3 Proven, Time-Tested Strategies to Drive Traffic, Build Community, and Elevate Engagement as you Build your Brand or Business.
Whether you’re a solopreneur or a growing small business, you need more than a surface-level strategy. You need your strategy to be equipped with actionable, measurable, and effective tactics.
This blog presents strategic recipes for three (3) revenue-generating categories of marketing tactics. Within each category, you will learn a strategic approach, why it works, and real-world applications for inspiration in your own business.
Strategy 1: Build Loyalty Through Events
Give people a reason to connect, bond, communicate, or grow and they will associate you with their takeaways. Cultivate events in spaces that match the tone you need to set and foster room to deepen one’s understanding of or experience on a topic of interest. Events serve as a catalyst for creativity and connection. When the right mix of people gets together, they can co-create new ideas and beliefs that forever shape their futures and fortify their dreams. Events can even inspire change. The right kind of event can produce an environment for someone to hear the right advice, meet the right connection, buy the right gift, find the perfect outfit, spark the right idea, and much more. Curating events that focus on your core community is like curating a once in a lifetime gift full of potential memories and inspiration to ignite their next step, new self, or even higher soul.
Said simply: Creating events allows your ideal community to associate all of those takeaways with your brand, which inspires appreciation that can – with time – lead to lasting trust and loyalty. By hosting events or aligning with causes, businesses become part of their audience’s lives, creating a sense of growth, mastery, and even belonging for the people in that community.
Here is an example tactic inspired by this strategy.
Example Tactic: Organic Lemonade Stand for a Wellness Coach
Background: A health and wellness coach wants to expand her network beyond friends and family. She believes in the principle of reciprocity, so she begins thinking of what she can give out that can get people to stop and speak with her.
She does a quick search to see what is going on in the community this week and sees that a 5K is planned for Saturday morning. She knows that runners share similar values as her ideal clients, so she creates a plan to set up a refreshment stand for the marathoners with the organic lemonade that she sells on her website.
Since she wants to make sure people visit her website, she creates a pop up promotion where people from the marathon can receive a free coaching consultation if they leave their information. She also decides to launch a “Buy One, Gift One” deal to increase sales for her lower ticket items. This means that runners who liked the lemonade can buy a gallon of the organic lemonade for themselves and will also receive another one to gift to a friend they know would love it.
While there, the coach makes sure to showcase her brand. Her logo and information about her business are on the tablecloth, her shirt, and a banner she placed behind her.
She ends up increasing website visitors by 20% and sees a 12% increase in lemonade sales over the next 30 days.
Business Impact:
- Introduces the brand to a local audience in a relaxed, approachable way.
- Aligns the brand with an event that supports health within the community.
- Drives awareness by exposing the brand to a new audience through WOM referrals.
- Drives website traffic with a special, event-specific BOGO offer.
- Positions the coach as a community-focused, approachable expert.
Strategy 2: Drive Impact Through Content
Great content transcends trends; it lives on, attracting organic attention over time, like a beacon of light drawing the right people to a shared purpose, goal, or belief. Great content educates without overwhelming, entertains without distraction, and inspires without pretense. When done well, it becomes a resource, a guide, and a source of motivation—proof that your brand exists not just to sell, but to serve. When content is mindful and custom-tailored to your niche, it builds trust and positions your brand as a thought leader. It also improves your brand’s search engine rankings, improving your digital reputation and increasing your opportunity to have a competitive advantage on organic traffic.
Said simply: Quality content establishes your brand as a trusted source, the kind audiences return to for insight, direction, and inspiration. It should be the foundation of meaningful engagement, where your audience can find clarity, seek community, and foster connection. When done well, it becomes a compass that guides your audience back to you, time and time again.
Example Tactic: Gratitude Jar Campaign for a Colored Paper Brand
Circumstance:
A boutique stationery brand with custom-colored premium construction paper wants to drive traffic to its website while emphasizing the importance of gratitude during the holiday season.
The owner understands that heartfelt, shareable content resonates with her audience, especially when tied to a meaningful message, so she decides to create a campaign centered on the idea of expressing thanks through simple, tangible actions.
Execution:
The brand launches a “Gratitude Jar Campaign” with the message: “Share What You Love.” This content-driven campaign includes:
- Blog Posts: The brand writes several inspiring pieces about the benefits of gratitude, tips on how to create a gratitude jar using their custom paper, and ideas for get togethers where they can share the gratitude with those they love. The blogs are hosted on their website and include links to purchase their products and others as needed to complete the project.
- Social Media Content: A series of videos and images demonstrate the step-by-step process of creating a gratitude jar. Customers are encouraged to share their own gratitude stories using a branded hashtag, #ShareWhatYouLove.
- Email Campaign: Subscribers receive a free downloadable “Gratitude Jar Starter Kit,” which includes printable prompts and decorative designs. To access it, they need to provide their email address, driving newsletter sign-ups.
- Partnerships: The brand collaborates with influencers in the mindfulness and lifestyle niches to amplify the campaign’s reach. Influencers create their own gratitude jars and share their experiences, linking back to the brand’s website.
Business Impact:
- Website Traffic: The campaign drives traffic to the blog post and product pages, with a 30% increase in new visitors.
- Engagement: User-generated content from the hashtag boosts visibility and gives those who participate a shared sense of community.
- Sales: Customers are encouraged and motivated to buy the stationery products featured in the gratitude jar tutorial.
- Shareability: The heartfelt message of gratitude resonates with a wider audience, encouraging shares across social media and email in any way that is possible, making the campaign larger than the business, which means the brand is able to transcend its transactional purpose and shift toward being a part of a movement.
This tactic centers on a meaningful, sharable message of gratitude that people enjoy, are already familiar with (little education needed), and are happy to participate in without incentive (tis the season, plus it always pays to be kind). It appeals to emotions, aligns with holiday values, and offers practical value in the form of a free resource. By distributing the message across blog posts, social media, email, and influencer channels, the brand achieves maximum reach while keeping the audience engaged and inspired.
Strategy 3: Entice & Delight with Games and Activities
Gamification is the art of weaving play into purpose, transforming passive audiences into active participants. It taps into the deep-seated human desires for curiosity, competition, and that electrifying spark of achievement when we win—even if it’s a virtual prize.
At its core, gamification isn’t just about prizes or points; it’s about crafting a journey where every interaction feels rewarding. The intrigue of a challenge, the thrill of unlocking a hidden surprise, or the satisfaction of besting a leaderboard—all these elements make your audience not just visitors but players in your story.
This approach doesn’t just capture attention; it captivates. It makes your brand unforgettable by wrapping its message in an experience that people want to talk about and share. A cleverly designed game isn’t just a campaign; it’s a ripple effect, sparking conversations and spreading organically from one eager player to the next.
The beauty of gamification lies in its universality—it’s not limited to tech giants or complex apps. Even the smallest businesses can invite their audience to play, engage, and win, creating lasting connections and driving traffic with joy in its heart.
Example Tactic: Scavenger Hunt for a Local Bookstore
Background:
A cozy, independent bookstore wants to build excitement in their community, increase website traffic, and attract more customers to their shop. They know their audience loves a good adventure, so they design a local scavenger hunt that connects both online and offline experiences.
They plan it to be an interactive treasure hunt centered on book plots, characters, and other literary trivia.
Execution:
- Online Clue Drops: The bookstore posts cryptic literary-themed clues on its website and social media every day for a week. Each clue leads participants to a specific location in the community, such as a coffee shop or park, where a clue is hidden on a scroll or other book / paper-themed material. There is a QR code that takes them to the leaderboard page to check in.
- QR Code Magic: Scanning the QR code not only lets the players check in with their time and place but also highlights more information about the featured book from the clue, with an option to purchase the book and any associated merch directly online, with options to pick up in store.
- Grand Prize Incentive: Those who complete the challenge and solve the final puzzle will be entered into a drawing to win a curated “Ultimate Reader’s Gift Box,” which includes new bestselling novels, cozy merchandise like a tea cup, and branded character scarf, as well as a gift card to incentive future purchases.
- Community Engagement: Partnering with local businesses to host the location of the clues and QR codes fosters collaboration between the bookstore and local businesses. The businesses are happy to participate because it draws foot traffic to their locations and encourages patronage.
Business Impact:
- Website Traffic: Players visit the website daily to access clues, dramatically boosting repeat traffic to the site by 38%.
- Sales: Featured books and related products see an increase in purchases.
- Community Building: The scavenger hunt strengthens ties within the community, making the bookstore a local gem and a common hangout.
- Shareability: Participants eagerly post about their progress, showing off their ranking and discoveries, which helps spread the word about books and the bookstore organically on social media and in real conversations.
This works because gamification immerses participants in an activity that they can level up in, whether personally or among a community of people. It also gives them a fun escape from the norm. From new quests that challenge the brain to creative ways to use our hands and bodies, we enjoy finding out what we’re capable of. Plus, winning—even in small ways—releases dopamine, which is why people will always love playing games and competing.
In the bookstore’s case, the thrill of discovery keeps people engaged, while the sense of community and the promise of a reward drive action. By connecting the physical and digital worlds, the bookstore gains visibility, loyalty, and increased sales, all wrapped in a memorable, story-driven experience.
Conclusion
Use these three strategies in your business and create custom tactics that cement your brand and its benefits in the minds of your customers. Whether it’s through inclusive, community building events; purpose-driven content; or fun games and activities; these approaches help foster connections with your customers while helping to increase traffic to your website.
With that being said, what’s your website doing for you today? What’s the plan to help it do more tomorrow?
Need help planning? We’re good at that – 404-953-KOOL (5665).
- Three Tactics for Driving Traffic to Small Business or e-Commerce Websites - December 12, 2024
- Spark Creativity: Make Your Life the Content - October 3, 2024
- Unlocking Growth: Essential Practices Every Entrepreneur Needs - July 25, 2024
0 Comments