Use your customers to help you market.

This may sound odd and presumptuous, but in fact, your customers are the most powerful advert and marketing tool you have. They are particularly useful for increasing rankings on search engines and increasing your visibility online.

Why?

Because, true SEO is about the natural traffic you generate, not the amount of keywords and PPC adverts you create! While all the tried and tested SEO tactics are essential for any internet marketing plan, without the resulting human traffic they generate, they will be of no effect at all.

Search engines work by looking for natural, real, and regular activity. The only way to create this is with real people, really real people, who are visiting your website, commenting on your posts, and sharing the content you create.

All your content should have a call to action which generates human activity and traffic. Here are some examples that you can easily and quickly implement on your website and social media today.

Register as a customer – a simple button on your home page offering a social media login which enables visitors and customers to register can result in three forms of activity: They will go to the registration page, they will use their Facebook or Twitter account and connect with you that way too, and they will post this news on their news feeds.

Ask a question or invite comments – talking to your customers is a great way to encourage two way communications. Two way communications are a search bot’s favourite food!

Give them something to talk about – sharing content that they will be compelled to share on their own pages, and talk about, is a great way to create activity around your website, or social media pages.

Make being your customers something worth bragging about – brand recognition and brand value are the Holy Grail for marketers and businesses. Every business wants it customers to be proud of their purchase so they go out of their way to tell their friends. By creating content on your website and social media that makes it easy of them to do this, and by presenting your brand as a quality purchase, you will succeed in giving your customers all the incentive they need to show off and promote your business for you.

Just ask – There is no harm in asking your customers to share posts or to respond to your content. Be honest and real with them. While some may not respond, over time the number of responses you get will increase and every answer will notch up another piece of natural activity on your sites.