In “Internet Marketing with Hashtags: Are You Missing Out? Part 1,” we introduced the hashtag, who’s using it, how it’s used and promised to reveal ways you can be incorporating hashtags into your internet marketing strategy for more web site traffic and internet leads. As promised, enjoy these 5 techniques to increase your conversions using hashtags:
1) Find your prospects with the hashtag. Whether you’re a manufacturer, a supplier, a cosmetics company, a holistic health coach or a medical device company, you have prospects on twitter and they are using hashtags. Find your prospects by finding the hash-tags used in their industry. For example, industrial lubrication suppliers sell to manufacturers. Enter #manufacturing and #mfg in the twitter search to find them. Selling medical devices? Many health care providers use the hash-tags #hospitals #surgery #radiology #hcsm (Healthcare Communications and Social Media) #HealthIT, etc… Pick your specialty and find the hashtags.
2) Monitor conversations with the hashtag. Scheduled conversations, called Tweet Chats, occur on twitter with the use of hashtags. They’re open to everyone and can be an effective tool for getting the pulse of a community. For example, do you sell equipment to solar energy providers? Wednesdays at 6PM search for #solarenergychat to listen in on a weekly chat for the entire solar energy industry. Do you target small businesses and want to get a pulse on their community? Every Wednesday at 8pm EST, search twitter for #SmallBizChat to find advice and questions for small business startups and businesses started less than five years ago.
3)Build a targeted audience with the hashtag. By adding targeted hash-tags to tweets, you’ll be found, followed and added to twitter lists. For example, let’s say you sell a gluten free, all natural, wine-based pasta sauce. Your target market is a health conscious consumer willing to pay more for all natural ingredients, a gourmet flavor, and a gluten-free product. Find a wine connoisseur, a gluten-free blogger and a health conscious cook to see what hashtags they use. Here’s what you’ll find: #HFCS = high fructose corn syrup, and saying #HFCS free in your tweets tells people your sauce doesn’t contain corn syrup while joining conversations with people about the corn syrup vs. sugar debate. #Foodie is someone who prides themselves in having a taste for quality flavor, #wine is a widely used hashtag that will get you noticed by wine lovers and add a #gf to be found by the twitter community looking to buy gluten free products.
4)Increase exposure with the hashtag. Increasing exposure using a hashtag in your tweets is a similar concept to building a targeted audience with a hashtag from above. The difference is, if it’s just exposure you’re after, and you don’t expect for people to follow you, using a trending hashtag will get you in front of a larger audience. From your Twitter home page you can see what hashtags are the most popular in real time based on city, country or global. Currently, #ThingsBlamedOnLeBron is trending in Cleveland. By adding that to a tweet, you will get exposure among the hundreds of twitter users paying attention to that topic in Cleveland right now. It’s also a way to engage with other locals on Twitter and show off your tweeting skills.
5) Send traffic to your website with the hashtag. Using a hash-tag to increase exposure, join in conversations and get added to Twitter lists will not convert to business alone. An effective way to convert tweets into leads, is by sending twitter traffic to where they can convert. If your web site has visible calls to actions that will capture emails and contact information, send twitter traffic to your web site by adding a link, with the appropriate hashtags.
In this example, Clark Howard tweets: “There is a way to cut expenses of #healthcare by banding with others to significantly reduce the cost of premiums.http://bit.ly/Ag3PZQ” This tweet sends traffic to his web site while gaining the attention of people who may be looking for health care related information with an effective use of the hashtag #healthcare.
In another example North American Tool tweets: “ Absorb excessive shock & minimize carbide breaking or chipping with carbide-inserted taps. Carb-i-Sert: http://bitly.com/mClcb5.#mfg.” North American Tools effectively uses the #mfg hash-tag to get the attention of manufacturers while sending traffic to this product on their web site.
After effectively implementing these 5 ways to increase your internet traffic and web site leads using the hashtag, if you are not getting conversions, consider reading our “25 Ways to Succeed with Online Marketing” or call us anytime at 440-349-4940 to get your free web audit and eStrategy report.
rs who are looking for sustainable solutions and high performance buildings.
