Life after advertising...

Almost 18 months ago, I was given the task to start a micro site for our purpose of "Building a better working world". This was originally built as a destination to an advertising campaign, but once the campaign finished, we needed to keep the site relevant and continue to attract visitors. This is the issue many marketers face... how do you keep the visitors coming after the advertising machine stops?

Driving traffic to a site without constant advertising is not an easy task, but it is the challenge everyone phases after the advertising campaigns finish. Most businesses can't really run advertising campaigns all the time, so there is always the quiet period when you need your site to stay alive and continue to interest your audience.


The solution is to develop great and new content all the time. If someone revisits your site, and they always find the same, they won't see a point in returning. If every time they come back they see new and interesting updates, they will keep coming for more.

You can start by developing content based on information coming from all types of existing internal publications, campaigns and information. The idea is basic: keep it simple! You want to engage people in an easy and catchy way. In every company there is lots of great things happening throughout the world, but you just need to tell them in an easy and engaging way. Short stories can be a great way to connect to the audience, and then provide links to where people can find more information about your products/programs/initiatives.

This all has to be supported by a comprehensive strategy to use your own promotion channels. Social media and e-mail are great tools to keep your site active. People will Like, Share and Comment, and their networks will see it. You should also try to start building a database of contacts that are interested. If you are updating content on a regular basis, people who are truly interested will sign up. And through periodic email alerts, you can keep them up to date so they know what is new.

Finally, I know I may sound like a broken record, but content has everything to do with Analytics. Modern services will show you what is the most popular content, where people spent more time, the most shared, etc. This will give you a good indication, but it requires some analysis... Why is this piece of content better than the rest? What made it more successful? How can we replicate the same in new content pieces?

If you manage your content smartly, use your social and email channels, analyze the successful content, and learn, the result will be that your site keeps growing every month... more page views, more visitors, more time spent on page! It is because of the constantly updated and interesting content that people keep coming back.