
BuzzFeed’s Email Marketing Approach:
- Segmentation And Personalization: Understanding that one-size-fits-all does not work in email marketing, BuzzFeed segmented its subscribers based on their interests. Whether it is the latest news, quizzes, or specific interest areas like tech or fashion, subscribers receive content tailored to their preferences.
- Engaging Subject Lines: BuzzFeed’s email subject lines are catchy, humorous, or intriguing, prompting users to click through. By making the first point of interaction engaging, they significantly improved their email open rates.
- Mobile-First Design: With many users accessing emails on mobile devices, BuzzFeed ensured their newsletters were optimized for mobile viewing. Clean design, concise content, and clear call-to-action buttons make for a seamless mobile email experience.
- Interactive Content: BuzzFeed’s emails often include interactive elements like quizzes, polls, or animated GIFs. Such content makes the emails more engaging and encourages users to visit the BuzzFeed site, driving consistent traffic.
- Consistency And Timing: BuzzFeed recognized the importance of sending out emails at consistent intervals and optimal times. Analyzing user behavior, they identified the best days and times to send out newsletters, ensuring higher open and click-through rates.
- Feedback Loop: Incorporating regular surveys and feedback forms enables BuzzFeed to continually refine its email content based on subscriber preferences. This iterative approach ensures that their email strategy stays aligned with user interests.
- Results: With tailored content and a focus on user engagement, BuzzFeed’s email marketing strategy significantly boosted its site traffic. Their newsletters became many subscribers’ primary source of daily content, strengthening their brand loyalty and ensuring repeated site visits.
4. Social Media Marketing: How GoPro Turned Customers Into Brand Ambassadors
GoPro, a company that manufactures action cameras, transcended traditional advertising strategies by leveraging UGC on social media channels. Their success story demonstrates the power of community engagement and the impact of authentic content.
GoPro’s Social Media Marketing Approach:
- Harnessing UGC: GoPro recognized the potential of its user base to create stunning visuals using their cameras. Instead of just promoting the product’s features, they showcased the experiences it could capture. Users were encouraged to share their adrenaline-filled adventures, serene landscapes, and unique perspectives using the hashtag #GoPro.
- Weekly Challenges: GoPro regularly hosts challenges on platforms like Instagram, offering prizes for the best content. These challenges keep their community of adventure seekers engaged and provide GoPro with a constant stream of fresh content.
- Authentic Storytelling: Real user stories are at the forefront of GoPro’s social media strategy. Sharing videos and photos from everyday users fosters a sense of community and authenticity around their brand.
- Cross-Platform Engagement: While platforms like Instagram and YouTube are primary content drivers, GoPro maintains a consistent presence across various channels, tailoring content to each platform’s unique audience.
- Collaboration With Influencers: GoPro partners with adventure and travel influencers, ensuring their product is featured in breathtaking content worldwide to reach diverse audiences.
- Engagement Over Promotion: Instead of overtly pushing sales, GoPro focuses on engaging with its customers and fans. Their marketing team frequently highlights user stories, responds to comments, and celebrates the creativity of their audience.
- Results: GoPro’s social media strategy transformed its customers into brand ambassadors. The authentic content generated by users showcases GoPro cameras’ capabilities and the endless possibilities these products offer. The brand has become synonymous with adventure and creativity.
5. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): How Monday.com Boosted Brand Awareness And User Acquisition
Formerly known as dapulse, Monday.com has emerged as one of the most recognizable platforms in the work operating system (Work OS) market. This online software enables individuals and teams to manage and collaborate on work, projects, and everyday tasks.
Monday.com was commercially launched in 2014 and set to work to position itself distinctly in a market crowded with project management and collaboration tools. Their goal was not just user acquisition but also brand recall and awareness.
Monday.com’s PPC Marketing Approach:
- Strategy: As part of its broader marketing strategy, Monday.com opted for a PPC campaign combined with eye-catching visual advertising. They target high-intent keywords related to project management, team collaboration, and workflow automation.
- Ad Design And Copy: Monday.com ads stand out for their bold colors and simplistic design. The copy is concise and focused on the ease of use, flexibility, and how teams can get more done using the platform. Their consistent branding – bright blues, flat illustrations, and signature logo – ensures easy recall.
- Landing Page Optimization: Clicking on an ad leads potential users to an interactive landing page that allows them to sign up for a free account and try out the software.
- Results: Monday.com’s PPC campaigns are pivotal in driving a surge in sign-ups. Their distinctive branding and hands-on interactive onboarding experience resonate with their target audience, leading to a higher conversion rate.
6. Gamification Marketing: Amplifying Engagement With Sports At Visana
Visana is a well-known Swiss insurance provider offering a wide range of insurance solutions, including accident and property coverage. The brand prioritizes customer satisfaction and trust by providing personalized consultations and customer-oriented services.
Based in Bern, Visana has a strong commitment to the well-being of Swiss residents and promotes a holistic approach to healthcare.
Games engage users at unparalleled levels, merging entertainment with brand interaction. The brand has successfully integrated gamification into its marketing strategy to bring across its values and build lasting customer relationships.
Visana’s Gamification Marketing Approach:
- Community Events: Visana hosts and collaborates with local sporting events to directly interact with their target audience. Visana Sprint events, organized in cooperation with Swiss Athletics, are renowned running events that unite the Swiss community in celebrating athleticism and healthy living.
- Digital Gamification: Recognizing the potential for elevating brand engagement during sporting events, Visana cleverly incorporated a gamified Visana Sprint Game. By scanning a QR code printed on a snack, attendees could play the running game on their mobile devices.
- High Brand Engagement: With a theme that complemented the running event, attendees were captivated by Visana’s game. The average play time per player was 90 seconds – much higher than the average watch time on other online ad platforms.
- Results: The Visana Sprint Game attracted over 1,000 page visitors at one event. With a form embedded in gameplay to capture qualifying information, a lead conversion rate of 38% was recorded. This shows that gamification can be used as one of the most effective traffic generation tools.
7. Influencer Collaborations: How SEAT Gets People Excited About The 0-Emissions Future
Aiming to position itself as a dynamic and youthful car brand, vehicle manufacturer SEAT recognized the importance of reaching younger audiences where they are most active: on social platforms like Instagram.
SEAT’s influencer collaborations on Instagram demonstrate how brands can resonate with specific target demographics by leveraging authentic influencer partnerships on the right platform. Their approach combines reach, authenticity, and engagement, enhancing brand visibility and interest.
3 Pillars Of Successful Influencer Marketing:
- Authenticity: Influencers share their genuine experiences, making them relatable to their audience.
- Engagement: Contests and challenges spur user participation, creating a ripple effect of brand visibility.
- Right Platform Choice: Using Instagram, SEAT effectively reaches its target demographic and drives traffic to its website.
SEAT’s Influencer Marketing Approach:
- Strategy: SEAT partners with influencers whose followers match their target demographics: diverse young urban Europeans with a penchant for stylish, modern designs.
- Influencer Selection: Rather than choosing only top-tier influencers with millions of followers, SEAT smartly combines collaborations with both macro-influencers and micro-influencers. This approach ensures a wide reach and authentic engagement with potential customers.
- Campaign Execution: Influencers are given experiences with SEAT products – from city drives to road trips. The influencers share their authentic experiences on Instagram through posts, stories, and videos, often showcasing vehicle features in real-life scenarios. These posts are usually accompanied by a branded hashtag, encouraging broader campaign visibility.
- Engagement: SEAT ensures active engagement by hosting Instagram contests and challenges where followers can participate for a chance to win prizes, leading to UGC that further amplifies the campaign’s reach.
- Results: Influencer collaborations on Instagram significantly boosted SEAT’s brand awareness among younger demographics. The authentic content created by influencers and active engagement strategies leads to increased interactions, brand recall, and interest in the featured vehicle models.
How You Can Generate Traffic With Gamification
Humans are innately drawn to games – social media challenges, real-world rewards, and online competition stimulate engagement. Gamification taps into this psychology, ensuring not just website visits but meaningful interactions.
Creating ways for your audience to interact with your brand turns visitors into participants.
You can activate passive consumers through badges, leaderboards, or interactive challenges.
Integrate Games Into Your Marketing Strategy
Game-based engagements should align with a brand’s voice and goals. Understanding how to strategically integrate these elements will help you increase sales.
Games should be designed with specific business objectives in mind, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving product sales, or collecting customer feedback.
For instance, if the goal is to increase product sales, consider a game where users can earn discounts or promotional codes.
Your gamification elements should also not stand alone in your marketing mix. They can be integrated into broader marketing campaigns on social media, email campaigns, or website promotions. For instance, tease a game launch on social media to drive traffic to your website or incorporate game links in email newsletters.
Craft Customized Branded Games
Delve into the creative process of developing brand-centric games. With the right balance between entertainment and information, your marketing games can delight and grow your audience.
Avoid clichéd game mechanics. Instead, aim for something unique or add a twist to well-known game types. Customization can be as simple as incorporating company-specific challenges or as complex as creating a wholly original game from scratch.
With Brame’s highly customizable Game Concepts, you can create a bespoke game based on a tried-and-tested template.
It is also good to note that too much branding can turn a game into a blatant advertisement, which can turn off users. Strike a balance. Use subtle branding cues and weave in your brand message without overpowering the game’s entertainment value.
Promoting Engagement And Interaction
For sustained traffic, gamified strategies should focus on long-term customer engagement. This comes down to your game design.
It should be easy enough to play but challenging enough to keep your users coming back for more. There should also be a “stickiness” factor – what can you add to make your game highly rewarding and slightly addictive?
Recognize and reward user participation. This can be through badges, certificates, discounts, or any other reward that suits your brand and audience. Understand what your ideal customer appreciates most by monitoring user engagement.
You can track metrics like average time spent, return visits, shares, and clicks. These insights can reveal website traffic patterns that will guide you to further tweak game features and enhance engagement.
Best Practices For Utilizing Gamification In Traffic Generation
Want to ensure the success of your gamified traffic generation endeavors? We share a few traffic generation tips below:
- Leverage Trending Themes: Integrate contemporary topics your audience cares about.
- Integrate Cross-Platform Compatibility: Reach users wherever they are on whatever devices they prefer using. Learn more about taking an omnichannel approach.
- Leverage Geo-Location Features: Add a real-world touch by localizing game elements to your user’s location. Always ask for permission before using this personalization data.
- Incorporate Adaptive Learning Mechanisms: Consider personalizing game challenges based on certain conditions, such as demographics or previous interactions with your website.
- Employ Behavior-Based Reward Systems: Tailor rewards for users to provide a personalized experience. This will also encourage players to return to the game to earn different types of rewards.
- Implement Timely And Seasonal Updates: Have you heard of evergreen content? This is content that is timeless and always relevant. But if you want to keep up with changing trends and technologies, review your gamified content and update it accordingly.
- Engage Users With Storytelling: Narratives deepen engagement, especially if it involves values and causes your customers are passionate about.
- Prioritize Inclusive And Accessible Design: You may be excluding high-quality traffic to your site simply because it is not optimized for certain impairments. Inclusive and accessible content means more value for your customers.
- Utilize Personalized Gamified Email Campaigns: Adding gamification elements can enrich email engagement, encouraging click-through and driving website traffic.
- Consistent Branding: Ensure that any game or interactive feature integrates seamlessly with your brand’s aesthetics and voice. Cohesive branding will make the game feel like a natural extension of your brand rather than an outlier.
Piecing The Puzzle Together: Your Next Steps
Utilizing diverse marketing strategies will provide organic traffic influx if you understand your target audience. Finding the right combination of these tactics for your business may be hit-and-miss at first.
Learning from well-known brands is a good start to finding a new traffic generation strategy for your brand. By measuring your results, you can tailor your campaign to precisely answer your audience’s needs.
Gamification is an unmatched engagement tool that can transform passive website visitors into active participants.
As brands evolve in the digital realm, gamification emerges not only as a marketing strategy but as a revolution in customer interaction.
Want to learn how you can use Brame’s gamification platform to drive website traffic?
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