You want to attract clients who are looking for mediation services. Building relationships is – as we know – the best form of marketing there is. A good way of appealing to those clients is by writing high quality content, thereby increasing traffic to your mediation website.
Creating content
Content creation should always be at the front of your mind and alongside your marketing strategy should be your content strategy. One form of content creation is blog writing. The key ingredients to writing a good blog are ensuring you have correctly identified your target market and learning what your clients are looking for and what other content they are engaging with online (SEO research). Once you have written and published your blog be sure to promote it on your social media platforms and by using email marketing. The more engagement you get from these channels, the higher your website will rank on Google.
Google ranking
Ranking on Google is important because the higher you rank the more organic traffic (that’s traffic that is free and not paid for by advertising) you will acquire. Google really likes people who know what they are talking about. As a mediator, the best way to rank top of Google is by writing content where you are clearly demonstrating that you are an expert in the field of mediation. As you continue to write blog posts on areas of mediation, demonstrating your expertise and that you are a trusted source of quality content, the more Google will see you as an authority on the topic.
Social Media
When you use social media platforms to share your blog content make sure you use the right social media channels for your specific audience. For example, if you are a commercial Mediator, it is most likely that your audience and key client outreach should be with Linkedin. Other social media platforms are also of value such as Youtube (for webinar recordings and videos). If your blog can be recorded as a podcast you could use social media platforms such as Audible and Spotify. It is important to be diverse and share your work across many channels, thus reaching as wide an audience as possible.
Email Marketing
As you already have a website promoting your mediation services, you will no doubt have started to build an email marketing list. Each time you write fresh content and a new blog, you should share that with your existing client database using email marketing. Keeping existing clients engaged means that they will revisit your website time and time again to see your fresh content. This in turn keeps your Google ranking high. You also want to grow your existing database though and there are a couple of ways to do this. When you write a blog you could publish it on your website but put it on a landing page where, to read the content, you have to provide your email address. If a client does this you can then add them to your mailing list for future marketing. Also on your website ensure that you always have a newsletter sign up page or area. People who have engaged with your website will (hopefully) like what they see and want to sign up to receive future blogs.
Link building
All of the above is helping you to build authenticity and trust as a brand. Once other websites/clients see you as an authority on the topic of mediation they may well start to share your content on their websites and social media platforms. In doing so they may place a link on their website to go to yours – this is called a backlink. The more backlinks you can get, the higher you will rank on Google. As you build relationships with people you can make this a mutually beneficial exercise by you providing links to their websites on yours. This type of reciprocal activity is called referral traffic.
You don’t just need to rely on others to help you with link building because you can use internal links to help boost engagement. Once you have got a person to go to your website, ideally you don’t just want them to read that one piece of content and leave. You want them to stay on your website and look at all the other wonderful content that you have – perhaps even buy your mediation services. The way to do this is to have plenty of internal links on your website. For example, if you have written a blog about challenges in preparing for a mediation session you could have a link on this article that takes your reader to another page which looks at the different stages in the mediation process. Each stage of the mediation process could have another link to a different page on your website. The longer you can keep a client on your website and keep them engaged the better chance you have of building a rapport with them.
Guest Blogging
Finally it is worth mentioning guest blogging. Writing blogs for other organisations who are mediation centred, is a great way of gaining exposure. Look for other websites and brands, in the mediation sector, who invite contributions from mediators. Having an opportunity to write a mediation blog for someone else is good market exposure for you. Their website may attract a slightly different audience to yours but with equally as valuable leads in the mediation sector. It’s a brilliant way of promoting your mediation services to a wider network. For example if you are a member of a Chambers and/or on a panel of Mediation providers, collaborate with them to publish your article on their platforms as well as your own.
Conclusion
Increasing traffic to your website doesn’t have to be complicated. Concentrate on good quality and interesting pieces of work on mediation that demonstrate your expertise in mediation and the rest will follow.